3582) Pearl Hunting Stamps, United Arab Emirates (UAE): A set of five (5) Stamps of 275 UAE Fils issued by the UAE: Date /Year of Stamp set issue: 21.12.2005:
Pearl hunting, also known as pearl fishing or pearling, is the activity of recovering or attempting to recover pearls from wild molluscs, usually oysters or mussels, in the sea or freshwater. Pearl hunting was prevalent in the Persian Gulf region and Japan for thousands of years. On the northern and north-western coast of Western Australia pearl diving began in the 1850s, and started in the Torres Strait Islands in the 1860s, where the term also covers diving for nacre or mother of pearl found in what were known as pearl shells.
In most cases the pearl-bearing molluscs live at depths where they are not manually accessible from the surface, and diving or the use of some form of tool is needed to reach them. Historically the molluscs were retrieved by freediving, a technique where the diver descends to the bottom, collects what they can, and surfaces on a single breath.
The diving mask improved the ability of the diver to see while underwater. When the surface-supplied diving helmet became available for underwater work, it was also applied to the task of pearl hunting, and the associated activity of collecting pearl shell as a raw material for the manufacture of buttons, inlays and other decorative work.
The surface supplied diving helmet greatly extended the time the diver could stay at depth, and introduced the previously unfamiliar hazards of barotrauma of ascent and decompression sickness.
Before the beginning of the 20th century, the only means of obtaining pearls was by manually gathering very large numbers of pearl oysters or mussels from the ocean floor or lake or river bottom. The bivalves were then brought to the surface, opened, and the tissues searched. More than a ton were searched in order to find at least 3-4 quality beads.
In order to find enough pearl oysters, free-divers were often forced to descend to depths of over 100 feet on a single breath, exposing them to the dangers of hostile creatures, waves, eye damage, and drowning, often as a result of shallow water blackout on resurfacing.
Because of the difficulty of diving and the unpredictable nature of natural pearl growth in pearl oysters, pearls of the time were extremely rare and of varying quality.
In Asia, some pearl oysters could be found on shoals at a depth of 5–7 feet (1.5–2.1 meters) from the surface, but more often divers had to go 40 feet (12 meters) or even up to 125 feet (38 meters) deep to find enough pearl oysters, and these deep dives were extremely hazardous to the divers.
In the 19th century, divers in Asia had only very basic forms of technology to aid their survival at such depths.
For example, in some areas they greased their bodies to conserve heat, put greased cotton in their ears, wore a tortoise-shell clip to close their nostrils, gripped a large object like a rock to descend without the wasteful effort of swimming down, and had a wide-mouthed basket or net to hold the oysters.
For thousands of years, most seawater pearls were retrieved by divers working in the Indian Ocean, in areas such as the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and in the Gulf of Mannar (between Sri Lanka and India).
Pearl divers near the Philippines were also successful at harvesting large pearls, especially in the Sulu Archipelago.
In fact, pearls from the Sulu Archipelago were considered the "finest of the world" which were found in "high bred" shells in deep, clear, and rapid tidal waters. At times, the largest pearls belonged by law to the sultan, and selling them could result in the death penalty for the seller. Nonetheless, many pearls made it out of the archipelago by stealth, ending up in the possession of the wealthiest families in Europe.
Pearling was popular in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Japan, India and some areas in Persian Gulf countries. The Gulf of Mexico was particularly famous for pearling, which was originally found by the Spanish explorers.
Persian Gulf:
The shallow Persian Gulf produced many pearls, and the pearling industry flourished in Kuwait, UAE, and Qatar, with Bahrain producing the highest export.
The price for pearls increased throughout the nineteenth century, with the pearl trade expanding in this region. At this time, pearls from the Persian Gulf were being traded in Aleppo and Istanbul, and there is evidence that merchants would sail to India (particularly Bombay) to sell pearls.
By the 1930s, there were a few traders travelling all the way to Paris to sell their pearls.
In the early twentieth century, it was estimated that about a quarter of the population living in the Persian Gulf's littoral was involved with the pearl trade. In the Persian Gulf, the pearling industry was dominated by slave labour and male slaves were used as pearl divers[14] until the final abolition of slavery in the Gulf states in the period of 1937–1971.
The pearling industry in this region reached its zenith around 1912, "the Year of Superabundance." By the 1950s, however, dependency on pearls was replaced by dependency on oil, as oil was discovered and the oil industry became the dominant economic trade
The Pearling Stamps issued by the UAE:
Stamp catalog:
Stamps: Pearl Diving Tools
- with pearl
Country: United
Arab Emirates
Series: Pearl Diving Tools
Issued on: 2005-12-21
Size: 40.00 mm x 40.00 mm (each stamp)
Colours: Multicolour (CMYK)
Perforation: Comb14¼
Printing: Offset lithography
Face value: 275 United Arab Emirates fils
Description: The stamps have embossed small pearls attached in the lower left corner.
(The above Stamps are from the Collection of Jayant Biswas. Post researched and written by Rajeev Prasad)
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United Arab Emirates - UAE:
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Rajan Trikha has commented:
ReplyDelete"Very Nice."
Thank you, Trikha sahab.
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