Pearl farming became French Polynesia's most significant export business because two yachts were docked next to one another, and the owners knew a guy.
Dave Young:
Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Steven's sidekick and business partner Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is ... well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those.
[Tapper's Jewelry Ad]
Dave Young:
Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple. When you told me the topic for today, my first thought was, "Okay, and I got nothing. I don't know. I don't know the story of this," and my second thought was, "Wait. This is an empire? This is an empire?" We're going to talk about the origin of black pearls.
Stephen Semple:
We're going to talk about the origin of black pearls.
Dave Young:
This doesn't even feel like an empire that I know of.
Stephen Semple:
Well, here's the reason why I like to define it as an empire, is if we take a look at the economy of French Polynesia, which is where black pearls comes from, it is actually one of their biggest exports. In fact, it's one of the biggest parts of their economy. I get French Polynesia is not a big country and not a huge economy, but when something becomes, by design, one of your largest parts of your economy, I kind of got to call that a little bit of a empire.
Dave Young:
I agree with you. I agree on that premise.
Stephen Semple:
So that's where it comes from, and here's the thing that's really wild, is it really came on the scene in the mid 1970s. Before that, historically it was not a significant player in jewelry. If you were to find famous crowns or famous this, black pearls are hardly mentioned anywhere. They were not a thing. They were not a thing. They were not recognized as a gem. They were not something that was seen as being valuable and what you're going to see is it became valuable and a very desirable piece of jewelry due to the work of three individuals; Salvador Assael, Jean-Claude Brouillet, and Harry Winston. Without these three people, black pearls may never have become a thing.
Dave Young:
Well, you mentioned Harry Winston, and you've got my attention.
Stephen Semple:
For those who don't know who Harry Winston is, you're a big deal when you are mentioned in the song, Diamonds are the Girl's Best Friend. There's a line in the song where it goes, "Tiffany's, Cartier, Black Starr, Frost Gorham. Talk to me, Harry Winston, tell me all about it." So when you are named in Diamonds is a Girl's Best Friend sung by Marilyn Monroe and Madonna, you're a big deal. You are a big deal. Anyway, going back to the origin, Jean-Claude is an entrepreneur and he started a bunch of hotels in Tahiti that were a huge success. But while doing this, he learned about black pearls. The oysters that produce black pearls are only found in a small area in Tahiti. They're not found anywhere else in the world.
Initially, these oysters were desired for the shells because of the color of the Mother of Pearl. They produced this range of colors from iridescent green to purples to pinks and charcoal grays and black. That's what was desirable in them. These oysters were farmed almost to extinction. Then in the '60s, they started harvesting them, but it took a while to get the techniques right for it. Initially, the quality of the harvested pearls were not consistent and then a chance meeting in 1973, 1973, and St. Tropez, Jean-Claude Brouillet and Salvador Assael's yachts happened to be docked next to each other.And it turns out Salvador Assael is a well known pearl dealer. He later goes on to become dubbed the Pearl King.
