Pearl Origins

Pearl Origins can be traced back in the literature of ancient China and India. The Indian Vedic literature indicates that pearl was known in India before the influx of the Aryans (i.e. 2000 BC). Even the archaic jewelry of the Greek has been found to be consisted of a border of pearls surrounding a central setting of gemstone. In classical Rome pearl was a symbol of rank and status. Only people of special rank were allowed to wear them. Pearls had been cultivated naturally for more than thousands of years.

The Australian believed that pearls held supernatural powers. They were specially used to interpret dreams. The Tahitian believed that pearls to be of the god Oro who used rainbows to visit earth. This was what the Tahitians believed gave it unique color and texture. In the 16th and 17th centuries when the European explorers arrived, there was a sudden spurt of global demand for the pearls. During the 18th and 19th centuries, excessive pearling brought the south sea pearl to the brink of extinction. Controlled exploitation and Pearl culture saved these oysters from complete extinction.

Pearl Origins – some basic facts

Pearls are basically hardened calcareous deposits around particulate matter. A sea mollusk called oyster, secretes two types of protein-based secretions, when any foreign bodies enters their soft tissues. This foreign particulate matter can be a small grain of sand or even a small insect. This secretion process is type of defense mechanism engaged by the mollusks against foreign body intrusion in to their soft tissue.

Pearl Origins – some basic facts on type and form

Color of the pearl s varies with mollusks and its environment. Colors range from white to black. Other colors are gray, cream, blue, yellow, lavender, green and mauve. All the colors occur in delicate shades but its surface is rough to touch. Pearls are characterized by their translucence, luster and the delicate play of surface color called “Orient”.

Pearl Origins – quality identification

Quality of pearls depends upon the shape (spherical or drop like) and luster. Perfect shape and deeper luster makes a pearl most costly. Fine pearls are produced by those mollusks whose inner lining of the shell is made up of mother of pearl also called “Nacre”.

Pearl Origins – the chemistry behind formation

Pearl is a concretion of formed by a mollusk consisting of “Nacre” or mother of pearl. The chief components of Nacre are –

•    Aragonide – a form of calcium carbonate
•    Conchiolin – an organic substance (an albuminoid), which is the main constituent of the mollusk’s outer shell.  

Pearl Origins – most popular species

Pearls are formed by oysters belonging to the class “Bivalvia”. Some of the pearl producing mollusks are –

•    Pinctada fucata
•    Pinctada chemnitzi
•    Pinctada margarilefera
•    Pinctada anomioides
•    Pinctada atropurpurea
•    Pinctada martensii

Pearl Origins – the “other pearl”

Besides true pearl oyster, a large number of marine and few fresh-water bivalves are also known to produce pearls or pearl like concretions. The marine forms are re[presented by “Haliotis species” , “Mytilus Specius “ etc. fresh water mussels in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere have produced pearls of great value.