The pearl is called the Queen of jewels and it has been fascinating people for thousands of years. Despite the huge popularity, there are many interesting facts about pearls, which most of us have never thought about or just haven't heard of. I myself love pearls very much. I like to look at pearls and feel their soft coolness. For me, every pearl is a whole universe — the one and only!

I have studied a lot of information about pearls and would like to share with you the most interesting facts. Did you know that...

1. Pearls are fruits of life of living beings. Although a pearl is classified as a gemstone, it is significantly different from all others and is the only stone extracted from the shells of some mollusks. All other precious stones are formed in the earth's crust when magma cools under high pressure.

2. Natural pearl is the rarest gemstone in the world. As of statistics, there is only one pearl from 10 000 wild shellfish grown in the natural environment. The popularity of pearl jewellery was growing from year to year and in the early 20th century, due to the barbaric scale of production, entire populations of shells-pearls were destroyed in the waters of the ocean.

3. The first artificial round pearl was grown in Japan. Despite numerous attempts to grow pearls, the Japanese Kokichi Mikimoto is considered a creator of the cultured pearl. In 1888, he began testing the cultivation of these gems methodically on the world's first pearl plantation. After two decades of trial and error, he obtained a patent for round cultured pearls.

4. More than 90% of pearls on the jewellery market are cultivated. Despite the increase in cultured pearl production, the population of wild oysters has not yet been fully restored. Even on farms where shells live in perfect conditions, not all mollusks produce pearls. The process of growing pearls is long and extremely complex. But even after that, not all pearls will be able to decorate jewellery because of insufficient quality.

5. La Peregrina is the most famous pearl in the world. You've probably heard about the pearl of La Peregrina, it is one of the largest pearls in the world, which is the size of a pigeon egg and weighs 55.95 card. The history of this jewel has 550 years. Necklace with a pearl had been adored by the royals for centuries, and in 1969, was presented to Elizabeth Taylor, a famous actress. The great weight of the pearl has led to the fact that she constantly fell out of the frame and Taylor, together with jewellery house Cartier, changed the design of the necklace, adding rubies, diamonds and additional pearls. In 2011, the necklace was sold for $11.8 million at an auction in New York.

6. The flagship store Cartier in New York was bought for a pearl. The wife of the railway tycoon really liked the pearl necklace by the famous designer, but even she did not have such money to buy it! And then Pierre Cartier, made her an unusual offer: he would give her this delightful necklace, worth $1 million and another $100 in exchange for her magnificent mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York. She agreed, the rest is history, and today Cartier's Fifth Avenue Mansion is the largest store of the company in the world.

7. The most expensive fake necklace. The world's most influential women were huge pearl fans, including First Lady Jackie Kennedy. It was she who owned the most expensive fake pearl necklace, which was auctioned for $211,000, as a part of the legendary wardrobe. According to biographers, Jacqueline bought the jewel of artificial pearls in 1950s in a department store, for $35.

8. Pearls in every box. The legendary Gabrielle Chanel introduced fashion jewellery and pearls, and since then all women keep a pearl thread in a box. Chanel pearl beads are jewellery and they are made of glass and covered with mother-of-pearl. It was she who made pearls democratic decoration that fit any clothes, she offered to wear a necklace of white pearls with a black turtleneck, jacket and a small black dress.

9. The most expensive pearl in the world is estimated at $100 million. The most expensive pearl in the world for 10 years was kept under the bed of a Filipino fisherman as a talisman of good luck, and he touched it every time before going to sea. Why is this pearl valued at $100 million? It is 26 inches long and weighs almost 75 pounds and is the largest pearl known today.

10. Julius Caesar wrote a law that allowed only Roman aristocrats to wear pearls. In ancient Roman times, pearls were considered a symbol of wealth and prestige and meant belonging to a certain social class. Few people could afford to buy one pearl, and pearl thread was a sign of incredible wealth.

11. Cleopatra used a pearl to win a bet. As the legend has it, Cleopatra and Mark Antony argued who would arrange the most expensive and magnificent dinner party. She ordered to bring her vinegar, and then dissolved the pearl from her earring in it, and then she drank what could be called the most expensive cocktail in the world. Needless to say, the last Queen of Egypt won the bet.

12. The oldest pearl ever found dates back to 5500 BC. The age of the Neolithic pearl is 7500 years. In 2012, French researchers discovered the oldest pearl, which was named Umm al Quwain by the name of the Emirate in the UAE, where it was found.

13. Pearls can be of different shapes. Although people believe that all pearls are perfectly round and symmetrical, this is wrong. They come in different shapes. The most common forms of pearls: hemisphere, rice, drop, baroque. Rare Baroque pearls are Paragon pearls. Paragon is a pearl of irregular shape, characterized by extraordinary quirkiness of forms, and in appearance remind of different parts of the body of people, silhouettes of animals or objects.

14. To form a pearl, you need at least 6 months. Another interesting fact: for the cultivation of each type of pearl it requires different amount of time, certain quality and temperature of the water. Chinese freshwater pearls grow by 5 mm per year, while Japanese Akoya pearls only by 0.3 mm. The process of growing pearls lasts from 6 months to 12 years.