Pearls: a Natural History

18 September 2004, 00:00

According to ancient Romans, pearls were the frozen tears of gods. Greeks attributed pearls to lightning strikes at sea. Until the 7th century, scholars held that pearls were solidified dewdrops, captured by clams. And according to popular lore, pearls were formed from a grain of sand. Now, a simple strand of pearls is a standard part of many women's wardrobes.

Let the splendour of some of the world's most sought-after treasures captivate you at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), in the acclaimed exhibition, Pearls: a Natural History is the most comprehensive presentation ever mounted on the natural and cultural history of pearls. From September 18, 2004 to January 9, 2005, the ROM's Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall is the sole Canadian venue to host the award-winning exhibition. The exhibition was organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in collaboration with The Field Museum, Chicago.

Pearls: A Natural History features more than 600 spectacular objects, including nearly a half a million individual pearls. These objects are drawn from private collections and major museums from around the world, including five magnificent examples from the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar. One piece, the Sultane Necklace was designed by Cartier in the 1930s and features 63 natural pearls dating to the 1700s, as well as 13 emeralds and 9 spinels. It has never been exhibited until Pearls.

Other exhibition highlights include lustrous 50-million-year-old fossil pearls, a replica of a 14.5-pound pearl, the largest ever discovered, and of course, fabulous jewellery and fashions that have adorned the likes of Queen Victoria and Marie Antoinette, and celebrities such as Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. This multi-faceted exhibition is sure to interest everyone - from museum visitor to gem connoisseur to biologist.

Long associated with royalty, glamour and virtue, pearls have adorned religious and secular art, been the cause of conquests and exploration, and fuelled worldwide commerce for centuries. However, unlike other gems, pearls are developed within living organisms. Through the exhibition's seven enlightening and visually stunning sections, visitors will learn the history and science of pearls and view the glamorous jewellery, fashions, and ornamental pieces that they become. The section titles are underlined below.

Visitors are introduced to pearls' historical associations with tradition, royalty, glamour and religion. They can examine several magnificent objects, such as a 19th century Russian icon with a cover encrusted in pearls and gemstones, a classic cultured pearl necklace given to Marilyn Monroe by Joe DiMaggio during their 1954 honeymoon in Japan.

The desire for pearls became prominent before the cutting and faceting of gemstones was developed, creating a flourishing international trade from ancient times. For more than 4,000 years, the Indian Ocean – specifically the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Mannar - was the hub of the world's pearl markets. Pearl diving – without artificial air supply or wet suits - was the principal means of harvesting pearls for centuries.

During the Renaissance, Indian pearls arrived in Europe en masse to be worn by monarchs and nobles. The dominance of this pearl producing region shifted in the 16th century, when Christopher Columbus, seeking a quicker route to the Orient, discovered great quantities of pearls off the Venezuelan and Panama coasts. Just a century and a half later, the pearl bearing oysters of the Caribbean and Panama were close to extinct, and as a result, the traditional pearl-producing areas of the Indian Ocean reclaimed their markets. In the 1920s, Japan came to the forefront, after the success of new techniques produced cultured pearls, which were increasingly accepted by the rest of the world.

The biology, microstructure and chemistry of pearls are as important as the jewels they become.

Visitors can examine in detail the layered structure of a pearl magnified up to 50,000 times its actual size. A video presentation, interactive displays, and historical and modern pearl objects illustrate that no two pearls are alike, nor are they always flawless, pure white spheres. Visitors can browse through a spectacular selection of multi-coloured pearls and view the unique iridescence of 50-million-year-old lustrous fossil pearls and a 100-million-year-old fossil ammonite.

But how were these precious gifts of nature formed? To ancient Romans, they were the frozen tears of gods. Greeks attributed pearls to lightning strikes at sea. Until the 7th century, scholars held that pearls were solidified dewdrops, captured by clams. And according to popular lore, pearls were formed from a grain of sand.

Pearls are primarily composed of calcium carbonate and are formed when a foreign particle – any irritating intruder such as a parasitic worm or a small crab – becomes inadvertently lodged between the mollusc's shell and inner lining (or mantle.) This irritant becomes the centre or nucleus of the pearl. The mantle secretes a substance called nacre (or mother-of-pearl) that coats the object, thus creating concentric layers upon layers around the nucleus.

Visitors can explore the evolution of molluscs through a computer station and examine a Giant Clam and a replica of the largest known pearl, the Pearl of Allah. This section also introduces visitors to the long-standing connection between royalty and pearls, exemplified by a stunning pearl-and-precious gem brooch given to Queen Victoria of England by her husband, Prince Albert, on their third wedding anniversary in 1843.

Pearls: a Natural History traces the human fascination with these gemstones from the Greeks and Romans to modern day. Throughout history, pearls have played many roles, from ritual significance to objects of value and awe, causing conquests all over the world. Modern historians of costume and decorative arts denote the 16th and 17th centuries as The Great Age of Pearls, when these treasures were shipped to the European market from around the world for the adornment of the nobility and monarchs. A handful of 20th century fashion designers, most notably Coco Chanel, embraced them, using the gems in her elegantly casual designs.

The conservation of Ontario’s pearly mussels has become a significant issue with Canada’s federal government, which recently passed the Species At Risk Act (SARA). Southern Ontario is home to the most diverse and imperilled pearl mussel communities in Canada, as three quarters of the nation’s mussel species can be found in the lower Great Lakes drainage. Three of Canada’s most important mussel rivers are in this region: the Thames, Grand and Sydenham Rivers. Several mussel species in south-western Ontario have been rapidly disappearing as they are very sensitive to human disturbances such as pollution, habitat destruction and invasive species. Featured in this section of Pearls: a Natural History is a freshwater tank displaying some of Ontario’s more common mussel species - these are more than just living rocks!

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