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Or perhaps better yet would have been A Mellow Melo.
We have the Bivalve Mollusks (aka oysters) and we have the Gastropods (snails and slugs and conches--aka sea snails--and such).
In the mollusk the pearl lustre is cause by "transparent overlapping lamellae". It occurs to me suddenly that it would be a wonderful thing if I knew what the devil I was talking about. However ... never to be deterred by so insignificant a hurdle as ignorance ... I shall sally forth. Pearls formed in gastropods however have a different kind of lustre and when fully formed they show a gorgeous pattern called Flame Structure.
I digress. As long as I'm talking about gastropods ... did you know that snails are equipped with both male and female organs ... so that when they're doing each other ... they're really doing each other. Quaint ... wouldn't you say?
Distinct Flame Structure creates a chatoyant effect. These pearls are part of a family called Volutidae and have their source in the waters around Vietnam. They are among the rarest gems in the world.
Belief among the Chinese and the Japanese and the Vietnamese has it that pearls were created in heaven from droplets that fell from the Dragon in the Sky. These droplets descended--as droplets are often wont to do--into open shells in the water. And then ... like so much fertilizer ... moonbeams nourished the Dragon Droplets and they grew into pearls.
For those of you who are still naive enough to believe that old saw about a grain of sand falling into the oyster (or gastropod) and then protective coating forming around that grain of sand in order to prevent irritating delicate oyster flesh till said grain grew into a pearl ... fuggedaboudit. Dragon Droplets folks. And nothing else.
Melo Pearls were highly valued by Vietnam Emperors mostly because of the relationship the Pearl held with the Dragon. Interestingly enough ... the characteristic Flame Pattern of natural Melo Pearls coincide with the representation of pearls in oriental art ... always portrayed within a flaming surround.
Now with all this yammering ... I would imagine there might be one or two of you out there anxious to see such a pearl. Well you lucky dogs ... I have one. It is oval. It measures approximately 13.35-13.60 MM x
16.35 MM. It is bright orange. It is undrilled. It is worth about $110,000.00. In my humble opinion ... a good place to store this pearl would be in last week's platinum handbag.So now go ... take a look. Enjoy. A thing of beauty is a joy in orange.
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