Lithos Jewelry

FOR THE PEARL

by Rose Mueller G.G., CGA

Across a continent into another hemisphere to find the source of the black pearl. It is a long journey to French Polynesia, the place of the black-lipped oyster, the pinctada margaritifera.

French Polynesia has five archipelagos of one hundred and thirty islands. We arrived in Papeete, Tahiti in the Society Islands. It has all of the amenities of home. It is an enchantingly beautiful island. Cyril Rosenthal met us at the airport with perfumed leis and the warmest welcome to his home. His grandfather, Leonard Rosenthal is known as The Pearl King in France and authored the book, In the Pearl Kingdom. His sons began the first black pearl farm, The Societe Perliere de Manihi, in French Polynesia in 1966. Along with the assistance of Professor Wada, the culturing process began.

By the late 1950's there were few black pearl producing oysters remaining. The beds were decimated by over-collection. Japan was culturing the white pearls at the turn of the century under the guidance of Mikimoto. Bringing Professor Wada from Japan to French Polynesia and establishing the farm was the only way to keep the oyster from extinction. Thus the first pearl farm was born. It is currently owned by Cyril Rosenthal and is the largest black pearl producing farm in Manihi.

We left our bungalow over the water and flew two hours northeast to the Tuamotu archipelago and the island of Manihi. The island is an atoll surrounding a lagoon with few currents, nutrient rich water and many shark. There are only 1,000 people, one hotel and restaurant. There is no TV, air conditioning, E-Mail. Transportation is by boat. It is remote.

The farm sets in the lagoon. The buildings include the laboratory for nucleation, offices for sorting, storage facilities and the cleaning stations. Surrounding the farm structures are the precious mollusks. The hang from steel cables supported by air filled drums anchored to the bottom. They hang suspended on ropes, ten to a rope. They are caged in chicken wire to protect them from being eaten by spotted rays and the baliste fish. They feed and grow 25 to 40 feet below the surface.

The oysters began as babies, spats, or as the Polynesians call them, pipis. Eggs collect on sea weed covered ropes and begin to grow. The spats, when 1.5" in diameter are cut from the ropes. When they are 3" in diameter their shell is pierced for hanging. When they are two years old or 4 to 5" in diameter they are nucleated. A round bead made from the pigtoe clam from the Mississippi River is inserted into the gonad along with a piece of mantle tissue. It grows for 18-24 months to form a pearl with thick nacre. The shells are pressure washed every three months to remove the algae. They are hand scraped with knives to remove shells. The sick are discarded. Farmers worry about typhoons, disease, a change in the water temperature and theft.

At harvest, twice a year, there is hope for the perfectly round pearl, highly lustrous with no blemishes. One in five mollusks produce a pearl. Of these, few are gems. Most natural color, cultured black South Sea pearls are 8.0-11.0 mm in diameter. Few are as large as 13.0 mm.

Fine strands of black pearls can command prices from $100,000.00 to $500,000.00. We see such strands on Elizabeth Taylor and Ivana Trump.

Throughout history the pearl has been loved and cherished, from Cleopatra to Henry the VIII to the Dowager Empress of China, Ci Xi. The rarest is the black pearl. It is sensuous in form and brilliant in light. It is our gift from the sea.

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