The Israeli Diamond Industry portal at www.israelidiamond.co.il offers a brief overview of facts about pearls accumulated during their long history of being one of the major gem competitors of diamonds.
1. Venetian Sumptuary laws in 1599 outlined a plan to outlaw the wearing of pearls by any woman married less than 15 years.
2. Pearls have been used medicinally for over two thousand years. In pulverized form they are used in cosmetics and they were commonly taken by pregnant women in China in crushed form to speed up bone development in the fetus. The Japanese mixture of Akoya pearls, “Long-zhu Ye” has been shown to reduce cholesterol levels in laboratory rats.
3. In accordance with Imperial Chinese custom, a pearl was placed in the mouth of the deceased to protect the body from decomposing.
4. From age 20, Kokichi Mikimoto, the founder of the modern cultured pearl industry, swallowed two pearls for breakfast every day until he died in 1954 at the age of ninety-six. He believed pearl increased longevity.
5. Until the early twentieth century the pearl was the ultimate gem for an engagement ring.
6. Princess Grace of Monaco loved pearls so much that she even wore them on the beach in her bikini.
7. The cultured pearl is the national gem of the Philippines.
8. Cultured pearls were so popular in the US after WWII, that even high school students wore them.
9. English pirates John Hawkins and Francis Drake were secretly encouraged by Queen Elizabeth I, and routinely seized pearls from Spanish vessels whenever they could.
10. The human version of a “pearl” is a kidney stone. Pearls are “calcerous concretions” that develop in the soft tissue of a living animal. Calcerous concretions are produced by a variety of animal types, gastropods, squid, octopi, snails, worms, anthropods – even humans!
11. Testing roundness in pearls – Pearls are rolled on a slanted surface. Perfectly round (spherical) pearls roll in a straight line, also called “Six or Eight way roller.” Pearls that veer off course are “off round” or “semi round.”
12. The Roman Emperor Caligula wore shoes decorated in pearls and adorned his favorite horse with a pearl necklace. His wife Lollia Paulina dressed in layers of emeralds and pearls in her hair, ears, neck, fingers, and arms.
13. The concept of inserting items into an oyster started as early as the 5th century CE in China. The Chinese would insert ivory, ceramic or shell in the shape of small Buddhas and return them to the ocean. They would retrieve them a year or more later to see their item covered in mother of pearl.
14. Queen Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen” wore creamy white strands but was also fond of mixing white and rare black pearls. She had 3000 pearl adorned gowns which she used to orchestrate her daunting public persona.
15. Having both male and female sex organs, the Pinctada Margaritifera oyster is a hermaphrodite. Depending on its age and surrounding water conditions, the oyster's sex may change.
