The days of island inhabitants free diving into bottomless, azure oceans to harvest Pearls are more or less over. Natural, uncultured Pearls are the most expensive of all Pearls but are very rarely seen in today's market. Nowadays they only make appearances as antiques.
 

The romantic image of yester-year's Pearl industry has been transformed forever by the exigency of today's gem trade. The commercial reality of the 21st Century has meant that most Pearls are now cultivated on special aqua-farms. First cultivated by the Chinese as early as the 12th Century, the technique was perfected and patented in 1919 by the son of a Japanese noodle maker. Since then the production of these gems of the sea turned from a treasure hunt into a business, and today Pearl culturing is now absolutely standard across the industry. The art of farming Pearls, rather than waiting for nature to take its course, has made them more abundant and affordable than ever before. What was previously a luxury item for high society has now become an affordable extravagance for all.
 

While Pearls are classified as colored gems, there is a unique appeal about them. Unlike other gemstones that are born of earth and fire, Pearls are water born organic gems that originate from living animals. They are also unique in the sense that the principals of the 4 C's (color, Cut, Clarity and Carat) cannot be applied to them. The evaluation of Pearls requires a different set of criteria. A Pearls value is appraised according to the display of color, luster, surface clarity, shape and size as well their “Orient”.
 

Today’s market sees a bountiful variety of cultured Pearls that come in every shape, size and color imaginable. The modern Pearl market is incredibly diverse, and as if to reflect this, prices for these water born jewels are as equally varied. But just what do we mean when we talk about the “quality” of a Pearl? What makes one Pearl more valuable than another?
 

Aphrodite's tears of joy, dew drops filled with moonlight, Krishna's wedding gift to his daughter, Cleopatra's love potion. The legends abound but one fact is undeniable, Pearls are the oldest known gem, and for centuries were considered the most valuable. So valuable if fact, that the Roman General Vitellius allegedly financed an entire military campaign with just one of his mother's Pearl earrings!
 

The Romans were particularly enamored of this gem of the sea and Rome's Pearl craze reached its zenith during the 1^st Century BC when upper class Roman women (the lower ranks were forbidden from wearing them) wore their Pearls to bed so they could be reminded of their wealth immediately upon awakening. They also upholstered couches with Pearls and sewed so many into their gowns that they actually walked on their Pearl-encrusted hems. The famously excessive Emperor Caligula, having made his beloved horse a Consul, decorated it with a Pearl necklace.
 

Cleopatra in describing her enormous wealth and power, demonstrated to Marc Anthony how she could “drink the wealth of nations” by crushing Pearls into a glass of wine.
 

The first known source of Pearls was the Persian Gulf and the ancients of the area believed that Pearls were a symbol of the moon and had magical powers. Indeed, the oldest known Pearl Jewelry is a necklace found in the sarcophagus of a Persian princess who died in 520 BC.
 

The earliest written record of their value is in the Shu King, a 23rd Century BC Chinese book in which the scribe sniffs that a lesser king sent tribute of “strings of Pearls not quite round”. The Chinese also used Pearls in medicinal ways to cure eye ailments, heart trouble, indigestion, fever and bleeding. To this day Pearl powder is still popular in China as a skin whitener and cosmetic.
 

The Koran states that a good Muslim, upon entering the Kingdom of Heaven, “is crowned with Pearls of incomparable luster, and is attended by beautiful maidens resembling hidden Pearls”.
 

During the Dark Ages, while fair maidens of nobility cherished delicate Pearl necklaces, gallant knights often wore Pearls onto the battlefield. They believed that the magic possessed by the lustrous gems would protect them from harm.
 

While Queen Isabella had to hock her impressive collection of Jewelry to fund Christopher Columbus' expedition to discover the new world, the investment paid off as the discovery of Pearls in Central American waters added to the wealth of Spain. The flood of American Pearls on to the European market earned the newly discovered continent the nickname “Land of Pearls”. Unfortunately, greed and lust for these gems of the sea resulted in the depletion of virtually all the American Pearl oyster populations by the 17th Century.
 

Pearls have long been considered ideal wedding gifts because they symbolize purity and innocence. In the Hindu religion, the presentation of an un-drilled Pearl and its piercing has formed part of the marriage ceremony. While in the Western hemisphere Pearls are the recommended gift for couples celebrating their 3rd and 30th wedding anniversaries.
 

The Natural Pearl begins life as a foreign body, a grain of sand or coral, which makes its way into the shell of a marine or freshwater mollusk – usually oysters or clams. The mollusk's defense mechanism starts to coat the intruder with layers of a slightly iridescent substance "Nacre", which is the attractive outside of the Pearl. In its natural environment this will, after many years, form a Pearl that is of a significant size and quality to be of commercial value.
 

Unlike Natural Pearls, cultivated Pearls do not begin as accidental intruders. The process starts with “Nucleation”. A cultivated Pearl begins its life when a spherical mother-of-Pearl bead is placed inside the mollusk. After this seeding process, the Pearl farmers place the oysters in wire-mesh baskets and suspend them in the sea. The aqua-culturists carefully tend to the oysters, overseeing their development for a period of anything from 18 months to 3 years, eventually producing high quality Pearls. The depth of the Nacre coating, an important factor when estimating the value of Pearls, depends on how long the seeded Pearls are left in place before being harvested.
 

As with all things natural, Pearls can only grow in the right conditions. The first thing to consider is the provenance of the Pearl. Different Pearl varieties from different locations command different prices. The best quality Pearls are found in the Asian waters of Tahiti, Japan and China. However, due to the different environments, mollusk species and production techniques, all cultivated Pearls have their own distinctive qualities. Japanese Akoya Pearls, White South Sea Pearls, Golden Pearls and Black Tahitian Pearls are considered the highest quality and command premiums. However, Chinese Akoya Pearls and Freshwater Pearls dominate the market and offer buyers attractive Pearls at affordable prices.