By the 1500s Europe's growing demand for Mother of Pearl used in gold and sterling silver rings, necklaces, brooches and buttons had all but depleted the supplies of Mother of Pearl in the Persian Gulf. However the nobility of Europe were already taken with a new species of pearl producing oyster heralding from the Pacific: 'Pinctada Margaritifera', renowned for its spectacular grey to black color and large size it surpassed the beauty of any of its counterparts found in the Persian Gulf. And with the opening of new trade routes throughout the world, particularly to Asia, the Pacific witnessed a rush of European traders and explorers eager to profit from its wealth of Mother of Pearl.

In 1568 the Solomon Islands, known as 'The Pearl of the Pacific', were discovered by the Spanish explorer, Alvaro de Mendana. On discovering the Islands rich bounty of gold and Mother of Pearl he gave the archipelago its current name, believing that he had found the mythical source of King Solomon's mines. However, it was in fact the Austronesians, a Neolithic people from South-East Asia, who had first settled the Solomon Islands more than 4000 years prior to Mendana's arrival. Evidence of their great wealth of Mother of Pearl can be seen in the inlay appearing in many of their tribal shields and statues of gods and spirits.

From Tahiti to Bora Bora the Polynesian archipelago stretches out to the size of Western Europe. The Islands were first "discovered" by the European Magellan, and again in 1595 by Mendana. But long before their arrival Mother of Pearl and Pearl had already attained a god-like status.

However, in 1880 France gained control of Tahiti, what is now called French Polynesia, and actions were taken to restrict the plundering of the seabed. Other countries followed suite and by the 1900s, with the spread of western civilization, restrictions were imposed on the fishing industry throughout the Pacific, and the world had to look elsewhere in their search for Mother of Pearl.

European exploration of the Pacific Islands in search of Mother of Pearl continued, and in the 1920s it was discovered for the last time on a remote Island of the New Hebrides. But when explorers Sperry and Evans stumbled upon the use of Mother of Pearl, it was far from what they expected. "In the opposite corner of the central hut a line of mummies were placed like a barricade." ".Bushy mops of hair still clung to the heads, and their faces wore masks of clay, with huge eyes of Mother of Pearl that shone through the gloom staring at us with an uncanny effect." In fact the mummies weren't ancestral members of the tribe, but were the bodies of a rival tribe.of cannibals!

In 19th Century America, where Mother of Pearl had been previously used as an inlay in furniture it found a new use in fashion, as buttons. Iowa became the center of the trade, shipping billions of iridescent fasteners until World War II, when newly invented plastics undercut the prices of Mother of Pearl buttons, all but driving them out of the market. The majority of Americas Mother-of-Pearl was sourced from thes Gulf of California's Abalone oysters. But these sources, like others throughout the world, were almost depleted and it wasn't until the discovery of new-cultured farming techniques in Japan that the world's Mother of Pearl producing oysters saw a return in numbers.

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