Mangareva Beauties

Jacques said:
Icyjade, I think you are correct in concluding that perhaps some of these unique colors, like the deep peacocks above, are signature pearls from Managareva. I haven't been able to find another similar looking pearl from anywhere else, but that is not to say they do not exist.
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Hi Jacques, thanks for replying. I have a few pearls and I'm curious if they present a particular area or type that I could perhaps look out for when buying pearls next time. Hopefully if you or any pearl experts can chip in pls...

The bigger pair of drops here:
image.jpgimage.jpg
Really stunning colours in real life. I was literally stunned (in a good way) when I first saw them. I'll love to know where they could be from so that I can look for more like them...

A multicolor rope. I don't see the colours represented in this strand often, so I'm also just curious if they could be from a particular region/island:
image.jpgimage.jpg

All photos taken at home, shaded light, using iPhone 5 (the black rectangle reflection in the pics) and with no touch ups.
 
Icy Jade, that strand is certainly to be revered for its perfection, in roundness and amazing colors!

Justin Hunter's pearl farm in Fiji is hoping to influence the production of pearls in the brighter colors. Exactly how is unknown and whether any of those pearls were from him, I wouldn't know. My understanding is that some years a harvest tends to produce more of certain shades, for example, perhaps more pistachio, or more dark colors or more silvers. Rounds and near rounds are a small percent of the harvest, but of course, extremely desirable.

Kamoka Pearls are the ones I am most familiar with, this range of colors is represented in their harvests.

Most likely these spectacular pearls were "cherry picked" from large lots of pearls, perhaps even gathered over a few years, to compile such a strand. What jeweler are these pearls from?
 
Thank you JerseyPearl and Pattye.

The 'wave' strand n drops are from a vendor based in Singapore (with orbit clasps from PP). He sources his pearls from Japan/Kobe I think, so you are probably right that it could be from several harvests... The strand is 7-14 mm by the way. This is sort of my holy grail for round Tahitians. I'm usually more attracted to baroques but this strand blew me away.
 
Icyjade, those are some spectacular pearls you posted! I love the color. Those two loose drops are truly gorgeous and very bright. Look at those rainbows - the graduation of color on each pearl! :)
For the lighter strand below, the more pastel colored one. It is really lovely as well, nice and round, clean surface quality, and interestingly matched. Well done!
Great quality.
My kind of colorful pearls those ones!
Thanks for posting.

For their provenance, it would be impossible for me to say where either strand is from, but those drops are so bright and colorful, they look like very high quality Mangareva to me, but again they could be top pearls from a harvest, say in the Tuamotus, who knows for sure! If it wasn't too long ago, ask the vendor, he probably knows, it would be fun to know.
 
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Thanks Katbran! But... Ah I really don't dare to claim to have the best collection, not when I'm constantly tempted by other people's collections (like Baby Nurses tdf akoyas...). I know I've been very lucky to meet some beautiful pearls (and acquire them). :)


Jacques said:
For their provenance, it would be impossible for me to say where either strand is from, but those drops are so bright and colorful, they look like very high quality Mangareva to me, but again they could be top pearls from a harvest, say in the Tuamotus, who knows for sure! If it wasn't too long ago, ask the vendor, he probably knows, it would be fun to know.
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Thanks Jacques! I did ask but the vendor didn't seem to know. Maybe I'll ask again when I see him. I'm hopeful of getting a beautiful pendant to match the drops one day... If anyone knows where to find similar pearls pls let me know! I'm off to google these exotic locations now. :)
 
Icyjade, your large Tahitian drops are so stunning. They have to be the best Tahitians I have ever *seen*.
 
I've been reading a book I borrowed from my library, Pacific Passage by Thomas J. Watson, Jr. It was originally published as Logbook for Helen in 1980.

The author was the president and later the CEO of IBM but after a heart attack in 1970, he decided to do some traveling. The book is about those travels and has many photographs. It is in print and sold by Mystic Seaport Museum.

Chapter 8 is "Les Isles Oubliees: The Gambiers and Mangareva". (This means The Forgotten Islands.)
Mangareva has a sad history. In 1834 a French Priest named Honor? Laval arrived and essentially became a dictator. He rigidly imposed his religion on their culture in such a way that the native culture and population were both devastated. Natives were forced to build a cathedral and other buildings and were thrown in a dungeon if they didn't comply. Word got out finally and Laval was removed in 1864 by a French Tribunal, but the harm was done.

Laval wrote detailed anthropological accounts of the culture that are respected for their quality. Cannibalism was going on when he arrived on Mangareva, and apparently it was a violent society. In his misguided zeal he probably thought he was improving their lives when he smashed their idols and imposed his values.

The author quotes the Tahitian tribunal that removed Laval: " ' With his tyrranical spirit and hot-headed character, isolated from the world and swept up by his exaggerated religious ideas, this man wants to save souls at any price, and to that end (he) sees all methods are good.' " (p. 96)

This paragraph moved me:

"As we wandered across the island ...we looked in vain for signs of traditional Polynesian culture. Pushing through some pretty berry bushes, we found coffee beans growing wild where once the islanders had cultivated them. And where were the familiar canoes? Although we saw a few plywood outriggers with outboard motors, the Mangarevans apparently no longer made the traditional lagoon canoes we later saw on most of the other islands. It seemed as if this demoralized people had lost interest in passing on any of the skills that once helped them thrive." (p. 96)

I hope and trust that the people of Mangareva are finally improving their lives by means of the perliculture now going on there.
 
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Pearl Dreams, thanks for sharing this. I have traveled quite bit through the South Pacific, and it seems that this same kind of scenario has happened over and over, in many countries. Look at Fiji, or Hawaii for example. The colonists basically came in and imposed their gods in the cruelest manner.
That church that was built in Mangareva still stands to this day. I have also read that they were cannibals there, and they definitely were in Fiji as well. But is that a reason to impose, with violence and tyranny, your set of values on people completely different than you, just because you don't agree with their cultural traditions? I think not.
Today, the situation has just evolved. I mean, those local people living in the Gambiers have lived through some interesting times with the French nuclear tests happening pretty much on the neighboring atoll of Mururoa. But the one thing that strikes me about these people is how warm-hearted they are, and how much 'joie de vivre' they carry in their hearts.
Their smiles are genuine. It's remarkable that they are still this way, given their convoluted history with colonist France.
 
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It sounds as though their hardships have made them resilient. I'm sure we all wish them well.
 
Jacques! I can't stop looking! Gorgeous colors! Luster!
 
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