'Black Lip' vs. 'Black-Lipped': Saccostrea echinata

[smetzler]

Passing through Ft Lauderdale on business I wandered into the jewelry store next to the hotel on Las Olas Blvd and saw a shell and numerous mabe pieces from the 'black lip oyster', genus saccostrea echinata. This is an edible rock oyster native to NE Australia, with a brilliant mother of pearl shell nacre of significant beauty, ranging silver/white/cream with notable iridescence. The origin was announced to be 'near Hawaii.'

A search of Pearl-Guide forums does not yield prior mention of this oyster, or of any pearl or MOP products obtained from it. I can't find an internet photo and may just have to purchase a piece to post here—unless someone knows something and can fill us in?

Steve

[Josh]

Hi Steve, I'm sure you know that our beloved mother of Tahitian pearls, Pinctada Margaritifera is the real Black Lip Oyster. Keep us up to date on your findings please.

[smetzler]

Josh,

Great to hear from you here, and like everyone else look forward to meeting someday.

'Black-Lipped' vs. 'Black Lip', quite easy to research on the internet, S. Echinata is a smaller edible oyster (about 6") native to NE Australia (Hervey Bay and to the north), and without a doubt carries the moniker 'Black Lip.' Shell has a very distinctive black and apparently non-nacreous border (stark boundary, as though it were two pieces joined), with a brilliant and fairly thick nacre middle. Hopefully I'll be able to get into the store again and take a photo, as a shell w/mabe is used for display with the pieces.

Steve

[Josh]

Steve, very cool. Thanks for opening our collective mind to a new black lip. Can't wait to see what it looks like.

[smetzler]

Josh and everyone,

Success! The stores along Las Olas Boulevard stay open until 10pm, so I was able to make it in for a closer look. Below are photos of the shell (with blister) front and back, and a sample pendant showing the line between white and black portions (a little green sandwiched between), also a blister. Not bad for an edible beast!

These are now making the rounds at jewelry shows (anyone stumble on them in Tucson?), shipped from Hawaii, but it must be relatively recent since the pearl trade does not yet seem to be generally aware of a black-lipped 'interloper'.


Steve

[smetzler]

One more tidbit: To celebrate my relationship with a 'new' oyster, I did leave the store with the silver bracelet and pendant, below (it's a montage—the pendant was a luckier shot as customers stood in line behind me). The blisters didn't do much for me, I suppose. I like the way each piece uses the contrasting portions of the shell. And Peridot, as my wife's birthstone, was the clincher—am amazed at how it reinforces the green lights in the MOP.

[jerin]

Steve,
the bracelet is very nice as well as the pendant.

[wild onion]

Steve -
Seeing the picture on the left of the mabe-in-shell makes me wonder if the mabe I bought (and posted about a few weeks ago) is from this oyster and not pteria sterna. The colors seem very similar, and there is the Hawaii connection. Unfortunately, I don't think there is any way for me to verify the origin. Could I ask what the price range for a finished mabe piece was? Is it in the ballpark of other mabe pearls?

[smetzler]

Steve -
Seeing the picture on the left of the mabe-in-shell makes me wonder if the mabe I bought (and posted about a few weeks ago) is from this oyster and not pteria sterna. The colors seem very similar, and there is the Hawaii connection. Unfortunately, I don't think there is any way for me to verify the origin. Could I ask what the price range for a finished mabe piece was? Is it in the ballpark of other mabe pearls?

I also think that there could be similarities in certain pieces to Pteria Sterna. The jeweler did not know pearls (what's new) but his information was that these were not mabe, rather natural blisters, and not the result of culturing. I did look at a couple in strong light and could not see a nucleus through quite translucent nacre. So Pearl-Guide to the rescue?

The finished silver piece shown was $180.

Steve

[jshepherd]

The blisters appear much to round to be natural. Natural blisters are typically random growths with no clear formation.

The pearl is a blister, however. A mabe pearl is simply a blister that has been removed, fillled and capped.

About the shell... my first instinct was that the jeweler was possible confusing Saccostrea echinata and Pinctada mazatlanica. Both of these shells share the popular name Black-Lip with Pinctada Margaritifera. But as far as I know only the latter has ever been used in perliculture.

But the picture does not look like Mazatlanica, but rather Pteria - which is used in blister pearl production. It looks to me that this is a cultured blister pearl either from Mexico or Asia. But I do not believe it is some new shell and I think the jeweler was misinformed.

[jshepherd]

I have found a picture of a few Saccostrea echinata, courtesy of Townsville, Australia.




The shell from the jeweler is definitely different. The hinge looks like a classic Pteria sterna but definitely not Saccostrea echinata. Sorry, I don't think we have a new pearl mollusk here...

[Josh]

Steve, I met the guy who made the piece you bought. You can find him on www.martahowell.com. It's an empty site but the contact info is there. Nice guy with a good idea.
Those Saccostrea Echinatas look tasty.

[smetzler]

Steve, I met the guy who made the piece you bought. You can find him on www.martahowell.com. It's an empty site but the contact info is there. Nice guy with a good idea.
Those Saccostrea Echinatas look tasty.

Josh/Jeremy, Great job, although I think the nail is not yet in the coffin. I've been on the road all day but certainly was intending to follow these steps, including getting the source from the jeweler. No such need any longer!

First of all, the shell clearly is of sufficient interest to merit this research. But most of all, why would ANYONE think 'black lip' would be an aid to promotion when P. Sterna already possesses the moniker 'Rainbow lip', and in the Rainbow State, nonetheless? The only possible explanation is that they had their mind set on selling me a bracelet…

Who is going to pop the question to Marta Howell?

Steve

[jshepherd]

I think it may be confusion on the part of the seller. The rainbow-lip is known for producing "black" pearls; black in the sense that Tahitian pearls are black. I think it is easy to confuse the shells and who knows how the seller sourced them. They may have played telephone all the way from Doug's farm

[Sueki]

Beautiful bracelet and pendant, Steve, just beautiful.
And a stroke of genius to add those peridots, they take the pearl to another level.