Since their discovery, thousands of years ago, pearls have captured our hearts and souls with their beauty.
The rarity of naturally formed pearls stirred the imagination to find ways to culture pearls for our pleasure. Early pearl culture was attempted in many countries with many different species of shellfish, without success.
In 1890 however, Kokichi Mikimoto succeeded in cultivating round pearls in oysters and the cultured pearl industry was born. At the same time, French scientist Louis Boutan produced the first mabe (hemispherical) pearls in abalone, but because of difficulties in raising this particular species of shellfish, he abandoned his efforts and it was not continued as a commercial venture.
Ninety years later, in the crystal clean waters of the South Pacific, the discovery of a beautiful natural pearl in the New Zealand species of abalone sparked one man’s desire to continue Louis Boutan’s earlier work.
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