The Legacy of the Pearl King: A Deep Dive into the Assael Dynasty

Assael pearl jewelry has become synonymous with beauty, representing quality, design, and diverse materials.

Brand Story

In the high-end jewelry industry, few have left a legacy as meaningful as the legendary “Pearl King” Salvador Assael. He spent his life traveling the globe, sourcing the world’s most magnificent pearls and creating flawless, lustrous, and durable pearl jewelry.

Salvador’s life story reads like an adventure novel, filled with intriguing treasure hunts, pioneering entrepreneurship, rare strokes of luck, incredible business acumen, and tremendous perseverance in overcoming obstacles and facing challenges. His wit, passion, courage, and commitment to excellence inspired the industry and made the House of Assael synonymous with splendor.

The DNA of Luxury

His father, James Assael, was a co-founder of the Milan Diamond Exchange in Italy, specializing in supplying exceptional quality diamonds of 3 carats and above. Thus, Salvador grew up surrounded by precious gems. The family later moved to New York. What Salvador learned from his father was to focus on rarity, prioritize the highest quality, and always be ready to seize opportunities.

Business Genius

Salvador was fluent in six languages. During World War II, the New York-based Assael family began selling Swiss waterproof watches to the U.S. government for military use. After the war, Salvador traveled to Japan to sell watches. The Japanese offered a barter deal, providing Salvador with exceptionally high-quality pre-war Akoya pearls in return. This marked Salvador’s entry into the pearl business.

Introduction of South Sea Pearls

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Salvador Assael discovered a new product – South Sea pearls. He was captivated by their impeccable quality and impressive size. This led him to become the first pearl dealer to offer South Sea pearls in the United States.

He popularized the use of South Sea pearls, becoming America’s “go-to” source for truly high-quality South Sea pearls. In the early 1990s, he established the South Sea Pearl Consortium, organizing all pearl farmers to collectively promote pearls. He inspired the entire industry with his intense passion and incredible love for pearls.

The Glory of Tahitian Pearls

Salvador Assael single-handedly introduced Tahitian pearls to the United States in the late 1970s. He bought an island called Marutea in Tahiti and partnered with a French businessman to establish a pearl farm there. Utilizing his pearl expertise, he began cultivating Tahitian pearls.

He even brought in Japanese pearl experts to establish pearl farms in Tahiti to cultivate black pearls. He presented Mr. Harry Winston in New York with a pearl necklace unlike anything he had ever seen. The first Tahitian pearl necklace sold within two weeks.

After 1978, Harry Winston purchased all varieties of Salvador’s Tahitian pearl strands. Subsequently, Van Cleef & Arpels and Tiffany also became his clients. Salvador released the message “A new gem is born” in the media, further cementing the brand’s position.

Pearls on the Runway

Salvador Assael’s friendship with Oscar de la Renta sparked a brilliant collaboration in the 1990s. When de la Renta took over design at Balmain, he adorned the entire Paris runway show with magnificent Assael pearls, leaving a lasting impression.

Setting New Auction Records

Living up to his legendary status, Salvador Assael not only created new markets but also actively developed the pearl market personally. To maintain the public’s enduring perception of the mystery and rarity of pearls, Assael would sometimes sell his highest quality pearls at Sotheby’s auctions.

In 1993, a strand of Australian South Sea pearls provided by Assael sold for $2.3 million at Sotheby’s New York, setting a world auction record. This became the most expensive South Sea pearl necklace in world history.

Christina Lang Assael

Following in Salvador’s entrepreneurial footsteps, his wife Christina Lang Assael led the company with a spirit of excellence and adventurous enterprise. Maintaining a keen focus on luxury, Christina added orange Vietnamese Melo pearls and pink Bahamian conch pearls, as well as responsible sourcing, to the brand’s respected product line.

Christina hired Senior Vice President Peggy Grosz to reimagine the brand’s legacy image and add innovative new design directions, including a new collaboration with designer Sean Gilson, and pairing exquisite gemstones with similarly colored pearls to highlight and pay homage to the natural colored undertones in pearls.