Josh
Member
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2007
- Messages
- 837
Hi everyone out there in pearl orbit. Check this out. It's the shell of a Pinctada Maxima (Australian South Sea pearls) that was carved over 800 years ago! It belongs to a friend of mine who is a marine biologist here in Tahiti. He bought it from a collector in France many years ago and recently brought it to Tahiti. It will soon take up residence in Robert Wan's pearl museum. It was used to baptise kings and is appropriately deeply concave. It was appraised at about a million dollars US but this pearl pundit guesses much more. The position of the legs of the people give away the age as well as the chip marks of the chisel which can be seen by a microscope only. For some perspective the pearl resting on top is a 12mm (A grade drop).
