The beauty of nature can be discerned in every piece of our cultured pearls. These jewels are the wonderful result of co-operation between nature and humankind.
The story of pearls
Humans have loved and collected natural pearls since the beginning of time. The Neolithic people used these valuable gemstones for early jewellery and decoration and later every century developed special relationships with them. The Persians, Greeks and Romans were fanatics of pearls, while China and India had their fair share of love for these gifts of nature. Medieval kings and aristocrats paid huge amounts of money for pearls with unique beauty, but the level of demand rose up to the highest level only at the end of the nineteenth century. Many wealthy people wanted to give this precious stone as an unforgettable present to their loved ones, but the natural living areas of the pearl-growing oysters and mussels were slowly being pushed closer and closer towards total extinction. Finally there were no more pearls for the market, which had become much greater than ever before.
At that moment one man, Mr. Kōkichi Mikimoto, came upon the scene. It was he who spent money and years in search of methods for modern pearl cultivation. The first decades of the twentieth century brought usable and economical solutions to this challenge and the quality of the new products earned the respect of the market. At the eleventh hour they managed to save these living creatures from disappearing and now gold- smiths and jewellers use only cultured pearls to serve their clients.
Pearl classification
There are several value factors featuring every cultivated pearls, such as size, shape, colour, lustre, surface quality, nacre quality and matching. Moon river offers cultured pearls with special care about its quality using knowledge, tradition and experience.