This famous (and controversial) piece is named after the word "pilgrim" that in previous centuries came to mean "special, unusual, sensualist, only ...". And we say controversial because all the information about their comings and goings we are going to leave them in quarantine because it is perhaps the jewel with more legends of Spain.

Found in Panama in the sixteenth century, the pilgrim arrives in Spain in 1580 at the hands of Constable of Panama, Don Diego de Thebes, to offer it to King Philip II. According to documents, the pearl came with a small pendant, type pin white enamel, with a total weight (pearl and pendant) of 71 carat and a half (58.5 carat pearl only). And though it was acquired by Diego de Thebes by 9000 ducats to the Royal Council of the Indies, the piece is priced in Spain in 8748 ducats for the king's jewelers (Francisco Reynalte and Pedro Cerdeño). That's how it ended in the Spanish monarchy, becoming a present from King to Queen.

Are real inventories which relates the vicissitudes of this piece. Although it was stated that the Peregrina was burned in 1734 in a fire in the Alcazar, the truth is that there are evidences that during the reigns of Fernando VI, Carlos III and Carlos IV, Pearl stood in the palace and was used in numerous events.

Case changes with the War of Independence (1808-1814). It is Napoleon who loots the royal treasury taking jewelry valued at 22 million reais. At this point it should be noted that since ceased to exist the moment the jewels of the Crown as such, ie, jewelry of the current monarchs are private goods. Only preserved in the palace a crown and a baton which governs swear in Parliament from Isabel II to today, and not the crown (non-existent in Spain as it is proclaimed).

The Peregrina Pearl out of Spain to end up in Julie Clary's hands, wife of Bonaparte at the time. It was testified by an inventory kept in the French National Archives where is cited Christopher Chivelli, Bonaparte's valet and a person who would give the pearl to Julia. When she died in 1844, her sister in law Queen Hortense of Holland (by wish of the deceased) kept the piece to give it to the son of Julia and Bonaparte, the future Napoleon III, in exile in England, for covering his political career. Other sources state that it was Napoleon Bonaparte who took the pearl to the U.S. (along with his lover) when he left Julia and who gave it to his son. Whoever it was, Napoleon III was in a delicate economic situation (as they had of course their parents) and in 1848 sold the pearl to the Marquis of Abercorn.

According to document of 1914, the London jewelry firm RG Hennell & Son tried to sell the piece for Abercorn for 35,000 pounds. One of the stakeholders was the King Alfonso XIII of Spain as a gift for his wife Princess Victoria of Battenberg. However, its high cost prevented the transaction. Judge Geary's billionaire could buy it. Then, the pearl spent in 1917 to Henry Huntingdon. And in 1969 came to auction with great rumors about its authenticity. Don Alfonso de Borbon y Dampierre tried to buy it for give it to Victoria Eugenia but eventually was sold to actor Richard Burton for $ 37,000 who gave it to his wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor, for her 37th birthday. To everyone's surprise, the day after this auction, Luis Martinez de Irujo (Duque de Alba and Head of the Home of Queen Victoria Eugenia) invites the media to teach a pearl that considers legitimate Peregrina Pearl, saying the auctioned in New York was not the real. The funny thing is that the Duke of Alba tried to bid for the piece in the auction. This possibility, that the Peregrina Pearl is not auctioned off, was immediately dismissed by experts. The authentic was in the hands of Elizabeth Taylor.

The pearl exhibited by the Duke of Alba is the one that currently looks Sofia, bequeathed for Eugenia Victoria to her son Don Juan, and from he to Don Juan Carlos in 1977. This pearl was purchased in 1914 by Alfonso XIII because he could not be done with the real Peregrina Pearl auctioned and bought by Judge Geary. Although it was not the authentic, it was very beautiful. With a weight of 218.75 grams it was converted into part of a brooch with a loop of diamond made by spanish jewelry Ansorena Spanish. Subsequently, this jewelry firm was responsible for the remodeling of the jewel. Ansorena became the pearl in a pendant to hang from a necklace of pearls or a circular brooch studded with diamonds. Jewelers Ansorena not assert that it is the Peregrina Pearl and never was known as such.

Elizabeth Taylor orderer to the jeweler Cartier in Paris a Renaissance necklace of rubies and diamonds that incorporate the pearl for wearing in "A little night music"  film (1977). Anecdotally we should mention that the actress had to bail out the pearl from the mouth of your poodle when detached from the hanging hook and eventually it lost in a thick carpet of the hotel in Las Vegas where he was staying with Richard Burton.

For more information, we recommend reading the book "The jewels of the queens of Spain" (Editorial Planeta) by Fernando Rayón and Jose Luis Sanpedro.