One of the first questions people ask about pearls is whether a cultured pearl is a real pearl. The short answer is yes, and this guide explains why, how cultured and natural pearls differ, and the remarkable story of how the cultured pearl came to be, which is one of the great tales in the history of jewellery.
Cultured and natural pearls are both real pearls, formed in exactly the same way from layers of nacre. The only difference is how they start: a natural pearl forms by chance when an irritant drifts into a wild mollusc, which is extremely rare, while a cultured pearl is nudged along by a pearl farmer placing the irritant inside. Almost every pearl sold today is cultured, and it is a genuine pearl in every sense.
Are cultured pearls real pearls?
Yes. A cultured pearl is a real pearl, made of the same nacre, grown by the same living mollusc, in the same way as a natural pearl. The only thing a human does is start the process off. This is quite different from an imitation pearl, which is a bead of glass or plastic coated to look pearl-like and is not a pearl at all. So when someone asks if a pearl is real, the meaningful question is whether it is a genuine pearl or an imitation, and a cultured pearl is genuine through and through.
How a natural pearl forms
A natural pearl is an accident of nature. Every so often, a tiny intruder, often not a grain of sand as the myth goes but a parasite or a fragment of shell, works its way inside a wild oyster or mussel. To protect itself, the mollusc slowly wraps the intruder in smooth layers of nacre, and over years those layers can become a pearl. It is a rare event: historically only around one in ten thousand wild molluscs produced a pearl worth wearing, and fewer still were round and fine. That extraordinary rarity is why, for most of history, natural pearls were among the most precious things on earth, worn by emperors and queens, and why so few genuine natural pearls remain outside antique jewellery and museums today.
How a cultured pearl is made
A cultured pearl begins the same event on purpose. A skilled technician carefully opens the shell and places a small nucleus inside the mollusc, usually a tiny bead together with a piece of mantle tissue for a saltwater pearl, or just a piece of tissue for most freshwater pearls. From that moment on, everything is natural: the mollusc coats the nucleus in nacre exactly as it would an accidental intruder, laying down layer after layer over months and years. The pearl that results is real nacre grown by a real animal. The grower has simply removed the element of chance, which is why cultured pearls can be produced in enough numbers, and enough quality, for everyone to enjoy.
The story of the cultured pearl
The cultured pearl is barely more than a century old, and it exists thanks largely to one determined man. Kokichi Mikimoto was born in 1858 in the Japanese seaside town of Toba, the eldest son of a noodle-shop owner, and he left school at thirteen to help support his family. As a young man he watched Japan's wild oyster beds being stripped bare by the hunt for natural pearls, and he became obsessed with a single idea: that an oyster could be persuaded to grow a pearl on purpose.
It took him years of failure. After countless experiments, on the eleventh of July 1893 he lifted an oyster from the water and found inside it the world's first cultured pearl, a semi-round blister pearl. His troubles were far from over. In 1905 a red tide, a bloom of toxic plankton, swept through his bay and killed around 850,000 of his oysters, roughly four-fifths of his entire stock. He pressed on, perfected the fully round cultured pearl in the years that followed, and set about building an industry.
Left, Kokichi Mikimoto, the creator of the Cultured Pearl at aged 84. Right: Pearl Divers at work. Not everyone welcomed it. In the 1920s, dealers in natural pearls fought back, and a London newspaper claimed that cultured pearls were mere imitations. The dispute grew into a famous court case in Paris, and in the end the science won: the court ruled that a cultured pearl is a genuine pearl, with no essential difference from a natural one. That verdict, more than anything, secured the cultured pearl's place in fine jewellery. Mikimoto, who became known as the Pearl King, is said to have dreamed of adorning the necks of all the women of the world with pearls, and in a sense he did, because nearly every pearl worn today is a cultured one descended from his work. It is a story we find echoes of in our own time with lab grown, or cultured, diamonds. The difference between a cultured and a natural pearl is only how it began, not what it is. Both are real pearls of solid nacre, and to the eye they are the same. The useful comparison is with fish: a farmed fish and a wild fish are both entirely real fish, raised differently. In the same way, a natural pearl carries rarity and history, which makes fine natural pearls very valuable and mostly the province of collectors and antique pieces, while a cultured pearl offers all the beauty of a pearl at a price that is actually attainable. One practical note: because the two look identical, telling them apart reliably takes an x-ray, which can reveal the bead at the centre of many cultured pearls, as our guide to how to tell if a pearl is real explains. We use the word cultured in just the way it should be understood, as a genuine pearl grown with a little human help, the same sense in which we speak of cultured diamonds. Our pearls are cultured and ethically sourced, and, unlike much pearl jewellery which is strung on plated or base-metal findings, they are set in solid gold, so a pearl piece can be kept and handed on. Our guide to the types of pearls covers the freshwater, akoya, South Sea and Tahitian varieties you will find. For almost everyone, the choice is simple. Choose a natural pearl only if rarity and collecting are the point, and be ready for the price and the search that come with it. For a beautiful pearl to wear, a cultured pearl is the answer, and it is a completely real pearl. As with any pearl, follow the lustre first, since a pearl's glow matters far more than whether it began by chance or by a grower's hand. This sits within our wider guide to pearls, alongside our guides to the types of pearls and caring for pearls. You will find cultured pearls set in solid gold across our pearl bracelets, pearl studs and pearl pendants.
Photos: Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsSo what is the real difference?
La Peregrina, meaning "the Wanderer," lives up to its name. Found off Panama in the mid sixteenth century, it is believed to be one of the most symmetrical natural pearls ever discovered. Philip II of Spain gifted it to Queen Mary I of England in 1554, and over the next five centuries it passed through European royalty and the Bonaparte family before Richard Burton bought it for Elizabeth Taylor. It last sold at Christie's in 2011 for $11.8 million to an anonymous buyer.Noble's cultured pearls
Which should you choose?
