Natural pearls were so valuable that greedy crew even murdered and threw the ship’s captain overboard. Paspaley found a lustrous pearl, which he sold and bought a lugger. Today, his family business in Australia is said to be the largest South Sea akoya pearls producer. He has the biggest pearling fleet as well as shops across the country.
Even though Paspaley’s pearl business has prospered, the fame of pearls hasn’t. As they became available in profuse cultivated or plastic form at cheap rates, they were assumed to be worn only by women over sixties. Fortunately, the past decade has witnessed an unexpected revival. You can visit PearlsOnly to buy these marine treasures at affordable prices.
Large South Sea natural pearls were found in Australia’s remote coastline, for example the historic La Peregrina. The first owner of La Peregrina was Queen Elizabeth, which was then sold to Elizabeth Taylor and in 2011 Christie bought it for $11.8 million.
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History of real pearls
After ten decades of dullness, pearls are regaining its lustrous position in the jewelry industry. Pearls hold a long demonstrable history. Roman women adored natural pearls, as they symbolized beauty, fertility and purity. The desirability of gems heightened as divers had to risk their lives in locating them, which they still do.
There is a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I in Tate Britain gallery, which shows her wearing a long string of pearls lavishly around her waist and almost touching the floor. It revealed her chastity and kingdom’s affluence.
Pearls have been prized and valuable gem for centuries. In 1917, jeweler Pierre Cartier bought a mansion at Fifth Avenue from Morton Freeman Plant in exchange for a necklace having 128 natural pearls and $100. The value of those pearls at that time was $ one million. Today, the house is transformed into Cartier’s flagship store.
Coco Chanel turned pearl ropes into an haute couture. She wore them in varying lengths daily and made them popular. Ultimately, this effortless daily use made pearls unpleasantly omnipresent.
Cultured pearls origin
In the 20th century, Mikimoto Kokichi introduced commercial cultured pearls. Natural pearls were scarce and divers had to go through a lot of effort but through science and research the pearl industry changed.
Pearls are cultivated by manually positioning a nucleus inside the shells of the oysters and return it in the water. The area the oysters are set free after culturing process is controlled against pollution, weather and proper nurturing is done. After a couple of years pearls get harvested. Today, with scientific intervention you even get cultured pearls in array of colors and lusters.
