These were of course natural pearls, formed entirely without human intervention whereby an intruder or parasite entered a mollusk, and settled inside the shell. In response the invading particle was covered repeatedly with a substance called "nacre", thereby creating a pearl.

It was at the beginning of this century that pearls began to be "cultured" by implanting a shell bead neucleus inside the mollusk., putting the beauty of these treasures from the deep within everyone’s grasp.

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