Scottish Pearl Jewelry Up for Auction August 21, 2025

Following on from the record-breaking Cairncross Collection auction in August 2024, we are excited to announce the largest private collection of Scottish Freshwater pearl jewellery ever to come to market in our 21 August 2025 Scotland Collected auction.

Carefully collected over a number of years with the assistance of Cairncross of Perth, this collection was amassed by a private Perthshire based connoisseur who hopes their enthusiasm for Scottish freshwater pearls can now be passed on to a new generation of collectors.

There has always been an allure which has drawn mankind to natural pearls, be they saltwater or freshwater, and since antiquity civilizations have valued them for their physical, and often mystical properties. The Ancient Greeks believed they would ensure marital bliss when worn by a bride on her wedding day, while the Romans believed they could provide a long and healthy life. However our frenzy for these natural treasures reached a true crescendo in the early 20th century, when they became the ultimate signifier of wealth and status. Such was the case that in 1917, unable to afford the natural pearl necklace his wife had seen at Cartier, the New York financier Morton Plant exchanged it instead for his 5th Avenue townhouse; to this day it remains Cartier’s flagship America Maison.

In Scotland too, the pearl has had an illustrious history, and if natural saltwater pearl is a rarity, the natural Scottish river pearl is something else indeed. It is believed that only one in every five thousand mussels found in Scottish rivers contains a pearl, and generally they are smaller than their saltwater cousins which produce fewer pearls; today the mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera) in which Scottish pearls grow are dangerously close to extinction and are rightly a protected species.

Historians have argued that the desire for Scottish pearls was one of Julius Ceasar’s incentives for his invasion of Great Britain in 55BC; he was known as an avid pearl collector. And anyone who has visited Edinburgh Castle will have seen the famous Kellie Pearl, set in the Crown of Scotland, dating to the 1540s, this particular specimen still holds the record for the largest Scottish river pearl ever found. Indeed, their popularity continued, right through the Victorian era and Queen Victoria’s passion for all things Scottish only fanned the flames of popularity.

SOURCES: https://www.lyonandturnbull.com/stories/scottish-freshwater-pearls-property-of-a-connisseur

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