Pretty pearls- and a gem of a book

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How could something that irritates  oysters  bring us such delight? Author Meg Waite Clayton shared her wealth of pearl knowledge with me. She learned about pearls in the course of her research for her book The Four Ms. Bradwells. Here’s a bit from Meg:

“Before man had the ability to culture pearls they could only be gotten by diving to the ocean’s floor, with the risks of sharks and the bends. And oysters in the wild are pretty good at rejecting irritants, so one had to open a lot of oysters to find a single pearl. It takes a harvest of literally tons of pearls to find three or four perfect ones.

Natural pearls have been valued by humans for over 4,000 years, and until the 20th century, pearl diving was the main source of pearls. But now most pearls are cultured.

The culturing process  was first developed in China in the 5th century. The ability to culture round pearls wasn’t developed until late in the 19th century, by the now-famous Mikimoto, who discovered after much trial and error that inserting a piece of mantel tissue from another oyster was tolerated by oysters. So the technique for culturing pearls basically involves cutting up an oyster and inserting its pieces into live oysters – which remained a closely guarded secret until the late 1950s.

There are fresh water and ocean pearls, white pearls, “black pearls,” and South Sea Pearls, whose relative rarity gives them value. Freshwater oysters are more common and can live in a variety of climates, whereas saltwater oysters need a more tropical climate to survive. Chinese and Japanese ocean pearl oysters are less rare than Tahitian black oysters (Pinctada margaritifera), which are less rare than South Sea pearl oysters (Pinctada maxima).

Pearls are graded by:
size – in millimeters
weight – in momme, which is 3.75 grams
shape: round, semi-round, button, drop, pear, oval, baroque, and circled
luster
color
surface (smoothness and blemishes)

One of the reasons matched black pearls can be so expensive is because they can’t control the color of the pearl in the culturing process. When they harvest the pearls, they grade them by size and color, but it can take several years to put together a whole strand that matches.

Pearl necklaces come in different lengths- choker, princess, matinee, opera, etc.

Pearls are  soft, so they shouldn’t be jumbled with other jewelry, and should be wiped with a clean cloth after wearing to avoid discoloration.

There are many famous pearls, including the Perigrina Pearl, which has been owned by Mary I of England, who married the King Phillip II of Spain, and became part of the Crown of Spain after her death in 1558. It’s been worn by numerous monarchs, and was once lost in a sofa at Windsor Castle, then again at a ball at Buckingham Palace. It was eventually bought by Richard Burton, who gave it to Elizabeth Taylor for Valentine’s Day, who also lost it in a suit in Ceasar’s Palace — and found it in the mouth of one of her puppies.”