Pearly tales
An object of beauty and desire, a jewel provides a perfect reflection of the personality, lifestyle and tastes of the owner, whether it’s royalty, aristocracy, high society, stars, you or me. Over the past few decades the world’s most fabulous jewels, once owned by notable personalities, have passed through auctions — even Jackie Kennedy’s. Jewels give insight into the times, the era of its owner. Like natural pearls, once upon a time many slaved for their precious acquisition. Now cultured pearls instead adorn women. Natural pearls — daughters of the seawaters — are disappearing gems like those worn by Queen Margherita, grandmother of the former King Umberto II of Italy. As a young bride she wore a pearl and diamond tiara she had received as a wedding gift from her father-in-law, King Victor Emmanuel II. Alas, it was auctioned in 1985. She was the epitome of regal bearing for the Italian people who knew her affectionately as “The Queen of Pearls.”
A pearl in Tawi-Tawi or Tahiti or Darwin, Australia is not formed from a grain of sand. A natural pearl forms when something organic, most often a parasite, penetrates the shell of a mollusk and lodges within the soft inner body of the animal. Upon penetrating the shell the parasite encounters cells within the mollusk’s mantle tissues known as epithelial cells. These cells grow into a sac which envelopes the intruder. This sac is known as a pearl sac. Once the sac has developed the cells begin excreting a chemical substance of aragonite and calcite. This is known as nacre.
A pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes of pearls (baroque pearls) occur. The finest quality natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries, and because of this, the word “pearl” has become a metaphor for something very rare, fine, admirable and valuable.
Cornelia, Countess of Craven, wore her three strings of pearls constantly with her pearl and diamond earrings. Born in New York, she was the daughter of the wealthy Bradley and Cornelia Martin, both prominent members of the so-called “Four Hundred,” the cream of New York society. Legends say pearls are the tears of gods; others say they are dewdrops filled with moonlight that fell into the ocean and were swallowed by oysters.
One of the most well known pieces of jewelry was a pearl necklace that belonged to Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn’s reign as Queen was brief and turbulent, lasting from 1533 to 1536. But she was a Tudor fashion icon and her signature accessory was a strand of pearls with a gold “B” pendant dangling from the center. Three teardrop pearls were suspended from the letter “B.” This special pearl necklace is seen in many of the portraits that were painted of Anne Boleyn.
Over the centuries, sea divers have accumulated every natural pearl to honor rajahs and kings, queens and even religious statues. Cultural pearls are man-induced and freshwater ones are shameful next to the gem quality of the natural-grown oyster, but we have no choice, even if both are labeled “outstanding” by default.
Not to put such pearls to shame, cultured or farmed pearls still come from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels. They live in saltwater too, and are cultured by inserting a bead made of freshwater mussel shell into the gonad of a host mollusk. Along with this bead, a small piece of donor-mollusk mantle tissue is inserted. This tissue contains the epithelial cells needed to grow the pearl sac and initiate nacre deposition. The most common varieties of cultured saltwater pearls are Akoya, Tahitian and South Seas. On the other hand, freshwater pearls are cultured by inserting a small piece of mantle tissue into an incision made in the mantle of a host mussel. A bead is not needed and is rarely used except in beaded cultured freshwater pearl production. Because the graft is made in the mantle tissue of the freshwater mussel instead of the gonad, a freshwater mussel may be grafted multiple times.
Queen Elizabeth II is yet another famous woman who wore pearls on her wedding day. The custom of a bride bedecked in pearls dates back at least to the Romans and the Greeks. It was believed in ancient Greece that if a bride wore pearl jewelry on her wedding day that she would have a happy marriage with few tears. A Philippine superstition claim that pearls, especially tear drop pearls, bring tears to a wedded life.
On a brighter, more lustrous side, pearls also have auspicious associations within many of the world’s religions. In Islamic tradition, the pearl symbolizes perfection, and the Koran states that pearls are worn by those in Paradise. Christianity also recognizes the value of pearls. In the New Testament, Jesus compared Heaven to a “pearl of a great price.” With such impressive credentials, in spite of dark superstitions, it is no wonder that a bride would still choose pearls for her wedding jewelry and many choose pearls for enhanced femininity.
