The pearl as a fashion symbol in jewelry has had a very long lasting impact. The oldest pearls were found with mummies. Nobility fought with the lower classes over who should were pearls. Famous paintings centre around pearl necklaces, earrings and the beauties that wore them.
A mummy dating back three thousand years was found by an eager archaeologist. Inside the bronze sarcophagus was found a pearl necklace with three strands. The necklace held two hundred and sixteen perfectly preserved pearls and is now on display in Europe in a famous museum.
From generation to generation, pearl necklaces, like all heirlooms, leave their mark on history and touch so many lives. The La Peregrina, a pearl set in a necklace and the biggest of its kind found in the 1500s, became a part of the Spanish crown jewels before being gifted to Mary Tudor of England. At her death it went back to Spain, only to eventually make its way to America, and then go back over the pond.
The La Peregrina was given as a gift to a famous diva of the sixties and seventies by another movie star, her husband. It was arranged in a better setting, one resplendent with diamonds and rubies. It had to be drilled earlier in its life, in order to be fixed permanently into a setting. After all, ‘la peregrina’ stands for ‘the pilgrim’ or ‘the wanderer’. Among other pearl necklaces, La Peregrina had a habit of falling free of settings earlier in its life and barely missing being lost forever. It found its forever home in a starlet’s large collection of important jewels and is there to this day.
Pearl necklaces have long intrigued women who have worn them and of course, women have always intrigued men who paint. One famous painter was known for capturing almost average moments of his era, the 1600s, in his paintings. One painting shows a woman in a yellow mantle staring enthralled at a mirror, and holding up the necklace she wears as if to show herself how very beautiful it looks on her. An amazing painting and truly an inspired moment to capture.
A pearl necklace can contain both cultured and natural pearls. Cultured pearls have had some help from people in order to grow, while natural pearls are found naturally in pearl growing oysters. Pearls are either from saltwater or freshwater mollusks, either clams, oysters or even snails. Saltwater pearls are the type more likely to be cultivated by man and are known for being rounder and smoother than the often irregular shaped freshwater pearls.
The colour of pearls in a pearl necklace can vary. Though a necklace made of identical pearls is highly prized for its rarity, pearls come in many colours, sizes, shapes and luster. Some pearls are so small they are called seed pearls. Others are rice shaped or potato shaped. Akoya and Kasumi pearls are the most prized, products of careful cultivation and growing in Japan. Not all pearls are lustrous, as not all pearls are ‘nacreous’. Though non-nacreous pearls are still pearls, chemically, their chemical makeup is differently arranged enough to not reflect light the way nacreous pearls do.
Few women are aware of the history of pearl necklaces, of what makes up a good pearl necklace, nor do they care to know these things. When a woman puts on a strand of pearls, whether a single strand or a layering of fifteen or more, she feels like a queen, an ancient goddess, a representation of beauty and divinity. How can she not, wearing something so exquisite about her body? Pearls are truly elevate a woman’s sense of beauty.
Pearl necklaces have been used in fashion for at least three thousand years. A three strand pearl necklace was found in the bronze sarcophagus of a mummy, and contained two hundred and sixteen well kept pearls.
Tags: Clothing, fashion, Jewelry, necklaces, pearl necklaces, pearls