If you follow the story of pearls through the ages, you will discover an interesting and evolving presence in the world of fashion. Studying the commissioned paintings of the most prominent members of high society - from Elisabeth of Valois and Isabel de Aviz, to Mary Tudor and Maria Manuela - you will find them depicted with pearls as a central part of their appearance in their most famous portraits. It was even said that privateers were given a blind eye in order to bring pearls to Queen Victoria from overseas.
Pearls made the shift from royalty to the middle class as a result of Mikimoto pioneering cultured pearl making. The slow and very fragile nature of growing these cultured pearls makes for a strong nacre with a high luster. With the return of American soldiers from WWII came an influx of pearls brought home to their loved ones, so if there is an old strand of graduated pearls in your family, it may well be a classic strand originating from the orient.
Some time later, using the same principle developed by Mikimoto, South sea pearls were created in farms in Tahiti, Australia, the Philippines, and other locations in the South Sea. The difference between these and Mikimoto pearls is that they are formed using larger oysters that produce nacre in a variety of colors. For this reason, the pearls they produce can be golden, peach, or even black/peacock colored.
These introductions of cultured pearls made pearl ownership much more commonplace, and along with that came the introduction of imitation pearls. This option made pearls into easily accessible fashion jewelry, with varying degrees of quality. Some production methods resulted in excellent caliber imitations, such as Majorca pearls, which are made using fish scale paste over a glass nucleus. This technique creates a luster and weight very similar to its natural counterpart, but at a fraction of the price.
Though imitation pearls presented a quality option at a much more accessible price point, most of them were phased out when China began to increase their farming of natural pearls. By developing oversized hybrid mollusks, Chinese farms were able to produce multiple pearls in a short period of time; this allowed for pallets of these freshwater cultured pearls to be shipped throughout the world for use in fashion jewelry. These pearls can be identified by their coarse, somewhat powdery texture and their off-round shape. They can be found in a variety of shapes and can be dyed every color of the rainbow..
We are fortunate to be living in a time of abundance in regards to pearl options. Today, weenjoy cultured saltwater pearls from both the cold north and the balmy south of Japan; aplethora of freshwater pearls from China; and high quality imitation pearls from trustedcompanies like Swarovski. And of course, there are still the rare pieces designed using naturallyoccurring pearls and melo pearls (naturally formed in the shell of the melo melo snail, andextremely unique in color and luster.) Whichever option you select, you’ll know that your pearlsare part of a fashion fixation that spans across the ages.