What are Cultured and Baroque Pearls?
Chances are, all of the pearls you’ve seen or touched to date have been cultured. Why is that? The process of culturing whole pearls was invented in 1908. Their popularity grew considerably, and they were considered a mainstay by the Art Deco period (1919-1939).
Not dissimilar to today’s somewhat controversial laboratory-grown diamonds, the reason why those in the pearl trade starting experimenting with culturing these beautiful organic gems in the first place is because they were one of the most expensive and sought-after jewels at the time. And, just like natural diamonds, natural pearls could be extremely harrowing to source from their underwater homes of mussels and oysters. The original pearl sources were very different than what they are now, and included the lakes and rivers of China and Europe, including Britain, as well as the Persian Gulf, and waters of Sri Lanka.
A number of factors, including the great difficulty of sourcing jewel-worthy natural pearls, contributed to the fact that by the late 1890s, several groups in the pearl regions of Japan and Australia started experimenting with pearl “farming.” This essentially involved trying to recreate the naturally spectacular process of a mussel (in freshwater) or oyster (in saltwater) creating a beautiful pearl. Without human intervention, mollusks create a pearl as a natural form of defence. When any form of foreign matter, whether it be another organism, a piece of sand etc., enters the soft lining of the shell while underwater, the irritated mollusk attempts to kill it by coating in repeated layers of nacré, or “mother of pearl,” the same substance that lines its lovely shell.
If you were to examine the nacré of a gem-quality pearl under magnification, it would look like a perfect stack of layered bricks, including symmetrical layers of aragonite crystals held together by their natural mortar of conchiolin. The more even and symmetrical the layers are, the smoother the nacré will be, and the more shine and reflection, and ultimately the more value the pearl will have.
“Today, the pearl market consists of four major types of cultured pearls: Freshwater, Akoya, South Sea, and Tahitian.”
Of course, one of the most famous pearl entrepreneurs was Japan’s Kokichi Mikimoto. Mikimoto opened his first blister pearl shop in Tokyo in 1899, and was able to culture whole pearls by 1908. By the twenties, the peak of the Art Deco period, when interest in exotic travel and culture was the height of fashion, Mikimoto was marketing his pearls around the world with supreme success. South Sea and Tahitian cultured pearls followed, entering the market in the 50s and 60s, while Chinese freshwater pearls appeared in the 70s.
Today, the pearl market consists of four major types of cultured pearls: Freshwater, Akoya, South Sea, and Tahitian. During the freshwater culturing process, multiple small pieces of donor tissue are implanted into the mussel’s inner tissue. The mussel naturally coats them in nacré and up to thirty-two pearls can be harvested in six to twelve months. These freshwater pearls are naturally smaller and since they can be created faster and with multiple pearls to a shell, are the most common and cost efficient. Up until the 2000s, they were often somewhat irregular and rice-shaped, however the latest developments in China, which produces more than ten times the amount of pearls than all other markets combined, have led to impeccable quality gems of significant size, and even comparable to highly sought-after South Sea pearls. The latter more sizeable gems are often formed using the CBSB (Coin Bead/Spherical Bead) method, which is similar to the saltwater culturing process. It uses more mature mussels, typically three to four years old, and requires a coin-shaped bead to be inserted along with the donor tissue for up to a year. After the coin pearls are harvested, a second round of culturing can occur with a larger spherical bead around nine to twelve millimetres in diameter and left for another one to two years.
During the saltwater culturing process, a small piece of donor tissue along with a tiny bead are inserted into the oyster’s lining. Only one pearl can be cultured per oyster and, just like their natural saltwater predecessors, they are much larger, more difficult to create, and go through much more stringent quality control. Each oyster can take up to two to three years to produce their first pearl which also makes them significantly more expensive (sometimes exponentially so) especially in their naturally fancy colours, including golden South Sea pearls and the multiple varieties of black Tahitians. Japanese Akoya pearls are an exception, and can be considered an excellent entry point to the saltwater pearl market. They can be cultured up to five pearls to a shell, and while smaller than South Sea and Tahitian pearls, are known for their beautiful mirror-like shine and high lustre.
Of course, natural pearls still exist, but because of the mass-culturing of pearls and difficulty of harvesting them in their natural habitat, there is little financial incentive to do so. Pearl divers can search hundreds or even thousands of mollusks until they find a pearl, and even then, it likely wouldn’t have gem-quality characteristics: a beautiful, symmetrical shape, blemish-free nacré, and an even body-colour with shimmering lustre. It gives you an idea of how and why natural Pearls, especially strings of perfectly matched necklaces and bracelets became so incredibly valuable throughout history. Now, one of the only ways to treasure their rarity is as seed pearls (tiny natural pearls usually one to two millimetres in diameter) and in antique pieces.
What are Baroque Pearls?
Perhaps the biggest development in the pearl trade since the creation of cultured pearls (and the resulting democratization of pearl jewellery during the Retro or mid-century period) has been the massively popular trend towards baroque pearls in recent years. While one might not be able to point directly to a traditional marketing push for this economically pleasing turn of events, this trend can certainly be credited to modern trend cycles, including the mass reach of social media.
So, what are baroque pearls, exactly? As mentioned, in the past, pearl farmers have worked tirelessly to create the most saleable pearls, which until now were highly limited to perfectly symmetrical round shapes, followed by less desirable flat, coin shapes, ovals and occasional teardrop-like shapes. However, as one can imagine, even with expert intervention mussels and oysters are still living things with somewhat unpredictable behaviour. In the pearl world, the latter includes a large percentage of cultured pearls having highly irregular shapes, imperfections, uneven nacré and more. Before now, those pearls were somewhat worthless. Now? Their value has skyrocketed thanks to their newfound popularity in designer jewellery collections, including Celine and Sophie Bille Brahe, and influencer wardrobes (like that of Jenny Walton) and the resulting demand.
Many baroque pearls are specifically created during the second phase of the CBSB culturing method mentioned above including a large, spherical bead. Most of these second generation pearls are baroque in nature with a tail-like structure, sometimes refereed to in the trade as fireballs. These larger pearls can be created with different varieties of mussels which can also lead to various, natural and saturated colours (the more saturated their natural hues, the longer the harvest period likely is, with some being as old as eight years!)
Soufflé pearls are also sometimes labelled as baroque pearls, but are more often available in multiple colours. They are created with a ball of dry mud-like material in place of a spherical bead, leading to large, lightweight baroque pearls with a high lustre.
What are Keshi Pearls?
Some in the Chinese freshwater pearl market refer to keshi pearls as small, irregular pearls not unlike baroque pearls, but generally much smaller in size. They are actually pearl like pieces which are created by a mussel which has already gone through the culturing process and is returned to the water “farm.” At this stage, the mussel will often secrete more nacré in the original incisions where the donor tissue was inserted, resulting in these small, pearl like pieces. However, in the trade, true keshi pearls are considered those which are more often brightly coloured and can be baroque or near-round in shape with a variety of small to large sizes. They can be created during both the freshwater and saltwater processes by nacré-producing cells which either reject the implanted bead and create a pearl using only the implanted donor tissue, or break-free from implanted donor tissue alone and form their own pearl sac.
So what?
After decades of treasuring the perfection of a high quality, round and lustrous pearls, are the trends for these irregular and once worthless gems all a ruse?
One might say to say so is to ignore the jewellery and gem trade as a part of a larger fashion and trend cycle. Just like certain wardrobe items you may have treasured thirty years ago eventually dropped out of fashion like a stone, some of them are likely to eventually make their return and with a higher price point to boot. Gemstones ride the same waves. The good news? Unlike your nylon Prada bag from the 90s, a gem’s inherent beauty never fades and its sustainable nature means its rarity and investment potentially is only likely to increase.
While it’s true that the prices of baroque style pearl jewellery is likely to be at all-time high for now, the classic and flattering nature of pearls still make these a worthy purchase (perhaps just avoid the designer price tags), and their modern styling will likely ensure their long-term appeal in your wardrobe.