![]() Still, the industry struggled until the 1990s, when Nick Paspaley increased production at a number of his farms and ones he acquired. A change in government policy and pearler Arthur Streeter helped jumpstart the industry, and successful harvests followed in 1957. A law protecting the mother-of-pearl industry, though, kept Australia’s pearling industry in limbo until 1948. ![]() In 1906, England’s William Saville-Kent (1845 – 1908) successfully cultivated Pinctada maxima. Mikimoto experimented with Pinctada maxima and Pinctada margaritifera oysters in the early 1900s, but the cultured pearling industry began with the first commercial pearling farm in Western Australia in 1956 and in Burma, which produced its first harvest of Pinctada maxima in 1958. The pearling regions of the South Seas stretch between the southern coast of Southeast Asia and the northern coast of Australia, and extend up to the Philippines. Ready to set sail and learn about these treasures? Today, we dive into South Sea cultured pearls, Tahitian cultured pearls, and the rise of China as a leading cultured pearl producer. In part one of our series on cultured pearls we discussed how three Japanese men created techniques to produce the first akoya cultured pearls, which gave birth to the modern cultured pearl industry. How this happened and what the future holds is a fascinating story. In the past century, pearls have gone from some of the most expensive and rarest objects to jewelry that many of us can afford.
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