Antique jewelry glossary

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Baroque pearl

A natural pearl or a cultured pearl of irregular shape, formed by a pearl oyster around some irregularly-shaped intrusion.

Such pearls are ordinarily not suitable for modern jewelry but natural baroque pearls were featured in certain renaissance jewelry in pendants and brooches made in the form of a figure or animal in the round, of which the body was such a baroque pearl.

Probably the largest known baroque pearl, 'The Pearl of Asia', weighs 2,420 grams.

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson