The Difference Between Natural and Cultured Pearls
Natural pearls are created by nature with no help from man. They happen by chance and in fact, most mollusks go through their life span never producing a pearl. Natural pearls are "all pearl". They have no implanted nuclei and the nacre depth also produces a full-bodied lustre and beauty unequalled by a thin nacre coating. Before the beginning of culturing pearls in the early 1900’s, all pearls that were treasured by people for the past thousand years had been natural saltwater and freshwater pearls. A lifetime of searching won’t necessarily find enough natural pearls to make a matching pearl strand. Only an x-ray image can positively identify whether or not a pearl is natural or cultivated.
Cultured pearls are created by nature with a little help from man.
THE “NATURAL” PEARL MARKET IS DEAD - WHY?
The world’s finest natural pearls were produced in the Persian Gulf. Unfortunately, man is responsible for killing off the pearl mollusks. The discovery and exploration of oil and the industrialization of the gulf brought devastating pollution to the mollusk beds. War activities also damaged the mollusk beds in the Persian Gulf and Indian ocean. Furthermore, fatal to natural pearling was the gravitation of the pearl work force to better paying jobs relating to war, oil, and industrialization. Furthermore, over-fishing also contributed to destroying the natural pearl market and in an environment-conscious world, no government is likely to allow the devastation associated with oyster collection on a scale needed to produce natural pearl necklaces. Lake Biwa, Japan was also a place plentiful with pearl mollusks but due to pollution they have been destroyed.
THE “CULTURED” PEARL IS THE PEARL MARKET TODAY
Natural pearls are comparatively rare and expensive, and so a means was invented whereby mollusks could be induced to mass-produce them. Demand for natural pearls ended with the popularity of cultured pearls. Postwar baby boomers accepted cultured products and have become desired by fashionable women everywhere, so much so, that the term “pearl” normally refers to a cultured pearl. Natural pearls now are sought only by collectors, members of religious sects, a few Europeans any many Arabs. Cultured pearls are now the market.
