The Exotic Mississippi Pigtoe Tahitian Black Pearls

A black pearl on the shell of it's "mother", the Black-lipped oyster which is found only in Tahiti and other South Pacific Islands.


Sometimes eating great food will spark great conversation, so it was no surprize to hear a fellow unknown oyster eater gathered around an all-you-can eat oyster table on Thanksgiving Eve exclaim "Damn! I just nearly broke my tooth on a black pearl." His friend quickly informed him that the ugly piece of black grit he was holding in his hand was just a piece of shell because "all black pearls are just white pearls that have been dyed." Well that overheard conversation started me thinking about black pearls and wondering if by some chance friend of Broken Tooth might be correct. What I learned is that what I suspected was true, that black pearls are in fact "made that way" and are just as exotic as they sound. What I didn't know was the humble beginning of their exotic beauty was closer to home than I thought.
The majority of black pearls come from French Polynesia and are all from pearl farms. They are produced from only one species of oyster: the Black Lipped Oyster (Pinctada margaritifera) pictured above. Black Lipped Margariti is one of the world's largest oysters-about the size of a dinner plate. So where are the humble orgins? In order to form a cultured pearl, farmers must introduce a piece of mantle epithelium from another oyster and for Tahitian black pearls they

The humble Mississippi Pigtoe Mussel...the beauty starts here.

use the humble Pigtoe Mussel from the Mississippi River. It seems that the old idea of a grain of sand becoming a pearl is not very accurate as even natural pearls are formed around organic material such as parasites or a damaged piece of mantel. Tahitian black pearls are rarer because most sea oysters can only be nucleated with one pearl at a time, while freshwater mussels that produce white pearls are capable of handling multiple pearl implants. The South Sea oysters also live at deep depths and are not easily harvested from shallow lagoons like other oysters. It takes the harvested oysters two years to be mature enough to produce a pearl. It is extremely rare for a black oyster to produce any natural pearls at all, though it does happen.

A Tahitian pearl farm.

Black pearls are rarely black but range in color from silver, blue, lavender, and the most prized, "peacock" which is an irridescent green. Black pearls came on the European market around 1845, but were not very popular until worn by Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. They became popular in the US in the 1970's. (And Broken Tooth's friend was partly correct as a white pearl can be dyed most any color.)

So if you happen upon the rare and exotic black pearl from Tahiti, remind him that, like lots of good things, he has roots in the South.

Of all the black pearl jewelry I saw, this is my favorite. Notice the peacock coloring that is so prized.

Here is Empress Eugenie, 1845, wife of Napoleon III, and lover of black pearls. She is looking rather sad here, possibly because she has on her white pearls. There is a story that she was warned to not wear pearls on her wedding day because they are supposed to bring bad luck. Her love for her pearls won out over the warning and her life was reported to be one long tragedy. We owe her for black pearl's popularity.