OVERVIEW
ABOUT PEARL
Perhaps the best-loved gems of all time, pearls—natural and cultured—occur in a wide variety of colors. The most familiar are white and cream, but the palette of colors extends to every hue. Natural pearls form around a microscopic irritant in the bodies of certain mollusks. Cultured pearls are the result of the deliberate insertion of a bead or piece of tissue that the mollusk coats with nacre.
2206 BC
A Chinese historian writes about pearls for the first time.
653 Fifth Avenue
In 1917, Pierre Cartier traded a double strand of natural pearls for a mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
1893
Kokichi Mikimoto successfully cultures a pearl in Japan.
Facts
Mineral: Calcium Carbonate
Chemistry: CaCO3
Color: White, black, gray, yellow, orange, pink, lavender, green, blue
Refractive Index: 1.52-1.69
Specific Gravity: 2.60-2.85
Mohs Hardness: 2.5-3.0
TREATMENTS
There are a number of processes used to alter the color, apparent clarity, or improve the durability of gems.
SYNTHETICS
stones have synthetic counterparts that have essentially the same chemical, physical, and optical properties, but are grown by man in a laboratory.
IMITATIONS
Any gem can be imitated—sometimes by manmade materials or by natural materials chosen by man to impersonate a particular gem.