Culture & Style
Diamonds and Pearls: The Original Best Friends
An Exhibit at L’Ecole des Arts Joaillieurs in Paris explores the connection between Paris and the history of pearls, and the longstanding relationship between pearls and natural diamonds.
Written by: Sam Broekema
May 8, 2025
If there is a gem that captures the mood of the Roaring Twenties, it is certainly the mile-long strand of pearls, looped carelessly over a frock shockingly short, made for dancing, and showing off rouged knees. The pearl necklace, when paired with sparkling diamonds, is synonymous with soigné French glamour. An exhibition at L’Ecole des Arts Joaillieurs in Paris ponders the question: Why is Paris the capital of pearls? This trend didn’t begin in the 1920s; it began in the late 1860s and continued through World War II. Inezita Gay-Eckel, Director of Training and Education at L’Ecole and a professor at the school, walked Only Natural Diamonds through an expansive history of pearls.
Meet the Experts
- Inezita Gay-Eckel is the Director of Training and Education at L’Ecole des Arts Joaillieurs in Paris.
- Leonard Pouy teaches History of Jewelry and Initiation courses at L’Ecole des Arts Joaillieurs in Paris.
The Ancient History of Pearls
“During the 1920s, pearls were Queen. And why Paris is the center of a very complex saga that unravels through the exhibition”, Gay-Eckel explains. Her colleague, Leonard Pouy, completed a research project about the connection between Paris and the pearl producers in the Middle East. He found evidence from 8000 BCE that the region was rich in pearls; they were integrated into ancient funerary rites and even worn by Cleopatra. Historians as far back as the Roman author Pliny the Elder noted that the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean were famous for pearl fishing.
Gay-Eckel says, “Every time there is a new archeological discovery, we find even earlier proof that humans in the Middle East understood pearls, were using pearls, revered pearls, and even used them in ceremonies.” What Pouy discovered is that the French, through the agency of independent merchants, established themselves in the Middle East. Political and business alliances facilitated a natural flow between the source of pearls and manufacturers in Paris. “This meant that Paris was literally the capital of pearls. You could see this in the hundreds of women in the workshops of Rue Lafayette who were specialists; each stringing hundreds of natural pearls every day. This is just crazy considering the rarity of natural pearls.”
Pearls have always been the first jewel. Ornamentation started with shells and stones, but when the pearl was found inside a shell, jewelry began. According to Gay-Eckel, the move from pearls as the gem of choice to diamonds perfectly encapsulates the development of modern jewelry. With a pearl, nature has done the hard work and created a jewel. The jeweler’s relationship with the diamond, however, involves the challenge to unlock the secrets of its inner fire.
“The earliest civilizations were built on the sea. Mother of pearl was extremely important to our ancestors in making tools–fishhooks, sewing tools, everything was made from it. As they did, one in 10,000 times, they would find a pearl. That’s nature’s first gem. The diamond was always there as a symbol. Adamas means ‘invincible’ in ancient Greek. But when we come to revealing its optical properties, that is when we have the arrival of science.”
When Diamonds and Pearls Meet
The exhibition showcases the history of pearls through many spectacular photographs and art pieces displaying the fashionable wearing pearls. One gorgeous example is a photograph of Princess Mathilde wearing a string of pearls, which were then the most expensive ever made. And made where else, but in Paris. The next room showcases the stylish advertising of the day which all incorporated pearls to denote modish luxury.
The style at this time has been called Edwardian or Belle Époque, but Gay-Eckel reminds us of another name, saying, “This is what we call the ‘White Style’, literally. Because what does it involve? It involves pearls, diamonds, and platinum after silver. It’s all about unlocking light. The pearl is the queen of refraction and soft light. However, the diamond also has refraction, although the diamond is, of course, a kind of reflection. I once gave a lecture on pearls in Chicago, and I wrote, “Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but pearls are her true soul sister.”
Complementary to the Belle Époque look is the more freewheeling Art Nouveau, which exemplified the Bohemian lifestyle. Both used the pearl to great effect. To explain the importance of the pearl in the contrasting Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements, Gay-Eckel traced the history of pearls and their role in jewelry from the Renaissance.
Pearls For Every Style
“What’s interesting is that one of the nicknames for Art Nouveau is the ‘re-naissance’ of the Renaissance,” she said. “The pearl was so important during the Renaissance period that there was a word for the irregularly shaped pearl– ‘baroque.’ Later, they named the period after this: music, architecture, it all gets named using a word that comes from the pearl.” She explained that the aesthetic of Art Deco was well defined before World War I.
“It was going to happen, but it was like a budding flower. The flower then blossomed after World War I. Of course, after August 1914, the artists were in trenches, and it’s a complete tragedy; millions of people were killed, and the whole movement stopped until the 1920s. They thought the war was going to last one week. But in any case, all this beauty evolves, and it always involves pearls.”
Following World War I, the flower of Art Deco bloomed, bringing with it a new sense of globalism. “India is extremely important in this period because Indian princes were coming over with their treasures and having them remounted. Meanwhile, Cartier had been traveling to India since 1907. Then the Indian maharajas came especially for the 1925 exhibition, and they just camped at the Ritz with boxes and boxes of jewels — think the Maharaja of Indore, the Maharaja of Patiala.”
Léonard Rosenthal & the History of Pearls
Private Collection. (Courtesy of Albion Art Institute © Albion Art Jewellery Institute)
In the background of this story of the history of pearls, one man has played a crucial part. Parisian jeweler Léonard Rosenthal was instrumental in brokering deals with the pearl merchants in the Persian Gulf. His partnerships brought the pearls to the Champs-Élysées and beyond.
Gay-Eckel details his story through his portrait, saying, “What’s interesting is to look at the tie pin. The tie pin and his eyes are the portrait. And then one signet ring. But really, the whole painting comes to that one pearl. He was a genius. He ended up with a huge villa on Champs-Élysées, another villa, and a château in the country, and was incredibly wealthy.”
“During the war, they emigrated to America and went into cultured pearls because they lost everything — first with the Depression, then with the Nazis. They lost everything. But they moved to America and remade their future in cultured pearls.” She continues, “He won the Legion of Honor in 1925 as a negotiator and as a natural pearl businessman.”
Pearls in the Modern Age
Following this, the exhibition enters its Modern era, after World War II. “Here we have pearls and gold that became the rage in the ‘60s. It started in the ‘50s; originally, it was for young people because gold was cheap then. Young people and young working women could buy these as accessories and dress for success. Then people like Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, and Maria Callas started buying them in dozens and giving them as gifts.” Hollywood style had entered the world stage, and the Parisian style of pearls and diamonds never lost its luster.
