However, even the historic necklace could not turn the tide for the natural pearl market. During the next decade cultured pearls and costume jewellery would compete with natural pearls for a place round the elegant necks of the most fashionable women in society. From the 1920s, large numbers of Japanese pearls flooded the market. The finest of these cultured pearls came from the Japanese entrepreneur Kokichi Mikimoto’s pearl farms. His whole life was devoted to his passion for pearls and for several decades he had been trying to produce them. Early in Mikimoto’s career he pledged himself to protect and raise the stocks of Akoya pearl oysters, which had been depleted by decades of overfishing, and to grow pearls using the oysters on Ojima Island at Toba. Finally, after facing years of financial difficulties and a ‘red tide’ of algae blooms that destroyed his oysters, in 1893 he succeeded in developing a technique which created semi-spherical pearls.38 This was a historic moment because it was the first time that pearls had been produced from an oyster with human intervention. By 1904 Mikimoto had produced 24,000 of these half pearls on his oyster farms.39
At the same time, a scientist, Tatsuhei Mise, and an enthusiastic amateur, Mikimoto’s son-in-law, Tokichi Nishikawa, were separately working on techniques to create spherical gems. Mise and Nishikawa’s methods were similar: the Mise-Nishikawa technique involved grafting a piece of mantle from a donor oyster into the reproductive organ of a receiving oyster, then a bead was introduced which encouraged a spherical pearl to grow. Recognising the superiority of this formula, Mikimoto negotiated a financial agreement which allowed him to use the Mise-Nishikawa technique. In 1905, he succeeded in cultivating a perfectly spherical pearl. By 1914 he had 50 square miles of water under cultivation, with the water varying in depth from 5 to 15 fathoms and women divers used to collect the pearl harvest.40 Two years later the process was industrialised, allowing more pearls to be produced.41
In 1919 Mikimoto started to sell spherical cultured pearls in Europe. When they first appeared on the market they caused shockwaves among pearl dealers across the Continent and soon a debate was raging about whether these cultured pearls could really be called pearls or whether they were frauds. Dealers in London confidently claimed that the cultured pearl could be detected in a moment by any expert.42 A French connoisseur agreed, adding, ‘The difference between them and the real pearl is that between an ancient work of art and a modern imitation.’43 Panicking about the impact these Japanese intruders would have on the natural pearl market, French dealers suggested various actions, including an embargo on cultured pearls. The controversy led to a lawsuit which became known as the ‘Paris Trial’ in which the French Association of Commerce and Industry tried to prove that cultured pearls were fakes. After many scientific tests and much deliberation, leading experts including Professor H. Lyster Jameson of Oxford University and Professor Louis Boutan of Bordeaux University testified that ‘there is no fundamental difference between natural and cultured pearls in terms of their formation and structure’.44 Following this conclusive evidence, in 1924 a French Court of Justice ruled that ‘cultured pearls do not differ from natural pearls at all’.45
In 1927 Mikimoto received a further endorsement which turned him into a household name overnight. During a tour of Europe and the United States he met the famous inventor Thomas Edison in New York. When Edison saw the exquisite Japanese pearls, he was so impressed that he told Mikimoto:
This isn’t a cultured pearl, it’s a real pearl. There are two things which couldn’t be made at my laboratory – diamonds and pearls. It is one of the wonders of the world that you were able to culture pearls. It is something which is supposed to be biologically impossible.46
Edison’s remarks were reported in the New York Times, which immediately reinforced Mikimoto’s credibility with American pearl collectors.
During the interwar years, Mikimoto’s pearls revolutionised the world of jewellery. Costing a fifth or even a tenth of the price of natural pearls, these cultured gems made pearls an affordable luxury. However, there was some snobbery attached to making beautiful jewels more easily obtainable. Believing that trying to pass off cultured pearls as natural ones was a vulgar type of deception, Loelia, Duchess of Westminster, Shelagh’s successor, argued that no woman should wear more cultured pearls than her husband could have afforded if they were natural. Not many women had such stuffy scruples; many embraced the new gems with enthusiasm and some even considered that the smoothness and sheen of the Japanese pearls made them more desirable than natural ones.47
By 1936, Mikimoto’s pearl fisheries were producing 60 per cent of the world’s pearl supply.48 The so-called ‘Pearl King of Japan’ planted 3 million oysters on his pearl farm each year and more than 1,000 men and women were employed in pearl cultivation. Every oyster planted was numbered, every pearl carefully registered while it was growing and every worker strictly accountable for a given number of pearls and oysters. The finest pearl ever produced on Mikimoto’s farm held the record for being the second largest pearl in the world. It was kept locked away in a specially built and guarded safe.49
Following in Mikimoto’s footsteps, other Japanese entrepreneurs also began to culture pearls. However, some of these new entrants produced inferior jewels which threatened to damage the reputation of Japanese gems on the world market. Determined to maintain the quality of cultured pearls, Mikimoto publicly burnt large quantities of these second-rate jewels on a bonfire in front of international journalists.50 This sacrifice of inferior versions was just one of the ways the ‘Pearl King’ demonstrated his commitment to creating the finest pearls possible. Throughout his life he had treated pearls as sacred objects which had to be nurtured and treated with respect. Reflecting his reverential attitude, according to contemporary newspapers, in 1936 he held a unique memorial service for the spirits of more than 100,000 pearl oysters which had been killed during the past twenty years at his pearl farm. At the unusual event, more than fifty priests took part in the rites in front of about 10,000 guests.51
The other man who inadvertently helped to end the reign of natural pearls, was Bendor, Duke of Westminster. While his former wife Shelagh had given pearls to the Red Cross Necklace, and his third wife, Loelia, tried to maintain the status quo for natural pearls, his gift of pearls to his mistress was to inspire innovative jewellery. In 1923, Bendor met the fashion designer Coco Chanel in Monte Carlo. The yards of pearls he lavished on his new mistress became her fashion signature. Revelling in her refusal to be bound by convention, Chanel found new ways of wearing jewels. On Bendor’s yacht or on the beach in the South of France she garlanded herself in a myriad of jewels and no one could be sure whether they were the real thing or fakes. As she said, nothing looks more like a fake jewel than a beautiful jewel.52 Like Queen Elizabeth I before her, Chanel used her pearls to symbolise feminine power. She covered herself in pearls when she wanted to exude confidence and her jewels became a talisman. She once told her assistant she would not go up to her ateliers until she had her pearls around her neck.53
Coco encouraged other women to follow her lead. As one of the first designers to commission distinctive pieces of costume jewellery for her collection, her timing was perfect. The sophisticated rich wanted something different from the precious stones of the past because conspicuous displays of wealth through wearing ostentatious jewellery had become associated with the nouveau riche wives of profiteers during the war. Working with the jewellery designer Augustine Gripoix, Chanel gave them the ideal alternative. Gripoix’s first collection for Chanel introduced many colourful Byzantine-influenced jewels modelled on the emeralds, rubies and sapphires given to her by Bendor. However, it was the pearls which turned Chanel into the leading lady of costume jewellery. By 1925 ‘everyone in Paris’ was wearing ropes and ropes of Chanel’s Gripoix pearls.
The craze for these carefully crafted gems soon spread across the Atlantic.54 The golden lustre of Chanel’s fake pearls, worn at just the right length to elongate the silhouette, became an essential part of the art
deco image. During the twenties, pearls were worn in imaginative new ways. Inspired by her visits to Bendor in England, Chanel created what became known as her ‘English look’. Over loose woollen cardigans her models wore strands of faux pearls, similar to her gifts from the duke.55 To enhance her streamlined shift dresses, Chanel encouraged women to cascade long ropes of pearls down their backs.56
The smartest women on the French Riviera would even don a strand with their bathing suits and wear them to the beach. In Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night, the heroine, Nicole Driver, lies on the sand with her swimsuit seductively off her shoulder, her creamy pearls setting off to perfection her fashionable tan.57 Never precious about jewellery, Chanel suggested that the American girls she saw swimming at the Venice Lido should dip their pearls into the sea, returning the gems to the element from which they first came.58 She took this idea a step further while having a heated argument with Bendor aboard his yacht about his flirtation with a younger woman – rejecting his peace offering of a priceless pearl necklace, she threw it into the ocean.59
As well as looking chic, the finest costume jewellery made a statement. For women who had experienced their first taste of independence during the war, this new fashion signified that they were not willing to return to their old roles. Whereas the outrageously expensive natural pearls of the past were often gifts from men, women could afford to buy the fake strands for themselves.60 They no longer wanted costume jewellery that masqueraded as the real thing; instead, Vogue encouraged its readers to wear Chanel’s pink, grey, almond and blue pearls as large as possible so that no one could imagine they were real gems.61
Fashions in jewellery come and go, but the emotional appeal of the Red Cross Pearls is timeless. Like religious relics from a previous age, they symbolise devotion and commitment to humanitarian values. A century after they were collected, they retain their enigmatic essence, they served their purpose and until now they have discreetly vanished from public consciousness. It seems likely that many of their twenty-first-century owners do not know the poignant history of the strands they wear around their necks. Yet, although the pearls are now scattered, the spirit of philanthropy they represent still survives. In 1993 the International Fundraising Committee of the British Red Cross ran ‘The Pot of Gold’ appeal. After an elderly widow donated her wedding band to the charity, the fundraisers appealed for jewellery. Valuable gems flooded in and when they were auctioned at the Savoy they raised £2 million. Ten years later, in December 2003, the committee held another successful auction of donated jewels at Christie’s called ‘Jewels for Life’. One hundred years after the Pearl Appeal, dedicated men and women are still giving freely of their time and money, drawing on their connections and organising events for the British Red Cross. Their fundraising supports humanitarian causes in Britain and abroad. Through their altruistic actions they are following in the pearl-wearing, well-heeled footsteps of Lady Northcliffe and her friends a century ago.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
MARY NORTHCLIFFE. Known as ‘Molly’, Lady Northcliffe was the wife of the press baron Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe. She was chairman of the Red Cross Pearl Necklace Appeal and led the call for donations of jewels.
LORD NORTHCLIFFE. Born Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe had founded the Daily Mail and now owned The Times. He threw the full weight of his newspapers behind the Pearl Appeal to make it a success.
SIR ROBERT HUDSON. Sir Robert was chairman of the Red Cross and St John’s Ambulance Joint Finance Committee. He was an intimate friend and admirer of Lady Northcliffe. He worked closely with her and her husband in the Pearl Appeal.
PRINCESS VICTORIA. The daughter of Edward VII and sister of George V, Princess Victoria was president of the Pearl Appeal.
NOËL, COUNTESS OF ROTHES. A survivor of the sinking of the Titanic, the countess donated two pearls that she was wearing on that fateful night to the Red Cross pearl collection.
MAXINE ELLIOTT. Maxine was an American actress and the lover of the Wimbledon tennis champion Anthony Wilding. During the war she took a barge to Belgium to support civilians who had been displaced by the fighting.
VIOLET, DUCHESS OF RUTLAND. When she was first married, Violet was known as Lady Granby but after her husband inherited the dukedom she became the Duchess of Rutland. She was a member of the ‘Souls’ circle of friends. Her children were John, Marjorie, Diana and Letty Manners.
LETTY ELCHO. Born Violet Manners, the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, she was known as ‘Letty’. When she married Hugo (known as ‘Ego’) Charteris, Lord Elcho, she became Lady Elcho. She was left a young widow with two children when her husband was killed in the war.
MARY WEMYSS. When Mary was first married, she was known as Lady Elcho but after her husband inherited his father’s title she became the Countess of Wemyss. She was a leading light in the ‘Souls’. Two of her sons, ‘Ego’ and ‘Yvo’ were killed in the war.
ETTIE DESBOROUGH. Born Ethel Fane, she became Ettie Grenfell on her marriage to Willie Grenfell. When her husband received his title, she became Lady Desborough. She was a key member of the ‘Souls’ and a society hostess. She lost two sons, Julian and Billy, in the war.
LILIAN KEKEWICH. Lilian married into a well-known Devon military family. During the war her brother-in-law, a Boer War hero, committed suicide and three of her sons were killed. She made several donations to the Pearl Appeal.
KATHERINE MacDONALD.Known as ‘Maudie’ or ‘Christy’, Katherine was a Canadian nursing sister who nursed in France. She was killed in May 1918 when the Germans bombed her hospital. A pearl was given in memory of the heroism of the nurses killed that night.
CONSTANCE EDWINA, DUCHESS OF WESTMINSTER. Known to her friends as ‘Shelagh’, the Duchess of Westminster was unhappily married to one of the richest men in Britain, Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, known as ‘Bendor’. The couple divorced. During the war she found a new sense of purpose and romance working in the Red Cross hospital she had set up in France. After the war she married James Fitzpatrick Lewis.
BLANCHE, COUNTESS OF ST GERMANS. Born Lady Blanche Somerset, she was known as ‘Linnie’ to her friends. In 1918, she married ‘Mousie’, Earl of St Germans. Her husband had been badly injured during the war and died in 1922 following a riding accident.
VIOLET ASTOR. Born Lady Violet Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of the Earl of Minto, her first husband was Lord Charles Fitzmaurice (later Mercer Nairne). Charles, the youngest son of the Marquess of Lansdowne, was killed in the war. Left a widow with two young children, Violet found new love with her second husband, John Jacob Astor.
FRANK HURLEY. Adventurer, photographer and cinematographer, Frank’s photographs of battles were on display at the Pearls Exhibition held at the Grafton Galleries in June 1918.
ISRAEL GOLLANCZ. Professor of English literature and language at King’s College, London, Israel contributed his translation of Pearl, a fourteenth-century poem, to raise funds for the Red Cross Appeal.
MAURICE BARING. A writer and poet, Maurice wrote poems to his friends Auberon ‘Bron’ Herbert and Julian Grenfell. He was a close friend of Lady Desborough.
HENRY, 5TH MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE. Lord Lansdowne was a former Governor General of Canada, Viceroy of India and Foreign Secretary. His son Charles, the first husband of Violet Astor, was killed in the war. Lord Lansdowne piloted a Bill through Parliament that would have allowed the pearls to be raffled. Unfortunately for the Red Cross, the Bill was defeated.
FRANCES PARKER. Known as ‘Millie’, Mrs Parker was Lord Kitchener’s sister. In memory of her brother, she gave rubies to make a clasp for the pearl necklaces.
BIRDIE WERNHER. Alice (known as ‘Birdie’) Wernher was the widow of the South African financier and gold and diamond mining magnate Sir Julius Wernher. She lost her youngest son, Alex, in the war. She was a great supporter of the Red Cross auctions at Christie’s.
NOTES
INTRODUCTION
1 Paul Cornish, The First World W
ar Galleries (London: Imperial War Museum. 2014) p.234.
2 William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act 1, Scene 2, Line 154.
3 Matthew 13: 45–46.
4 Revelations 21:21.
5 ‘Memories and Tears’, The Times, 2 December 1918, p.11.
CHAPTER ONE
1 Mary Wemyss’ Diary, 1 January 1918. Wemyss Papers.
2 Adrian Gregory, The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) p.214.
3 Ibid., p.213.
4 Lyn MacDonald, To the Last Man: Spring 1918 (London: Viking, 1998) p.xxii.
5 Niall Ferguson, The Pity of War (London: Penguin Books, 1999) p.276.
6 Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900–1925 (London: Virago, 1978) pp.401–04.
7 Paul Cornish, The First World War Galleries (London: Imperial War Museum, 2014) p.213.
8 Gregory, p.213.
9 The Pearl Necklace Appeal was in aid of both charities which were working together during the war. However, for brevity throughout this book I will refer to it as the Red Cross Pearl Appeal. For similar reasons I will refer to the Red Cross when describing the work of the British Red Cross.
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