During the 19th century in Europe, Especially England's luxury markets
created a huge demand for items made from "Mother of pearl." Mother of
pearl refers to the nacre layered on the inside the oyster's shell.
Nacre is the substance used by an oyster to form a pearl. Mother of
pearl was used for jewelry, buttons, inlay, and even carved gaming
chips for the aristocracy in England and Europe.

Only one out of every 15,000 to 20,000 oysters opened is found a
"natural" pearl. The natural pearls' rarity and beauty has been adored
as "The Queen of Pearls." They were used in the jewelry of the world's
royalty. The most famous of these natural black pearls was called
"Azurai" It was the centerpiece of a necklace that was part of the
Russian crown jewels.

Unfortunately, demand was so high that all of the accessible black-
lipped oyster populations were severely depleted. Divers had to dive
deeper and deeper to find the oysters, until finally the there were so
few oysters left that the trade could not be sustained.

Today, thanks to decades of careful work by Polynesian growers, enough
pearls are available that we can make them into necklaces, earrings
and pendants.

The Tahitian black pearl has become reasonably popular during the past
several years. It has a generally black-green appearance and often
carries with it a cast of a particular color.

Tahitian Pearls come from the Pinctada margaritifera, the black-lipped
oyster.The dark shell of this species of mollusk hints at the
breathtaking natural black color of the pearls it produces. While
described as Black Pearls, Tahitian pearls actually come in a range of
body colors

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