The South Sea Pearl Blog

  • November 04, 2021

    MOTHER OF PEARL OYSTER (THE PINCTADA MAXIMA)

    MOTHER OF PEARL OYSTER (THE PINCTADA MAXIMA) | The South Sea Pearl

    Mother-of-pearl has been used in decoration since pre-history as consequence of the capture of molluscs for food. In the modern ages, it became artistically used in marquetry, gaming chips, devotional artefacts, as a bead for the cultured pearl industry but also in the button industry. As buttons, it was rather popular before plastics came into action. Mother-of-pearl is the smooth nacreous iridescent coating on the interior of some molluscs and Pinctada maxima, the Australian South Sea pearl oyster (also known as pearl button oyster and mother-of-pearl oyster) has been a rather important source not only for the quality of the nacre but also because the wild shells have notorious sizes averaging between 20 and 30 cm up to 40 cm in exceptional cases. Although local shells in the north have been collected since pre-history, the pearling industry only started in Australia in 1868, especially in Queensland.
    In the photos, a pearl shell sorter in Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia. Photo Frank Hurley © National Library of Australia ; and a series of Pinctada maxima shells being manufactured as buttons, from the ‪Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences‬ collection (B&W picture from 1933 at the The Pearlbutton Manufacturing Co. Ltd in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia).

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  • September 15, 2021

    A diamond and pearl bracelet once owned by the Queen's sister Princess Margaret has sold at auction for almost £400,000.

    The art deco piece was famously worn by Margaret for her 19th birthday photograph taken by celebrated photographer Cecil Beaton in 1949.

    It was bought by an undisclosed private bidder for £396,800, including buyer's premium, during the sale at auction firm Dix Noonan Webb's Mayfair saleroom in central London. 

    Frances Noble, the company's associate director and head of the jewellery department, said of the sale price: 'It not only reflects the strength of the current auction market but also the overriding importance of provenance.

    'Princess Margaret was photographed wearing this bracelet on numerous occasions which certainly added to the appeal of the piece, attracting international interest and extremely competitive bidding - an exceptional result for the vendor.'

     

    A diamond and pearl bracelet once owned by the Queen's sister Princess Margaret has sold at auction for almost £400,000 (pictured)

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  • July 30, 2021

    What causes Color in South Sea Cultured Pearls?

    What causes Color in South Sea Cultured Pearls? | The South Sea Pearl
    Colour in cultured pearls has many causes, namely organic pigments and the chemistry related to the water reservoir where the pearl shell is grown (sea water and freshwater have different manganese (Mn) concentrations with impact on nacre's colours). The pearl mollusc species is, of course, one of the most important factors in this process, specially the donor specimen that provides the mantle tissue that is inserted in the gonads or mantle (depending on the culturing method) of a productive pearl mollusc for the formation of the cultured pearl sac. Understanding colour mechanisms is critical in the laboratory to determine if the colour of a pearl is natural or a resulto or a treatment (e.g. dyeing, heat, bleaching). 
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  • June 20, 2021

    THE SOUTH SEA PEARL

    THE SOUTH SEA PEARL | The South Sea Pearl
    South Sea” is an informal term for the geographic area where the white, silver and gold-lipped pearl oyster, known as Pinctada maxima in the scientific community, lives in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, between Myanmar and northern Australia, including Indonesia and the Philippines.
    Most references to “South Sea pearls” should read, in fact, “South Sea cultured pearls” because most of those that corculate in the market as, in fact, cultured. However, both historically and in modern days, there are rare natural South Sea pearls with sizes verying from seed size under 2-3 mm (often encountered in multiple quantities in the abductor muscle) to larger sizes, up to 16 mm or even more. Sizeable pearls in historical artefacts have a good chance of having come from the Pinctada maxima, a mollusc that has also been a major source of mother-of-pearl especially after the 1800s. Identification of a natural pearl is often complex require real-time X-ray microradiography (RTX), X-ray computerised tomography (µ-CT) and DNA fingerprinting.
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