Pearl

Nature's Perfect Gem

Fiona Lindsay Shen

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781789146219
• eBook ISBN: 9781789146226
• Topic: Scienze biologiche
• Subtopic: Storia sociale

From their creation in the maw of mollusks to lustrous objects of infatuation and conflict, a revealing look at pearls' dark history. This book is a beautifully illustrated account of pearls through millennia, from fossils to contemporary jewelry. Pearls are the most human of gems, both miraculous and familiar. Uniquely organic in origin, they are as intimate as our bodies, created through the same process as we grow bones and teeth. They have long been described as an animal's sacrifice, but until recently their retrieval often entailed the sacrifices of enslaved and indentured divers and laborers. While the shimmer of the pearl has enticed Roman noblewomen, Mughal princes, Hollywood royalty, mavericks, and renegades, encoded in its surface is a history of human endeavor, abuse, and aspiration—pain locked in the layers of a gleaming gem.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface Sarah Siddons’s Necklace
• One The Oyster’s Autobiography
• Two Harvest
• Three Culturing Pearls, Capturing Markets, Cultivating Brands
• Four The Seven Pearly Sins
• Five And the Seven Virtues
• Six Embodied
• References
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Photo Acknowledgements
• Index