Red Pearls....

[Satine De La Courcel]

Okay I need some help here... (well that comment is loaded), I have been wracking my brain about trying to figure out if I Read something in one of my pearls books or was brousing the net and came across a blurb on red pearls from italian waters.... I am not finding it in any of my books Pearls a natural history, The Book of the Pearl, or The book of pearls by Joan Younger Dickinson.

Would anyone be able to give me some insight??? I was hoping to add this information to my lecture on Pearls of color are period.


Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Ashby,

Italian red pearls would come from pinna nobilis. There are several other species including Burmese pinctada maxima, the Atlantic pinctada atropurpurea, the North American Tampico pearly mussel, plus several more rare species that produce red pearls. Still, red pearls are very rare and highly sought after. In the Far East they are considered the ultimate symbol of wisdom and power and in the Western World they were considered the symbol of ultimate royalty.

Zeide

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Ash
I saw some red pearls for sale on the net some months ago. At the time I assumed they were dyed, but I remember I sat looking at the picture for the longest time saying to myself, "These are gorgeous pearls. Look at that color"- and red is never my first (or 10th) choice for a pearl color! I didn't buy them and I regret it.

In hindsight, I am giving this thread a bump and a challenge. I see it as a learning opportunity!

Pearl Scholars, online researchers, Owners of Strack, (or any other book)enlighten us. What is the truth of each of these little critters?

 

[jshepherd]

Unio margaritifera has been known to produce bright red pearls as well. But the Pinna would be a better call inthe Mediterranean - although they pearls produced are usually very small.

 

[MABE BRAZIL]

Unio margaritifera has been known to produce bright red pearls as well. But the Pinna would be a better call inthe Mediterranean - although they pearls produced are usually very small.

Hi Jeremy,
do you know if exists farms that cultivated the atlantic Pinctada atropurpurea pearl?

Ricardo Cunha Lima
MABE Brazil

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Ricardo,

Leonhard DiMichele from the University of Texas was contemplating to culture them for awhile as well as the Tampico pearly mussel (freshwater) but I have heard nothing from that project in years. They probably did not get funding or the waterfront real estate was all sold to developers.

Zeide

 

[MABE BRAZIL]

Thanks Zeide,
I will try a contact with Leonhard DiMichele. This species, Tampico pearly mussel, produces red pearls, too. Now I looking for different species of freshwater mussels to make a comparative study of viability.

Ricardo

 

[Slraep]

... and in the Western World they were considered the symbol of ultimate royalty.

Zeide

Oh really? First time I ever read of such a thing. Probably the first time ANYBODY has ever read such a thing, and that includes royalty from the Western World.

(Sorry, just spied this highly "imaginative" Z post and couldn't help myself)
Slraep

 

[Caitlin]

Aren't you glad I gave this thread a bump? Thus the z-gal still "teaches", you just have to discern what's true and what's not and in the process, you learn more than she had to teach.
Win-Win.