April 25^th will be the defin­i­tive pearl moment. With an auc­tion esti­mate of $7– 9 mil­lion, Christie’s is hop­ing a buyer sees the pearls of wise­dom in pur­chas­ing what is gen­er­ally believed to be the finest col­lec­tion ever strung together.

These sixty-eight gems are the largest exam­ples from the famous seven-strand nat­ural pearl neck­lace that was the cen­ter­piece of the col­lec­tion formed by the Royal Trea­sury of the Maharaja of Bar­oda. The mahara­jas of India are renowned for pos­sess­ing the most valu­able and impres­sive col­lec­tions of pearls in the world as this gem was favored above every­thing else, includ­ing dia­monds.

Just in case you were won­der­ing: nat­ural pearls are more valu­able than their cul­tured cousins because they are a phe­nom­e­non that is cre­ated by nature, not man. A cul­tured pearl forms when a seed is delib­er­ately placed inside an oys­ter to encour­age the growth of a new gem. Most pearls today are cul­tured but before the twen­ti­eth cen­tury, they were found by expert divers (mostly women, inter­est­ingly) who could descend more than 100 feet in one breath. Hunt­ing for pearls was incred­i­bly dan­ger­ous and dis­cov­er­ing one, of any size or qual­ity, was rare.