ignorance prevailed to a greater extent than now. John Spruce of
Edinburgh in 1705 complained that he could not sell a necklace or
pendant of fine Scotch pearls in Scotland. He says "the generality seek
for oriental pearls because farther fetched," and continues: "At this
very day I can show some of our own Scots pearls as fine, more hard
and transparent than any oriental. It is true that the oriental can be
easier matched, because they are all of a yellow water, yet foreigners
covet Scots pearls."
The price in those days was regulated by general appearance and loosely
with regard to weight, rather than by definite assortment and the exact
system of reckoning by the multiple of the weight as now, for he says,
"If a Scotch pearl be of a fine transparent color and perfectly round
and of any great bigness, it may be worth 15 to 50 rix dollars, yea I
have given 100 rix dollars (about $82.00 U. S.) for one."
In 1862, Scotch pearls sold for about seventy-five cents to ten or
twelve dollars each, an extraordinary piece bringing occasionally
as much as twenty-five dollars, but after they were brought to the
favorable notice of persons of distinction and it was known that Queen
Victoria had bought one for one hundred and ten dollars, the price of
them quadrupled. In the time of Charles II. of England an Irish pearl
weighing 144 grains was valued at two hundred dollars. In London
during the early part of the nineteenth century, pearls from Panama of
good size and quality brought about four dollars per grain.
About 1865, fine oriental pearls were sold in London for $1.25 to $1.50
per grain in sizes up to three grains. Over that the price increased
gradually with the size so that five grainers were worth about $2.50
per grain; ten grainers, $5.50 per grain; twenty grainers $13.00 per
grain and thirty grainers about $17.00 per grain. If their fine grade
equalled ours, there has been a remarkable advance in the last forty
years, as fine oriental round pearls of thirty grains to-day, are worth
in the United States $240.00 per grain flat.
Up to this time and after, prices were quoted very generally by the
carat. Later, the method of reckoning by the square or multiple became
more general, and the price went to about two dollars per carat, in
London, or fifty cents per grain base for ordinary sizes, the larger
ones being valued by the piece according to the individual rarity and
particular qualities, as before. At the Navigator's islands in 1858,
fine round pearls of one to two grains were valued at about fifty
cents per grain, the price increasing until those of twenty grains
were considered worth twenty dollars per grain. Second class pearls
under one grain, averaging half a grain, were sold for about five cents
a grain. The same grade about nine grains average, were worth about
sixty-five cents per grain.
A third and fourth grade brought about twenty-five and fifty per
cent. less respectively. These prices, compared with those of London,
indicate that fine, large, round pearls commanded better prices then in
the East than they did in Europe. Seed pearls sold at Tahiti for ten to
fifteen dollars per pound. The island of Labuan, a British possession
in the East Indian archipelago, shipped pearls to Singapore in the
sixties at an average price of ten to fifteen cents per grain. In 1871,
35 ounces of pearls shipped from Guayaquil were valued at $100.00 per
ounce.
As in former times, at many places where the fishing is done by
independent naked divers, especially among the remote islands of the
South Sea, there is no grading of pearls or definite ideas of value.
The natives dispose of their pearls, as they are able, to traders,
often for a very small price. It is so to-day at many points in the
Sulu archipelago from Mindanao to the Tawi Tawi islands. The smaller
established fisheries of the seas east of China assort roughly and sell
in bulk to buyers from neighboring trading centers.
The output of the large fisheries is practically controlled by the
great merchants of neighboring cities who know the methods and
intricacies peculiar to the localities. For instance, the pearls of
Ceylon go to Madras, and Bombay handles the bulk of those from the
Arabian coast and the Red Sea. Lower California pearls are marketed
chiefly at La Paz. Those from Venezuela are shipped principally to
Paris and definite figures cannot be obtained. A few are brought to the
United States direct from Venezuela, chiefly by Syrians who barter for
them with the independent divers. These traders have no knowledge of
market rates for assorted goods but sell them in mixed lots for as much
as they can get.
The price of pearls of the first grade, in Ceylon in 1904, weighing
four grains and upwards each, was about $5.00 per grain. At Macassar,
prices for the irregular shaped pearls of the Dutch Indies ranged from
twenty-five cents to $1.25 per grain base according to quality.
At the Ceylon fisheries, two-thirds of the oysters taken have been the
government's share. These were auctioned off daily. The prices varied
considerably, not only from fishing to fishing, but daily during the
season. If the oysters sold one day, yielded well, prices went up and
vice versa. In 1860, at the beginning of the Tinnevelly fishery, they
realized Rs 15. ($7.50) per thousand and rose later to Rs 40. ($20.00).
In 1861 on the contrary they sold in the early part of the season for
$35.00 to $40.00 and fell to $20.00, at one time touching $8.50.
In 1871, the Tuticorin catch brought a little over $40.00 per thousand
average. The average price paid in 1858 at the Ceylon fisheries was
a little less than ten dollars, and as the pearl yield was good, the
speculators made enormous profits. In consequence, the average of 1859
went up to $22.50, the oysters bringing at one time during the season
as much as $42.00; 1860 realized an average of $66.00, the highest
price paid during the season being $90.00.
The fishery of 1863 though it realized more for the government on
account of the large catch, brought an average of $33.50 per thousand
only. In 1874 the oysters brought about $40.00 per thousand. Of late
years the average has been less, ranging from $12.00 to $14.00 though
at times double that price has been paid.
The pearls found in the oysters came quickly into the hands of Hindu
merchants who assorted them and shipped a large part to Europe at
prices much less than those which rule in the United States, though
they usually made a good profit over cost. With the leasing of the
Ceylon fisheries much of this speculative business will undoubtedly be
eliminated and the pearls marketed at more regular prices.
At fisheries where mother-of-pearl is the chief factor of the industry,
it is difficult to get statistics of the number or value of the pearls
found, but in a general way India governs the market. Prices in other
sections adjust themselves to Madras and Bombay with such modifications
as quality and place would naturally make.
Mother-of-pearl shell varies in price from $250.00 to $500.00 per
ton for Mexican to $700.00 to $800.00 per ton for the white shell of
Australia and the South Sea.
IMITATION AND DOCTORED PEARLS
In common with all other precious things, pearls have been long
imitated. The early method of making imitation or "mock-pearls" as they
were called, was to cut them out of the mother-of-pearl and polish
them. Another crude way was to make solid beads of glass containing
various ingredients which gave them a slight similarity to the nacreous
luster of the pearl. Beads of gypsum or alabaster were soaked in oil
and coated with wax. The scales of the bleak fish dissolved in liquid
ammonia or vinegar, was also used for covering beads, the solution
imparting a somewhat pearly appearance.
To coat one thousand ounces of glass beads, a French manufacturer used
three ounces of fish-scales, one ounce white wax, one ounce pulverized
alabaster and half an ounce fine parchment glue. Another made beads of
opal glass which he covered with several layers of isinglass; over
this was laid another coating of a mixture of spirits of turpentine and
copal, and a fat oil to exclude moisture from the isinglass, following
it with a thin layer of tinted enamel to give resemblance to the orient
of the pearl.
Some claimed that the best artificial pearls were made from pulverized
pearls. Seed pearls or valueless baroques were ground to a fine powder,
soaked in lemon-juice or vinegar and mixed with gum tragacanth. The
paste after being shaped and partially dried, was then enclosed in a
loaf and baked in an oven. The luster was obtained by a final coating
of fish-scale solution. A lighter and better imitation was made by
blowing hollow glass beads. The inside surface was covered with a
preparation from the fish-scales, after which the bead was filled with
wax. This method continues in use to-day.
The fish-scale solution used is a guanine, the mucus which lubricates
the scales of the bleak fish (alburnus lucidus). The white scales of
the fish are carefully scraped into a horse-hair sieve over a shallow
tub of fresh water. The first water is thrown away. The scales are
then washed and pressed. The mucus sinks to the bottom and is gathered
as an oily mass, very brilliant and bluish-white. This is packed with
ammonia in tin boxes and sealed for shipment. It takes about 20,000
fish to make one pound of the mucus.
A cheap imitation pearl is made of opal glass, a bluish-white milky
appearing material, to which a pearly effect is given by treating it
with fluoric acid. Imitation black pearls are made from hematite, but
as they require careful finishing to hide the metallic luster and are
much heavier than pearls, they are seldom used.
The Chinese and Japanese have been much more ingenious in their methods
and have long produced, with enforced aid from the animal, imitations
which are in part real pearl. The former insert in the Chinese
pearl-mussel (anodonta herculea) small figures of Buddha upon which the
fish proceeds to deposit its nacre. When they are coated, which occurs
in from one to two or three years, the pearly figures are extracted and
sold to the devout.
The Japanese do more. They attempt to produce a marketable gem and
have so far succeeded that a considerable number have been sold of late
in the United States and in many cases the public buy them not knowing
that they are an artificial production. The base upon which the nacre
is deposited appears to be composed of a substance resembling porcelain
shaped like a low dome hollowed out on the under side and having a hole
in the centre of the cavity.
As there is no nacre on the under side, it must, when the button is
placed in the mussel, be thereby protected from the action of the fish
except at the edges where the nacreous deposit probably joins it to the
shell but in such a manner that it can be easily detached. The pearl
covered button is then fitted to a piece of polished mother-of-pearl of
the same exterior size and shape and the two are neatly joined, forming
a double low domed piece of pearl on one side, and mother-of-pearl on
the other. These Japanese pearls as they are called, when mounted in
a setting constructed to hide the under side, have the appearance of
imperfect spheres of natural pearl.
The beds where the culture of these artificial pearls is carried on,
are situated in the Bay of Ago, a few miles south of the Temple of Ise,
in central Japan on the Pacific side. It is a quiet piece of water,
in a coast broken by numerous inlets and coves. A little north of the
centre of the bay is a small island called Tadoko where the necessary
buildings and the men connected with the industry are. Around the
island and near it, about 1,000 acres of sea bottom are leased and used
for the pearl oyster cultivation. The water is about five to seven
fathoms deep.
The oyster used is the one common to the waters of Japan, the Avicula
martensii Dunker. In May and June, stones weighing six to eight pounds
are scattered over the bottom of the sheltered shallows which run up
into the land, where the spat is collected. The breeding season is in
July to August and in the latter month very tiny shells attached to the
stones by the byssus may be seen already.
The number increases as the season advances until in November, in order
to protect the young fish from the approaching winter cold, the stones
lying in very shallow water are removed with the adhering oysters to
deeper water—over six feet. After three years the oysters are taken
out and the nuclei of the culture pearl inserted. This done, they are
spread over the sea bottom, about one to every square foot and left
undisturbed for four years. They are then taken out and opened and
both the culture pearls and whatever natural pearls there may be, are
harvested. At present, upwards of a quarter of a million oysters are
treated annually.
Experiments are being made constantly, in the United States and Europe,
to improve upon the hollow glass bead lined with fish-scale but so far
without success. The finest of these imitate the natural pearl very
well and if finely mounted similar to the genuine, will deceive many
while worn. Closer observation will reveal the glassy shine of the
surface and it will be found under the loup to contain numerous small
holes. The specific gravity is also less.
One finds occasionally in lots, a mock-pearl which has been cut and
polished from the mother-of-pearl, but imitations of this character
are scarce and find no place in the market. The few made are found
usually in parcels of fresh-water pearls and are put there by
unscrupulous dealers, as also are hematite balls and even buckshot, to
be sold with the lot by weight as genuine pearls.
Since the price of pearls has advanced so rapidly, much ingenuity has
been shown in the improvement of poor pearls. Button pearls grown to
the shell are broken out and the under or flat side carefully scraped
and smoothed to hide the irregular lines of juncture between the pearl
and the shell. Protuberances on the surface of round pearls are scraped
off and the broken skin edges smoothed down so as to be unnoticeable to
the naked eye.
In a like manner chalky rings and spots are toned down. Surface cracks
are filled by soaking the pearls in a solution and if the pearl has
been pierced, interior cracks can also be rendered unobservable. A
serious objection to pierced pearls arises from the ease with which
interior defects can be doctored where the skin is pierced and a
boring made through the nacreous layers. Not only are cracks made to
disappear, but coloring matter can be introduced between the skins. A
white pearl of very poor color can by such means be changed temporarily
into a black pearl which will command a fancy price. This illegitimate
doctoring of pearls, whereby defects are hidden and a fictitious
appearance of quality imparted to last long enough to make sales
at exorbitant prices, should not be confounded with the legitimate
improvement of pearls which is now growing to be an industry of some
importance. Experts are now able by careful manipulation to restore to
some extent the luster which has been lost by wear or age.
Formerly this was done by skinning the pearl, _i.e. _, removing the
outer skin by peeling it carefully off with the edge of a sharp knife,
an unsatisfactory method at best, as the under skin may not be good and
if all the outer skin is not taken off, the broken edges of the layers
composing the skin, mar the luster and color when the pearl is worn.
Few also succeed in removing a skin without scratching the new one
disclosed by its removal.
Pearls having a decidedly bad outer skin with a good one under it,
can only be materially improved by removing the bad skin, but owing
to the liability of finding equally bad imperfections underneath,
or irregularities which would necessitate the removal of several
skins with a consequent loss of size and weight, pearls with minor
imperfections or lack of luster are now slowly rubbed between the
fingers, the abrasion being assisted by various substances which differ
with the judgment and experience of the operator, the preparation being
in all cases kept secret by the expert using it. Many fine pearls which
have lost their pristine luster are now considerably improved by this
method, and without the dangers involved and the necessary loss of
weight, consequent on peeling.
Large numbers of poor or imperfect pearls are scraped or otherwise
doctored by the traders and speculators at the fisheries. These men
acquire such pearls at a slight cost, and by various methods fix them
so that by mixing them in lots with good pearls, they often make large
profits. They also mix in many cracked pearls. This is done more often
at Margarita and the other Venezuelan fisheries where the proportion
of cracked pearls is greater than in the Indian and South Sea fisheries.
The skins of a pearl may also be removed by the application of weak
acids, but this method requires careful and expert handling or the acid
will act irregularly and leave the surface, if improved in luster,
uneven and pitted.
Few important fresh-water baroques and irregular pearls leave the west
without receiving the attention of the speculators through whose hands
they pass, and the scraping is often very roughly done. Rough and
discolored projections are broken or filed off and then scraped over
with a knife edge. While fresh, the broken skin edges left thus will
often pass unnoticed by a careless buyer, but they become discolored
and dead later. Unless one buys of a dealer in whom implicit confidence
may be placed, not alone for honesty but for his knowledge of pearls,
it is better to examine all pearls under a glass before purchasing.
As many persons both in the trade and out of it, are not sufficiently
familiar with pearls to be quite sure of their ability to detect the
genuine from fine imitations, the following points of difference
will be of service. All imitation pearls made of some solid material
are heavier than the genuine and lack the pearly characteristics
of the fine imitations even. If made of solid glass without acid
finish, they are shiny and too poor to require a second consideration,
if acid finished they have a "ground-glass" appearance which is
unmistakable. If made of other material of a vitreous nature, they
are heavier than pearls, dull in luster or without luster, dark in
color and unmistakably lacking in pearly characteristics. The only
dangerous imitations are the Japan culture pearls and the hollow, glass
bead-pearls. The former may always be recognized by the mother-of-pearl
back, the latter by various signs.
All these hollow glass beads, have one or two holes. They are coated
on the inside with fish-scale solution and filled with wax. Some are
treated with acid or sand-blasted to tone down the shiny, glassy
appearing surface, and to hide the blow-holes in the glass. The effect
is quite pearly, but the color is somewhat darker and they show some
iridescence. Without the surface treatment they are more shiny and
under the loup one will discover the small blow-holes peculiar to
surfaces which have been molten.
The rims of the holes have a smooth, rounded, congealed appearance,
whereas holes in pearls have a rough, square, chalky edge. On looking
diagonally into the hole of a glass bead, the glass will appear as a
dark ring against the wax filling, and where there are two holes, one
will almost invariably have a ring in the glass, a short distance from
and around it. The surface over the ring is smooth, though it looks as
if it were ridged; the ring is in the glass, not on it.
These hollow-blown glass pearls are lighter than the real pearls
also. There is one never failing test however which discovers even
the best of these most dangerous imitations. Drop a small spot of ink
from the point of a pen upon one, and hold it between the eye and the
light, when two spots will appear, the one nearest to the eye being a
reflection from the inner wall of the glass resting against the wax,
of the actual ink spot on the surface. The duplicate spot will be
lighter in color than the original. On a real pearl there would be no
such reflection, nor would it appear on a solid bead imitation, but
as before stated, the weight of the latter betrays them, as they are
heavier than the real, nor do they look as pearly, and on holding them
between the eye and light they do not show the translucency at the edge
of the circumference peculiar in a more or less degree, to the gem.
FACTS AND FANCIES
In ancient days there was a belief in the east that at the full of the
moon the pearl-oyster rose to the surface of the sea and opened its
shell to receive the falling dew-drops. These congealing, hardened
into pearls. Similarly, the natives of India believed that Buddha in
certain months showered upon the earth, dew-drops from heaven, which
the oyster, floating on the waters to breathe, received and held until
they hardened and became pearls. These poetical imaginations of the
Orientals were carried west with the pearls. Poets embodied them in
verse. Prose writers, losing the poetry of the fable, trimmed them to
the bare statements of impossible facts. An English writer early in the
eighteenth century speaking of the mussels in the streams of northern
England said that "gaping eagerly and sucking in their dewy streams
they did conceive and bring forth a great plenty of pearls."
Later writers also attributed the origin of pearls to the reception
of raindrops from heaven by the oyster, and one gravely asserted that
the fishermen always found more pearls after a season of heavy rains.
He did not state that the oysters rose to the surface of the sea to
receive the raindrops, neither did he explain how these drops from
heaven passed through the brine to the oyster inviolate. Pliny was more
definite; he stated that the quality of the pearls varied with that of
the dew from which they were formed and were clear or turbid as it was.
The pearl would be pale-colored if the weather was cloudy when the dew
fell into the shell, and large if the dew was plentiful. Thunder during
the reception of the drop resulted in a hollow pearl and if lightning
caused the shell to close suddenly the pearl would be small.
The people of Java and Borneo had a belief which should have been yet
more difficult to acquire. They asserted that the pearls themselves
breed and increase in number if placed in cotton. Clusters of twinned
pearls were said to be produced thus, and it is related that some had
the audacity to sell breeding pearls claiming to distinguish the male
from the female. This fable also travelled west and was received by
the credulous. M. S. Lovell in his "Edible Mollusks" says, "A Spanish
lady informed a friend of mine that if seed-pearls were shut up in
cotton-wool they would increase either in size or in number."
To this day the ancient superstition, or belief, is believed not only
by sea-board Malays, but by Europeans, and there are those who claim
to own breeding pearls and to have bred from them. The pearls are
placed in a box with a layer of cotton-seed and a few grains of rice,
under and over them. The box is then closed and in a year, if one
account given is a fair statement of average results, one may look for
a four-fold increase, though the children will not be as large as the
parents. Some of them may be as large as a pin head. The rice will look
crumbly and worm-eaten.
Another breeder of pearls says that the breeding pearls themselves
grow in size and if the box has been kept undisturbed, there will be
found with them at the end of the year others of various sizes, some
almost microscopic. A year later these would be larger. It is also
said that when a pearl is about to breed, a small black speck makes
its appearance on the surface, and that during the period of breeding
the pearl changes its shape from a sphere to an irregular ovoid, and
develops layers of scales on the surface visible to the naked eye.