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The Rich History of Pearls

Since ancient times, the pearl has been a symbol of unblemished perfection. It is the oldest known gem, and for centuries it was considered the most valuable. A fragment of the oldest known pearl jewelry, found in the sarcophagus of a Persian princess who died in 520 BC, is displayed in the Louvre in Paris. To the ancients, pearls were a symbol of the moon and had magical powers. In classical Rome, only persons above a certain rank were allowed to wear pearl jewelry. The Latin word for pearl literally means "unique", attesting to the fact that no two pearls are identical.

Pearls have been considered ideal wedding gifts because they symbolize purity and innocence. In the Hindu religion, the presentation of an undrilled pearl and its piercing has formed part of the marriage ceremony.

In the romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian), margarita means pearl. The word pearl appeared in the English language in the fourteenth century. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, pearls were very fashionable in Europe as personal ornaments. The clothing of both men and women were embroidered with them.

In the Americas, both the Incas and Aztecs prized pearls for their beauty and magical powers. Spanish explorers of the New World found the natives in possession of rich pearl fisheries. For many years, the New World was best known in European cities like Seville and Cadiz as the land where pearls came from.

Most European countries in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had laws regarding who could and could not wear pearls. Teachers and lawyers, for example, could not wear fringes or chains with pearls.

Native Americans of the Atlantic Coastal areas and the Mississippi River Basin were the first to collect and use U.S. freshwater mussel pearls and shells. Pearl pendants and ear pendants were worn by both sexes and both pearl and shell were used for decorative purposes on articles of clothing. Some of the tribes used pearls as tributes, reportedly Powhattan (Pocahontas' father) had large stores of pearls received as tribute. Additionally, armlets, pendants, and gaming pieces were made from mussel shell.

Pearl History In Ancient North America

Throughout the ages, humans have been enchanted by pearls and the shells of the mollusks that produce them. For example, archaeological evidence indicates that almost 6,000 years ago in the Persian Gulf region, people were sometimes buried with a pierced pearl resting in the right hand.

As ancient trade routes gradually expanded and societies developed across Asia and Europe, pearls became important symbols of wealth, status and religious belief. Some peoples, including the ancient Sumerians, pre-Columbian Americans and Pacific islanders, placed an even higher value on the larger and more easily obtained mother-of-pearl shells. Still a source of widespread fascination, pearls are now admired and worn by more people than ever before.

Pearl History In The Roman and Byzantine Empires

Ancient Middle Eastern cultures were apparently the first to value pearls and pearl shells. Interest in pearls later spread to the Mediterranean; in Persia, the gems were said to be worth their weight in gold. By 100 B.C., the Mediterranean enthusiasm for pearls had become a craze, and pearl-adorned objects have been found at archaeological sites across the Roman Empire, from Syria to North Africa and northern France. According to some historians, one of the reasons Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 B.C. was to obtain freshwater pearls.

Mother of Pearl History

Throughout history, certain cultures have placed little or no value on pearls and have focused instead on luminescent mother-of-pearl from mollusk shells. Before the 19th century, Japanese shell divers who found pearls apparently did not bother to keep them. Polynesian children are said at one time to have used pearls as marbles. These and other peoples harvested pearl oysters for their shells, using the mother-of-pearl for decoration. Abalone was also popular with many groups, including those in the Americas: people ate the flesh of the mollusks and used pieces of colorful abalone shell as inlay on carved objects made of wood, ivory and bone.

Pearl History In The Renaissance

Ongoing exploration of the Americas and recently established trade routes to the East made pearls available as never before in Renaissance Europe beginning in the 1500s. The new centers of the pearl trade, Lisbon and Seville, overflowed with pearls from India, the Persian Gulf and the Caribbean. The upper classes adorned themselves lavishly in these gems, which became the symbol of wealth, status and taste in an age of splendor. Irregularly shaped, or baroque, pearls were especially admired. By the late 1600s, however, people began to favor less extravagant displays of pearls as a result of a changing religious and political climate, combined with a decline in pearls arriving from the New World.

India And The Middle East

With pearls so abundant in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mannar (located between India and Sri Lanka), Indian and Middle Eastern cultures have a long history of using pearls. Indeed, throughout the Muslim and Hindu worlds, both men and women have traditionally worn these gems. During the 1700s and 1800s, some of the world's finest collections of pearls, typically from the Black-lipped Pearl Oyster and Ceylon Pearl Oyster, were owned by rulers in these regions. Both Islamic and Hindu philosophies celebrate pearls: in Islamic thought, pearls represent perfection and completeness. For Hindus, the pearl is one of the planetary gems, associated with the moon and second only to the diamond in esteem.

Russia And It's Pearl History

In contrast to much of Western Europe, Russia carried on many Byzantine traditions well into the 18th century—particularly the lavish use of freshwater pearls. At the same time, Russia was influenced by Western styles, particularly from the reign of Peter the Great (ruled 1682-1725) through the end of the Romanov dynasty in 1917. Both the Russian aristocracy and the gentry owned pearl jewelry and clothing decorated with the gems. Russian noblewomen often wore large headdresses, or kokoshniki, decorated with pearls, lace and colored gemstones.

Royal workshops created a wide range of luxurious pearl objects, often adding pearl embroidery to rich textiles. On many of the pieces, the designers used pearls to create floral designs and scroll-like patterns, with the pearls serving as borders.

Pearl History In Royalty And Religion

With the introduction of improved techniques for faceting gemstones in the 1600s, precious stones such as diamonds became as popular as pearls or more so. Pearls continued to be used throughout the 18th century, however, particularly among the royal families of Europe. Women of the era wore pearl parures—matched sets of necklaces, bracelets, earrings and brooches. Pearls also adorned religious objects, in churches and sometimes synagogues. By the early 1800s, the discovery of new pearl beds in the Pacific, as well as a revival of fishing grounds in Central America, prompted a renewed interest in pearls.

Pearl History In Imperial China

Pearls became especially popular in China during the Qing, or Manchu, dynasty, which ruled from 1644 to 1911. The imperial family and wealthy elite used large numbers of pearls to enhance costumes and furnishings. In theory, the emperor himself was supposed to use pearls only from freshwater mussels in Manchuria, northeastern China, the dynasty's homeland. But imperial art of the period shows so many big round pearls that at least some probably came from marine pearl oysters in waters off southern China, Vietnam and perhaps the Philippines. In addition, imitation pearls were used on some objects.

The Craze For Seed Pearls In History

During the 1700s and early 1800s, the growing middle-class in both Europe and the United States developed an interest in pearls—and had the money to buy them. By the mid-1800s, seed pearls had become the pearls of choice. Jewelers typically worked with seed pearls imported from India and China that had been strung on silk or, more commonly, white horsehair. The resulting pieces of jewelry were so delicate that they often resembled lace, and they were considered a symbol of purity and gentility. Indeed, an 1870 newspaper article stated that such pearls were "exquisitely beautiful and constitute an appropriate and elegant present to a young bride."

Pearl History In The Time Of Opulence

Fashions at the Turn of the 20th Century. During this period of new industrial fortunes, ostentatious wealth and ornate style, pearls found favor with American society figures and also with royalty and titled families from Britain to Russia. An all-white effect was sought in fine jewelry, achieved by masses of pearls or pearls with diamonds. Swags, garlands, bows, and tassels were favorite motifs in jewelry design.

Pearl History In The New Styles For The New Age

Pearls in the Modern Era, at the dawn of the 20th century, people in Europe and the United States began wearing pearls for less formal occasions—a fashion that persists to this day. Flappers of the 1920s wore long ropes of pearls as they danced the Charleston. New designs in jewelry, reflecting Art Nouveau styles and the Arts and Crafts movement, emphasized irregularly shaped freshwater pearls. Imitation pearls were in vogue on hats and dresses, both in traditional Western and nontraditional Eastern styles. In addition, Japanese cultured pearls first reached European and American markets in the 1930s, although the gems did not become popular until the 1950s.

Now Pearls Are Everywhere

In our own great age of pearls, with the arrival of cultured pearls on the international market in the 1930s, pearls became more available and more affordable than ever before. Although some people initially rejected cultured pearls, a handful of designers, most notably Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, embraced them, using the gems in her elegantly casual designs. By the 1950s, cultured pearls were essential accessories for well-dressed women in the United States and Europe. Over the last several decades, designers have been inspired by the broad range of colors and sizes of cultured pearls to create both sophisticated pearl jewelry and whimsical pearl-decorated objects. Pearls may be everywhere today, but they are still as glamorous as ever; images of movie stars, first ladies and supermodels wearing pearls only heighten the gems' popularity. Indeed, we are living in a new Great Age of Pearls.

The World Of Pearls

As products of living animals, pearls are unique among gems. In size, shape and even color, pearls exist in a stunning diversity of forms—far more than just small, round and white. Depending on the fashions of the era, the most sought-after pearls may be perfectly spherical, pear-shaped or irregular. A single large pearl may provide special elegance, or a cluster of seed pearls may light up a garment or object of art. With their long and lustrous history, pearls are more popular than ever.

Legendary Gems

Many thousands of years ago, long before written history, early man probably discovered the first pearl while searching the seashore for food.

Throughout history, the pearl, with its warm inner glow and shimmering iridescence, has been one of the most highly prized and sought after gems. Count-less references to the pearl can be found in religions and mythology of many cultures from the earliest times.

The ancient Egyptians prized pearls so much they were bur-ied with them. Reportedly, Cleopatra dissolved a single pearl in a glass of wine and drank it, simply to win a wager with Marc Antony that she could consume the wealth of an entire country in just one meal.

In ancient Rome, pearls were considered the ultimate symbol of wealth and social standing. The Greeks held the pearl in high esteem for both its unrivaled beauty and its association with love and marriage.

During the Dark Ages, while fair maidens of nobility cherished delicate pearl necklaces, gallant knights often wore pearls onto the battlefield. They believed that the magic possessed by the lustrous gems would protect them from harm.

The Renaissance saw the royal courts of Europe awash in pearls. Since pearls were so highly regarded, a number of European countries passed laws forbidding the wearing of pearls by others outside of the nobility.

During the European expansion into the New World, the discovery of pearls in Central American waters added to the wealth of Europe. Unfortunately, greed and lust for the sea grown gems resulted in the depletion of virtually all the American pearl oyster populations by the 17th Century.

Until the early 1900’s, natural pearls were accessible to only the rich and famous. In 1916, famed French jeweler Jacques Cartier bought his landmark store on New York’s famous Fifth Avenue by trading two pearl necklaces for the valuable property.

Today, with the advent of pearl cultivation, pearls are affordable and available to all. Cultured pearls share the same properties as natural pearls and are grown by live oysters. The only difference is a little bit of encouragement by man.