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71-479: Contadora was the island where the Spanish counted the pearls that were harvested from the other islands in the archipelago, hence the name of the island, which means "the one that counts" in Spanish. The islands produced pearls of many colors and sizes, and during the many years when pearls were harvested from the waters around the islands, the natives would converge to Contadora to count their pearls and sell them to

142-542: A malacologist would still consider them to be pearls. Valueless pearls of this type are sometimes found in edible mussels , edible oysters , escargot snails, and so on. The GIA and CIBJO now simply use the term 'pearl' (or, where appropriate, the more descriptive term 'non-nacreous pearl') when referring to such items and, under Federal Trade Commission rules, various mollusk pearls may be referred to as 'pearls', without qualification. A few species produce pearls that can be of interest as gemstones. These species include

213-478: A South Sea pearl – as described by CIBJO and GIA – is a pearl produced by the Pinctada maxima pearl oyster. South Sea pearls are the color of their host Pinctada maxima oyster – and can be white, silver, pink, gold, cream, and any combination of these basic colors, including overtones of the various colors of the rainbow displayed in the pearl nacre of the oyster shell itself. South Sea pearls are

284-415: A beaded cultured pearl is generally a polished sphere made from freshwater mussel shell. Along with a small piece of mantle tissue from another mollusk (donor shell) to serve as a catalyst for the pearl sac, it is surgically implanted into the gonad (reproductive organ) of a saltwater mollusk. In freshwater perliculture, only the piece of tissue is used in most cases, and is inserted into the fleshy mantle of

355-456: A body color that may be assessed as silver, silver blue, gold, brown-black, green-black, or black. Black cultured pearls from the black pearl oyster – Pinctada margaritifera  – are not South Sea pearls, although they are often mistakenly described as black South Sea pearls. In the absence of an official definition for the pearl from the black all use to, these pearls are usually referred to as "black pearls". The correct definition of

426-485: A mixture of aragonite and calcite ) in minute crystalline form, which has deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearls , can occur. The finest quality of natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable. The most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in

497-414: A natural pearl shows a series of concentric growth rings. A beadless cultured pearl (whether of freshwater or saltwater origin) may show growth rings, but also a complex central cavity, witness of the first precipitation of the young pearl sac. Some imitation pearls (also called shell pearls) are simply made of mother-of-pearl , coral or conch shell, while others are made from glass and are coated with

568-563: A private beach. There are also several local restaurants that cater to all types of food. Restaurante Geraldo's offers Italian as well as Casa Tortuga; however, places such as the Restaurante Clarita offer more local Latin American cuisine. The main boulevard on the northeast side of the island, next to the small stretch of runway for the incoming airplane, lay several tourist shops that offer local jewelry and souvenirs as well as

639-475: A solution containing fish scales called essence d'Orient . A well-equipped gem testing laboratory can distinguish natural pearls from cultured pearls by using gemological X-ray equipment to examine the center of a pearl. With X-rays it is possible to see the growth rings of the pearl, where the layers of calcium carbonate are separated by thin layers of conchiolin. The differentiation of natural pearls from non-beaded cultured pearls can be very difficult without

710-454: A species of small pearl oyster, Pinctada fucata martensii , which is no bigger than 6 to 8 cm (2.4 to 3.1 in) in size, hence akoya pearls larger than 10 mm in diameter are extremely rare and highly priced. Today, a hybrid mollusk is used in both Japan and China in the production of akoya pearls. Cultured Pearls were sold in cans for the export market. These were packed in Japan by

781-513: A spherical bead as a nucleus. Most saltwater cultured pearls are grown with beads. Trade names of cultured pearls are Akoya ( 阿古屋 ), white or golden South sea, and black Tahitian . Most beadless cultured pearls are mantle-grown in freshwater shells in China, and are known as freshwater cultured pearls. Cultured pearls can be distinguished from natural pearls by X-ray examination. Nucleated cultured pearls are often 'preformed' as they tend to follow

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852-454: A visitor center that rents golf carts to explore the island. It is possible to book a day pass to Contadora Island on Playa Larga or Playa Cacique. Those who prefer to explore the island can do so on foot, bicycle, golf cart, scooter, ATV or by taxi. It is also possible to go snorkeling on this island that has plenty of rock and coral formations which are home to all kinds of fish. Snorkeling tours can take you to visit other islands nearby. There

923-483: Is a mere 115 people. While most of the citizens there are native Panamanians, some are multimillionaires with summer homes. When Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was exiled from Iran he spent much of his fortune on property in Contadora. Some of the homes are now rented out to tourists. A small school is present on the island, where several children attend; however, most of the island life is centered around tourism, so most of

994-532: Is a particularly large one weighing 14 lb (6.4 kg). The largest known pearl (also from a giant clam) is the Pearl of Puerto , also found in the Philippines by a fisherman from Puerto Princesa , Palawan Island . The enormous pearl is 30 cm wide (1 ft), 67 cm long (2.2 ft) and weighs 75 lb (34 kg). The ancient chronicle Mahavamsa mentions the thriving pearl industry in

1065-591: Is also a dive center on Contadora Island for those who want to get certified by PADI. Divers can go on a dive to sites which are about 15 minutes away from the island. The Pearl Islands is also a world renowned fishing destination. It is possible to catch sailfish, wahoo, blue marlin, tuba, dolphin (mahi mahi), grouper, amberjack, rooster fish and more. Whales come to the Pearl Islands from June through October. Whale watching tours start from Panama City or Contadora Island. The island has also hosted three showings of

1136-490: Is devoid of mountains, though small hills make for relatively steep roads on the northeast side of the island. Due to that, tourists often choose to travel around the island via motorcycle, golf cart, or scooter. Contadora's main water source comes from a small lake at the northwest of the island called el Largo. Rainforest makes up most of the islands mass, and within everything from iguanas, to geckos, to monkeys, to snakes, to non-indigenous deer live. The population of Contadora

1207-464: Is grown at a time. This limits the number of pearls at a harvest period. The pearls are usually harvested after one year for akoya, 2–4 years for Tahitian and South Sea, and 2–7 years for freshwater. This perliculture process was first developed by the British biologist William Saville-Kent who passed the information along to Tatsuhei Mise and Tokichi Nishikawa from Japan . The second category includes

1278-554: Is more valuable than these pearls. However, it is more abundant than the South Sea pearl, which is more valuable than the black cultured pearl. This is simply because the black pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera is far more abundant than the elusive, rare, and larger south sea pearl oyster Pinctada maxima , which cannot be found in lagoons, but which must be dived for in a rare number of deep ocean habitats or grown in hatcheries. Natural black pearls are rare, with black pearls having

1349-415: Is required to positively verify natural pearls found today. A keshi pearl is a pearl composed entirely of nacre and results from mishaps in the culturing process. Most are quite small, typically only a few millimeters in diameter, and are often irregular in shape. In seeding a cultured pearl, a piece of mantle muscle from a sacrificed oyster is placed with a bead of mother of pearl within a host oyster. If

1420-925: Is susceptible to even a weak acid solution because the crystals react with the acetic acid in the vinegar to form calcium acetate and carbon dioxide . Freshwater and saltwater pearls may sometimes look quite similar, but they come from different sources. Freshwater pearls form in various species of freshwater mussels, family Unionidae , which live in lakes, rivers, ponds and other bodies of fresh water. These freshwater pearl mussels occur not only in hotter climates, but also in colder, more temperate areas such as Scotland (where they are protected under law). Most freshwater cultured pearls sold today come from China. Saltwater pearls grow within pearl oysters, family Pteriidae , which live in oceans. Saltwater pearl oysters are usually cultivated in protected lagoons or volcanic atolls. The mollusk's mantle (protective membrane) deposits layers of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) in

1491-625: Is the conch pearl (sometimes referred to simply as the 'pink pearl'), which is found very rarely growing between the mantle and the shell of the queen conch or pink conch, Strombus gigas , a large sea snail or marine gastropod from the Caribbean Sea . These pearls, which are often pink in color, are a by-product of the conch fishing industry, and the best of them display a shimmering optical effect related to chatoyance known as 'flame structure'. Somewhat similar gastropod pearls, this time more orange in hue, are (again very rarely) found in

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1562-502: Is thought that natural pearls form under a set of accidental conditions when a microscopic intruder or parasite enters a bivalve mollusk and settles inside the shell. The mollusk, irritated by the intruder, forms a pearl sac of external mantle tissue cells and secretes the calcium carbonate and conchiolin to cover the irritant. This secretion process is repeated many times, thus producing a pearl. Natural pearls come in many shapes, with perfectly round ones being comparatively rare. Typically,

1633-524: The Broome area of Australia, while golden colored ones are more prevalent in the Philippines and Indonesia. A farm in the Gulf of California , Mexico, is culturing pearls from the black lipped Pinctada mazatlanica oysters and the rainbow lipped Pteria sterna oysters. Also called Concha Nácar, the pearls from these rainbow lipped oysters fluoresce red under ultraviolet light. Biologically speaking, under

1704-708: The French perle , originally from the Latin perna ' leg ' , after the ham- or mutton leg-shaped bivalve . The scientific name for the family of pearl-bearing oysters, Margaritiferidae comes from the Old Persian word for pearl * margārīta- which is the source of the English name Margaret . All shelled mollusks can, by natural processes, produce some kind of "pearl" when an irritating microscopic object becomes trapped within its mantle folds, but

1775-878: The Indian Ocean in areas such as the Persian Gulf , the Red Sea and the Gulf of Mannar . Evidence also suggest a prehistoric origin to pearl diving in these regions. Starting in the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), the Chinese hunted extensively for seawater pearls in the South China Sea , particularly in what is now Tolo Harbour in Hong Kong . Tanka pearl divers of twelfth century China attached ropes to their waists in order to be safely brought back up to

1846-406: The epidermis of the mantle secretes calcium carbonate and conchiolin , and creates a shell . In sea slugs there is a progressive loss of the shell and the mantle becomes the dorsal surface of the animal. The words mantle and pallium both originally meant ‘cloak’ or ‘cape’; see mantle (vesture) . This anatomical structure in molluscs often resembles a cloak because in many groups the edges of

1917-403: The freshwater pearl mussel . Saltwater pearls can grow in several species of marine pearl oysters in the family Pteriidae . Freshwater pearls grow within certain (but by no means all) species of freshwater mussels in the order Unionida, the families Unionidae and Margaritiferidae . The unique luster of pearls depends upon the reflection , refraction , and diffraction of light from

1988-543: The translucent layers. The thinner and more numerous the layers in the pearl, the finer the luster. The iridescence that pearls display is caused by the overlapping of successive layers, which breaks up light falling on the surface. In addition, pearls (especially cultured freshwater pearls ) can be dyed yellow, green, blue, brown, pink, purple, or black. The most valuable pearls have a metallic, highly reflective luster. Because pearls are made primarily of calcium carbonate, they can be dissolved in vinegar . Calcium carbonate

2059-590: The Fifth Avenue mansion that is now the New York Cartier store in exchange for a matched double strand of natural pearls Cartier had been collecting for years; at the time, it was valued at US$ 1 million.) The introduction and advance of the cultured pearl hit the pearl industry hard. Pearl dealers publicly disputed the authenticity of these new cultured products, and left many consumers uneasy and confused about their much lower prices. Essentially,

2130-511: The I.C.P. Canning Factory (International Pearl Company L.T.D.) in Nagasaki Pref. Japan. Mantle (mollusc) The mantle (also known by the Latin word pallium meaning mantle, robe or cloak, adjective pallial ) is a significant part of the anatomy of molluscs : it is the dorsal body wall which covers the visceral mass and usually protrudes in the form of flaps well beyond the visceral mass itself. In many species of molluscs

2201-532: The King found it so beautiful that he kept it for himself. Later, he elevated it to be part of the Spanish Crown Jewel. From then on, the pearl was recorded in every royal inventory for more than 200 years. According to Garcilasso de la Vega , who says that he saw La Peregrina at Seville in 1607, this was found at Panama in 1560 by a slave worker who was rewarded with his liberty, and his owner with

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2272-625: The Spaniards. Early last century there was an underwater epidemic which killed most of the pearl oysters , reducing the production of pearls to a dribble. In 1979, the exiled Iranian shah , Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , briefly lived in Contadora. The Contadora Peace Accords , which laid the foundation for peace in Central America , were negotiated in this island during the 1980s. Hence the Contadora Group took their name from

2343-647: The TV show Survivor and many of the crew members and directors stayed on the island during filming. Contadora houses several beaches, including Playa Larga, Playa Galeón, Playa Canoa, Playa Caracol, Playa Lucas, Playa Roca, Playa Camarón, Playa Cacique, and Playa de las Suecas. All of the beaches house white sands and turquoise waters reminiscent of the Caribbean. Ample coral reefs litter the ocean and sea life such as clown fish, angel fish, butterfly fish, red snapper, mahi-mahi, parrot fish, stingrays, and nurse sharks. The island

2414-528: The attractions which drew Julius Caesar to Britain. They are, for the most part, freshwater pearls from mussels. Pearling was banned in the U.K. in 1998 due to the endangered status of river mussels. Discovery and publicity about the sale for a substantial sum of the Abernethy pearl in the River Tay had resulted in heavy exploitation of mussel colonies during the 1970s and 80s by weekend warriors. When it

2485-464: The bailer shell Melo , the giant clam Tridacna , various scallop species, Pen shells Pinna , and the Haliotis iris species of abalone. Pearls of abalone are cultured pearls , or blister pearls, unique to New Zealand waters, and are commonly referred to as 'blue pearls'. They are admired for their luster and naturally bright vibrant colors that are often compared to opal . Another example

2556-435: The build-up of a natural pearl consists of a brown central zone formed by columnar calcium carbonate (usually calcite, sometimes columnar aragonite) and a yellowish to white outer zone consisting of nacre (tabular aragonite). In a pearl cross-section such as the diagram, these two different materials can be seen. The presence of columnar calcium carbonate rich in organic material indicates juvenile mantle tissue that formed during

2627-487: The case. Typical stimuli include organic material, parasites, or even damage that displaces mantle tissue to another part of the mollusk's body. These small particles or organisms gain entry when the shell valves are open for feeding or respiration. In cultured pearls, the irritant is typically an introduced piece of the mantle epithelium, with or without a spherical bead (beaded or beadless cultured pearls). Natural pearls are nearly 100% calcium carbonate and conchiolin . It

2698-428: The conjunctive tissue of the mantle, these cells may survive and form a small pocket in which they continue to secrete calcium carbonate, their natural product. The pocket is called a pearl sac, and grows with time by cell division. The juvenile mantle tissue cells, according to their stage of growth, secrete columnar calcium carbonate from pearl sac's inner surface. In time, the pearl sac's external mantle cells proceed to

2769-491: The contraction of the mantle is used to force water through a tubular siphon, the hyponome , and this propels the animal very rapidly through the water. In gastropods it is used as a kind of "foot" for locomotion over the surface. In Patella the foot includes the entire ventral surface of the animal. The foot of the Bivalvia is a fleshy process adapted by its form to digging rather than to locomotion. In shelled molluscs,

2840-458: The controversy damaged the images of both natural and cultured pearls. By the 1950s, when a significant number of women in developed countries could afford their own cultured pearl necklace, natural pearls were reduced to a small, exclusive niche in the pearl industry. Previously, natural pearls were found in many parts of the world. Present day natural pearling is confined mostly to the Persian Gulf , in seas off Bahrain . Australia also has one of

2911-503: The culturing process for them dictates a smaller volume output and they can never be mass-produced because, in common with most sea pearls, the oyster can only be nucleated with one pearl at a time, while freshwater mussels are capable of multiple pearl implants. Before the days of cultured pearls, black pearls were rare and highly valued for the simple reason that white pearl oysters rarely produced naturally black pearls, and black pearl oysters rarely produced any natural pearls at all. Since

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2982-559: The development of pearl culture technology, the black pearl oysters Pinctada margaritifera found in Tahiti and many other Pacific islands including the Cook Islands and Fiji are being extensively used for producing cultured pearls. The rarity of the black cultured pearl is now a "comparative" issue. The black cultured pearl is rare when compared to Chinese freshwater cultured pearls, and Japanese and Chinese akoya cultured pearls, and

3053-490: The early stage of pearl development. Displaced living cells with a well-defined task may continue to perform their function in their new location, often resulting in a cyst . Such displacement may occur via an injury. The fragile rim of the shell is exposed and is prone to damage and injury. Crabs, other predators and parasites such as worm larvae may produce traumatic attacks and cause injuries in which some external mantle tissue cells are disconnected from their layer. Embedded in

3124-401: The form of the mineral aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite (polymorphs with the same chemical formula, but different crystal structures) held together by an organic horn-like compound called conchiolin . The combination of aragonite and conchiolin is called nacre , which makes up mother-of-pearl. The commonly held belief that a grain of sand acts as the irritant is in fact rarely

3195-435: The formation of tabular aragonite. When the transition to nacre secretion occurs, the brown pebble becomes covered with a nacreous coating. During this process, the pearl sac seems to travel into the shell; however, the sac actually stays in its original relative position the mantle tissue while the shell itself grows. After a couple of years, a pearl forms and the shell may be found by a lucky pearl fisher. Cultured pearls are

3266-579: The great majority of these "pearls" are not valued as gemstones . Nacreous pearls, the best-known and most commercially significant, are primarily produced by two groups of molluskan bivalves or clams . A nacreous pearl is made from layers of nacre , by the same living process as is used in the secretion of the mother of pearl which lines the shell. Natural (or wild) pearls, formed without human intervention, are very rare. Many hundreds of pearl oysters or mussels must be gathered and opened, and thus killed, to find even one wild pearl; for many centuries, this

3337-526: The horse conch Triplofusus papillosus . The second largest pearl known was found in the Philippines in 1934 and is known as the Pearl of Lao Tzu . It is a naturally occurring, non-nacreous, calcareous concretion (pearl) from a giant clam . Because it did not grow in a pearl oyster it is not pearly; instead the surface is glossy like porcelain. Other pearls from giant clams are known to exist, but this

3408-454: The host mussel. South Sea and Tahitian pearl oysters, also known as Pinctada maxima and Pinctada margaritifera , which survive the subsequent surgery to remove the finished pearl, are often implanted with a new, larger beads as part of the same procedure and then returned to the water for another 2–3 years of growth. Despite the common misperception, Mikimoto did not discover the process of pearl culture. The accepted process of pearl culture

3479-466: The interior of the shell that produces them. However, almost all species of shelled mollusks are capable of producing pearls (technically "calcareous concretions") of lesser shine or less spherical shape. Although these may also be legitimately referred to as "pearls" by gemological labs and also under U.S. Federal Trade Commission rules, and are formed in the same way, most of them have no value except as curiosities. The English word pearl comes from

3550-492: The island's name. Contadora is a growing tourist destination known for its remote location and secluded beaches. There are two main hotels on the island, Villa Romanica and Perla Real (A large hotel named The Point still exists on the North Side of the island but this has since closed for business). However, most tourists tend to stay at the villas for rent at the northeast side of the island due to their privacy and access to

3621-435: The largest and rarest of the cultured pearls – making them the most valuable. Prized for their exquisitely beautiful 'orient' or lustre, South Sea pearls are now farmed in various parts of the world where the Pinctada maxima oysters can be found, with the finest South Sea pearls being produced by Paspaley along the remote coastline of North-Western Australia. White and silver colored South Sea pearls tend to come from

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3692-455: The locals spend their time catering to such industries. 8°38′N 79°02′W  /  8.633°N 79.033°W  / 8.633; -79.033 Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle ) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids . Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate (mainly aragonite or

3763-436: The mantle is the organ that forms the shell, and adds to the shell to increase its size and strength as the animal grows. Shell material is secreted by the ectodermic ( epithelial ) cells of the mantle tissue. The mantle of many gastropods is usually fully or partially hidden inside the gastropod shell . In species where the shell is small compared to the size of the body, more of the mantle shows. Shell-less slugs have

3834-409: The mantle, usually referred to as the mantle margin , extend far beyond the main part of the body, forming flaps, double-layered structures which have been adapted for many different uses, including for example, the siphon . The mantle cavity is a central feature of molluscan biology. This cavity is formed by the mantle skirt, a double fold of mantle which encloses a water space. This space contains

3905-402: The mollusk's gills , anus , osphradium , nephridiopores , and gonopores . The mantle cavity functions as a respiratory chamber in most mollusks. In bivalves it is usually part of the feeding structure. In some mollusks the mantle cavity is a brood chamber, and in cephalopods and some bivalves such as scallops , it is a locomotory organ . The mantle is highly muscular. In cephalopods

3976-579: The non-beaded freshwater cultured pearls, like the Biwa or Chinese pearls. As they grow in the mantle, where on each wing up to 25 grafts can be implanted, these pearls are much more frequent and saturate the market completely. An impressive improvement in quality has taken place over ten years when the former rice-grain-shaped pebbles are compared with the near round pearls of today. Later, large near perfect round bead nucleated pearls up to 15mm in diameter have been produced with metallic luster. The nucleus bead in

4047-498: The office of alcalde of Panama. Margarita pearls are extremely difficult to find today and are known for their unique yellowish color. Before the beginning of the 20th century, pearl hunting was the most common way of harvesting pearls. Divers manually pulled oysters from ocean floors and river bottoms and checked them individually for pearls. Not all mussels and oysters produce pearls. In a haul of three tons, only three or four oysters will produce perfect pearls. Pearls were one of

4118-432: The pearl industry is making ongoing attempts to improve culturing technique so that keshi pearls do not occur. All-nacre pearls may one day be limited to natural found pearls. Today many "keshi" pearls are actually intentional, with post-harvest shells returned to the water to regenerate a pearl in the existing pearl sac. Tahitian pearls , frequently referred to as black pearls, are highly valued because of their rarity;

4189-403: The piece of mantle should slip off the bead, a keshi pearl forms of baroque shape about the mantle piece. Therefore, while a keshi pearl could be considered superior to cultured pearls with a mother of pearl bead center, in the cultured pearl industry the oyster's resources used to create a mistaken all-nacre baroque pearl is a drain on the production of the intended round cultured pearl. Therefore,

4260-620: The port of Oruwella in the Gulf of Mannar in Sri Lanka . It also records that eight varieties of pearls accompanied Prince Vijaya 's embassy to the Pandyan king as well as king Devanampiya Tissa 's embassy to Emperor Ashoka . Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) praised the pearl fishery of the Gulf as most productive in the world. For thousands of years, seawater pearls were retrieved by divers in

4331-404: The response of the shell to a tissue implant. A tiny piece of mantle tissue (called a graft ) from a donor shell is transplanted into a recipient shell, causing a pearl sac to form into which the tissue precipitates calcium carbonate. There are a number of methods for producing cultured pearls: using freshwater or seawater shells, transplanting the graft into the mantle or into the gonad, and adding

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4402-486: The right set of circumstances, almost any shelled mollusk can produce some kind of pearl. However, most of these molluskan pearls have no luster or iridescence . The great majority of mollusk species produce pearls which are not attractive, and are sometimes not even very durable. Such pearls usually have no value at all, except perhaps to a scientist or collector, or as a curiosity. These objects used to be referred to as "calcareous concretions" by some gemologists, even though

4473-433: The shape of the implanted shell bead nucleus. After a bead is inserted into the oyster, it secretes a few layers of nacre around the bead; the resulting cultured pearl can then be harvested in as few as twelve to eighteen months. When a cultured pearl with a bead nucleus is X-rayed, it reveals a different structure to that of a natural pearl. A beaded cultured pearl shows a solid center with no concentric growth rings, whereas

4544-555: The surface. When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Western Hemisphere, they discovered that around the islands of Cubagua and Margarita , some 200 km north of the Venezuelan coast, was an extensive pearl bed (a bed of pearl oysters). One discovered and named pearl, La Peregrina pearl , was offered to Philip II of Spain who intended to give it as a gift for his daughter on the occasion of her marriage, but

4615-810: The use of this X-ray technique. Natural and cultured pearls can be distinguished from imitation pearls using a microscope . Another method of testing for imitations is to rub two pearls against each other. Imitation pearls are completely smooth, but natural and cultured pearls are composed of nacre platelets, making both feel slightly gritty. Fine quality natural pearls are very rare jewels. Their values are determined similarly to those of other precious gems, according to size, shape, color, quality of surface, orient and luster. Single natural pearls are often sold as collectors' items, or set as centerpieces in unique jewelry. Very few matched strands of natural pearls exist, and those that do often sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. (In 1917, jeweler Pierre Cartier purchased

4686-580: The wild, but are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as natural pearls. Cultured or farmed pearls from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels make up the majority of those currently sold. Imitation pearls are also widely sold in inexpensive jewelry. Pearls have been harvested and cultivated primarily for use in jewelry , but in the past were also used to adorn clothing. They have also been crushed and used in cosmetics, medicines and paint formulations. Whether wild or cultured, gem-quality pearls are almost always nacreous and iridescent , like

4757-478: The world's last remaining fleets of pearl diving ships. Australian pearl divers dive for south sea pearl oysters to be used in the cultured south sea pearl industry. The catch of pearl oysters is similar to the numbers of oysters taken during the natural pearl days. Hence significant numbers of natural pearls are still found in the Australian Indian Ocean waters from wild oysters. X-ray examination

4828-563: Was developed by the British Biologist William Saville-Kent in Australia and brought to Japan by Tokichi Nishikawa and Tatsuhei Mise. Nishikawa was granted the patent in 1916, and married the daughter of Mikimoto. Mikimoto was able to use Nishikawa's technology. After the patent was granted in 1916, the technology was immediately commercially applied to akoya pearl oysters in Japan in 1916. Mise's brother

4899-677: Was permitted it was carried on mainly by Scottish Travellers who found pearls varied from river to river with the River Oykel in the Highlands being noted for the finest rose-pink pearls. There are two firms in Scotland that are licensed to sell pre-1998 freshwater pearls. Today, the cultured pearls on the market can be divided into two categories. The first category covers the beaded cultured pearls, including akoya, South Sea and Tahiti. These pearls are gonad grown, and usually one pearl

4970-531: Was the first to produce a commercial crop of pearls in the akoya oyster. Mitsubishi's Baron Iwasaki immediately applied the technology to the south sea pearl oyster in 1917 in the Philippines, and later in Buton, and Palau. Mitsubishi was the first to produce a cultured south sea pearl – although it was not until 1928 that the first small commercial crop of pearls was successfully produced. The original Japanese cultured pearls, known as akoya pearls, are produced by

5041-418: Was the only way pearls were obtained, and why pearls fetched such extraordinary prices in the past. Cultured pearls are formed in pearl farms, using human intervention as well as natural processes. One family of nacreous pearl bivalves – the pearl oyster  – lives in the sea, while the other – a very different group of bivalves  – lives in freshwater; these are the river mussels such as

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