Pearls have been known by, and used by Mankind in jewellery for hundreds of years. The romans were amongst the first to make wide use of pearls in jewellery, and archeological finds show them in wide use from the first to the third century. Most commonly cream or white pearls were used, often in conjunction with gemstones rubies or sapphires, to show off the pearl's creamy lustre. Obviously at this time, due to their rarity, the wearing of pearls was limited to those with high social status, and Julius ceaser past a law forbidding women below a certain rank to wear them, thus further elevating their status, and making them an immediate indicator of wealth.
After the Roman empire ended, Christianity and Byzantium too made good use of pearls in jewellery. However, only river pearls and freshwater pearls were available making their usage restricted. This changed in the late 1300s when marine pearls were discovered in India and the Persian Gulf, and this new source provided a surge of new pearl material for the jewellers of late medieval courts. By the mid fifteenth century the renasissance was spreading to Northern Europe, and in this age of splendour, the pearl provided an ideal gem for jewellery, symbolic of wealth status and taste. Queen Elizabeth I set an excellent example to her court, regarding the wearing of pearls. She had a prolific collection of pearl jewellery which she took every opportunity to show off, and always enjoyed receiving new gifts of pearl gems from her courtiers. One of her largest acquisitions was the Trois Freres, or Three Brothers jewel, which boasted four huge pearls - it can be seen, amongst other jewels in Hilliard's “Ermine Portrait” .
Pearl jewellery continued to grow in popularity throughout the next three centuries, increasing in leaps and bounds. Whilst taking a small dip in popularity during the 19th Century, pearls enjoyed some favour with Queen Victoria in the form of seed pearl jewellery, but ultimately the Victorians favoured mourning jewellery. By the 1920s pearls had become immensely popular again, made so in no small part by couturier Coco Chanel. Now, with the advent of cultured pearls, all women could enjoy them, wealth no longer a barrier to owning even the longest pearl necklace.
These days we enjoy all the varieties of pearl that the sea has to offer. Whilst cultured pearls still enjoy a great vogue, radical new technologies in pearl farming and pearl culturing mean that huge choices are available to suit every purse. Pearls are available in a veritable rainbow of colours, both natural and dyed and shapes can range from the perfectly round to gorgeously baroque. If your budget is small you can choose correspondingly reasonable pearls. If you have a larger budget, then literally, as the saying goes, the world is your oyster. At the top end of the scale, there are a wide variety of south sea and Tahitian pearls whose size, colour and lustre is stunning.
Article by Vanessa Frisbee
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