Baroque pearls

When the jewel is designed around the pearl.

Three baroque pearls in profileOne falls as a drop, one broadens into a round, the third curls in on itself. MIMÍ Milano archive.

Baroque denotes a shape. The maison's pearl types are four — Akoya, South Sea, Tahiti, Freshwater — and the baroque shape runs across all of them: each can grow baroque. Today the maison offers a wide selection in Freshwater.

Gemmology recognises seven shapes, and the baroque stands beside the round with equal dignity. What makes the difference is the way the mollusc deposits the pearly matter: regular layers give the sphere; uneven layers, thicker on one side and thinner on the other, give an irregular outline. This is the baroque pearl.

With a baroque the goldsmith's work changes order: the gem comes before the design. The pearl is studied at length, its outline examined, and the setting is born around the shape the mollusc gave it. From every baroque, then, comes an unrepeatable jewel.

Five ways of looking at an irregular pearl

Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, European goldsmiths worked in precisely this order. They chose a pearl of curious outline, turned it in the light until they recognised a creature in it, and built the head, the tail, the legs around it. The pearl remains the body of the animal; the gold does the rest. Five pieces kept at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore show this method better than any explanation.

Sixteenth-century pendant in the form of a swan, its body formed by baroque pearls in enamelled gold — **Pendant in the form of a swan**Enamelled gold; the pearls form the plumage of the belly.
Northern Europe, sixteenth century · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 17.190.893

Spanish pendant of the late sixteenth century: a baroque pearl forms the torso of a centaur in enamelled gold with sapphires and rubies — **Pendant in the form of a centaur**Enamelled gold, sapphires and rubies; the pearl forms the torso.
Spain, late sixteenth century · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.60.381

Netherlandish pendant of the early seventeenth century: Neptune rides a sea monster whose body is a baroque pearl — **Pendant with Neptune and a sea monster**The pearl forms the body of the monster.
Netherlands, early seventeenth century · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.60.378

Seventeenth-century pendant in the form of a lion, with a baroque pearl forming part of its body — **Pendant in the form of a lion**The pearl forms part of the body.
1600–1650, after a design by Hans Collaert · The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 57.618

Spanish pendant of the late sixteenth century in the form of a seated cat, its body made from a baroque pearl — **Pendant in the form of a seated cat**As tall as a thumb; the pearl forms the body.
Spain, late sixteenth century · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.60.391

Public-domain images: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

In the maison's baroque pearls. Native colour · setting designed on the specimen · every gem admitted only when lustre, surface and structural integrity correspond to the MIMÍ master pearls.

The seven factors by which a pearl is read: How a pearl is judged. What determines the value of a gem: What determines the price of a pearl.

Text by the MIMÍ Milano gemmologists · updated 9 September 2026

Broggian Group srl · Via Giovanni Battista Trombini 2 · 21013 Gallarate (VA) · Italy
REA MI-2576562 · C.F. e P.IVA 11058280964 · info@mimimilano.com
© 2026 MIMÍ Milano · All rights reserved · Website crafted by Broggian Group Studio