--- title: "What Is the History of Pearls?" description: "The history of pearls, from ancient natural pearl fisheries to the first cultured pearls and the modern industry, with a dated, sourced timeline of events." canonical_url: "https://learnaboutpearls.com/history/" last_updated: "2026-11-04" last_reviewed: "2026-10-27" reviewed_by: "Simon" publisher: "Unique Pearl" publisher_disclosure: "Learn About Pearls is published by Unique Pearl, a pearl jeweler." --- # What Is the History of Pearls? **Short answer:** People have prized natural pearls as symbols of wealth and status for thousands of years, fishing them in the Persian Gulf, off Sri Lanka, in China's rivers and lakes and in Europe's rivers, and later in the Americas. Japanese pioneers produced whole cultured pearls around the start of the twentieth century. Cultured pearls became commercially important in the 1920s, as natural pearl production declined, and culturing spread worldwide from the 1930s on. The history of pearls is two stories: thousands of years of [natural pearls](https://learnaboutpearls.com/glossary/#natural-pearl) fished from the sea and rivers, and little more than a century of [cultured pearls](https://learnaboutpearls.com/glossary/#cultured-pearl). ## Natural pearls in the ancient and early modern world People have coveted natural pearls as symbols of wealth and status for thousands of years, and royal families and wealthy citizens in Asia, Europe and elsewhere passed them down the generations. [1] Until 1492, some of the main sources were the Persian Gulf, the waters off Sri Lanka, the rivers and lakes of China and the rivers of Europe. [1] Pearls found in the Americas, off present-day Venezuela and Panama, raised demand in Europe after Columbus’s voyages. [1] ![Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I in a gown covered with pearl-studded bows, long ropes of pearls around her neck and pearls in her red hair. Her hand rests on a globe, and sea battles show through the windows behind her.](/_astro/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i.4WXymOha_Z8HIe9.jpg?dpl=dpl_HtGtH9KVXNVAK9cLZJJhqCYEKmh2) Elizabeth I of England in the Armada Portrait, with long ropes of pearls, pearls in her hair and pearls on her gown. Image: Unknown artist, the “Armada Portrait” of Elizabeth I, Royal Museums Greenwich. [Public domain](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/), via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Armada_Portrait_Elizabeth_I_Queens_House.jpg). Pearls also gathered meaning. Many cultures linked them with the moon because of their round shape. In ancient China pearls were believed to protect against fire and fire-breathing dragons, and in Europe they stood for modesty, chastity and purity. [1] The page [famous pearls](https://learnaboutpearls.com/history/famous-pearls/) tells the stories of some celebrated pearls. ## The first cultured pearls The first steps toward culturing pearls were taken in China hundreds of years ago, and Japanese pioneers produced whole cultured pearls around the beginning of the twentieth century. [1] Kokichi Mikimoto grew hemispherical cultured pearls in 1893, [2] and the method for whole, round cultured pearls, with a bead placed in the oyster’s [gonad](https://learnaboutpearls.com/glossary/#gonad), came from Tatsuhei Mise and Tokichi Nishikawa. [3] Cultured pearls became commercially important in the 1920s, at about the time natural pearl production began to decline. [1] From the 1930s through the 1980s, pearl culturing diversified and spread to countries around the world. [1] The page [who invented cultured pearls](https://learnaboutpearls.com/history/cultured-pearl-revolution/) tells the story in full. ## Key dates A few of the key dates are below, each dated as precisely as its sources allow. The [pearl timeline](https://learnaboutpearls.com/history/timeline/) has every dated event. 1. **About 8,500 years ago**: The oldest known pearl ornaments. In 2019, archaeologists reported pearls used as adornments in Baja California Sur, Mexico, radiocarbon dated to 8,500 years old, the oldest reported so far. [4] 2. **1498**: Columbus meets people wearing pearls on his third voyage. On his third (1498) and fourth (1502) voyages, Christopher Columbus met people adorned with natural pearls. The pearl sources he found, in present-day Venezuela and Panama, raised demand in Europe. [1, 5] 3. **1893**: Kokichi Mikimoto grows his first cultured pearls. Kokichi Mikimoto successfully cultured pearls in Japan. They were hemispherical (half) pearls. [2, 6] 4. **1907**: The technique for whole, round cultured pearls is developed. CIBJO dates the technique for spherical, whole cultured pearls to 1907. A 2007 Gems & Gemology review credits Tatsuhei Mise and Tokichi Nishikawa with the basic method still used for bead-cultured pearls, a bead inserted into the gonad with a piece of mantle tissue. [2, 3] 5. **1921-05**: Round Japanese cultured pearls surprise the London trade. A London evening paper reported that spherical Japanese pearls with mother-of-pearl beads at their centers had reached the London market and deceived experienced dealers in Hatton Garden. [7] 6. **1930s**: The Gulf's natural pearl trade contracts. From 1850 to 1930 the Persian Gulf supplied perhaps 70–80% of the world's natural pearls. From the 1930s the natural pearl market contracted, because of the Great Depression, the discovery of oil in the Gulf and the arrival of cultured pearls. [2, 8] 7. **1954**: South Sea pearl culturing begins at Kuri Bay, Western Australia. Pearls Pty., a venture of Tokuichi Kuribayashi and Alan Gerdau, began culturing pearls in Pinctada maxima at what is now Kuri Bay. A larger bead method let the farm harvest after only 18 months. [3] 8. **1961**: French Polynesia runs its first black pearl culturing trial. The government's Fisheries Service ran a trial on Bora Bora with two Japanese firms. It produced good black pearls but had no commercial follow-up; small farms later formed the GIE Poe Rava Nui cooperative, in 1979. [3] 9. **1966**: Japan's cultured pearl production peaks. Official Japanese production reached an all-time high of 39,522 kan, or 148.2 tonnes, though some estimates put it far higher, at about 65,000 kan. Sales and production then fell sharply at the end of the decade. [3] 10. **2017-07-18**: French Polynesia's pearl law ends the mandatory nacre check. Loi du pays 2017-16 ended the government's mandatory quality control, which had required at least 0.8 mm of nacre since 2005, and made a nacre evaluation voluntary. It defines the Tahitian cultured pearl as naturally colored and untreated. [9, 10] ## Start here 1. [The cultured pearl revolution](https://learnaboutpearls.com/history/cultured-pearl-revolution/) 2. [Famous pearls](https://learnaboutpearls.com/history/famous-pearls/) ## Every page in this section - [The cultured pearl revolution](https://learnaboutpearls.com/history/cultured-pearl-revolution/) How cultured pearls began in China and Japan, and how pearl farming spread around the world. - [Famous pearls](https://learnaboutpearls.com/history/famous-pearls/) Famous pearls and their stories, from ancient Rome to the present day. - [Pearl timeline](https://learnaboutpearls.com/history/timeline/) Every dated event in the Learn About Pearls timeline, with filters by period. ## References 1. Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Gem Encyclopedia. Pearl History and Lore. [Source](https://www.gia.edu/pearl-history-lore) · [Archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20260612145202/https://www.gia.edu/pearl-history-lore) 2. CIBJO, The World Jewellery Confederation (2021). CIBJO Retailers' Reference Guide: Pearls. [Source](https://cibjo.org/rrg/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/CIBJO%20RRG%20%28Pearls%29.pdf) · [Archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20261025235321/https://cibjo.org/rrg/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/CIBJO%20RRG%20\(Pearls\).pdf) 3. Russell Shor (2007). From Single Source to Global Free Market: The Transformation of the Cultured Pearl Industry. [Source](https://www.gia.edu/doc/Fall-2007-Gems-Gemology-Cultured-Pearl-Industry.pdf) · DOI [10.5741/GEMS.43.3.200](https://doi.org/10.5741/GEMS.43.3.200) · [Archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20261025235723/https://www.gia.edu/doc/Fall-2007-Gems-Gemology-Cultured-Pearl-Industry.pdf) 4. CIBJO Pearl Commission (2025). CIBJO Guides Describing and Classifying Natural and Cultured Pearls, the Producing Molluscs & Responsible Pearling. [Source](https://cibjo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Final-Guide-October-2025-v2-COMPRESSED.pdf) · [Archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20260212155210/https://cibjo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Final-Guide-October-2025-v2-COMPRESSED.pdf) 5. CIBJO, The World Jewellery Confederation, Pearl Commission (2026). The CIBJO Pearl Book (Pearl Blue Book) 2026. [Source](https://cibjo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Pearl-Blue-Book-2026-.pdf) · [Archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20261025235254/https://cibjo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Pearl-Blue-Book-2026-.pdf) 6. Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Gem Encyclopedia. Pearl. [Source](https://www.gia.edu/pearl) · [Archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20260909031512/https://www.gia.edu/pearl) 7. H. Lyster Jameson (1921). The Japanese Artificially Induced Pearl. [Source](https://www.nature.com/articles/107396a0) · DOI [10.1038/107396a0](https://doi.org/10.1038/107396a0) · [Archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20250417121447/https://www.nature.com/articles/107396a0) 8. GIA staff (2025). Converge 2025 Speaker Presentations. [Source](https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/winter-2025-gemnews-converge-speakers) · [Archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20261025235910/https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/winter-2025-gemnews-converge-speakers) 9. Assemblée de la Polynésie française (Journal officiel de la Polynésie française) (2017). Loi du pays n° 2017-16 du 18 juillet 2017 réglementant les activités professionnelles liées à la production et la commercialisation des produits perliers et nacriers en Polynésie française. [Source](https://www.ressources-marines.gov.pf/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2017/10/Loi-du-Pays-n%C2%B0-2017-16-du-18_07_2017-Activit%C3%A9s-professionnelles-perli.pdf) · [Archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20261026000126/https://www.ressources-marines.gov.pf/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2017/10/Loi-du-Pays-n%C2%B0-2017-16-du-18_07_2017-Activit%C3%A9s-professionnelles-perli.pdf) 10. Chambre territoriale des comptes de la Polynésie française (2021). Rapport d'observations définitives : Politique publique en matière des ressources marines (perliculture), exercices 2015 et suivants. [Source](https://www.ccomptes.fr/sites/default/files/2023-10/PFR2021016.pdf) · [Archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20261026000246/https://www.ccomptes.fr/sites/default/files/2023-10/PFR2021016.pdf) **Written by:** Learn About Pearls editors **Fact-checked:** Learn About Pearls editors, October 27, 2026 **Reviewed by:** Simon, October 27, 2026 **First published:** November 4, 2026 **Publisher:** [Unique Pearl](https://learnaboutpearls.com/about/), a pearl jeweler **Revision history** 1. November 4, 2026: First published. First published **How to cite this page** **APA:** Learn About Pearls editors. (2026). _What Is the History of Pearls?_ Learn About Pearls. https://learnaboutpearls.com/history/ **MLA:** “What Is the History of Pearls?” _Learn About Pearls_, Unique Pearl, November 4, 2026, learnaboutpearls.com/history/. **Chicago:** Learn About Pearls editors. “What Is the History of Pearls?” Learn About Pearls. Unique Pearl. Last modified November 4, 2026. https://learnaboutpearls.com/history/. **BibTeX:** `@misc{lap-history, title = {What Is the History of Pearls?}, author = {{Learn About Pearls editors}}, year = {2026}, howpublished = {\url{https://learnaboutpearls.com/history/}}, note = {Learn About Pearls, published by Unique Pearl}}` Quoting with attribution and a link is welcome. See [how to cite and reuse](https://learnaboutpearls.com/cite/). **Suggest a correction** ## Related pages - [Natural pearls](https://learnaboutpearls.com/natural-pearls/): Pearls that formed with no human help, why they are rare, and how labs confirm them. - [Basics](https://learnaboutpearls.com/basics/): What pearls are, what they are made of, and how natural, cultured and imitation pearls differ.