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P earls are the quiet diplomats of jewelry, the unique passport to good taste that never expires. Always proper for any occasion, under the right conditions they are the heralds of breathtaking beauty. Over centuries, everyone from royals to modern-day jewelry collectors have been enthralled by the subtle allure of pearls.
They are in a class all their own, and not just because they’re costly (although the best always are), or flashy (that’s not their style), but because they are the cherished staples in the jewelry boxes of women everywhere.
Philanthropist Marjorie Merriweather Post had numerous natural pearl necklaces, though it is her Cartier pink conch pearl and diamond bodice ornament (1929) that was a swoon. There was Elizabeth Taylor and her pear-shaped Peregrina; Barbara Hutton and her Marie Antoinette natural pearl necklace; Grace Kelly and her Van Cleef & Arpels pearl and diamond engagement suite; Babe Paley and her Verdura natural black and white pearl torsade bracelets; and every First Lady in the White House, going back to Mary Todd Lincoln and her Tiffany & Co. seed pearl necklace, purchased by her husband in 1862.
“A woman needs ropes and ropes of pearls”
- Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel combined swags of real pearls with fake ones, declaring “A woman needs ropes and ropes of pearls”. Jackie Kennedy was endlessly photographed wearing a triple-strand simulated pearl necklace, made by her friend Kenneth Jay Lane. And of course, the best-known pearls of the silver screen were worn with a Givenchy dress and a big smile by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Those pearls were one hundred per cent faux - but did anyone care?
For most women, a love of pearls begins in girlhood. Queen Victoria, for example, was said to have worn a tiny pearl necklace, when she was just two years old. As a mother, she in turn gave each of her five daughters two pearls a year. Her great-grandson, King George VI followed the tradition and gave his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, two pearls added to a platinum chain each year on her birthday.
This giving of pearls in the houses of Hanover and Windsor from one monarch to another is a long-held tradition; among the many royal gifts are Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee Necklace (1877); Queen Alexandra’s remarkable Dagmar Necklace with its festoons of 118 pearls and 2,000 diamonds (1863) and the Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara (1914), with its shimmering pear-shaped pearls, most often associated with Princess Diana.
As gifts of significance, pearls have long made headline news. Nearly a hundred years ago, Barbara Hutton, granddaughter of F. W. Woolworth and daughter of Frank Laws Hutton (founder of the eponymous investment banking firm), received a single strand of 41 graduated natural pearls from her father, upon her marriage to Prince Alexis Mdivani in 1933. (The young heiress also wore a gray pearl engagement ring.)
Cartier sold the banker the gift as “The Marie Antoinette Pearl Necklace,” (circa late 18th century). For that connection to French history - the wedding took place in Paris - the price was a cool $1 million dollars. But what price happiness? As Hutton said of his daughter that day, “Her face is radiant and that is enough.”
A more lasting marriage - also between an American and a royal - was that of screen actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco. With her all-American girl looks and perfectly coiffed blonde hair, she was the ideal princess-to-be for the elegant pearl and diamond engagement suite of 1956, designed by Van Cleef & Arpels, who were known as the “Official Purveyor to the Municipality.”
The set was a cream-and-sugar confection of understatement and beauty comprising a triple-strand cultured pearl necklace with a scroll motif of circular- and baguette-cut diamonds, a bracelet (also three strands, with foliate diamond links), ear clips, and a ring. The pearl theme resonated in the bride’s wedding gown, designed by MGM costumer Helen Rose, with lustrous seed pearls tracing the rose point lace of the bodice and floor-length veil.
Richard Burton... paid $37,000 and thus launched Elizabeth Taylor’s love affair with the storied pearl ‘Peregrina’.
Yet when it comes to the cherry on the sundae, nothing comes close to the Peregrina (“The Wanderer”), a natural pearl of exceptionally striking beauty, befitting its long and winding history.
Said to have been fished out of the waters of the Gulf of Panama and thence owned by a succession of Spanish kings, beginning with King Philip II in the late 16th century, it had, by the early 19th century, made its way to the French court of Joseph Bonaparte and by around 1848, to the Duke and Duchess of Abercorn. There it remained until coming to auction in 1969. That’s when Richard Burton was the winning bidder at Parke-Bernet Galleries acquiring the drop-shaped pearl, which weighed approximately 202.54 grains, suspended from an early 19th century diamond bail on a small pearl slender chain. He paid $37,000 and thus launched Elizabeth Taylor’s love affair with the storied pearl.
Always eager to wear her new jewelry in her film roles, that year the star wore the Peregrina in Anne of the Thousand Days. In 1972, she commissioned Cartier to create an elaborate showcase for the historic pearl, a new mount with 56 natural pearls, rubies, diamonds, and four cultured pearls. It was a showstopper - worthy of its celebrated star.
Perhaps it’s the way in which pearls warm to the skin that make them feel so personal. Or it's their inherent luster and soothing shape. Whatever it is, pearls have had ardent admirers for centuries. That immortality and timeless appeal is what makes all of us fall in love with the mighty pearl.
