Tagged with 'History of pearls'

La Peregrina remains one of the largest perfectly symmetrical pear-shaped pearls in the world. The Hamiltons sold the pearl for $37,000 at Sotheby’s in 1969 to Richard Burton, as a Valentine Day's gift for Elizabeth Taylor.

It was the exquisite heirloom that sealed one of Hollywood's most tempestuous love stories. Drop and pear-shaped pearls are often made into pendants, but during its history La Peregrina was worn as a brooch, a pendant to a necklace, the centrepiece of a necklace and even a hat ornament. Taylor commissioned Al Durante of Cartier in 1972 to design a ruby and diamond necklace mount for the pearl. The complete piece is quite stunning and truly one of a kind.

It has long been known that the pearl has played a central role in jewellery, with some of the earliest recorded fragments of a pearl necklace being dated to the 4th century BC. What are the most popular and successful designs of classic jewellery that pearls have been used with - and how are they being updated today?

The pearl was believed by numerous cultures to symbolize purity and to offer protection, as well as being indicative of their owner’s social position. Their beauty and rarity meant that the gems held an almost mythological, and certainly significant financial status.

The Timeless Classic

There are many examples through the ages of how our love for the pearl has influenced the wearing, adornment and design of the classic jewellery that we love today.

In China as early as 2300 BC, pearls were considered appropriate gifts for royalty, representing not just the integrity and loyalty of the giver but also the wisdom and virtue of the wearer. Julius Caesar passed a law in the 1st century BC, which determined that pearls should only be worn by the ruling classes.

In India, it is still believed that the pearl confers calm on its wearer, attracting wealth and good luck. The gem was a favourite of Indian royalty, most notably the Mahraja Khande Rao Gaekwad of Baroda, whose seven-strand necklace was legendary even within a culture where extraordinary gems were plentiful – so much so that the famed necklace gained a name of its own: the Baroda Pearls.



Image: A Winterson South Sea pearl and pave diamond clasp necklace

Their extravagant value lead to the pearl playing an important role in trade, which only increased once they were discovered in Central and South America in the 15th century, a discovery which led to the so called Pearl Age.

As a visible symbol of wealth, the demand for pearls escalated, particularly in Western Europe, where royals and aristocrats increasingly emulated their peers in China, India and the Arab states, commissioning elaborate pearl necklaces, earrings, bracelets and brooches.

By the 19th century, demand for pearl jewellery was so high that the supply of natural pearls began to dwindle to the point today where historic pieces of natural pearl jewellery are so rare they can fetch high six or seven figure sums at auction.

The Pearl Necklace

As a result of the way that they reflect light to the face, strands of pearls have become the most popular form of classic jewellery over the ages. The more strands in a necklace, the greater that the necklace reflected the wealth of its owner.



Image 1: Blush Sunrise Necklace
Image 2: A portrait miniature of Emma Ostaszewska née Countess Załuska, ca. 1850s

The lustre of the gems was often preserved by having Victorian maids wear the necklaces during the day to keep the pearls warm and radiant for their mistresses.

With the arrival of the cultured pearl, the status of the gem has shifted over the 20th century, becoming more widely accessible. The multi strand pearl necklace remains an enduring piece of classic jewellery that actresses, society ladies, designers and jewelers such as Winterson prize winner Bella Mung continue to revisit.

Our pearl specialists individually select and grade each strand that makes up a Winterson necklace, often viewing and reviewing pearls throughout the day to be aware of the impact of shifting light on the overtones and lustre of the pearl. Our necklaces are available in multiple lengths, colours, and different types of pearls, including Akoya, Freshwater, South Sea and Tahitian. Read our Buying Guide to choosing a necklace to learn more.

The Pearl Stud

After the pearl necklace, pearl studs form another cornerstone of a woman’s classic jewellery wardrobe. The legendary Coco Chanel was well known for her enduring love of these beautiful gems,which she wore prodigiously (real and fake together).

Although she favoured the monochrome white pearl necklace, once famously declaring “a woman needs ropes and ropes of pearls", her single pearl clip earrings were almost as significant a part of her iconic image.



Image 1: Pocket watch of gold, with enamel and oriental pearls, 1800
Image 2: Green Grey Tahitian Pearl Stud Earrings in Rose Gold

The pearl studs at Winterson are available in a wide choice of colours, sizes from 6-12mm , types of pearls and finished with 18 carat white, yellow and rose gold earring posts and butterflies.

The Pearl Drop Earring

In an era where natural pearls, with all their unique forms and qualities, were the stones that were used in classic jewellery, the popularity of the drop shape is unsurprising. Vermeer’s famous Girl with a Pearl Earring provides the archetypal blueprint for the freshwater drop earring, a classic style that has most recently been adopted by the current Duchess of Cambridge.



Image 1: Yellow Gold Diamond Leverback And Freshwater Pearl Drop Earrings
Image 2: The Girl With The Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer, 1665

Natural pearl drops continue to fetch high sums at auction, as the sale of a pair of earrings owned by Empress Eugenie of France, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, amply demonstrated. Fetching $3.3 million, the drops were then promptly reset for their new owners by American high jeweler Lee Sieglson, reflecting that the value was paid for the pearls rather than their original setting.

The Seed Pearl Ring

Seed pearls gained popularity in Georgian and Victorian jewellery, where they often accented the frame of rings and earrings in the same way that diamond pave does today.



Image 1: Funeral Ring, Landscape and Temples, 18th Century
Image 2: Beau Seed Pearl and Enamel Ring with Yellow Gold

Often seen as part of mourning jewellery, set around painted portraits or landscapes or offset by washes of enamel, this era of jewellery formed the basis of inspiration for Alice Cicolini’s Beau collection for Winterson.

The Pearl Brooch

Seed pearl pave, where lines of these wonderful tiny pearls are set in single or multiple rows, also offered a stylish way for jewellers to incorporate the pearl in brooches. This form of jewellery became highly popular in the 19th century as a decorative jewel, rather than as a functional object which was the original purpose of the brooch.

Although their popularity has waxed and waned over the years, it appears as if the brooch may be increasing in popularity again as fashion brands and jewellers alike seek new surfaces for jewels to come alive.

Perhaps pearls may also find their way onto these new generation designs. The Duchess of Cambridge might have recently signalled the reinvention of this classic jewellery design at a recent state visit, wearing the Queen’s triple pearl and diamond leaf pearl brooch with the stunning Collingwood Pearl and Diamond drop earrings which she often favours.

Mystery still surrounds the jewels of the Cheapside Hoard. Why were these striking jewels originally buried deep beneath the cellar of a building in London's Cheapside and what was the purpose of many of the objects that the Hoard contained?

The Cheapside Hoard was discovered in 1912, the most significant find of its kind, during the redevelopment of Cheapside, a medieval street between modern day St. Paul's Cathedral and Bank. This bustling market route was famously described by Charles Dickens Jr. as "the greatest thoroughfare in the City of London".

The exhibition's curators can be relatively accurate about the date that the Cheapside Hoard was originally buried. The particular style of the jewels and the date of the Great Fire of London that flattened much of the area around Cheapside, bookends the Hoard being buried during a decade that was approximately between 1650-1666.

Given the repetition of a number of similar styles and ideas throughout the collection - numerous carved grapes in amethyst and emerald, ropes of enamelled floral chains - it does seem that the owner might have been a jeweller or dealer, perhaps from nearby Goldsmiths' Row. The Hoard clearly pinpoints the fashions of the day in a way that the collection of an individual might not.

Currently on show at the Museum of London in its entirety for the first time in a century, there are just a few pearls in the Hoard that have survived the four hundred years since the pieces were first hidden away. The myriad empty settings that remain - the curators estimate approximately 1,386 were intended for pearls - are testament to the gem's enduring appeal.

Of those on display, the pieces crafted from fine gold wirework, encasing sheets of back-to-back mother of pearl (most now sadly lost), are captivating. Designed in the shape of what the curators describe as "the translucent seed pods of the plant Lunaria, regarded as a symbol of honesty and appreciated for its healing properties," it is not clear that the items were ever intended for wear.

Mother of pearl was more commonly found in inlay work at this time, and the scale of the pieces precludes them being worn as earrings. However, the enamelled four-petalled cross that links the fifth drop to the main four petals would have given the gems a lovely movement, and had the mother of pearl itself been engraved, as the curators suggest the material often was, these pieces would have been quite beguiling.

The combination of enamel and seed pearls (a chain of which in the Hoard has settings for over 500 pearls with only 7 remaining) was popular in London at this time, a trend which Winterson's Beau collection designed by Alice Cicolini in some part echoes.

Seed pearls also appear on delicate wirework buttons that would have required a high level of craftsmanship for these to be realised.

Of the striking pearls of the Cheapside Hoard that have survived the centuries, the most notable are a baroque pearl carved into the shape of a ship, complete with wirework mast and rigging, and an 11mm pearl with a deep "orient lustre" that sits above a figuratively carved sapphire.

As with many other gems, a pearl of "oriental origin" commanded a high price during the period, the term being used to imply quality as much as provenance. Londoners in the 1600s, the curators believe, were particularly fussy about the quality of their pearls, with even high grade pearls going unsold if they were not of the correct colour and radiant lustre.

At Winterson, where great care is also taken to identify the finest quality pearls to make up our jewellery, we tend to agree!

The Cheapside Hoard: London's Lost Jewels is exhibiting at the Museum of London until 27th April.

The experimental pearls of famed Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus are about to join the forthcoming Pearls Exhibition at the V&A and so we jumped at the chance to see these early successful attempts to culture a spherical pearl in close up.

CARL LINNAEUS

Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) is best known for his method of classifying organisms that uses two latin names to represent the genus and the species, for example 'Homo Sapiens'. This taxonomy is conventionally used today to describe and classify the hierarchical relationships of animals, plants and  insects to each other.

Linnaeus' collections of specimen organisms, including dried flowers, insects, fish and molluscs are unique and are still a primary reference point for scientists to determine if they have found a new species.

Following his death, the Linnean collections were purchased by Sir James Edward Smith in 1784 and transported to London, where they remain today.

THE LINNEAN SOCIETY

In 1788, Smith also founded The Linnean Society to provide a forum to discuss and promote the study of natural history.

The Linnean Society is the world's oldest active biological society. It was at a meeting of the Society in 1858 that papers by Charles Darwin were presented outlining the theory of natural selection and evolution.

The collections were obtained by the Society in 1829 and are today securely held in a vault below the courtyard of Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London. Leather bound books, old parchment folders and specimen trays line the carefully curated shelves and drawers.

Also in the strongroom was a very rare (and valuable) signed first edition of Charles Darwin's 'Origin of the Species' - a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see.

LINNAEA BOREALIS

Carefully wrapped in parchment was this original specimen of Linnaea Borealis, a wildflower of northern and alpine origin that has a distinctive double twin flower shape. The flower is named after Linnaeus as it was a favourite of his whilst travelling in Lapland.

As well as having a beautiful white pink flower, Carl Linnaeus fell in love with the wildflower for the way that it grew persistently in the undergrowth and its ephemeral, short-lived life. These were two symbols that he felt were important in his own life and portraits of Linnaeus, including the one above, and in the Society all feature the Linnaea Borealis.

This little flower has a special meaning for Winterson as it was an inspiration for our own flower motif, also honouring its link with Linnaeus and his early achievements in culturing pearls.

LINNAEUS AND PEARLS

Linnaeus declared in 1761 that 'he had heard of people who made gold, but had never heard of any who could make pearls'. Describing the lengthy and time-consuming efforts to find natural pearls that he had seen in Purkijaur, Lapland, Linnaeus believed that a technique for culturing pearls existed that would be more effective and profitable for Sweden.

Linnaeus started to experiment with 'Unio Pictorum', a species of freshwater mussel called the Painter's mussel. This mussel was named as traditionally its shells were used by painters as convenient receptacles for mixing paint.

His technique was a variation of an old Chinese method for producing blister pearls. Drilling a hole in the mussel's shell, Linnaeus inserted a small granule of limestone between the mantle and the shell to help produce a free spherical pearl inside the mussel.

The mussels were returned to the riverbed for six years to produce what is regarded as the world's first spherical cultured pearls. They are indeed historic and fascinating to view.

Linnaeus' method is also based on an old misunderstanding that pearls are created with a grain of sand. We know now that a response to illness or a parasite is the more likely explanation for the growth of natural pearls in an oyster or mussel.

These experimental pearls were not ultimately the source of riches that Linnaeus had hoped for, but he was enobled by the King of Sweden for his efforts taking the title von Linné. The pearls, a patent and Linnaeus' secret were sold to a Swedish merchant named Peter Bagge, but nothing came out of this venture.

Another Londoner Sir John Hunter is recorded as having attempted to culture freshwater pearls in his ponds at Earl's Court Manor House using a similar method to Linnaeus, but it was left to a different Englishman William Saville-Kent to make the next break-through in pearl culturing.

SEE THE LINNAEUS PEARLS AT THE V&A

We would to like thank Elaine Charwat, Deputy Librarian of the Linnean Society for her fabulous help in showing us Carl Linnaeus' pearls.

The pearls themselves are on display soon at Pearls, the V&A's new exhibition. Not to be missed...

With much excitement and anticipation, the Pearls exhibition at the V&A Museum opens later this month in London.

PEARLS EXHIBITION AT THE V&A

Promising to be one of the biggest Autumn shows, the exhibition will show off the luxurious qualities of some of the world's most unusual and valuable pearls and jewellery, as well as exploring the unique heritage and impact on popular culture of this beautiful gem.

We are very fortunate to be able to ask Beatriz Chadour-Sampson and Hubert Bari, the curators of the Pearls exhibition, about the show and what a visitor can look forward to. We would like to thank them, the V&A and the Qatar Museums Authority for their support with this article.

Here are Beatriz and Hubert's thoughts on 'Pearls'.

How special has this exhibition been for you and to curate? What did you hope that its visitors may learn about pearls?

From all gems, it is the most unusual as the natural pearl is produced by living animals. Even cultured pearls after human intervention are created by nature. Visitors will be amazed to learn that, in principle, any mollusc can produce a pearl from the giant clam to the land snail, and they will be dazzled by the variety of shapes and colours of pearls.

The history of the trade of pearls between continents is fascinating, and how East and West share the same passion for pearls.

Pearls have a unique symbolic significance and mystique. Can the pearl claim to be the world's favourite gem?

Incredibly, pearls have created a global fascination over millennia, like no other gem. There is something magical about pearls, their beauty lies in their perfection of form and most of all lustre. They are born in the form that nature made them with a natural sheen.

Pearls have always been a symbol of femininity. Maybe this is the reason why the fashion for pearls continues today.

The exhibition showcases many famous examples of pearl jewellery, many styles of which are still being referenced today in popular culture. Have we already seen a 'golden age' of pearl jewellery design or is the pearl a gem that will be constantly reinvented?

Yes, as no other gem has been worn as consistently, as pearls. Pearls are neutral and versatile, appropriate for any occasion. In previous years jewellers have shown a persistent, if not renewed interest in creating new designs with pearls.

What is the most striking or surprising aspect for you about the history of the pearl?

The fascination for pearls and wish to wear these beauties of nature transcends cultures and borders. The similarities in the myths and legends surrounding the pearl in East and West are astonishing. Pearls mark authority and power, symbolize prosperity and on a more personal note they are associated with joy at weddings or tears as a sign of mourning.

Natural pearls have undergone a renaissance in the last decade, achieving spectacular prices at auction, and cultured pearls are being produced in better, more diverse and beautiful qualities. What does the future hold for this gem?

The future of the pearl depends on so many factors, not least the condition of our seas. Natural pearls are simply too rare and expensive, only affordable to the very few. Today China produces such quantities of cultured pearls of inferior quality, that they are endangering the pearl market. Whilst they give great care when creating one pearl from an oyster, the Chinese produce 50 in one mussel, at low cost in rice fields or near housing estates. In South East Asia the farms which produce the beautiful South Sea pearls are experiencing not only financial difficulties but the effects of pollution and for these reasons their future remains uncertain.

The desire for pearls has been so insatiable that imitation pearls have existed over centuries and their advocate in the 1930s Coco Chanel was instrumental in reviving the fashion for pearls and revived the industry at a time when this was unthinkable. No one can tell what the future will hold for this beautiful gem, but the fashion for pearls endures.

The 'Pearls, V&A and Qatar Museums Authority Exhibition', runs from 21 September 2013 to 19 January 2014 as part of the Qatar UK 2013 Year of Culture.

To learn more about the exhibition, visit the V&A website here.

Many popularly associate Kokichi Mikimoto with the discovery of the technique to culture a spherical pearl in the early 20th century. But the intriguing truth of the race to discover how to mimic nature's process of creating a spherical pearl is far less clear, even today.

By the late 1890s, the pearling industry in Queensland, Australia was in real trouble. Although the sixth largest industry in Queensland in 1884, its export value had almost halved within the next 5 years. The coral and oyster beds off the northern coasts of Australia and the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea were sadly being depleted by divers and fishing fleets in search of valuable natural pearls and mother-of-pearl shell for use as buttons.

William Saville-Kent was a marine biologist with considerable experience of surveying and managing fish and oyster stocks. Over a period of 15 years, he was appointed by the British Colonial Government as Inspector of Fisheries in Tasmania (1884-87) and Commissioner of Fisheries for both Queensland (1889-92) and Western Australia (1892-95).

One of his main roles was to report on the increasingly difficult economic and environmental situation facing the pearling industry, introducing systems for licensing fishers, regulations for protecting the smaller sizes of the catch and creating protected government reserves for the longer-term sustainability of this natural resource.

Saville-Kent was also a practical naturalist and was the first to recognise the difference between the silver and gold-lipped Pinctada maxima South Sea pearl oyster and the black-lipped Pinctada margaritifera cumingii Tahitian pearl oyster.

Beginning his experiments in 1889 at Thursday Island in the Torres Strait, the centre of the Queensland pearling industry, Saville-Kent would have been very aware of the impact that his work could have on the industry that he was so fascinated with. In this extract above from his 1893 book The Great Barrier Reef, he describes a single perfect spherical pearl (number 3) with a market value then of £400, worth approximately £40,000 adjusted for inflation today.

By 1891, Saville-Kent had successfully produced a number of cultured blister pearls and exhibited these in London. This was two years before Mikimoto had cultured five semi-spherical pearls in Japan.

Returning from London in 1905, with a syndicate called 'The Natural Pearl Shell Cultivation Company of London', a commercial cultured pearl farm was established near Torres Straits. Saville-Kent and his financial backers were convinced that they had the secret of how to produce a spherical cultured pearl.

There were by now others, however, with the same objective and this unique commercial and scientific race had begun...

Modernism characterised the style of 1920s jewellery, inspiring design even today with its bold, geometric lines and forms.

Following the end of World War I, this decade saw increasingly prosperous times and technological advances. Most of the creative arts sought a break from the past and looked for new directions.

In fashion, it was the decade of the Roaring Twenties with working women wearing more comfortable and practical clothes with slim, streamlined designs. Jewellery was also no exception with a number of important changes and developments.

BAUHAUS AND ART DECO

In the 1920s jewellery broke away from the romantic and elaborate, natural forms and arabesque designs of the Art Nouveau movement of 1890-1910 (during the "Belle Epoque").

In this new decade, jewellery was stripped back bare to its geometric shapes.

Aesthetic clean lines were inspired by designs found in industrial machines. A key influence of this modernism was the influential Bauhaus movement, with its philosophy of form following function.

Contrasting textures and colour were also in fashion. Examples of changing tastes in design were the use of diamonds being set against onyx or translucid citrines and amethysts juxtaposed against opaque coral and jade.

COSTUME JEWELLERY

Fashion designer Coco Chanel broke away from real gemstones with cheaper glass products. The Maison Gripoix, which still exists today, was an early partner for Coco Chanel in creating a range of glass jewellery. The iconic long pearl rope necklace was a signature piece of faux jewellery created at the time.

Josephine Baker, pictured below at the Folies Bergères in Paris, was an icon for the new Art Deco movement, with her fearless style, slicked down hair and bold earrings, oversized rings and ropes of pearls.

Glass jewellery was still expensive and only became affordable in the 1930s with injection-plastic moulding techniques. But Coco Chanel, by stepping into the world of faux jewellery, in effect launched a future industry of costume jewellery.

MACHINE-CUT GEMSTONES

Until the 1920s, gemstones were hand-cut and hand-polished. With the latest developments in machinery, it also became possible to machine-cut and polish gemstones, generating sharp lines and edges, sparkling facets and complicated new gemstone cuts.

The rectangular baguette-cut became hugely popular around this time, as it complemented the geometric designs of the day.

Jewellery of the 1920s then was an innovative period that would become notable for its stunning, daring design.

At Winterson our Luna Rose Tahitian Pearl Ring evokes the 1920s jewellery style of this creative period. The gold shank of the ring has a geometric, solid shape and an angular, baguette cut pink sapphire.

The unusual aubergine colour of its Tahitian pearl, however, would have been unknown in the 1920s and is perhaps entirely modern too.