This is a true story, retold as a tale. The old pearl dealer telling it is imagined, but La Peregrina's journey, from a diver in the Gulf of Panama to Elizabeth Taylor's hotel room, really happened.
"Every pearl has a story," said old Mr. Moreau, unrolling a velvet cloth on the counter of his little shop. "But only one pearl has a name that means the wanderer."
His granddaughter Lucie, home from college for the summer, rolled her eyes and smiled. She had heard him tell this story many times. She never got tired of it.
From the Bottom of the Sea
"Five hundred years ago," Mr. Moreau began, "in the warm waters off the coast of Panama, divers went down into the sea with nothing but a breath of air and a rock to pull them to the bottom. Many of them were enslaved men, forced to dive for Spain's treasure.
"One day, one of those divers came up with an oyster that held a pearl the size of a pigeon's egg, shaped like a perfect drop of water. The legend says that for finding it, he was given his freedom."
"I like to think that part is true," said Lucie.
"So do I," said her grandfather.
A Wedding Gift for a Queen
"The pearl was sent to King Philip II of Spain. In 1554 he married Mary Tudor, Queen of England, and he gave it to her as a wedding gift. You can still see her wearing it, hanging from a brooch, in her portraits.
"After Mary died, the pearl went home to Spain, and for over two hundred years it was worn by Spanish queens. That's when it got its name: La Peregrina. The Pilgrim. The Wanderer."
Wars and Emperors
"And it did wander. When Napoleon's armies took Spain, his brother Joseph Bonaparte became king for a while, and when he fled, he took La Peregrina with him. It passed through the Bonaparte family, then was sold to an English nobleman, and for about a hundred years it stayed in his family. Once, at a grand ball, it fell off its chain and was lost in the cushions of a sofa. Another time, it went missing at Windsor Castle and turned up in the folds of a velvet train."
Lucie laughed. "It really does like to wander."
The Movie Star and the Puppy
Mr. Moreau's eyes twinkled. "Now comes the best part. In 1969, the actor Richard Burton bought La Peregrina at auction as a Valentine's Day gift for his wife, the most famous movie star in the world: Elizabeth Taylor.
"Not long after, they were staying in a hotel in Las Vegas. Elizabeth reached up to touch her necklace, and the pearl was gone. She searched the whole suite on her hands and knees, terrified, trying not to let Richard notice.
"And then she looked over at her little puppy, chewing happily on something in the corner."
Lucie put her hand over her mouth.
"It was La Peregrina," said Mr. Moreau. "A pearl that had belonged to queens for four hundred years, and the dog thought it was a bone! Luckily, it didn't have a single scratch."
The Wanderer Today
"Elizabeth Taylor had Cartier design a beautiful necklace for it, with rubies and diamonds. And when her collection was sold in 2011, La Peregrina was bought for almost twelve million dollars, one of the most expensive pearls ever sold."
He folded the velvet cloth. "So you see, Lucie. A pearl from the bottom of the sea, a wedding gift, a war prize, a Valentine and a puppy's chew toy. Four hundred and fifty years, and it's still wandering."
The Legend and the Truth
La Peregrina is a large, pear-shaped natural pearl found in the Gulf of Panama in the 1500s. Philip II of Spain gave it to Mary I of England on their marriage in 1554, and it appears in her portraits. It remained with the Spanish royal family for centuries, was taken by Joseph Bonaparte, passed to the Marquesses of Abercorn, and was bought by Richard Burton for Elizabeth Taylor in 1969. Taylor famously recounted finding her puppy chewing it in a Las Vegas hotel suite. In 2011 it sold at auction for about $11.8 million.
đź’ˇ Read more legends and true stories of pearls in The Legends of Pearl.
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