Insects have always been used more or less in decoration, especially in
Brazil, where the richly-colored beetles of the country are affected as
articles of personal adornment. Recently in a Union Square jewelry store
a monster beetle was on exhibition, having been sent there for repairs.
It was alive, and about its body was a delicate gold band, locked with
a minute padlock; a gold chain attached it to the shawl of the owner.
Sometimes they are worn upon the headgear, their slow, cumbersome
movements preventing them from attracting great attention. They are
valued at from $50 to $100 apiece. Snakes, the rich green variety so
common in New England, are worn by some ladies as bracelets, while the
gorgeous reptiles are often imitated in gold and silver, with eyes of
diamonds, rubies, or black pearls. Gold bears are the proper thing now
for pins. In the East the chameleon is often worn as a head ornament,
the animal rarely moving, and forming at least a picturesque decoration,
with its odd shape and sculptured outlines. Various other reptiles, as
small turtles, alligators, etc., are pressed into service. The curious
soldier-crab has been used as a pin. Placed in a box with a rich pearly
shell prepared for the purpose, it will change houses, and then, secured
by a gold or silver chain, roams about the wearer, waving its red and
blue claws in a warlike manner. Birds are, perhaps, more commonly used
as natural ornaments than any other, and a cloak of the skins of humming
birds is one of the most magnificent objects to be imagined. One, of a
rare species, was once sold in Europe for $5,000. Single birds are often
worth $700 or $800. A cloak of the skin of the great auk would bring
$8,000 or $10,000. Some of the most beautiful pheasants are extremely
valuable--worth their weight in gold. Tiger claws are used in the
decoration of hats, and are extremely valuable and hard to obtain.
Within ten years the alligator has become an important factor to the
artistic manufacturer. The hide, by a new process, is tanned to an
agreeable softness and used in innumerable ways. The most costly bags
and trunks are made from it; pocket-books, card-cases, dining-room
chairs are covered with it, and it has been used as a dado on the
library wall of a well-known naturalist. It makes an excellent binding
for certain books. Among fishes the shark provides a skin used in a
variety of ways. The shagreen of the shark's ray is of great value.
Canes are made of the shark's backbone, the interstices being filled
with silver or shell plates. Shark's teeth are used to decorate the
weapons of various nations. The magnificent scales, nearly four inches
across and tipped with seemingly solid silver, of the giant herring,
are used, while scales of many of the tribe have long been used in the
manufacture of artificial pearls.