Guide to Pearls

In the early part of the 20th century, Japanese researchers discovered a method of producing pearls artificially. Essentially, the method involves inserting a foreign substance, or nucleus, into the tissue of the oyster or mollusk, then returning it to the sea, allowing a cultured pearl to develop naturally. This practice was already quite widespread culturing hemispherical pearls known as mabe pearls. Kokichi Mikimoto is credited with perfecting the technique for artificially stimulating the development of round pearls in akoya mollusks, receiving a patent for this technique in 1916. Although patented in 1916 this technique has since been improved upon and used extensively throughout the pearling world - no longer simply used to cultured akoya pearls, but freshwater, South Sea and Tahitian pearls as well.

Mikimoto opened the door to a greatly expanded pearl industry in which pearls could be farmed like an agricultural crop. These cultured pearls could now be produced in sufficient quantities to make them available to virtually anyone.

The cultured pearl industry has now far surpassed that of the natural pearl industry. Although a market still exists for pearls gifted to us by nature, these pearls are becoming more and more difficult to find, with rare full strands being auctioned for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Today, purchasing pearls from nearly any store in the world means purchasing a strand of cultured pearls.

This information is taken from pearl-guide.com

Natural vs Cultured Pearls

Pearls can be cultured and wild. Cultured pearls are created by people and wild pearls are created by nature without human intervention. Pearls are being formed inside a shell. This shell is of definite mollusks and is a protection system against different threatening irritants. These irritants can be vermin inside its shell or onrushes from the outside world. The mollusk creates a pearl saccule in order to seal off the irritation.

The casting net of the mollusk appends layers of carbonate of calcium (CaCO3) in the form of the mineral  aragonite or a mess of calcite and aragonite kept together by a conchiolin. This is an organic compound. Mother-of-pearl is made of  the combination of conchiolin and aragonite, which is called nacre. There is a belief that a grain of sand can be an irritant, however it is not true. Such an irritant includes organic material or damage displacing mantle tissue to another part of the body of mollusk. These small bits may enter on the period when the shell valves are open for respiration or feeding. The irritant is an introduced piece of the epithelium of mantle, together or without a spherical bead, in the case of cultured pearls.

Natural Pearl - Value

Natural pearls of high quality are rare gems. The value of a natural pearl usually is determined as in the case of other valuable jewels. There are different factors of pearls’ valuation such as shape, color, size, orient, quality of surface and luster.

Single, natural pearls are often set as centerpieces in unique jewelry or are purchased by collectors. There are very few matched strands of natural pearls. They are often sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars by the people who do them.

The natural pearl’s value was lowered by the Great Depression , but certainly it had been some time coming. The introduction of the cultured pearl hit the industry of pearl seriously. The dealers publicly argued over the authenticity of these new cultured pearls, and many consumers were worried about the lower prices. Essentially, the image of both cultured and natural pearls was damaged. By the 1950s natural pearls began to take a small place in the pearl industry, and every woman was able to own her own pearl jewelry.