Who was the first person to open an oyster and see a perfectly round, lustrous pearl? Whoever she or he was, it was most likely thousands and thousands of years ago. Pearls were one of the first stones to be valued by people because it was, and still is, one of the only gemstones that require no cutting or polishing. Its beauty is evident the moment it's removed from the shell.

In ancient times
Frederick Kunz, an American gemologist who lived 100 years ago, believed an ancient fish-eating tribe initially appreciated the shape and luster of saltwater pearls, having discovered the gems while opening oysters for food.

Ancient civilizations in India and China mention love of pearls. India's Hindu god Krishna was credited with discovering pearls when he took one from the sea and presents it to his daughter Pandaïa on her wedding day. China's long recorded history discussed the value of pearls thousands of years ago. In the Shu King, written in 2300 B.C., a gift of pearls was described.

In Egypt, mother-of-pearl was used as decoration far back as 4000 B.C. The use of pearls was later, perhaps as late as 5 B.C., according to historians, when Persia conquered Egypt. Ancient Romans adored pearls. Roman women upholstered sofas with pearls and sewed them into their gowns. Pearls are mentioned in both the Bible and the Koran.

Pearls were found in oyster beds in the Persian Gulf, along the coasts of India, Sri Lanka, Japan and in the Red Sea. Nearly all pearls came from these sources, until Europeans began exploring the New World.

A flood of pearls
Spain began finding pearls off the shores of Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean. English colonizers and French explorers found Native Americans wearing pearls. Soon they discovered freshwater pearls in the Ohio, Mississippi and Tennessee rivers. The gems were sent back to Europe, virtually flooding the market.

The best freshwater pearls ended up into Europe's royal gem collections, misidentified as Oriental saltwater pearls. Mother-of-pearl found in the Americas was made into fashionable buttons and exported all over the world. Until plastic buttons were invented in World War II, Iowa was the center of the button market.

Luminous white saltwater pearls from the coasts off Panama and Venezuela rivaled the gems from the Persian Gulf, and black saltwater pearls from the Bay of California were as beautiful as the prized Tahitians. More pearls arrived in Spain than the country's aristocratic market could absorb, so they were traded throughout Europe. The Americas were a huge source of pearls until the 19th century when over-fishing and industrialization took their toll on the oyster and mussel beds.

Culturing brings pearls to the masses
On the other side of the world, Japanese Biologist Tokichi Nishikawa and carpenter Tatsuhei Mise had each independently figured out how to make oysters create pearls on demand by inserting a piece of oyster epithelial membrane with a nucleus of shell or metal into an oyster's body or mantle. This “culturing” caused the tissue to form a pearl sack. The sack secretes nacre to coat the nucleus, creating a pearl.

Mise received a 1907 patent for his grafting needle. When Nishikawa applied for a patent for nucleating, he realized that he and Mise had discovered the same process. In a compromise, the pair signed an agreement combining their discovery into the Mise-Nishikawa method, which is still the standard of pearl culturing today.

Kokichi Mikimoto had received patents for culturing hemispherical pearls and culturing in mantle tissue, and he could not use the Mise-Nishikawa method without invalidating his patents. He altered his earlier patent application to cover a technique to make round pearls in mantle tissue. Through this technicality, Mikimoto began an unprecedented expansion, buying rights to the Mise-Niskikawa method.

Mikimoto contributed one discovery. The original culturing method used silver and gold beads, but Mikimoto found the best success when he inserted round nuclei cut from U.S. mussel shells. Although some manufacturers still continue to test other nuclei, U.S. mussel shells have been the basis for virtually all cultured saltwater pearls for nearly a century.

As a brilliant marketer, Mikimoto revolutionized the pearl industry. He lobbied jewelers and governments to accept his cultured products as authentic gemstones. His employees designed huge pearl structures, displayed at every major international exposition. By mastering the culturing techniques, Mikimoto, then hundreds of other Japanese companies, took pearls from being unattainable to everyone but the extremely wealth to everyone.