If you've been caught up in the Regency wave, you might be looking into adding more pearls to your jewelry ... were cultured, or $4,000 or so if the pearls were natural. Most of the freshwater ...

Before the creation of cultured pearls in the early 1900s, natural pearls were so rare and expensive that they were reserved almost exclusively for the noble and very rich. A jewelry item that ...

Most cultured freshwater pearls are composed entirely of nacre, just like their natural freshwater and natural saltwater counterparts. Throughout most of this century, the Japanese dominated the ...

South Sea pearls are the largest cultured-pearl variety ... whereas more common freshwater oysters can take as little as three months and create dozens of pearls. This long cultivation process ...