The most famous pearl in art history is undoubtedly the one worn in Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring (c 1665), which is about the same dimensions as La Peregrina. However, it was impossible that the impoverished Vermeer could have gained access to a pearl even remotely as big as that. His one therefore must have been either entirely imaginary or a fake pearl made of varnished glass. Vermeer did include pearls in a large quantity of his paintings, usually as a token of wealth and status, but occasionally there was a religious subtext, such as his Allegory of the Catholic Faith (c 1670) where the pearls are a reference to holy purity – a subject dear to the heart of the artist, who was a Catholic in an overwhelmingly Protestant country.
The real La Peregrina remained in the possession of the Spanish royal family until the early 1800s. In 1808 Napoleon invaded the country and put his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, on the throne. When the French were ousted from Spain in 1813, Joseph brought the pearl back with him to France and gave it to his sister-in-law Hortense de Beauharnais. It was then inherited by her son Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the future Napoleon III, President and Emperor of France in the mid-1800s.
When Napoleon III needed to boost his finances, he sold it to the English James Hamilton, Duke of Abercorn. Hamilton’s wife, Louisa, reportedly suffered the same panic as Elizabeth Taylor, misplacing La Peregrina several times during society functions, including once between the cushions on a sofa in Buckingham Palace. It remained in the possession of the Dukes of Abercorn until it was purchased for $37,000 at auction by Richard Burton in 1969.
After retrieving it from the mouth of her Pekinese, it became one of Elizabeth Taylor’s prized possessions. La Peregrina was to be immortalised in visual culture once again by appearing around Taylor’s neck in various iconic photographs and films including Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). In December 2011, following Taylor’s death, it was sold at auction for $11.8m (£8.4m) to an anonymous buyer.
On average, only one oyster in 10,000 will produce a pearl of moderate worth. The chances of producing one on the scale and flawlessness of La Peregrina are incalculable. Its name means “The Wanderer” and the odyssey of this marvel of nature, from the oyster beds of the Gulf of Panama through the hands of some of the most prestigious individuals in world history, is a reminder of what pearls have meant to different people over the course of time. Pearls aren’t just an ornament; they also speak to us about imperialism, power, wealth, spiritual purity and our understanding of ultimate beauty.
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