16mm Mabe Pearl, set in a finely handcrafted Silver ring. Mabe Pearl is a half-Pearl cultivated on the inside of the mollusc shell. The art of Mabe Pearl production was perfected in Japan, and involved attaching a nucleus of Mother-of-Pearl to the inside of the shell and simply giving the mollusc time to envelope the introduced irritant with nacre, the organic material of the inner shell of the mollusc.
Nacre is the substance of Pearl. Usually the half Pearl is left to develop two to three years, but in the case of the above 16mm Mabe Pearl it would have been left over three years to attain this size.
Mabe Pearls are cultivated in a number of locations nowadays, other than Japan. The above half Pearl is of South Sea origin and is a particularly lovely example of this type of cultivated Pearl, large and well-shaped, and of a very attractive creamy-pink lustre.