La Peregrina pearl
famous pearl
The La Peregrina pearl is one of the most famous pearls in the world. Its owners include the Spanish monarchs, the history of the pearl spans almost 500 years and recently belonged to actress Elizabeth Taylor. The jewel is now in private ownership.
Origin of name
La Peregrina is the Spanish word for female pilgrim or wanderer.
Physical characteristics
The original weight of this pear-shaped pearl was 223.8 grains, (55.95 carats, 11.2 g, almost .4 oz.). At the time of its discovery, it was the largest pearl ever found. In 1913 the pearl had to be drilled and cleaned to secure it firmly to its setting. After drilling and cleaning, the pearl's weight decreased to 203.84 grains. La Peregrina remains one of the largest perfectly symmetrical pear-shaped pearls in the world.
History
The first reference to this pearl can be found in Commentarios Reales de Los Incas by historian Garcilaso de la Vega (1539–1616).
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This entry incorporates text from “La Peregrina pearl” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.