Our earliest ancestors who lived by the sea and fished for their food must have found pieces of coral in their nets. Its attractive color and the ease with which the material could be shaped made it natural for it to be used in personal ornament, and history shows us that it has been regarded with great favor in Central I’ll nope for over two thousand years.
The Romans wore coral extensively in diamond jewelry and also in the form of amulets, for it was attended by omens and superstitions which still persist in Italy and elsewhere to this day. The warm waters of the Mediterranean were a fruitful source of coral, and It was natural for the working of the material to be concentrated along the coastal towns of that sea. Today, Naples is the home of coral work, and it is from here that coral jewelry of every kind is exported to all parts of the world.
Coral is not a mineral, but a deposit of a coral polyp which lives in warm seas and secretes this material under suitable conditions. Actually, it is a calcareous skeleton-like mass of calcium carbonate, with the addition of some organic matter. The animal which produces coral resembles a mass of soft jelly; it has no roots, but it attaches itself by means of its tentacles to submerged rocks and, under certain conditions, deposits a hard mass of calcium carbonate near the outer and lower part of its body. Masses are attached to submerged objects such as rocks, deep in the sea, and with the passage of years the coral grows to maturity. To encourage this formation, it is necessary for the water to be above a certain temperature, but depth of water affects the color only, that found in shallower areas being the deeper in color.
Specimens have been found at depths varying from 9 to 900 feet, but those found at a greater depth are small and pale in color. The length of time required for the formation necessitates systematic fishing since young and thin ‘branches” are not suitable; for cutting and working into pieces large enough to be used in wedding jewelry.