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Coral Gemstone: History and Lore
Precious corals and pearls were among the very first gems ever appreciated by mankind, dating back to ancient civilizations. The origin of coral has been lost in the mists of legends for centuries: Roman Ovid in his “Metamorphosis” and Pliny the Elder in his “Historia Naturalis” both attributed coral to the same mythical genesis: the blood from Medusa’s terrible head, cut off by Perseus, dripped into the sea and turned into coral.
With its warm and bright color, its marine origins, and its ambiguous nature, coral had a profound effect on the early Mediterranean peoples who started working with and using it throughout the world.
It is not a plant, even though it has branches, and as André Peyssonnel, a doctor from Marseilles, discovered only early in the 18th century, it is not even a mineral, even though it is petrified. It is, in fact, the calcareous secretion of a marine polyp colony. Some archaeological sites in Sicily, Sardinia, and Syria, where ornaments made of coral have been found, lead us to believe that coral was already known thousands of years ago, but it is evident that the ancient Greeks valued it either as a jewel or as a medicine.
Alexander the Great’s ambitious plan to unify East and West as one large empire not only through military campaigns but also through cultural exchanges enhanced by heavy commerce melded together peoples of different cultures and customs and thereby helped the diffusion of coral as far afield as India. Pliny gives precise evidence of this spread in his “Historia Naturalis,” saying: “Indians value coral as much as Romans value Indian pearls, the cost varying according to the importance given by each population.”
What is Precious Coral?
Photo Credit: Assael, NY
Corals are tiny marine polyps that live together in large colonies. The most well-known example is the colorful Great Barrier Reef of Western Australia, which is full of life and important to the planet’s marine ecosystem.
More than 7,000 species of coral polyps have been categorized, including the reef-building corals that mostly live in shallow, warm waters. However, the so-called precious corals used in jewelry are restricted to a very small group known in biology as the Corallidae family.
Of the Corallidae group, there are about ten species of coral used in jewelry, and these do not inhabit the same ecosystem or ocean depths as their relatives in the reefs. Reef-building corals from shallow waters are not used at all in jewelry. Although they share the same collective name, “coral,” reef corals are not the same as precious corals.
The limited species of precious corals featured in jewelry today exhibit a glossy, porcelain-like finish influenced by their specific origin.
The rarest and most prized of all the natural, precious corals is the oxblood variety from Japan (Corallium Japonicum), which is called Aka (Japanese word for red) in the trade. This is the darkest red color available, and it is very rare to find on the market. Its unique characteristic is a pronounced crystalline structure marked by an internal white vein.
Rivaling the darkest red hues of Japanese material, coral from the Sardinian Sea, between the Spanish archipelago of Balearic Islands and the Italian island of Sardinia, is the high standard in the coral industry. The variety is Corallium Rubrum, and it is called Rosso Sardinia (Sardinia red) in the trade. At its finest, it resembles the Japanese Aka. However, Corallium Rubrum can be found anywhere in the Mediterranean Sea and the neighboring East Atlantic. On average, it is reddish-orange in color, or "tomato" red, and it is the standard quality found in jewelry.
Other notable varieties used in jewelry include the light pink variety "Angel Skin," which is called "Pelle D'Angelo" in the trade. This is an albino variety of coral, the "Pleurocorallium Elatius," native of Japan and Taiwan, and the pure white variety, the "Pleurocorallium Konojoi," that occurs in Vietnam.
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One of the rarest varieties of coral is that of the Sciacca coral banks, a beautiful pink-orange variety of volcanic origin from off West Sicily's coast that is completely extinct today. The little of it that remains available today on the market is the Italian production of a century ago. It commands huge prices among connoisseurs and collectors.
18K Gold Chalice with beads and carved Sciacca Coral from "The Coral Museum Liverino", Italy