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A pearl history timeline

By The Perfect Pearls editors · Updated · How we check our facts

From the first written record to the cultured pearl farms of today, in dates.

Year What happened
2206 BC A Chinese historian writes about pearls, the earliest record GIA cites.
1513 La Peregrina is found in the Pearl Islands, Panama. It later belongs to Philip II of Spain.
1893 Kokichi Mikimoto successfully cultures a pearl in Japan.
1917 Pierre Cartier trades a double strand of natural pearls for a mansion on Fifth Avenue, New York.
1935 Commercial freshwater pearl culturing begins at Lake Biwa, Japan.
1962 Hybrid bead culturing succeeds at Lake Kasumigaura, Japan.
1969 Richard Burton buys La Peregrina at Sotheby's for $37,000 and gives it to Elizabeth Taylor.
1996 The first full-round cultured Sea of Cortez pearls are shown at the Tucson gem show.
2011 La Peregrina sells at Christie's for more than $11 million.

Sources

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