She still wears the pearl as the focal point of what’s been characterized as “a lavish necklace.” It was sold at auction in 1969 to actor Richard Burton, who purchased it as a gift for his wife, Elizabeth Taylor.
La Peregrina remained with European royalty for centuries and for a while was owned by Napoleon III (1808-1873). He’s supposed to have given it to Mary Tudor (1516-1558), daughter of England’s Henry VIII, as a wedding gift, but other accounts have Queen Margarita, wife of Phillip III, wearing it in England at a celebration in 1605. La Peregrina (“The Pilgrim”) is a 203.84-grain (50.96-ct.) perfectly symmetrical drop-shape pearl whose provenance begins with Prince Phillip II of Spain (1527-1598). To prove his worthiness and loyalty, Balboa sent back gold and pearls to Spain’s King Ferdinand.Ī decade or so later, one of the world’s most famous pearls made its way to Spain from the New World. The written history of Central American pearls begins with Vasco Nuñez de Balboa (1475-1519), who in 1513 traveled across Panama to become the first Spaniard to reach the Pacific Ocean. Tribe members enjoyed wearing and trading pearls and shell centuries before the Europeans arrived, but it was the Spanish conquistadors and explorers who made the pearls world famous. Pearls, which have been found all along the Central American coast, were discovered by the pre-Columbian Aztecs and Zapotecs as well as the Yaquis and Seris tribes. The pearls are grown in Bacochibampo Bay, near the city of Guaymas in the state of Sonora. They are grown mostly in rainbow-lipped oysters and a few indigenous Panamic black-lipped oysters (Pinctada mazatlanica, which is similar to the Tahitian Pinctada margaritifera). The cultured Mexican blacks, trademarked “Sea of Cortez Cultured Pearls,” have a coloration similar to that of Tahitian pearls. New this year are coppery and purple tones.”
He says the colors are strikingly different from those seen in 2001, “with almost no golden pearls. “This harvest shows more colors than previous harvests, only including pearls from the rainbow-lipped oysters Pteria sterna,” says company co-founder Enrique Arizmendi Castillo, M.Sc., a pearl culture specialist. Perlas del Mar de Cortez, the first modern commercial cultured saltwater pearl farm in North America, has harvested its fourth crop of pearls, and the results are dramatic.
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