Basra Pearls

Pearls……As you know Hyderabad is famously and rightly known as the “City of Pearls”, and the city has a number of reputed pearl dealers/jewellers who deal in pearls. Any talk about traditional Hyderabadi jewellery is just not complete without a mention of the famous BASRA pearls, and for those of you who always wondered how the name Basra originated….. jewellery that was made with Basra Pearls means that the pearls originated from the pearl banks of the Persian Gulf that were found on the Arabian side of the Gulf, particularly off the coast of Bahrain, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Oman, and off the coast of Lavan-Kish island group on the Persian side of the Gulf. A hundred years ago Basra was a regional center for the marketing of Persian Gulf pearls; hence all pearls produced in the Persian Gulf irrespective of their country of origin came to be known as Basra pearls.

So, if you have any jewellery that was handed down from your parents/grand parents and that was made with Basra pearls….HOLD ON TO THEM, because they are the real deal and were made with the real natural pearls, the supply of which STOPPED about 50 years ago ( ever since oil was found in the gulf region, making the oil industry much more lucrative than pearls.). Given below are two really beautiful necklaces made with graduated Basra pearls, the first one has rather round and perfect pearls making it a unique piece.
 

Another traditional Hyderabadi pearl jewellery item is the Sath Lara ( Seven Strands ) shown below. The Saath Lara can be quite an over powering piece when made with larger pearls and I personally prefer them much simpler with smaller pearls or with lesser strands such as teen lara or the panch lara .

Here are some designs for Sath Lara.....click on the pics for more detail.





 

I am also including a link to an excellent article that talks about Hyderabadi pearls and the pearl trade.

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199805/city.of.pearls.htm