Professional Documents
Culture Documents
In Focus Cultured Pearls
In Focus Cultured Pearls
In Focus Cultured Pearls
CONTENTS
In this issue:
Further topics:
• Spondylus pearls
MARGARITOLOGIA 1
THE PEARL NEWSLETTER BY ELISABETH STRACK
PEARL CULTURE IN
VIETNAM
I saw the irst Akoya cultured
pearls from Vietnam at the Las
Vegas show in 2007 where they
were ofered by the Estelle Com-
pany. The pearls, with a size of up
to 7mm, caught attention by their
creamish colour (suggesting imme-
diately that they had not been sub-
jected to bleaching) and by a cer-
tain look that indicated high nacre
thickness to the trained eye (Fig. 3).
A few months later, in October
2007, David Federman wrote in
Modern Jeweler that farmers in Viet-
nam ‘seem intent on growing pearls
that are throwbacks – in terms of
Fig. 3. Akoya cultured pearls from Vietnam, shown in Las Vegas in 2007 by the Estelle Company. nacre thickness – to those from the
last years of Japan’s golden age in
HISTORY AND PRESENT try was divided into a northern and the 1950s and 1960s’. Federman
SITUATION a southern zone. The dispatch of was right. While today nacre thick-
American military advisors to Sai- ness with Japanese Akoya cultured
The Socialistic Republic of Viet- gon in 1962 paved the way for the pearls rarely exceeds 0.5 mm, it
nam stretches over a total length second Indo-China war that was to may go up to 2 mm with Vietnam-
of 1600 kilometres along the east- enter history as the unfortunate ese pearls.
ern coast of what is geographically Vietnam War. General Giap was
named lower India, bordering on one of the masterminds behind The irst Vietnamese Akoya cul-
the South China Sea (Fig. 2). Having the Tet ofensive of 1967 that was tured pearls in sizes of 2-6 mm
been dominated by China since an- to herald the beginning of the end had already been presented at the
cient times, Vietnam gained an in- of the Vietnam war. Giap died on great trade fairs in 1999 but they
dependent status only around the October 4 in 2013 at the age of 98. had apparently not caught too
year 1000 with the Li dynasty, ever much attention. In the same year,
since accompanied by constant In this context I would like to a total of about 20 companies had
struggles for power. Under Napo- mention that the country oicially already set up pearl farms along
leon III, France established itself as mourned its legendary general and the Vietnamese coast, from near
a colonial power. national hero on Sunday, October the Chinese border to Phu Quoc
13, 2013. In the early morning of island in the south. Today, produc-
After World War II and the de- this particular Sunday, while we tion concentrates in three prov-
parture of the Japanese who had drove to the airport on the way to inces, Quang Ninh, Kien Giang and
occupied the French colonial ter- the pearl farm near Nha Thrang Khan Hoa. There seems to be not
ritory, the French were unable to (that is described in more detail more than a handful of companies
hold on to their position during the below), we could witness prepara- involved, but still several hundred
so-called First Indo-China war. It tions for this historical event in the local workers are employed. The
lasted from 1946 till 1954 and end- streets of Hanoi. irst attempts to produce cultured
ed with the victory of the Viet Minh pearls in Vietnam go back to the
under general Vo Nguyen Giap and South Vietnam capitulated when 1960s; they were stopped during
the disastrous defeat of the French troops from North Vietnam en- the Vietnam War.
during the battle of Dien Bien Phu tered in April 1975. The inal re-
in 1954. uniication took part in 1976 un-
Following the Indo-China confer- der communist leadership. In 1986
ence in Geneva in 1954, the coun- followed reforms that allowed for
2
No.1 / 2014
NORTHERN VIETNAM Gemmological Conference in Ha- (Fig. 5). The genus is abundant in
noi, I had the opportunity to visit East Asia, it occurs also in China
The second cycle of pearl farm- a pearl farm near Bo Ton Island where the shell is reportedly also
ing started in the northern Quang in Halong Bay. used for beads in freshwater cul-
Ninh province that borders on Chi- tured pearl production.
na and the Gulf of Tongking, the The farm belongs today to the
capital is Ha Long city. In 1991, Fu- Vietnamese Ha Long Pearl Joint A rather large shop on the pon-
jiani Iwaki of the Japanese Ogawa Stock Company who took it over in toon is selling cultured pearls of
company opened a pearl farm on 2005 when the Japanese partner, the farm’s own production under
Nhieu Tan island in Halong Bay, Taiheiyo Pearl Company, withdrew. the brand name Vinapearl, in ad-
east of Haiphong, the big northern There are two more pearl farms dition to Akoya cultured pearls
harbour town. The irst pearls were in Halong Bay, one is operated by that may not have been produced
harvested after only eight months. Spica Pearls and one by Pearls Vi- locally. The same is deinitely true
etnam Limited, who also owns the for those South Sea and Tahitian
Halong Bay, declared a Unesco farm near Nha Thrang that is de- cultured pearls that are ofered for
world heritage site in 1994, covers scribed in more detail below. The
an area of about 1.500 square kilo- visit was part of a pre-conference
metres, interspersed with nearly excursion that stood rather under
2000 limestone karsts and mon- touristic aspects. Visitors could
olithic islands that rise from the however get a good impression of
ocean and are covered with thick the principal steps of pearl produc-
tropical vegetation (Fig. 4). Most of tion. There were demonstrations
the few hundred people that make of grafting, harvesting and pro-
up the Bay’s population are isher- grammes for monitoring molluscs
men and their families who live in both before and after nucleus in- Fig. 5. Shell of a Vietnamese freshwater mussel of
house boat communities. There is sertion. The farm has a Vietnam- the Lamprotula genus, used for making beads on the Bo
a rich marine life with more than ese manager and employs several Hon pearl farm. Photograph: John Saul.
200 diferent ish species and grafters. Production concentrates
450 species of molluscs, includ- on Akoya cultured pearls of sev- sale on the farm, complemented
ing those of the pearl-producing eral size ranges, the largest size is by a great variety of Chinese fresh-
Pinctada family. 6-6.5 mm. Mother-of-pearl beads water cultured pearls. Some neck-
that are used as nuclei are made laces are wrongly labelled as Akoya
In October 2013, while I was from the shells of a local freshwa- pearls.The shop also ofered a va-
in Vietnam for the International ter mussel of the Lamprotula genus riety of small gift items made from
shell, including fancy cultured blis-
ter pearls that were still attached to
the shells of Pteria penguin (Fig.6).
CENTRAL VIETNAM
MARGARITOLOGIA 3
THE PEARL NEWSLETTER BY ELISABETH STRACK
Phong Bay. A second farm in the oped. For the irst month, they are the sea and is allowed to survive
bay belongs to the Saigon Pearl kept in basins with seawater. naturally.
Company that has its own shop in
Nha Thrang and uses the brand Random checking under a mi- After about one and a half to two
name Estelle for selling pearls from croscope with a magniication be- years, when they have attained a
Vietnam on the international mar- tween 40x to 180x helps to con- length of approximately 5 cm, the
ket (see Fig. 3). trol if the larvae feed and stay alive shells are ready for grafting. The
(Fig. 9). After three to four weeks, farm has its own grafting room
Pearls Vietnam Limited has they develop cilia (in which state
a close association, partly fami- they are called veliger larvae) and
ly-based, with Oriental Pearl (Bang- begin to swim and attach them-
kok) Ltd. and Baggins of Los An- selves to special nets with mesh
geles. The latter is now the main sizes of about 0.5 mm. About 500
American company that ofers to 1000 shells, after having at-
Akoya pearls from Vietnam. Anil tained a size of about 1cm, are
Maloo, Baggin’s president, worked kept in one net before they will be
himself for some years on the farm brought out to the sea, albeit to
in Van Phong Bay that operates protected places only. Fig. 6. A local Pteria penguin shell with a
under the supervision of his uncle fancy cultured blister pearl that grew around a snail.
Dev Chodhry, who is president of Nets are constantly getting Bo Hon pearl farm.
Oriental Pearl (Bangkok) Ltd. The changed, in order to adapt to the
farm is a strictly professional one, shells’ growing sizes, although with a long row of tables that pro-
eiciently organised, concentrating growth speed diminishes after vides room for grafters on either
on the production of high-quality the irst month and growth rates side. A total of about 350 to 400
Akoya cultured pearls for the world are irregular. Constant cleaning is molluscs can be operated on in
market (Fig. 7). necessary as the nets get quick- one day. The farm has about 20
ly covered with mud, seaweed or trained grafters (but only about 15
There is no shop and there are sponges. The cleaning procedure work regularly) who, having been
no tourists. The deputy general di- extends well over the whole period trained by the Japanese manag-
rector and the technical manager of pearl cultivation Only the best ers, are highly skillful. Nearly all
are from Japan (the irst one comes baby molluscs are selected every of them are young women, recruit-
directly from Ise peninsula in Mie two to three months for further ed from villages in the local area
prefecture where his parents had care, the rest is thrown back into (Fig. 11). The grafting procedure
owned a pearl farm) while the staf,
about 200 employees, are Viet-
namese. The farm uses only hatch-
ery-produced baby molluscs (as
most farms do since about 2001)
that come from specially selected
wild local parent stock of Pinctada
chemnitzii. The same species oc-
curs along the coast of southern
China, it is closely related to Pincta-
da martensii that is used for pearl
culture in Japan.
4
No.1 / 2014
follows the known basic principle. KESHI PEARLS AND SOUTH have withdrawn meanwhile. Pearls
In order to prevent the shells from SEA CULTURED PEARLS Vietnam Limited also used to have
closing again, a wooden wedge is a pearl farm on Phu Quoc island
inserted into those molluscs that Keshi pearls occur as a bye-prod- for Akoya cultured pearls. They
are chosen for grafting and that uct of the culturing process, the were similar to those shown in Fig.
have been anaesthetised. amount of pearls harvested is be- 17 and 18 that originate from the
tween 1-1.5 to 2-3 per cent of the farms of the Spica Pearl Compa-
Strips of mantle tissue are cut total production. The pearls do not ny, also in Vietnam.Pearls Vietnam
out of the mantle of selected represent a signiicant sales item
shells and are consequently cut (Fig. 14). Keshi pearls have also
into small squares with a scalpel been harvested as a bye-product
(Fig. 12). The squares, dipped into a of South Sea cultured pearls that
red disinfectant liquid, are inserted are produced by Pearls Vietnam
into the gonad, then follows the in- Ltd. in the Koto area, also in Van
sertion of the bead. The farm also Phong Bay, near to the Akoya pearl
applies a procedure that in Japa- farm.
nese language is termed ‘komo sei-
bo’, it means that the mantle tissue The local Pinctada maxima are
comes from the same mollusc that about two years old when they are
is being used for the grafting pro- used for grafting, growth time for
cess. The method is expected to the pearls is also about two years.
improve both colour and lustre of Although several harvests have
a pearl. taken place and the pearls are ob-
viously of superb quality (Fig. 15),
The Van Phong farm uses only the farm is apparently not yet suc-
high-quality beads that come from cessful, due to high mollusc mor-
professional bead-processing com- talities.
panies in Japan who import the Fig. 8. Worker at the farm’s hatchery
raw mother-of-pearl from the Uni-
ted States. This means that beads
are more expensive than those THE SOUTH –
produced from local fresh-wa- PHU QUOC ISLAND
ter shells. Bead sizes go from be-
low 2mm to 3.8-4 mm, sometimes The south-western province of Kien
5-6mm beads are used. Pearl si- Giang includes Phu Quoc Island
zes go from 2-6 mm but 7 mm and that is situated in the Gulf of Thai-
more is possible. Beside of a light land at a distance of about 40 kilo-
cream colour, more intensive cre- metres from the Vietnamese coast
Fig. 9. Young larvae under the microscope at the farm’s
amish and greyish hues are being but only about 12 kilometres from
own hatchery station. Magniication ca. 100x.
produced (Fig 13). The main pearl the coast of Cambodia. The island, Courtesy: Pearls Vietnam Limited.
production consists of small sizes 58 kilometres long, has a popula-
in the range of 2-3.5 mm.Those tion of about 70.000 people. Dur- Limited no longer produces on Phu
so-called ‘baby Akoyas‘ help to ill ing the French and American oc- Quoc Island, due to high mortality
the gap in the demand for small cupation, it housed the infamous rates that led to losses of more
pearls that Japan had not been Coconut Tree Prison, today a tour- than 40 per cent of mollusc pop-
able to maintain for many years. ist attraction. ulations. Mollusc mortalities seem
to be a constant threat that is men-
All molluscs usually remain about In Vietnam, the island is famous acing pearl farms all over Vietnam.
one to one and a half year in the for pepper and high-quality ish The largest farm today is Phu Quoc
water; with a growth rate of at least sauce. In late 1996, Fujiani Iwaki Beach Pearl Farm, it belongs to the
1mm per year; this results in a (mentioned above) established a Phu Ouoc Beach Pearl Joint Stock
nacre thickness of between 1 and second farm on Phu Quoc Island Company, that is managed by the
2 mm. The high growth rate is due that apparently no longer exists Long Beach group, originating
to water temperatures and good today. There are still a few pearl from the hotel and resort industry.
environmental conditions. Yearly farms of varying sizes on the is- Foreign partners are from Japan,
production of the farm amounts to land’ s west coast, south of the French Polynesia and Thailand.
about 150 kilograms. capital Duong Dong but it seems The government issues licences
that most Japanese companies to foreigners only under the con-
MARGARITOLOGIA 5
THE PEARL NEWSLETTER BY ELISABETH STRACK
dition that knowledge is passed on namese citizen. With his Hoang Gia of 400-500 kilograms is proba-
to the inhabitants of the country. Pearl Company, Tuan had original- bly right but some sources speak
Production on Phu Quoc Island ly worked with a group of French of 700-800 or even of 1000 kilo-
concentrates on Akoya cultured specialists who left the project. It grams. The bulk of the production
pearls, by using the local Pinctada seems that the surroundings of goes via Japan to the international
chemnitzii. Pinctada maxima is used the island are especially suitable pearl market, only a very small part
to a limited extent for the produc- for the larger Pinctada maxima and is sold in the country. Astonishing-
tion of South Sea cultured pearls. Pinctada margaritifera molluscs. ly enough, unlike Akoya cultured
The species occurs locally but it
seems that parent stock has been
imported from Australia, as during
the 1990s at least one farm had
been owned by the Australian Asia
Paciic Company.
6
No.1 / 2014
the high nacre thickness results in were overgrown with an addition- FRESHWATER CULTURED
a natural, creamish colour and in a al pearly layer that enhanced the PEARLS
special, high-quality lustre. drum pattern. Tuan also made ex-
periments with implanting teeth. Shops all over the country, and
Vietnam has also seen a few Most farms seem to produce a most often those shops on the
experiments for producing fancy certain quantity of so-called Mabe pearl farms, sell huge quantities
pearls. Chi Huynh, born in Vietnam pearls (composite cultured blister of cheap Chinese fresh-water cul-
and owner of the Galatea Compa- pearls) by using the locally occur- tured pearls, often claiming that
Fig.13. Vietnamese Akoya pearl production includes sizes of 2-7mm and light cream to intensely Fig. 15. Both white and golden South Sea cultured
creamish and greyish hues. Courtesy: Anil Maloo, Baggins, Los Angeles pearls are produced at the farm in Van Phong Bay. Sizes
of the pearls shown are about 10-12mm. Courtesy:
ny in San Dimas, California, used ing Pteria penguin. The species, Oriental Pearl (Bangkok) Ltd.
the black-lipped Pinctada margari- belonging to the same family as
tifera in order to grow small quanti- the Pinctada genus, is also used they are of Vietnamese origin. It
ties of black cultured pearls in cen- for cultivating Mabe pearls on seems that Vietnam has presently
tral Vietnam, by implanting beads the neighbouring Chinese island no regular production of freshwa-
of amethyst, citrin or imitation tur- of Hainan and on the Japanese ter cultured pearls but a few pilot
quoise. The inished pearls were Ryukyu Islands. In fact, in Japanese, projects seem to be going on in the
later carved with loral patterns the mollusc’s name is ‘mabé’. northern lakes. Natural fresh-wa-
that incorporated the colourful ter pearls from the lakes and riv-
stone beads (Fig. 19). Galatea has Most Vietnamese pearl farms ers of northern Vietnam have been
meanwhile become a brand name sell the empty shells to button known for centuries. Vietnam has
for artistic pearl jewellery. While companies or local workshops a similarly large number and iden-
the pearls are now being produced that make, in pursuing an old Chi-
in French Polynesia, jewellery man- nese tradition, inlays for furniture.
ufacturing still takes place in cen- Pearls of reject quality are used for
tral Vietnam. powder that is locally worked into
medicine and cosmetics. The mol-
Ho Thanh Tuan, already men- luscs’ inner soft bodies, of which
tioned above with regard to Con only the adductor muscle is edible,
Dao Island, invented another type are given to the farm workers.
of fancy pearls. He had fully grown
pearls engraved with the decora-
tive pattern of the bronze drum,
a Vietnamese cultural icon. The Fig. 16. A selection of South Sea Keshi cultured pearls
pearls got implanted again and from the same farm as the pearls shown in Fig. 15.
MARGARITOLOGIA 7
THE PEARL NEWSLETTER BY ELISABETH STRACK
from the left: Fig. 17 and Fig. 18 show Akoya cultured pearls of exceptional greyish-blue colours and sizes of up to 12mm and beyond. Courtesy: Eliko Pearls, New York.
Fig. 19. Black cultured pearl with a bead of imitation turquoise, produced with the black-lipped Pinctada margaritifera in Vietnam. Courtesy: Galatea
8
No.1 / 2014
company started pearl culturing at astonishment, as the length of the McLaurin, Manuel Nava, Pierre
Aino-Shima in Fukuoka prefecture mollusc’s shell is only about 6 cm. Hardy and Lore Kiefert) spoke on
on Kyushu Island in southern Ja- the current situation of pearl cul-
pan. A report on ‘Galatea’ pearls, pre- tivation at Guaymas in Mexico. At
sented by Professor Henry Hänni present, about twelve people work
The new method pays special at- for the authors Laurent E. Carti- for the Perlas del Mar de Cortez
tention to natural resources. Only er, Michael S. Krzemnicki and Company. Wild adult molluscs can-
naturally grown Akoya spat from John Rere, described the use of not be used for the cultivation pro-
the area is used. All waste material gemstone beads for producing cul- cess as their ishing is still banned,
from the pearl farm (mollusc drop- tured pearls that are subsequently therefore wild spat is collected
pings and waste from shell clean- artistically carved to display both and reared in the waters of the
ing) is disposed of on land in order the colourful gemstone nucleus farm. Only Pteria sterna molluscs
to allow for the self-puriication and the nacreous layers. are used, about 250.000 young
ability of the sea. Growth time for molluscs are produced every year.
pearls is two years again, resulting Pearls of this type have been The cultivation period lasts from
in high nacre thickness and other produced by the American Gala- 18 to 20 months, and an average
high quality factors. tea Company of San Dimas, Cali- of 4.000 pearls of saleable quality
fornia, since 2007. The owner of are harvested per year, including
The farm environment (water the company, Chi Huynh, is born in about 300 keshi pearls. The diam-
temperatures, salinity, oxygen de- Vietnam where the irst pearls were eter of the smallest beaded pearls
mand and the amount of chloro- produced (see above, p.7) with the is about 8 mm and the average size
phyll) are monitored by scientists, black-lipped Pinctada margaritif- is 9 mm, while it was below 9 mm
accompanied by constant research era. This has changed meanwhile, in 2004.
in order to be able to guard against at present all pearls are produced
or take early counter-measures at a farm in the Gambier Islands of A diameter of above 12 mm is
against diseases and other impon- French Polynesia, using the local rare. 14 mm is the maximum size.
derables. black-lipped Pinctada margaritifera Only about one per cent of all
cumingii. Jewellery workshops have pearls are nearly round and so far,
Terrence S. Coldham of the remained in Vietnam. only about nine necklaces were
Gemmological Association of Aus- produced from harvests over the
tralia spoke of natural pearls within By collecting wild spat and nurs- last 14 years.
freshly opened Pinctada maculata ing it until the young molluscs are
from what he calls the Tongareva about three years old, the farm All pearls from Pteria sterna
Atoll (otherwise known as Penryhn follows the proceedings that are show a strong red luorescence
island) in the Cook Islands. Pincta- common in French Polynesia. For under long wave ultra violet light
da maculata is the smallest species the irst operation, a plastic bead (366nm). The authors applied
of the Pinctada genus; it is endem- is used. The resulting pearls are diferent methods to study 10
ic on the Cook Islands where it is harvested after about six months. pearls in detail, applying both Ra-
locally known as Pipi. Coldham, They are not for sale but the pur- man and UV-Visible-NearIR spec-
while staying on the remote atoll, pose behind is to create a larger troscopy and X-radiography and
was able to watch the harvesting pearl sack for inserting the gem- examining the pearls with a stand-
of about six hundred Pipi shells. stone beads. 10 to 12 months later, ard gemmological microscope.
About a dozen contained pearls, the new pearls are being harvest-
totalling to about 40 pearls. ed. Retention rate is apparently Steve Kennedy of The Gem &
high with these second-generation Pearl Laboratory in London gave a
The largest pearl was 6.50 mm pearls while the molluscs tend to report on his testings of the Pearl
in diameter. Shapes were most- reject gemstone beads when they of Asia, one of the largest and most
ly round and light to dark golden are implanted right from the be- famous pearls.The report of which
colours dominated. Only about ginning. Nacre thickness falls with- no details are to be published due
three pearls were of a dark colour. in the required 0.8 mm minimum to the wishes of the present owner
One photograph showed a freshly limit set by the Tahitian authorities. of the pearl, included details of the
opened shell with three pearls sit- A production of 100.000 pearls is pearl’s history and conjecture on
uated inbetween the internal and expected for 2014. its origin.
external mantle epithelium that
looks transparent. Both the num- Stefanos Karampelas of the A contribution by Kenneth Scar-
ber and size of the pearls (the larg- Gübelin Laboratory (co-authors ratt of GIA Thailand dealt with ad-
est pearl had about 5 mm) evoke are Enrique Arizmendi, Douglas ditional data on natural and cul-
MARGARITOLOGIA 9
THE PEARL NEWSLETTER BY ELISABETH STRACK
tured pearls from Pinctada maxima istry conirmed that the colour and ural and non-beaded salt-water
in Australia. A selection of pearls chemistry of the bead-cultured cultured pearls. They can be dii-
was studied: natural pearls from pearls are linked with the implant- cult to interpret as their formation
wild shell from the 80 mile beach, ed mantle tissue as opposed to the depends on diferent factors. 10
natural pearls from shells from mantle tissue of the host. salt-water cultured pearls without
the 80 mile beach that had been a bead from Pinctada maxima and
grafted for cultured pearl produc- Sutas Singbamroong (co-au- 10 salt-water natural pearls from
tion, natural pearls from grafted thor is Nazar Ahmed) of the Dubai Pinctada radiata were studied by
hatchery-produced shells and both Central Laboratory explained how using X-radiography and/or mi-
cultured pearls with and without a digital SLR camera can be applied crocomputer tomography. Some
a bead, grown both in shells col- to photograph x-ray luminescence of the samples in sizes from 3 to
lected from the wild and in hatch- of pearls. Chinese freshwater cul- 8 mm, going from near round to
ery-produced shells. tured pearls display, caused by the baroque shapes, were cut in half.
presence of manganese, a distinct
All pearls were photographed greenish-yellow luminescence. Dull Cavities observed in natural
while still in their pearl sacks in or- surface areas may show an orange pearls are darker in colour and more
der to register their position within luminescence. irregular in shape, and they align to
the molluscs. They were then ex- a certain extent with the external
amined by using Real-Time micro- The vast majority of beaded shape of the pearls. Cavities visible
radiography and X-ray computer- salt-water cultured pearls reveal, in samples of cultured pearls have
ized microtomography as well as due to the fresh-water origin of a more distinct outline, are more
Laser Ablative Inductively Coupled the mother-of-pearl beads, varia- linear, and may show a tail, they
Plasma-Mass Spectrometry. ble luminescence reactions. Visi- are not lowing with the external
bility of those reactions depends shape of the pearl.
Pearls located in the area of on nacre thickness; a high nacre
the mantle closest to the gills and thickness may mask visibility. Nat-
Bibliography
the widest point of the adduc- urally dark-coloured pearls or dyed IGC 2013 Vietnam, Abstract Proceedings,
tor muscle revealed characteristic pearls may inhibit luminescence 33rd International Gemmological Confer-
structures of natural pearls. Bead- reactions. ence, October 2013, Hanoi, Vietnam.
cultured pearls from the gonad re-
vealed clear images of the beads. Abeer Tawfeeq Al-Alawi of the
Non-beaded cultured pearls from Gem & Pearl Testing Laboratory
the gonad revealed two distinct of Bahrain (co-authors are Ste-
growth structures that are now fanos Karampelas and Osama
associated with saltwater keshi cul- Taqi) compared the appearance
tured pearls. Trace element chem- of ‘cavities’ on x-ray images of nat-
THE PUBLICATION of October 2013 DNA from a pearl. It was used to pearls and to provide transparency
in PLOS ONE presented for the irst identify the source oyster species as to the origin of pearls.
time truly new research results on for the three major pearl-produc-
pearls. One might even speak of ing oyster species Pinctada marga- (Explanatory note: The word ‘oyster’ is used in
exciting news. It is the result of the ritifera, P. maxima and P. radiata. this short review with regard to the authors’
cooperation between the SSEF in use of the word within the original text).
Basel (and its former director Hen- 18 pearls of unknown origin
ry A. Hänni), the Swiss Federal In- were examined. A micro-drilling
stitute of Technology in Zürich and technique was developed to obtain Bibliography
institutes at the Universities of Ba- small amount of DNA while main- Joana B. Meyer, Laurent E Cartier, Eric A.
sel and Lausanne. taining the commercial value of Pinto-Figueroa, Michael S. Krzemnicki, Hen-
ry A. Hänni, Brucecc A. McDonald, 2013,
the pearls. The DNA ingerprinting DNA Fingerprinting of Pearls to Determine
The authors report on the irst method could be used in the future Their Origins, PLOS ONE, Vol. 8, Issue 10,
successful extraction of oyster to document the source of historic October 2013, e75606. Online available.
10
No.1 / 2014
SPONDYLUS PEARLS
WHEN, IN PREPARATION of my in the past. Spondylus americanus, iterranean Sea and along the At-
pearl book in the late 1990s, I was the so-called American spiny oys- lantic coast of northwestern Africa,
writing on pearls from ‘other ma- ter, has a pinkish-white shell and was reported as having produced
rine bivalve molluscs’ (meaning occurs on the Atlantic coast from white, light green and pinkish
other genera than Pinctada and the south-eastern United States pearls. While pearls from Spondy-
Pteria), it was rather for the sake of down to Brazil. Spondylus princeps lus have so far only been reported
completeness and for referring to occurs on the American Paciic on and were diicult to trace and
all those species that do occasion- coast as far down as Panama and to actually see, a few pearls were
ally produce pearls. also in the Gulf of California. presented in Tucson 2013. The
MARGARITOLOGIA 11
THE PEARL NEWSLETTER BY ELISABETH STRACK
with one pear shape, the length of tre. It resembles a Tridacna pearl,
which is 14 mm. Two pearls have showing a weak, diicult to recog-
of-white colours, mottled with nize lame structure.
light brown while four pearls have
a dull greyish-green colour with The pearls were not examined in
brownish and greenish circles. Lus- detail so far and they most prob-
tre is dull, with the exception of the ably do not have outer nacreous
smaller of-white pearl that has a layers (layers of aragonite platelets
porcelain-like lustre. in a brick-type arrangement) that
make up the structure of pearls
Fig. 6 shows a nearly perfectly from the Pinctada genus.
round, white pearl, ca. 12 mm, with Fig. 6. Pearl from Spondylus princeps, Baja California.
a dull to faintly porcelain-like lus- All photographs are by E. Strack Diameter ca. 12mm. Courtesy: E. Rodriguez
Bibliography
Strack, E., 2006, Pearls, Rühle-Diebener-Ver-
lag, 2006, 707p.
Acknowledgements
Fig.1. An early ‘3.5 momme graduate‘ necklace, bought in 1955 in Japan. Courtesy: Marian Havlik. Acknowledgements go to Marian Havlik
12
No.1 / 2014
IMPRESSUM
Elisabeth Strack
Gemmologisches Institut Hamburg
Poststraße 33
Business Center
20354 Hamburg
Tel. 0049-40-352011
Fax. 0049-40-343419
E-Mail: info@strack-gih.de
www.strack-gih.de
MARGARITOLOGIA 13