Archive for the 'Museum Exhibits of Cortez Pearls' Category
Well, it took a few years for our Cortez Pearls to arrive back to our farm in Guaymas, but they did arrive safely and -most importantly- with the experience of “seasoned travellers”. The pearls were all produced using our native “Rainbow Lipped Pearl Oyster” (Pteria sterna)… a very special creature capable of producing the most varied colors and overtones.
This was the lucky group of cultured pearls from the 2000 harvest consisting of:
- 4 loose pearls (sizes from 9 to 10 mm)
- 8 Mabe pearls (in different shapes: from “classic” -hemispherical- to blister-drops)
- 12 Keshi pearls (sizes from 5 to 8 mm)
The pearls were destined for the “Pearls: A Natural History” museum display at New York City’s “American Museum of Natural History” (AMNH). This was an incredibly successful exhibit that opened on October 13th, 2001, and closed on April 14th of 2002… but after this date it went on a “Grand World Tour” to cities like Chicago, Paris, London, Tokyo and Sidney. The Museum produced a book aptly named “Pearls: A Natural History” under the authorship of Neil H. Landman & Paula M. Mikkelsen (a splendid book with very nice photographs) that covers the most important aspects that surround our favorite organic gem: history, lore & culture, biology of the creatures that produce pearls and even its gemological attributes. One of my favorite pearl books written in this Century.
The only thing I did not like much about the book is that our pearls are not prominently featured… wish I had a better digital camera those days (had a very good Sony Mavica with 640 x 480 resolution)… guess the book needed better photos. Mea culpa!
Anyway… the pearls are back home -but no longer as naive but as more experienced pearls- and will reside inside a special display case at our “Customer Attention Center” in Guaymas so they will continue to greet our visitors in all the languages they learned. So, when in Guaymas… come say “Hello” to our beautiful traveling pearls…
I believe that throughout the years we have been able to rely on the helping hands of many people in order to continue our journey trough uncharted waters. Yes, we have been fortunate enough to have found more friendly faces on our path than sour and dour ones, but this is not the Time -although it is indeed a good place- to Thank everyone that has made it possible for us to survive in this exceedingly difficult task of “reviving” the Legend of the Sea of Cortez Pearl, but rest be assured: we will give proper thanks to everyone. Now, since this is a very recent event we do owe a BIG THANK YOU to Monsieur Hubert Bari (French Gemologist and Curator of the Pearl Exhibit at Doha, Qatar), for his invitation to join him at Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art for his “Pearls” exhibit. Our “Sea of Cortez Pearls” are now part of a very exclusive group of pearls (including many fantastic pieces of pearl jewelry and rare natural pearls), amongst which the visitor may admire the following:
- 5 “AA” grade Cortez Mabe Pearls
- 5 Natural Pearls (measuring 4-7 mm)
- 10 “Gem Quality” Cortez Cultured Pearls (9-11 mm)
- 1 blue colored Cortez Pearl Ring, set in an 18K Gold & Fair Trade Diamonds design by TriGem Designs.
Enrique Arizmendi, our General Director, traveled to Doha to be at the inauguration of the Museum Exhibit and also for another grand event: the presentation of Monsieur Bari’s and David Lam’s new “Pearls” book (to be sold at stores this summer). The book is surely to become the most sought-after reference book in all Pearldom: its information is both detailed and scientifically precise, but written in layman’s language. It also has some of the most beautiful photos of pearls, paintings and pearling I have ever seen in one single book, the diagrams are crisp and detailed. A masterpiece with over 330 pages and 3 kilos in weight. A most serious contender for Elisabeth’s Strack’s “Perlen” book.
This superb book includes a special chapter called “Gentlemen Farmers” that includes a more detailed explanation on the operation of several important pearling ventures such as: Japan’s “Mikimoto Pearls”, Indonesia’s “Atlas South Sea Pearls”, the Philippines’ “Jewelmer” and Mexico’s “Perlas del Mar de Cortez”. The book points out how our operation is the only one in the world that has been able to utilize a Pteria genus pearl oyster (as opposed to the Pinctada species employed by all other salt-water pearl farmers).
Also, I wanted to also thank our photographer friends Paco de la Rosa of Cancún and Alberto Tirado of Guaymas for the excellent photos they took and that now embellish this incredible book. Kudos!!!