Thrillas from Manila By Kitty Go
FT.com site; Sep 05, 2003
Throughout history, pearls have come from many parts of the world. Kitty Go follows the pearl road to the latest destination: the Philippines. Ever since Coco Chanel announced "a woman needs ropes and ropes of pearls" and her fellow fashion maverick Christian Dior replied that Chanel, "with a black pullover and 10 rows of pearls . . . revolutionised fashion", no other gem has enjoyed worldwide acceptance for a longer time. Still, a pearl is not a pearl is not a pearl; there are many types of opalescent gorgeousness, and they go in and out of fashion, as do the places they hail from.
For a while, Tahiti was the destination of consumer choice for basking on beaches and in black pearls. Then came a trip Down Under and the quest for South Sea pearls. Now, however, for the astute collector, the new Pearl Road leads to the Philippines. While four countries supply the world's South Sea pearls - Australia, Tahiti, Indonesia and the Philippines - it is only the Philippines that consistently harvests large size golden or champagne pearls from the gold lip Pinctada oyster.
This is not the first time the Philippine pearl industry has been in the spotlight: records of the pearl trade between the Chinese and natives of the southern Philippines extend some 2000 years back. In the early 1400s, eunuch admiral Zhen led several expeditions to the Philippines for its pearls, which were considered by Chinese emperors to be the best in the world. Indeed, imperial art of the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911) includes large, round pearls probably from the Philippines.
These days, Jewelmer is the largest pearl producer in the Philippines and one of the top three in the world. Frenchman Jacques Branellec, the company's managing director and the pioneer of black pearl cultivation in Tahiti, discusses the rarity and popularity of golden pearls. "There is more demand for gold (pearls) than anything else. We can never stock enough. This has been going on for the last 10 years so I don't think it is mere fashion. You have no guarantee of a golden colour even from a gold lipped pinctada because the environment plays a role. The temperature, weather, availability and diversity of plankton - all these affect colour. Deep golden pearls are the most valuable. They are rare, unique and have associations with the metal which make them a symbol of high value and a safe investment. At the same time, they have a unique aesthetic value that complements any complexion whether you are tanned or pale-skinned."
Another source of pearls, and a striking contrast to Jewelmer's luxurious showrooms, is a covered flea market known as Virra Mall in the residential suburb of Greenhills in Manila. Here, the pearl trade is dominated by blood-related Maranaw Muslims. Customers are engulfed by a cacophony of haggling and loud music in an Ali Baba treasure-cave atmosphere where every stall glitters with the same products: varying sizes and shapes of freshwater pearls from 40 cm strands of 6mm beads for as little as 300 pesos ($5.50) to strings of heart and coin shaped keishis (irregular) for 1,200 pesos ($21), baroques (rounded irregular), Akoyas and an array of South Sea pearls from Philippine, Indonesian, Australian and Tahitian farms, traders and auctions. Despite the madness, locals claim this shopping centre is safe from terrorist attacks because Islamic terrorists would never hurt their own people.
The Virra Mall traders do mostly cash business by word of mouth. Despite the bargain basement souk atmosphere, some stall owners, such as Emma and Noel Calanog and Haya Pearl, specialise in South Sea pearls of exceptional size (most over 12mm) and quality, catering to the local elite and European royalty. The offerings are a bit more expensive than others in the market, but expensive in this case is a ceiling of about 700,000 pesos ($13,000) compared to Jewelmer, where pieces can be anywhere from $600 to $60,000.
However, unlike Jewelmer, where a homogenous strand of pearls will originate from just one source, and painstaking quality control is exercised by a discerning staff who can sort through as many as 15,000 pearls to complete a near perfect necklace, Virra Mall pearls are not graded and a necklace can be strung together from pearls from various sources.
Yusoph Sacar of Norhaya, president of the Greenhills Muslim Traders Association which vets stalls and polices business practices in the pearl market, says: "We have a subjective way of vetting based on reputation. We are mostly Maranaw who are proud people. If one cheats you, all others lose face. I can guarantee all pearls are genuine but there is no grading system or classification. There is no quality or price control and we see this as an advantage to customers." A customer of Tatah Basman, for example, bought an inferior pair of 18mm white baroque earrings for 15,000 pesos ($273) and exchanged them the next day for a better pair with no additional charge.
And there are countless other stories of people who acquire bargains from Virra Mall and ended up with treasures, such as the tale of the Hollywood B-movie actress who bought a strand of tri-colour pearls for $2,000 and got an estimate of $7,000. Or that of the local who bought a strand of graduated 12mm to 15mm button champagne pearls and a pair of nearly round white 16mm earring studs for 450,000 pesos ($8,000), only to have a Hong Kong jeweller estimate the earrings at HK$60,000 ($7,700) and the necklace at HK$80,000 ($10,200).
Branellec admits that one can find good quality pearls at Virra Mall, but shopping there poses a risk to untrained buyers, especially those looking to spend thousands of pounds. "If it is a big bargain, you have to be suspicious, because the cost doesn't come cheap. You have to be able to trust the seller and go back with a lifetime guarantee to a producer like us," he says. "All pearls that show defects from normal use will be replaced at no cost and very few people have claimed that guarantee, so we are confident of our product. For me, jewellery is magic and poetry, and each pearl has a history, so it's better if you buy the pearl from someone who can tell you exactly where it came from. To convey trust, you must also deliver service and reliability."
