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Lot Essay
Serious experimentation in pearl culturing began in the 18th Century with the Swedish naturalist, Carolus Linnaeus. By drilling a hole in a freshwater mollusc, he succeeded in inserting a silver wire with a piece of coarse limestone at its tip. The results were by no means similar to those eventually achieved by the Japanese in the early 1900s. The initially individual, and ultimately combined, efforts of Kokichi Mikimoto, Tatsuhei Mise and Tokichi Nishikawa lead to the production of perfectly round cultured pearls circa 1905. A complicated patent process and the need to find cost effective ways of producing them in large quantities prevented their entry on the market until 1921. Incipiently, two methods were employed. The Mikimoto technique entails the wrapping of a bead nucleus in the mantle of an oyster with fine silk thread before placing it in the host oyster. That of Mise/Nishikawa necessitates a tissue graft in the Japanese pearl oyster (Pinctada martensi) around a small lead bead nucleus. The latter is the procedure preferred today due to the labour intensive nature of the former.
The Japanese eventually brought their techniques and knowledge to the South Seas. The main difference between these waters and those of Nippon was the capacity of their mollusks to engender cultured pearls measuring in excess of 10 mm.. This particular strand was produced over a long period by Pinctada Maxima oysters of the Indian Ocean in the area between the western coast of Australia and Malaysia. The host oysters chosen were those with the bluest shell and mantle in order to impart the wonderful, ever so slightly bluish tint to the cultured pearls. It is believed that there is a certain chemical secreted by their mantle that results in this hue. Each of the oysters used to bear this strand were seven years old at implantation. The nuclei were left in the mantle for three years. Quite extraordinary is the fact that each cultured pearl in the necklace contains a nucleus of only 8 mm., hence they have nacres ranging from 7 to an impressive 10 mm..
Cultured pearls of this genre are coveted individually by connoisseurs, let alone in a flawless, well-graduated, perfectly-matched strand of twenty-five measuring from nearly 15.00 to 17.63 mm.
The Japanese eventually brought their techniques and knowledge to the South Seas. The main difference between these waters and those of Nippon was the capacity of their mollusks to engender cultured pearls measuring in excess of 10 mm.. This particular strand was produced over a long period by Pinctada Maxima oysters of the Indian Ocean in the area between the western coast of Australia and Malaysia. The host oysters chosen were those with the bluest shell and mantle in order to impart the wonderful, ever so slightly bluish tint to the cultured pearls. It is believed that there is a certain chemical secreted by their mantle that results in this hue. Each of the oysters used to bear this strand were seven years old at implantation. The nuclei were left in the mantle for three years. Quite extraordinary is the fact that each cultured pearl in the necklace contains a nucleus of only 8 mm., hence they have nacres ranging from 7 to an impressive 10 mm..
Cultured pearls of this genre are coveted individually by connoisseurs, let alone in a flawless, well-graduated, perfectly-matched strand of twenty-five measuring from nearly 15.00 to 17.63 mm.