Everyone knows pearls as one of the most elegant ornaments in women's jewelry, synonymous with luxury and timeless style. But how is a pearl created?
Pearls, therefore, are created from the soft tissues of living molluscs with a shell, when a parasite or sand gets inside the shell, this creates a "disturbance" in the oyster which, in its attempt to deal with the invader, activates a mechanism to produce a hard crystalline substance called margarine (calcium carbonate). If the parasite is not removed from the inside of the oyster, it continues to produce this substance creating a spherical "prison" around the invader creating the smooth, shiny and beautiful pearl we all know. So, what we wear as a beautiful piece of jewelry is actually a defense mechanism for the oyster.
Now, in terms of categories, we can say that in general pearls are divided into two large groups:
1) Natural pearls which are the rarest and consequently the most valuable where they are created without any human intervention. Natural pearls, since they are considered extremely rare, are often sold as collectors' items or set as the centerpiece in specific jewelry.
2) Cultured pearls which make up the majority of marketable pearls and as the term 'cultured' indicates are created through human intervention. It was in 1893 that Kokicho Mikimoto discovered how to create pearls making them widely accessible. By 1935, there were 350 pearl farms in Japan.
Tiara of Empress Eugénie, 1853 with 212 natural pearls
In terms of history, it is interesting that pearls have been used as jewelry for millennia. We know this because of pieces of pearl jewelry found in the sarcophagus of a princess in what is now Persia and dated to around 420 BC. However, as early as 2300 BC. (!), there is historical evidence that pearls were given as gifts to the kings of China. At the same time, in ancient Rome, pearl jewelry was considered the ultimate symbol of power and supremacy. In fact, they were so valuable that in the 1st century BC, Julius Caesar passed a law that allowed pearls to be worn only by the ruling classes.
The oldest pearl in the world was found in what is now Abu Dhabi and dates back to the Neolithic era.
Nowadays, pearls as well as pearls, which are a cheaper alternative, can be found in almost every category of jewelry, be it earrings , necklaces , bracelets , or rings .
Below you will find indicatively some unique jewels that are "dressed" by pearls which offer their characteristic timeless, minimal and elegant air:
