Long known as the "Queen of Gems," pearls possess a history beyond what today's casual wearer may recognize. Since ancient times, we have prized pearls as cherished gems. In paintings, mosaics and sculpture, pearls have been the universal symbol of beauty and wealth. Once only the jewelry of for Kings and Emperors, they were often used by the Romans in triumphal processions. One such event at the triumphal procession of Pompey in 61 B.C., it was recorded that there were 33 crowns of pearls and numerous pearl ornaments. Pearls remained the rarest and most expensive of gems.

The returning Crusaders in the Twelfth and Thirteenth century had much to do with spreading the use of pearls as personal decorations. The clothes of men and women were encrusted with pearls. The cutting and faceting of stones that we are familiar with today did not exist in this time so pearls were in great demand. In fact, unless you were of a certain social stature, you were not even allowed to wear or own them. Medieval Knights wore pearls to honor their ladies during jousting matches and many received them as symbols of good luck or as a reward for victorious battles. Perhaps the best known lover of pearls was Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603). She was said to always wear 7 ropes of pearls that reached to her knees and had over three thousand pearl-embroider dresses.

During the long history of pearls, the principal oyster beds lay in the Persian Gulf, along the coasts of India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and in the Red Sea. Chinese pearls came mainly from freshwater rivers and ponds, whereas Japanese pearls were found near the coast in salt water. Nearly all the pearls in commerce originated from those few sources until pearls were found in the new world.

Pearls in America were first found in the Pacific coast of Mexico and the coast of Lower California. These pearls ranged in color from black, white, brown, peacock green and were generally small and irregular formed. Companies were set up by various European countries to trade in the Mexican pearls. These pearls became so popular that after a certain amount of time the stocks were depleted.

The English colonizers along North America's Atlantic coast and French explorers to the north and west, all found native Americans wearing pearls, and they discovered freshwater pearls in the Ohio, Mississippi, and Tennessee River basins. So many gems were exported to Europe that the New World quickly gained the appellation "Land of Pearls."

While North America set a new standard for large freshwater pearls, white saltwater pearls from the coasts of Panama and Venezuela competed with pearls from Bahrain, and black saltwater pearls from the Bay of California (in what is now Mexico) provided an alternative to Tahitian blacks. More pearls arrived in Spain than the country's aristocratic market could absorb. As with the emeralds it was mining in Colombia, Spain found ready buyers for its new pearls across Europe and in India.

Those pearl supplies continued into the 1800s, until overfishing in Central American waters and in North American streams depleted the beds. Pollution also took its toll as the United States industrialized. Then, toward the end of the last century, the single event that forever reshaped the pearl trade slowly unfolded in the isolated island nation of Japan.

Son of a Japanese noodle maker, Kokichi Mikimoto single-handedly launched the cultured pearl industry

Kokichi Mikimoto, the son of a noodle maker, had a dream and a hard-working wife, Ume. Together they set about to do what no one else had done -- entice oysters to produce round pearls on demand. Mikimoto did not know that government biologist Tokichi Nishikawa and carpenter Tatsuhei Mise had each independently discovered the secret of pearl culturing -- inserting a piece of oyster epithelial membrane (the lip of mantle tissue) with a nucleus of shell or metal into an oyster's body or mantle causes the tissue to form a pearl sack. That sack then secretes nacre to coat the nucleus, thus creating a pearl.

Mise received a 1907 patent for his grafting needle. When Nishikawa applied for a patent for nucleating, he realized that he and Mise had discovered the same thing. In a compromise, the pair signed an agreement uniting their common discovery as the Mise-Nishikawa method, which remains the heart of pearl culturing. Mikimoto had received an 1896 patent for producing hemispherical pearls, or mabes, and a 1908 patent for culturing in mantle tissue. But he could not use the Mise-Nishikawa method without invalidating his own patents. So he altered the patent application to cover a technique to make round pearls in mantle tissue, which was granted in 1916. With this technicality, Mikimoto began an unprecedented expansion, buying rights to the Mise-Niskikawa method and eclipsing those originators of cultured pearls, leaving their names only for history books.

Largely by trail and error over a number of years, Mikimoto did contribute one crucial discovery. Whereas Nishikawa nucleated with silver and gold beads, Mikimoto experimented with everything from glass to lead to clay to wood. He found he had the highest success rates when he inserted round nuclei cut from U.S. mussel shells. Although some countries continue to test other nuclei, U.S. mussel shells have been the basis for virtually all cultured saltwater pearls for 90 years.

Even though third with his patents and his secrets, Mikimoto revolutionized pearling. Ever the flamboyant showman and promoter, he badgered jewelers and governments to accept his cultured products as pearls. His workers created massive pearl structures, which he displayed at every major international exposition. By mastering the techniques, Mikimoto, then hundreds of other Japanese firms, made pearls available to virtually everyone in the world.

Source: "Nova Online(The Peferct Pearl) The History of Pearls by Fred Ward"