Pearl

A biogenic gemstone formed within the mantle of mollusks. They occur in nature when a grain of sand, parasite, or other irritant enters the shell of a living mollusk. The irritant is then covered in concentric layers of calcium carbonate in microcrystalline form (the same material as the shell itself). This natural occurence is extremely rare, however, and most pearls today are cultured, or encouraged by the hand of man. The pearl is desirable and considered very refine and perfect because it requires almost no polishing after it is harvested. This gemstone is most often used in beaded jewellry, although it may be used for decorative, cosmetic, and medicinal purposes.

Baroque pearls refer to pearls that have an irregular shape. Regular pearl shapes are usually perfectly spherical.

Blister pearls occur when the pearl is formed up against the side of the mollusk shell. The resulting gem is a half-sphere with a  “tail” or extruded surface on one side.

Different coloured pearls are formed depending on the species of mollusks. Black-shelled mollusks in Mexico produce black pearls, pink-coloured shells from the Bahamas produce slightly red pearls, and so on. The shape of the pearl depends on the shape of the nuclei and the location of its growth on the shell.

Saltwater and freshwater pearls are usually indistinguishable to the naked eye.

Similarly with diamonds, there are many ways in which people find to imitate the natural pearl. Attempts to create imitation pearls were part of the alchemical literature since antiquity and recipes for them were repeated well into the 18th century (Pointon, 107).

Pearl is the birthstone for the month of June.

History

Diamonds require the work of human hands to reveal their beauty, but pearls have been regarded throughout most of history as an immaculate, perfect product of nature. A sequence of pearls strung into a necklace remains today as a kind of intense purity, especially to unmarried women (Pointon, 114).

Renaissance paintings depict the string of pearls in many ways. “The Penitent Magdalen” (c. 1594-1595) by the Italian painter Caravaggio depicts a broken pearl necklace on the floor, discarded by the penitent Magdalen as a symbol of her lost chastity (Pointon, 89). Pearls were also used to compliment one’s beauty, especially in protrait paintings, where a simple pearl necklace or pearl droplet earrings were all the wearer needed to accentuate her look, such as “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” (c. 1665) by Johannes Vermeer. For these paintings, pearls were associated with beauty, innocence, and Venus, the goddess of love that rose from the sea.

In 1609, English Puritan writer Samuel Gardiner wrote, “The vertue and operation of the pearle is great, and for divers uses is exceeding medicinable, among others, to remedie the painting of the heart” (Pointon, 108). Other pharmacological literature at the time also cite pearls for its health benefits, whether it was to correct the “acrimony of the stomach”, fainting, or prolong life. Today, we know the alkaline properties of pearls would aid in stomach complaints.

In ancient India, gods were associated with pearls and were included in their sculptures.

In China and Japan, pearls were said to result from a combination of thunder and moonlight.

Ancient Middle East believed pearls were formed from the tears of the gods that fell from the sky and into open oysters, which then promptly snapped shut.

In Ancient Greece and Rome, it was told that Aphrodite (Venus) was born in the sea, rising to the surface from a clam shell, and shook droplets of water from her body which hardened and became pearls. Homer’s “Odyssey” mentions pearls as “the liquid drops of tears that you have shed, / Shall come again transformed to Orient pearl, / Advantaging their loan with interest, / Of ten times double gain of happiness”.

Early Christianity associated the pearl with the Virgin Mary, using it as a metaphor of something perfect and divine encased in an earthly body. In the bible, the pearl was the chosen gemstone of Christ himself to represent the Kingdom of Heaven. He also used it within his teachings: “Do not cast your pearls before swine, or the swine may trample them under foot” (Pointon, 114).

Pearls were extremely rare until the twentieth century when many places in Japan began to produce nacreous pearls of marketable quality. Although the biogenic gemstone became readily available to middle-class society, only 40% of the global annual pearl harvest has market value, and less than 10% are gem quality (Pointon, 113).

Even today when gemstones may be improved in appearance by many different technological means, the natural pearl is as it is, as “nature’s purest gift” (Pointon, 113).

Healing Properties

(Pending)

Scientific info

References

Marcia Pointon, Brilliant Effects: a Cultural History of Gem Stones and Jewellry (London: Paul Mellon Centre BA, 2009), 89-114.
Anne S. Sofianides, and George E. Harlow, Gems and Crystals: From the American Museum of Natural History (Rocks, Minerals and Gemstones) (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991), 143.