Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2008 | Page 30

life

FEATURE

Operas have been written round them and
wars have been fought over them. Now we
cultivate them. The desirability of pearls
endures because we are almost in control
– but not quite

The History of Pearls
Isle of Wight Pearl Centre
By Roz Whistance
To find one perfect pearl,
10,000 wild oysters need to be
opened: men died in diving
for them, and it is the implicit
danger of the getting of pearls
that has made them a gift to be
cherished.
They are bitter-sweet. How
can something so perfect
emerge from a shell so rough,
and from a creature so
unprepossessing? Indeed, how
can the sophisticated industry
we know today arise from
the hessian sacks of the pearl
markets of rural China?
What makes the song of the
Pearl Fishers by Bizet loved
by so many is the haunting

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sorrow underlying the lilting
beauty of the melody. In John
Steinbeck’s novel, The Pearl,
the son of a fisherman finds
the jewel that can light the way
to a more just world – but with
the potential to corrupt. In the
Bible, Jesus tells his disciples
of a merchant who sells all his
goods for one pearl of great
price . . .
That was then, you might say.
Today we don’t wait for the
hit-and-miss lottery that used
to constitute pearl fishing.
Today’s pearl industry has
taken out the uncertainty of it
all. Well, up to a point. While
pearls are now available and

affordable, it is a fact that
man is almost in control – but
not quite. So their mystery,
and therefore their romance,
remains.
These days they are valued
not just for their perfection,
but for their unique
imperfections. For today’s
chokers, dangly earrings and
pendants the jewels need to be
as irregular and as erratic as
hemlines. Black pearls – which
actually have a bluey hue with
almost purply highlights – are
full of sultry sophistication
at night, but during the day,
different temperatures mean
the sky blues emerge, making

them a gorgeous complement
to denim. The colour of black
pearls is mostly natural, but
even pearls which have been
dyed in exotic colours, the
latest of which is a warm
chocolate, they still have the
iridescence of the natural
product.
Yet the classic round or oval
pearl in white or cream will
never date. A necklace of
pearls gives a woman the sort
of subtle illumination which
photographers try to achieve
with their lighting. What is
pleasing is that their lustre
improves with wear: not for
these jewels a life in storage,

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