Pearl Shell buttons

Although pearling had begun in Shark Bay in the 1860s, where small pearls were extracted from the small, Pinctada albina, when the much larger Pinctada maxima shell was discovered in Nichol Bay it was the pearlshell, not pearls, that were of greater value. Traded in global markets, the shell was used mainly to make buttons. Prior to the development of plastics, pearlshell buttons such as these were prized for both their durability and beauty. Their lustrous shine belies the harsh truth of an industry that ruthlessly exploited their Aboriginal divers.