American pearls - assorted cultured freshwater pearls
Did you know?
In the 1800s, because of the quest to find a rare and valuable pearl,
the demand for oysters exceeded the supply and many bountiful oyster beds began to be depleted.
In the early 1900s, the Japanese discovered how to implant a oyster with a pearl nucleus to
intentionally grow a pearl - the first cultured pearls.
Their technique was guarded closely yet in
1967, John Latendresse, the father of U.S. cultured freshwater pearls, developed the first
pearl farm in Camden, Tennessee and began successfully growing cultured pearls.
The beautiful American freshwater cultured pearls on this website come from Latendresse's pearl farm.