Cultured pearl Cultured pearl A cultured pearl is a pearl created by an oyster farmer under controlled conditions. Cultured pearls can be farmed using two very different groups of bivalve mollusk: the freshwater river mussels, and the saltwater pearl oysters. A pearl is formed when the mantle tissue is injured by a parasite, an attack of a fish or another event that damages the external fragile rim of the shell of a mollusk shell bivalve or gastropod. In response, the mantle tissue of the mollusk secretes nacre into the pearl sac, a cyst that forms during the healing process. Chemically speaking, this
Pearl of Kuwait at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which closed on 19 January 2014. Its owners have made claims that it is the same pearl that is depicted in the portraits of Mary Tudor. The Pearl of Kuwait outweighs La Peregrina by a small amount. The pearl is currently on loan to the Smithsonian, who make no claims of its history or provenance. The Smithsonian does say that it is exceptional, that is weighs 64.4 carats, that its setting is 19th century in style, and that the pearl itself "recalls" those that originate from the Persian Gulf. Pearl of Kuwait