Thread by @JulieTheCranky

So, pearls. #JewelWatch

Y'know how English has 1066 (French/Norman invasion of England), and textiles have 1856 (invention of synthetic dyes)?

Pearls have 1893. The first cultured pearl.

It wasn't until the 1920s that they got the whole thing to be 'commercially viable', but that was the day the entire pearl market was thrown into chaos, and when it became all about the tech.

It was Kokichi Mikimoto who invented them.

Yes, THAT Mikimoto, jeweler to the Imperial Family of Japan, and Maker Of Really Well Designed Stuff. Founded 1888, which is downright recent by Japanese standards. The most obvious sign of high tech in their work, is the precision and craftsmanship.

Up until that day, pearls were... not exactly easy to get, it wasn't like a pearl farm where every oyster had a pearl in it, or damn near. But they weren't all that rare.

What was rare, was finding round ones.

Even more rare, round ones that matched.

That necklace up there, someone probably sorted through the pearl production of half the Persian Gulf for a decade or three, to find all those matching pearls.

Y'know how we run a gold standard, used to be silver? Persian Gulf countries, some still run on a pearl standard.

They will go to their graves insisting real pearls are the only way, and cultured pearls are fake.

It's been a little over two hundred years now, and the rest of the world's moved on and is into cultured pearls.

So they cultured pearls, and the time it took to get a necklace's match of pearls went from decades to getting a couple per pearl harvest. They'd get sorted by color, and string them, and everyone was happy.

The broad, general types of pearls are, starting with sea water first because again you run into 'those are the only REAL pearl' insistence, just like uncultured pearls are the only real ones, anyway, there is South Seas Gold:

These are so freakishly color consistent, I wonder if they're cloned, or started out as some kind of clone, or if cloning is part of the culturing process.

First lesson on color grading: Lustre and color.

These are all golden pearls. The lustre is different. See how the pearl in the center left front of the photo has a gold center and a pinkish outer edge? And far right center has pinkish center with greenish edge.

It's the lustre that's usually badly matched when I start sneering at black Tahitian pearls. Unlike South Seas, they're a bitch to match.

BUT I'm getting ahead of myself. South Seas goldens come in four major color groups, and also white. Though usually if you say 'south seas' pearl people expect gold.

Just like you CAN grow white pearls in Tahiti or black pearls in Japan.

Black pearls are most commonly associated with Tahiti and are the most expensive. That's because they're the hardest to match. It was true before culturing, and it's still true now, though people are messing with culturing methods and cloning. Check the lustre on the earrings.

"Arabian" pearls, or pearls farmed or found in the Persian Gulf from local oysters, are a pretty cream color. They have an iridescent lustre to them that still gets top dollar. On the right, those are not cultured.

Akoya pearls are the breed of oyster found in Japan. Those were the ones Mr Mikimoto first farmed, and those were the ones they first cultured. They're considered 'bluish white' in the trade.

Australian pearls, as I understand it, are oysters grown in Australian waters, usually along the NW of the country. The nutrients in the water there leads to happy oysters, and happy oysters make big pearls.

I sold pearls for a while during my misspent youth, and when I heard the term "Australian pearl" I didn't think of a particular color, I simply thought in terms of size.

Pink pearls? Those only come from freshwater bivalves. If someone tries to sell you pink saltwater pearls, they've been dyed. (To do that, they have to be drilled, so the dye can get into the nacre.) Freshwater, sky's the limit.

A lot of this has to do - salt and fresh water - with what the pearl's been eating, but it also has to do with the species.

Yoko London specializes in "Radiant Orchid" freshwater pearls.

I'm quite curious about what they're up to, to get those matches so good.

They also deal well with oddly-colored one-offs.

While we're at it, there are conch pearls, little pink dudes that are almost never spherical, from conch shells.

There are also melo pearls, from a type of SNAIL native to SE Asia,

Which, I feel strongly at this point we're talking about bivalve gallstones, but no one asked me. (Hemmerle) The earrings on the left have surrounds of ancient jade, it looks like that after it's been in the ground a while.

And keeping in mind technology is the name of the game, some assholes recently (in the last decade) figured out how to culture mabe (flattish) pearls out of abalone, the poor damn things were minding their own business.

They're known as Eyris pearls. Someone gave one in a brooch to QE a while back, I think she's worn it once when they came by to drop off diplomatic papers.

Right. That's the basics of pearls. The super basics.

I'm taking a break, then we'll discuss how technology has turned the pearl trade into something that looks like the arms race, but is much less dangerous to everyone but bivalves.

While poking around for further images I found this handy chart. Keep in mind, this is about what OYSTER produces what color. They're often named for where they're native to. But grow a Tahitian, Aokya, any other pearl in Australia, you'll get these colors.

Before we dig into CURRENT tech, we'll talk older tech. Baroque pearls are the term for pearls that aren't spherical. You probably knew that. Before I started selling pearls I thought all freshwater pearls were baroque. NOPE. From Boschi, a current jeweler using multiple pearls:

Foquet also went with a fish - should have had this dude on the enamel thread.

If you can match the color, necklaces and bracelets can work pretty well.

This is from Paula Crevoshay, she did an orchid with an abalone pearl.

I like the ladybug best.

Late 16th century enamel and gold, probably gemstones as well. I think it's a pendant?

Or to be sewn onto clothing; without ladies' maids these days we forget how often that happened.

This guy - it's a pendant - is recent, from Jewellery Theater. Love the tail addition.

Margot McKinney is known for doing wild things with baroque pearls.

Paula Crevoshay again with some wild freshwater (ha) pearls. And matching gemstones. She's better than average at that.

Sometimes you don't need baroque pearls... both from Autore, look at how well they matched the stones to the pearl, on the fish. The green lustre an the brownish color of the pearl. Wow.

And we'll finish the baroque section with one of my all time faves from Mikimoto, of course.

Right, so the arms race of pearls. It's kind of like toothbrushes, y'know how everyone's competing like hell for the next new development in bristles and the public is like... yeah?

Welp. That's pearls too.

No one's quite sure who started carving pearls, or when, but I bet it goes way back. Some of the more popular ones now, are skulls. I'll bet those go back to the memento mori of Europe in the 1800s.

And one thing led to another... (Valitutti)

Oh and somewhere in here, remember cultured pearls got commercially viable in the 1920s? Guess who jumped all over that?

Yep. Coco Chanel.

And pearl carving kept getting more elaborate. (Gellner)

And then things got REALLY out of hand. (Tasaki)

If you look closely at this strand (without screaming), you can see how the layers of nacre are different colors. That's the seasonal shift in diet, doing that. (Tasaki)

Then in the late 20th century came the spiritual inheritor of the pearl... genius, let's say. Chi Huynh is a refugee from Viet Nam. Please, read his story and shove it down the throat of the next person complaining about immigrants and refugees.
galateausa.com/chi_story.html

He came here from Viet Nam, from a disaster area we created, and in return gave us beauty in the form of Galatea Jewelry.

One thing he did was figure out how to culture pearls with GEMSTONES. Before he came along, beads of oyster shell were usually used.

I don't know if he started with opal or turquoise, but eventually he got both to work, and carved them after.

He also began setting diamonds into them, as you see up there with the one turquoise one.

The thing to keep in mind is, for a lot of this carving, and the FACETING we're about to see, the pearls have to be left in the oyster longer, for a thicker layer of nacre. The longer they're in, the less likely they are to be spherical when they come out.

Many of us were not quite sure what we thought about faceted pearls.

Those were all Galatea up there, by the way.

Then others began buying pearls from Galatea or other carvers, and using them. (Ilgiz F, our enamel friend.)

And I suppose Mr Huynh knew he'd arrived when the Chinese jumped on it.

And one last thing before we move on and leave Mr Hyunh, he also invented the DavinChi diamond cut, that works sort of like a kaleidoscope and magnifies what's under it:

So with Mr Hyunh leading the way, others were "carved pearls, you say?"

And away it went.

Sylvia Furminovich inlaid a pearl with abalone.

Others did the same. I'm not sure what the timeline is, here, who did what first. (Eliko Pearl Co)

Les Mervielles did carving, I believe? I think that's just through the nacre, without an underlying gemstone. Nice carving on the shell, too.

Our Russian enameler Ilgiz F gets is pearls from another Russian, Tuzlukov. You see how the nacre has to be thick, to have cuts taken out of it and still be iridescent.

Tasaki also started drilling and hollowing pearls.

So, at this point, damn near anything's possible. Mikimoto's started using unmatched irregular seed pearls.

Some aren't messing with them at all, and returning to the middle ages. (Paspaley)

Pearl rings are where it's at for really unique colors on pearls, though. That's where you put that single pearl that doesn't match anything. (And that one pair of earrings I can't believe they found two of.)

So, the rest of the stuff I've been putting in the 'pearls' folder, for this thread, for years.

Cross from the 1500s.

Grape clusters, with pearls for grapes, c1850.

Assorted natural pearls of all kinds.

A 44ct conch pearl.

I imagine that poor thing feeling like I do during a gallbladder attack.

Fun necklace, Aussie white pearls and onyx beads. (Jan Logan)

More Aussie pearls. (Kailis)

Great necklace from Autore, who does lots of cool pearl stuff.

More Autore:

An antique baroque pearl brooch.

This is mother of pearl with diamonds insent and around the outside. Usually I don't like the pearl/diamond combo. Love these. (Boghossian)

More carved mother of pearl, I FAILED TO TAKE NOTES OMG! I think these are manufactured beads.

Seed pearls from Chaumet, early in the 1900s.

Chinese hair ornament, the tian tsiu, the kingfisher feathers, are there. So are a lot of tiny seed pearls. 1800s

Earrings from DeGrisogono, that's diamonds they matched to the opposite pearls, and they messed with the color of the gold, too.

Earrings with badly cut diamonds and seed pearls, c1800s.

Lesson in pearl grading! See that ding, about ten degrees directly right of the center?

Yeah, if it's otherwise okay, they'd drill the hole there. This is minor; the dings can be worse.

Oop, just noticed the wrinkle on the top.

Yeah, that's a dud. It'll go into a cheap string.

Lesson in pearl grading again! Lustre vs color. They're all white. The lustre, top to bottom, is greyish, green-bluish, pinkish, pink-lilac, and purplish. Technically, none of those match.

This is why women grade pearls. We have better color vision.

If you took the blue and pink out of the middle you could probably fake most people with the other four.

The Honeysuckle tiara, which I thought had pearls in it, but doesn't. One of my faves. Enjoy.

Pearls set by JAR. With diamonds in either rhodium or black titanium on the left, with rubies all bead-set, on the right. (Right one's a ring.)

This is going faster because I'm not having to put anything in a coherent order or explain much.

La Peregrina, last owned by Elizabeth Taylor, I believe she and Cartier did the current setting. Provenance on the right.

"Les Perles De Chanel."

At least they had the sense to stick to one goddamn color gradient. It's almost good. Would be if the damned yellow diamonds matched the rest.

A pearl and diamond brooch belonging to Marie Antoinette. I think this was part of that enormous auction and also Ocean's Eight.

And remember, that's not cultured. That's solid nacre all the way down to the bit of grit that got in the oyster. So the depth of the shine is incredible.

The string of uncultured pearls belonging, at different ends of history, to Marie Antoinette and Barbara Hutton. The clasp was probably put on by Hutton, she was known for that. (Did the same with some ancient high-end jade beads.)

The Jade beads. Cartier put on that clasp and should be shot. $27mil at auction... 2014? Ish?

Tasaki cuff bracelet. LOOK AT HOW THE PEARLS MATCH.

Lots of Mikimoto incoming.

These are their 'Four Seasons' rings, I want one.

The fish necklace. The pearls are bubbles, and that - I believe - aquamarine is a sea turtle. Mikimoto.

24mm baroque South Seas pearl, with an opal, and some little bits and bobs of color. Mikimoto.

Akoya pearls, turquoise beads, and the little greyish bits are white gold with small diamonds. Mikimoto until I say otherwise, hmm?

Baroque pearls. I love how the fuss is in the links of the chain and the pearls are largely left alone.

Those things are enormous.

Gold Akoya pearls (??) with clasp of diamonds and a ginormous South Sea Gold pearl. Betting the clasp also doubles as a brooch. Mikimoto is good at convertible.

GRAAAADIENNNNNT!!!

Mikimoto also did a Hello Kitty collection. One day I'll do a thread on the whole thing, but have the tiara:

I can't remember if these are rings with a connecting chain or clasps to hold your sweater shut. Either way, purty.

The 'Sun and Clouds" necklace, gradient between black and gold pearls, brilliant. My grandmother would have kicked a bishop for this.

22mm baroque pearl, with a chonker of a tanzanite. And assorted diamonds.

The last of the Mikimoto! I just liked how they put the pearls on the chain. Coral reef, part of their ocean collection like the fish necklace up thread.

A... giant baroque pearl goat head. From Mouawad.

Necklace and cuff bracelet from Koulis, who did a hell of a job matching everything.

Pearls inlaid with 'nanoceramic' that contains diamonds.

I'm kind of rolling my eyes at the weed leaf, and I am a fan of weed.

Another enameled piece done by Kostrigina, who did the gold pearls in the enamel thread. So pretty I almost don't mind the flies.

Y'know skrimshaw, where you carve ivory with fine lines, then fill them with - I think usually - India ink? Someone named Korat had the idea to do it with pearls. Love it.

Vuitton using Tahitian green pearls. (Black pearls with a green lustre.) Great match, to the point I wonder if they're cheating with the lighting. And they match the emerald. Bravo.

And the end! With a 470ct natural abalone pearl - see how it's PINK, not the blue and green up thread??

Good day and good night!