Customer Reviews

CULTURED PEARLS - The First Hundred Years

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For cultured pearl and business history enthusiasts this is an excellent book with wonderful photographs and illustrations.

But be forewarned, this is more of an economic history of the growth of the cultured pearl, and not a technical document on cultivation, nor a technical manual on selection and sorting. Think breezy and light, talking about long-term developments and history against the backdrop of early Japanese dominance.

The book does fallow closely the fortunes and misfortunes of industry pioneers and entrepreneurs, and how the successful brand-name and no-name cultivators distinguished each other and evolved.

The photographs are often more informative than the narrative, ranging from National Geographic of Jacques Cousteau-like photos of idyllic coves and lagoons, to high-fashion photos of cool models wearing pearls of every description with smoldering understatement in their poses. Along the way, processing shorts of ordinary workers link the two exotic worlds.