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with a composition, invented by the French, made from the scales
of the bleak fish, and the bead filled with wax. While lighter in
weight than true pearl, its lustre is often so much more perfect than
any save the rarest pearls as to deceive completely. Few can tell
the difference when on the ear or around the neck, for average pearl
is often far from attractive in either color, lustre or shape, and
might easily be taken for an inferior substance, while the imitation
seeks to reproduce only the gem quality. The fish-scale is not the
ordinary glass bead, sold in gilt mounting for a few cents, nor the
so-called "Roman" pearl, made of something not unlike candy. A
pair of ear-screws set in solid gold, brings near ten dollars, while
necklaces often cost three or four hundred.
There are imitations of black pearl in coal, fine spheres of lovely
tone and lustre, almost more beautiful than the real, except the finest
specimens.
Cattelle tells of a wonderful pearl necklace, worn by the Countess
Henckel, which for value and associations is unrivalled. It is
composed of three strands, each at one time being separate. One
was the famous string of the Empress Eugenie, valued at $100,000 ;
another "the necklace of the Virgin of Atokha," formerly owned
the third belonged to the ex-
by a member of the Spanish nobility ;
Queen of Naples. But, for actual value, the writer continues, this is
exceeded by a single strand, lately bought by a millionaire of our
western states, composed of thirty-seven pearls, varying from
18 to 53% grains each, the combined weight 979% grains, or 267 1/ 2
karats, appraised at $400,000. The Empress Eugenie's celebrated
necklace of matchless black pearls sold at Christie's in London for
$20,000, after the removal of the pearl forming the clasp, for which
the Marquis of Bath paid $5,000, and which sold later for over
$7,000, as the chief ornament of a bracelet.
Not all pearls called black are what they claim. The ideal
is what black should be, without metallic lustre or polished shine.
It is neither gray nor brown, but true black, soft, dense, exquisite,
the loveliest of all black gems, perhaps the loveliest of all gem pearls.
The "orient" is that lively lustre that almost sparkles in the
light, of which the most beautiful pearl in the world, La Pellegrina,
now in the Museum of Zosimo, Moscow, is a shining example. It is
an East Indian product, perfectly round, incomparably lustrous and
weighs about 28 karats. No pearl is more famous.
In course of time all pearls, like all mankind, die. That is,
they lose their beauty, if they do not actually crumble to dust. The
life of a pearl depends somewhat on its own nature, somewhat on
the care it receives, but at best its span is extremely short. Scarcely
an attractive pearl in existence is three centuries old, and many fade
almost as quickly as their owners. Careless handling, atmospheric
changes, noxious gases, intense heat injure the pearl as much as the
child. Woe to the pearls taken to incompetent workmen for repairs.
Instantly a beautiful gem may be converted by fire into a dead
thing, discolored and forlorn. Nor is the safe deposit box a good
place for them. Like cigars, they need, for their best health, a moist
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