What Gem Blends Nature and Beauty? Pearls
Originally published February 1, 2009
They're there if you look, around the necks of women thought to be among the world's most beautiful. Poets, philosophers and artists try to capture them with words or pictures. But really, it is about just getting lost in their deep luster.
People have been using pearls since ancient times to adorn themselves. And over the course of that long history, a lot of traditions have been created. The one we still celebrate today is about giving the woman you love pearls on your 30th wedding anniversary.
"I think it's only natural that they evolved into one of the foremost symbols of the wedding anniversary," Peter Schneirla, a gemologist at Tiffany's on Fifth Avenue in New York City, told CBS News Correspondent Barry Petersen.
Schneirla's a true fan of the pearl.
"They're our only gem material that comes out of the box ready to be worn, meaning that there's no additional interaction by man necessary to reveal their beauty," Schneirla told Petersen.
But while Queen Elizabeth could afford all the expensive natural pearls she wanted, it took the persistent son of a Japanese noodle maker named Kokichi Mikimoto to invent affordable cultured pearls with a big thank you to the United States.
What he discovered in the 1890s is used to this day. The single best material for creating the nucleus of a pearl comes from a Mississippi River clam called the pig toe. How? Oysters find the nucleus an irritant and begin coating it. In two or three years, a pearl is born. And a rare 5 percent make it Mikimoto's Tokyo showroom.
That's where Yasua Suzuki has been adorning women for 40 years.
One string of pearls in the showroom is worth more than $50,000. Why?
"Because it's so difficult to get them together, so you've matched them all perfectly, yes, perfectly," Suzuki told Petersen.
And it was to Mikimoto's that Joe DiMaggio brought Marilyn Monroe on their Japanese honeymoon.
"Mr. DiMaggio, the baseball player, bought a very lovely graduated pearl necklace for her," Suzuki told Petersen.
From the 1950s when Harriet ruled the kitchen in pearls in "Ozzie and Harriet," to modern working woman Carrie Bradshaw from "Sex and the City" who finds them the perfect accessory, the look has been classic.
But now, as pearl enthusiast Kuniko Katsukata explains, there are new designs for the women who want it all, formal and friendly.
"These pearls are from my mother," Katsukata told Petersen through an interpreter. "Adding this bracelet makes it more special and I can wear them all the time."
Back to tradition, our first ladies like stylish Jackie Kennedy and Barbara Bush wore pearls . . . and now Michelle Obama, whose husband often harkens back to President Lincoln, who gave pearls to his wife Mary Todd.
Black pearls from Tahiti are very popular right now. Suzuki presented his wife with cultured black pearls on their 30th anniversary. So we asked, what should Mr. Obama give the first lady when they reach 30 years of marriage?
His advice: they should be matched and there should be many.
"If we make them with three or four strands - very long necklace - that is really lovely on her, and she will be very happy with this," Suzuki told Petersen.
Think of it this way, gentlemen. Maybe you can't take credit for nature's beauty, but he who gives them on that 30th anniversary can surely win her heart all over again.
By CBS News Correspondent Barry Petersen