World Diamond Group - The pearl: what it is and what its origins are

The origins of the pearl

The pearl,
the elegance beyond fashion

Unmissable in ancient times around the necks of sovereigns, queens and noblewomen as a symbol of wealth and power, pearls have become the hallmark of feminine elegance, and from Chanel onwards a must to be reinterpreted, multiplied with rigorous whim.

The pearl is always the right choice: like the diamond, it knows no seasons or even sunsets. On the contrary it has seen an ever wider distribution since, in the early 1900s, cultured pearls appeared on the market thanks to the intervention of man.

"Gem of the sea" that always brings a bit of magic with it

A RARITY THAT APPEARS IN NATURE IN PERFECT SPHERICAL SHAPE

The term "pearl" is generally referred to as the Latin pernula, a diminutive of perna, which originally indicated the shell and which literally means "leg", "thigh", since the shell had its shape.

There are many stories and legends that are intertwined around pearls, which have always been considered among the most precious gems and for this reason it has been a symbol of power, prestige, social status and wealth.

What is the pearl?

Pearls are made up of calcium carbonate in crystalline form produced by the living tissues of molluscs. The formation arises when a foreign body, such as a piece of shell, gets into the oyster cavity. At this moment a defence mechanism is being triggered.

In order for the animal's tissues to be defended from irritation caused by the foreign body, the latter is covered with layers of mother-of-pearl. Layers of calcium and other materials are also formed, a mix that then generates the precious pearls.

Man has tried to recreate this mechanism to make the pearls of the gems more accessible to the general public given the great rarity of witnessing this phenomenon in nature. Only at the end of the nineteenth century, the Japanese perfected the technique for the production of cultured pearls in natural environments, by grafting a fragment of epithelial mantle together with a nucleus. Over time, the oyster covers the graft with layers of mother of pearl, thus giving life to the pearl.

Mother-of-pearl or "nacre" is the most important part of the pearl, in fact the thickness of the mother-of-pearl layer is an essential element in determining the quality of a pearl.

The thickness of the mother of pearl affects the cost and longevity of the product.