La Peregrina
- Found: in 1513, in the Pearl Islands, Panama, and brought to Spain.
- Size: originally 223.8 grains (55.95 carats); after drilling and cleaning in 1913, 203.84 grains.
- Royal owners: Philip II of Spain made it a Spanish crown jewel. Joseph Bonaparte took it when he left Spain, and his nephew Napoleon III later sold it to the Marquess of Abercorn.
- Elizabeth Taylor: Richard Burton bought it at Sotheby's in 1969 for $37,000 and gave it to her. She had Cartier reset it with pearls, diamonds and rubies.
- 2011: sold at Christie's on its Cartier necklace for more than $11 million including fees, against a $3 million estimate.
A common story says Mary I of England owned it; the pearl was first recorded in 1579, 21 years after her death.
The pearls that bought a mansion
In 1917, Pierre Cartier traded a double strand of natural pearls for a mansion on Fifth Avenue, New York (GIA). It shows how valuable natural pearls were before cultured pearls arrived.
The first cultured pearl
Kokichi Mikimoto successfully cultured a pearl in Japan in 1893 (GIA).
See the full pearl history timeline.
