В Майсвилле обсудили историю жемчуга и рекордные цены на аукционах

Renée Newman, an internationally recognized gemologist and author, recently visited downtown Maysville to discuss the stories behind pearls. EAT Gallery, a jewelry store and art gallery in downtown Maysville, welcomed Newman to the Cox Building on Thursday, Aug. 13, as part of its 20th anniversary lecture series. During her talk, Newman provided several facts about pearls, beginning with Mexican spiny oyster pearls. Mexico is noted for its variety of natural pearls, especially the rainbow oyster, which comes in a wide variety of colors. She further noted that it took one person 15 years to collect over 30,000 natural pearls in the Concho River, expressing that many people are unaware they can still find natural pearls in the United States. For background, Newman explained that the United States Pearl Rush began on the East Coast in 1857. A pearl was sold to Tiffany’s for $1,500, who then sold it for 12,500 francs, which led people to hear about it and want to seek out pearls themselves. Eventually, the Pearl Rush spread west and into Ohio, which was making quite a bit of money off of natural pearls. Newman noted that pearls found in rivers and streams are from mussels, pearls from the Mississippi River have irregular shapes and East Coast pearls are also found in clams. She added that the West Coast has been noted for its natural abalone pearls, expressing that the red abalone has been found in both California and Mexico. “People from Chile, they came up and got some of the red abalone from California and Mexico and they started and found a way to culture it. So, there are now cultured red abalonian pearls,” Newman explained. According to Newman, the oldest known pearls are from Mexico, dating back at least 8,500 years. In 2017, the Abu Dhabi pearl was discovered off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and was found to be approximately 7,800 years old. She added that Bahrain, the smallest Persian Gulf country, is important for natural pearls, having played a major role in the natural pearl industry by being an ideal location with large, dense pearls. Its economy was founded on natural pearls in the 1800s. In fact, Newman stated, in the 1500s, pearls and gold were equally valuable to the Europeans; pearls even more so in Mexico for a while. Newman expressed that most famous pearl from the New World, La Peregrina, was “probably” from the Gulf of Panama and gifted to Philip II of Spain. The most expensive pearl ever sold at auction was from Marie Antoinette, selling to Swiss Francs in 2018 for $36,427,000, about $36 million at the time. Today, it would be worth $46 million. According to Newman, the highest price for a freshwater pearl — which can be extremely valuable — was $8.7 million in the form of a ceremonial necklace for a Chinese emperor. The record price for a single freshwater pearl was $123,000. Additionally, China was the first to culture freshwater pearl blisters in 100 B.C.E. during the Han Dynasty, while Carl Linnaeus was the first person on record to culture round freshwater blisters and William Saville-Kent was the first to produce cultured saltwater shell blisters and loose pearls. Newman noted that Kokichi Mikimoto was the second person on record to do so. In 1925, the first cultured freshwater whole pearls were bead nucleated and produced in Lake Biwa, Japan. Newman then explained that natural whole pearls form as a result of injuries to the mantle tissue of a mollusk caused by a marine invader. She further noted that south sea pearls can be distinguished from freshwater pearls by their color, adding that their first commercial production occurred in Indonesia in 1928. According to Newman, the largest and oldest pearling company in Australia is Paspaley, while the largest Filipino south sea pearls producer is Jewelmer, which created the first experimental laboratory in the Phillippines. She further explained that in pearl farming, mussels and oysters are grown for pearls and food. Baskets are set up and allow other marine life to settle and grow as oysters and mussels absorb carbon dioxide from their surroundings. Additionally, fish eat organisms on the shells of pearl oysters and can hide between them in the baskets to avoid predators. Lastly, Newman stated that pearl farming helps prevent the extinction of the mollusk species. “If you’d like to help protect the environment and the oceans, I suggest maybe to go buy some ocean pearls,” she recommended. EAT Gallery’s next speaker in its 20th anniversary series will be Gina Latendresse, speaking on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 6 p.m. in the Clooney Room at the Cox Building in downtown Maysville.