For the love of pearls...

Left to Right: A revamped pearl necklace, Fairy drops with pearls and Seed pearl and silver heart Sautoir necklace (Firepetals)

By: Adeline Jubi

It’s June already and another birthday is looming. I decided to dedicate this blog to my birthstone, the Pearl. I used to think that pearls were only for old elegant ladies, but as the years go by and the grey hair and wrinkles are starting to show, I had a change of hart about pearls. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to don a sensible string of pearls and court shoes soon. I am however trying to transform conservative pearl jewellery into funky contemporary pieces. It’s time for pearls to get reinvented once again.

 Pearls have been harvested for thousands of years and played a very significant role in jewellery. It’s the oldest gemstone known to men and was considered the most valuable for centuries. The Ancient people believed that pearls had magical properties and could bring prosperity and a long life and was thought to be the tears from the gods.

The Chinese have used pearls to cure many ailments like indigestion, heart disease and fever. That this could have worked is quite believable since the main ingredient in cultured pearls is calcium carbonate, an ingredient used in antacid today.

Five hundred years ago when Columbus discovered the Americas, he also discovered oysters containing pearls. These oysters were abundant around the coast of Venezuela and Panama and pearls became the biggest export from the “New World” , that was before gold and silver was discovered and overtook it. Pearls became all the rage in the Royal Courts of Europe.

"La Peregrina" worn by Mary Tudor, (1553) left and Elizabeth Taylor, right (1970)

One of the biggest natural pearls ever found was the La Peregrina ("the Pilgrim" or the "wanderer") and is the size of a pigeon’s egg. It was found by an African slave in the mid 16th century of the coast of Santa Margarita or the "Pearl Island". As reward, the African slave got his freedom. This beautiful pearl has had many famous owners like Philip II of Spain who gave it to his wife, Mary Tudor or “Bloody Mary” as she was better known as. After her death,  it was returned to Spain and formed part of the Spanish crown jewels for 250 years. It resurfaced when Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother Joseph was put on the throne of Spain. With Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo, Joseph fled Madrid with some fabulous jewellery including the pearl. Joseph's nephew, Charles Bonaparte who was to become, Napoleon III was the next owner. It weighs 203 grains, more or less the equivalent of 50ct. In 1969, Elizabeth Taylor received it as a Valentines gift from Richard Burton during their first marriage. She commissioned Cartier to redesign the neckpiece and it now also contains rubies, many diamonds and some South Sea pearls. After Elizabeth’s death in March last year, the necklace was sold in December 2011, for £ 7.9 million in New York.

Left to Right: A modern Mikomoto design; A traditional Mikomoto string of pearls with signature 18ct Gold clasp; Vintage graduated Mikomoto strand with signature clasp.

Pearls usually form inside mussels and oysters, mostly as a defence mechanism against an irritant like a piece of sand or grit. Layers of nacre form over the irritant like scar tissue and build up over time to form a pearl. The pearl can form as a sphere when not attached to the wall of the shell or as a half pearl or blister pearl when attached to the wall of the shell. The shape of the nucleus determines the shape of the pearl.

Cultured pearls are formed when an irritant like a bead is placed inside an oyster shell to initiate the formation of a pearl. Layers of nacre are deposited on this nucleated bead. Cultured pearls take a much shorter time to grow for this reason. Sometimes the layers of nacre on a cultured pearl are unacceptably thin and a pearl can easily chip.

 Cultured pearls were revolutionized by  Kokichi Mikimoto, a Japanese pearl farmer. He brought respectability to cultured pearls, previously not even recognized as pearls. It was said that Mr. Mikimoto who lived for 96 years, swallowed 2 pearls every day for good health.In the last 100 years, The Mikomoto Co. has grown to one of the top luxury brands in the world. 

The colour of pearls differ from white, pink, brown, blue , black depending on the type of mollusc and the type of water the pearl has formed in. Natural pearls are more expensive than cultured pearls and are becoming extremely scarce due to overfishing of oysters and pollution. Freshwater pearls are usually more irregular in shape and colour than saltwater pearls.

Pearls are the only gems perfectly and completely formed by nature. All other stones need the skill of the stone cutter or lapidary to bring out its lustre and beauty, but pearls are just perfect.

Good enough to eat... Some interesting pearl jewellery by American Artist John Hatleberg

"GREEN PEAS" I planned the whole piece around the Pea coloured pearls. (Firepetals)