A great irony of pearl history is that the least expensive cultured pearl product in the market today rivals the quality of the most expensive natural pearls ever found. The price-value anomaly is ...

Off the coast of Japan’s verdant Saikai National Park, the Kujukushima Islands lie scattered amid a sprawling network of narrow inlets. Their name literally translates as “99 islands,” though there ...

BOCA RATON, FL (November 4, 2009) – For more than 25 years, all attempts at culturing pearls from the queen conch (Strombus gigas) have been unsuccessful—until now. For the first time, novel and ...

A necklace of cultured pearls given to Marilyn Monroe by Joe DiMaggio in 1954. A group of magnificent tiaras worn by European nobility, including the Rosebery Tiara, a Victorian headpiece set with 13 ...

Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. If it weren’t for Kokichi Mikimoto, we might be living in a world without ...

An curved arrow pointing right. South Sea pearls are the largest cultured-pearl variety, sometimes reaching over 20 millimeters in diameter. The Pinctada maxima oyster can take up to five years to ...

Mollusks maintain the symmetry of their pearls by adjusting the thickness of each layer of shimmering nacre. If one layer of the pearl’s nacre is thinner, the next layer is thicker and will balance ...

Visitors to Ago Bay can learn about the history of cultured pearls at the museum on Mikimoto Pearl Island. Mikimoto Pearl Island/JNTO Ago Bay's calm waters and sheltered inlets are perfect for pearls.

Long known as the "Queen of Gems," pearls possess a history and allure far beyond what today's wearer may recognize. Throughout much of recorded history, a natural pearl necklace comprised of matched ...

They called him the king of pearls. Mikimoto Kokichi, the son of a noodle-shop owner, seemed unlikely to play a role in transforming the jewelry business — or influencing fashion, for that matter.