Is mother of pearl a real pearl?
Pearls are a precious material of organic origin. They form inside mussels and oysters when a foreign object gets under the shell. Most often it is a grain of sand or a small parasite. Mollusks protect themselves by covering the irritant with layers of nacre. Mother of pearl hardens and turns into a pearl. The technology of growing pearls with the help and control of humans arose more than 100 years ago. And today they have flooded the world market. Without exaggeration, 99% of all pearls in jewelry stores are cultured.
What is the difference between cultured and natural pearls?
- Method of education. Wild pearls are born in a mollusk by chance. The stimulus for the growth of cultured pearls is artificially implanted.
- Growing conditions. Cultured pearls mature under the supervision of experts in a controlled environment. The appropriate climate and water salinity are selected for it. Natural pearls usually have less favorable conditions for development.
- Harvest. For wild pearls you need to scuba dive, look for the corresponding mollusks at the bottom, and then check whether you have caught at least one jewel. Cultured pearls are collected in an organized manner every few years. There is no need to dive anywhere, search and hope for a lucky break.
- Price. Wild pearls are always expensive. Some are even ungodly expensive, but that’s a separate topic. Cultured pearls are more affordable. However, among them there are elite varieties with consistently high prices.
Price of cultured pearls
As with wild pearls, the price for cultured pearls is determined individually. However, there are certain criteria on which the cost depends. Looking ahead, we can say that a cultured pearl can cost approximately from 100 to 40000 UAH per piece. How and why – later in the article.
The cost of a cultured pearl depends on the color, shape, luster, size and where it is grown. Off the southern coast of China, for example, elite golden pearls measuring up to 15 mm in diameter are grown. A necklace made of this will cost tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Farmers in Tahiti specialize in iridescent black pearls. Special pearls are harvested off the coast of Fiji, Japan, and Indonesia.
Freshwater pearls are more common in the jewelry market. At the same time, they are more accessible. They are most often used as an insert for silver jewelry.
Until recently, freshwater cultured pearls were not of the highest quality. However, today it can compete with saltwater cultured pearls.
How much do natural (wild) pearls cost?
Buyers quite often ask about silver jewelry with natural pearls.
The price for each natural pearl is determined individually. A wild pearl necklace can cost from several thousand (if the pearls are small) to several hundred thousand dollars. And this is far from the limit.
“Why so expensive?” – you ask. Yes, because natural pearls are extremely rare. It occurs on average in one in 50, or even 100 oysters. And to collect the same oysters, a team of professional divers needs to work tirelessly for an indefinite amount of time. It will take years, or even decades, for a new pearl to form.
That is why, if you are not on the Forbes list of millionaires, we recommend considering silver jewelry with cultured pearls. In addition, products with wild pearls are not presented in our online store. They can be purchased mainly at auctions.
Artificial pearls (imitation pearls)
Beads of arbitrary diameter, vaguely reminiscent of pearls. They are made from various materials: glass, plastic, acrylic, wood. The surface of the beads is covered with a thin layer of pearlescent varnish or any other.
What artificial pearls and real pearls have in common is just their shape. The varnish coating usually wears off very quickly, and cheap jewelry takes on a worn look. The price corresponds to the quality – a necklace with imitation pearls can be bought for just 15 UAH.
Of course, pearls made from such cheap materials are not used in jewelry.
How to distinguish real pearls from fakes
If we talk about the difference between wild and cultured pearls, then it can only be seen under X-rays. And it’s unlikely that you will have to determine this at home. It’s easier to distinguish real pearls from fake ones:
- In the cold. Natural pearls are cool to the touch. It heats up from body heat more slowly than plastic.
- By weight. Natural pearls are much heavier than acrylic or wood.
- In imperfect form. Nature does not do everything according to factory templates. Therefore, the shape of real pearls may be far from an ideal sphere.
- By holes. In fake painted beads, this is where the internal material can be seen and the varnish can peel off.
- On a tooth. Lightly rub the jewelry against your tooth. Do not try to see through the mother of pearl – this is unnecessary. A real pearl will give a feeling of hardness. But the fake will be smooth and delicate.
Initially, this outlandish oriental product appeared in Venice, a city-republic with huge international trade. Famous Venetian courtesans wore pearls. The unusual shiny mother-of-pearl perfectly matched their bright red hair, which was fashionable at that time. Pearls were brought to European countries from Asia, and they were traded primarily by merchants. Almost immediately after its appearance in Europe, pearls began to enjoy enormous popularity – as a rare and extremely expensive item. It is no coincidence that the great Vermeer chose a pearl for a female portrait – we are talking about his painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring”.
Baroque pearls
In Europe, as in Asia, pearls of different shapes and colors were then known, but only one baroque type, that is, a bizarre, “natural” appearance. The Baroque pearl, which is still widely used in jewelry, took a long time to form in nature (and therefore was expensive). Here’s how it happened. As an ocean wave, a tiny grain of sand fell into the womb of a certain type of oyster (the type of pearl depends on the type of oyster), and, of course, the oyster tried to defend itself from the invasion, because it felt that some foreign object had “settled” in it. As protection, the mollusk used multi-colored mother-of-pearl, which was layer by layer layered on an alien grain of sand. This is how a baroque pearl was born – with uneven sides and an uneven layer of mother-of-pearl. Original pearls have always been valuable: jewelry collectors still love them today for their uniqueness (there are no identical baroque pearls in nature).
Historically, Baroque pearls are used to make rings and brooches; their original shape and remarkable color create an excellent piece of jewelry. Baroque pearls are used less frequently in necklaces and bracelets: it is difficult to find pearls that are even slightly similar to each other.
Kokichi Mikimoto’s Dream
From time immemorial, man has gravitated towards perfection in various objects, and pearls are no exception. For many decades in Asia, the homeland of pearls, they have not given up attempts to find, mine, or, at worst, grow a perfectly even pearl. But the pearl oysters were not going to submit to humans; it was impossible to grow perfectly even pearls. However, the Japanese Kokichi Mikimoto Still, we managed to solve a long-standing problem.
The history of the life and business of this great Japanese (in his homeland, Mikimoto is revered not only as an inventor, but also as an outstanding businessman who made a significant contribution to the country’s economy) deserves a separate book. Kokichi Mikimoto, the son of a poor noodle merchant, was originally from southeastern Japan, from Toba Prefecture. Today in the town of Toba, on a small island covered with stunted pine trees, there is a three-story Mikimoto Pearl Museum. There is also a monument to the founder of the brand. A stern little old man, carved from gray granite, firmly looks at the depths of the sea, in which a mysterious attraction takes place every two hours. We are talking about a traditional Japanese show of female divers catching pearl oysters.
A tiny wooden boat cuts the waves along the shore of Toba (for convenience, spectator stands are installed on the shore). On the deck of the ship there are six girls in loose white clothes. In their hands are large wooden basins. At the sound signal given from the captain’s bridge, the girls synchronously jump into the water and hide under it. After about four minutes, they appear on the sea surface, victoriously raising their pelvises into the air. And in them lies the prey – an oyster, inside of which lives a baroque pearl. Pearl fishing is historical for Japan; this is how baroque pearls are still mined today. It is noteworthy that only girls take part in oyster fishing. The fact is that a woman’s lung capacity is much larger than a man’s, and she may not breathe underwater for longer.
Kokichi Mikimoto was interested in the world from childhood and was an inventor. For example, he came up with home delivery of noodles, which had a positive impact on the family business. However, Kokichi Mikimoto had absolutely no intention of selling simple noodles.
His passion was pearls. There was also a real dream – to create a perfectly smooth pearl. Mikimoto was going to dedicate such a pearl to his wife. But success did not come immediately. It took Mikimoto about ten years to conduct various experiments. But in the end, in 1894, success finally came to him. Kokichi Mikimoto, at his own pearl farm (it still operates today), was able to obtain a pearl of the variety that was perfectly even in shape and color akoya. Today, jewelers use three types of pearls in the production of jewelry: akoya (white, pale pink, light gray, light beige), pearls of the South Seas (pink, gold), black and dark gray from Tahiti.
The method proposed by Mikimoto is as follows: a small ball cut from the shell is lowered into the womb of the mother pearl oyster using sharp and thin tweezers. Following the ball, the farm employees (again, only women work here) put biological tissue into the oyster, which is responsible for the formation of mother-of-pearl. The oyster is tightly closed and placed in a cage ball, which is lowered into the water. Once a week, Mikimoto employees check the cages by pulling them to the surface. The mother oyster stays in fairly warm water for at least two years.
Mikimoto takes great care in the quality of its grown, perfectly aligned pearls. Only thirty percent of the total harvest is used by the brand’s jewelers in precious production. The rest of the pearls are used for cosmetics (Mikimoto has a cosmetics line that is very popular in Japan) and for medical purposes.
Great collections: men’s rings Yves Gastou
Where can you buy Mikimoto pearls? In Japan itself, of course, there are separate stores of the famous brand, the main one of which is deservedly considered to be a historical store in the most prestigious district of Tokyo – Ginza – opened during the lifetime of the master himself. This building has eight luxurious floors: the first floor sells the most inexpensive, seasonal products (Mikimoto produces seasonal collections), and the eighth floor sells very expensive collectibles, such as tiaras and tiaras. There are not so many brand stores in the world: only two of them are famous. This is a large boutique on Place Vendôme in Paris, where Grace Kelly bought pearls, and a two-story store on Fifth Avenue in New York, which Marilyn Monroe loved to visit.
Mikimoto loves to work not only with cultured pearls, but also with first-class precious stones – diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds. The Ginza store also carries silver jewelry, with the perfect small sized pearls. In this case, the Japanese house Mikimoto frankly inherits the philosophy of the American brand Tiffany & Co., in whose assortment, thanks to designer Elsa Peretti, you can find various silver items. “Any girl should be able to wear our jewelry,” Mikimoto proudly states. In the block next to the eight-story brand store there is a boutique of the second line of the house – Perlita. Mikimoto’s second line includes a variety of seasonal collections sold only in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as pearl gift items (eg photo frames, cutlery) and silver watches.
Collectors Passion
Of course, there are also dedicated collectors in the world who hunt for unique pearls. This is exactly what the legendary pearl “Pelegrina” from the collection of the Yusupov princes is considered to be. The white oval pearl was sold by Prince Felix Yusupov to Genevan jeweler Jean Lombard in 1953. In fact, there are two very similar pearls with almost the same name: the second, Peregrina, belonged to the Spanish and French monarchs, and then to Cartier. In the 1960s, the craftsmen of this great brand made a long pendant out of their “Peregrina”. Elizabeth Taylor’s husband, actor Richard Burton, bought fabulously expensive jewelry.
But even on the smallest scale, pearls remain no less popular than white diamonds. This is due to its incredible plasticity. Agree that pearls can be combined with absolutely any jewelry stones and set in gold of any color, as well as in silver. In addition, pearls suit almost all girls and ladies. The crowned British and Russian princesses knew this well, for whom pearl jewelry was part of their ceremonial costume. And one more important feature of perfectly smooth pearls: in the work of a master jeweler they are very obedient and pliable: they can be used to make either a short choker that fits tightly around the neck or a very long sautoir with a pearl tassel at the end. Thus, buyers and pearl collectors are never left at a loss. They always have something to wear – both to the feast and to the world, as they say.
Read our guide on how to care for pearls.
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