and no doubt it differs greatly according to the constitution of the
individual. Some observers declare that, in their experience, it never
exceeded fifty seconds; but Captain Percival, in his work on Ceylon,
gives two minutes as the usual time of remaining under water.[10] Serious
effects are produced by this employment, and the divers may frequently be
seen with blood issuing from their mouth and nostrils. Yet this does not
hinder them from going down in their turn. They will make from forty to
fifty plunges in one day, and bring up on each occasion about one hundred
oysters. Their day closes before noon; for, as soon as the sea-breeze sets
in, the signal is given for the return of the boats to the shore. Their
owners, and a large assemblage of persons of all classes, are eagerly
looking out for the arrival of the flotilla, and are soon busily employed
in examining and stowing away the cargoes.
Each owner has a shallow pit fenced round and secured for his own use,
in which his store of oysters is deposited, and left open to the air.
This pit, or _couttó_, as it is called, is in the midst of a group of
huts belonging to the same owner, so that it is under guard of his
party. Here the oysters are allowed to putrefy under a burning sun, and
a stench arises from them which would seem enough to depopulate the
shore of its thousands of inhabitants. Yet such is not the case. The
health of the people does not appear to be materially affected, and
the oysters are allowed to remain till dry, when they can be easily
opened and the pearls extracted. To open them when fresh would require
much greater force, and would be likely to injure the pearls. When the
putrefaction is sufficiently advanced, the oysters are taken from the
_couttó_, and placed in troughs made of the trunks of trees. Sea-water
is thrown over them: they are easily opened, and render their pearls to
the washing and shaking of a number of men who stand all on one side of
the trough, while inspectors at each end closely watch their proceedings,
and other inspectors examine the shells which are thrown away, lest they
should contain some of the precious substance. The workmen engaged in
washing pearls dare not lift their hands to their mouths under penalty
of a flogging, yet a man will sometimes contrive to swallow a pearl
of high price. After all the pearls are washed out, the largest are
carefully picked out from the sand at the bottom of the troughs and
washed repeatedly in clean water: the next in size are spread out on
white napkins to dry in the sun. The remainder are left to the care of
women, who pick them up and dry them. Pearls are assorted by means of
three sieves placed one above another, the meshes in which are smaller
as the pearls descend. Thus the pearls which will not pass through the
uppermost sieve are of the first class, and so on with the others. Another
assortment is made as to color, regularity of form, &c., and here the
tastes of different nations have to be consulted. The Europeans prefer
pure white pearls, the Indians yellow pearls, and the natives of Ceylon
those which are tinged with rose-color.
Besides the number of persons who arrive in Ceylon in the fishing season
for the purpose of speculating in pearls, there are also numerous Indian
artisans who are very expert in piercing and drilling pearls, and who
practise their trade on the spot on economical terms. A writer thus
describes their operations: "A machine made of wood, and of a shape
resembling an obtuse inverted cone, about six inches in length and four
in breadth, is supported upon three feet, each twelve inches long. In the
upper flat surface of this machine holes or pits are formed to receive the
larger pearls, the smaller ones being beat in with a little wooden hammer.
The drilling instruments are spindles of various sizes, according to that
of the pearls; they are turned round in a wooden head by means of a bow
handle, to which they are attached. The pearls being placed in the pits
which we have already mentioned, and the point of the spindle adjusted to
them, the workman presses on the wooden head of the machine with his left
hand, while his right is employed in turning round the bow handle. During
the process of drilling, he occasionally moistens the pearl by dipping
the little finger of his right hand in a cocoa-nut filled with water,
which is placed by him for that purpose; this he does with a dexterity and
quickness which scarcely impede the operation, and can only be acquired
by much practice. They have also a variety of other instruments both for
cutting and drilling the pearls. To clean, round, and polish them to that
state in which we see them, a powder, made of the pearls themselves, is
employed. These different operations in preparing the pearls occupy a
great number of the black men in various parts of the island. In the black
town, or pettah of Columbo, in particular, many of them may every day be
seen at this work, which is well worth the attention of any European who
is not already acquainted with it."
MOTHER-OF-PEARL, or NACRE, is the hard, silvery, internal layer of several
kinds of shells, especially oysters, the large varieties of which in the
Indian seas secrete this coat of sufficient thickness to render the shell
an object of manufacture. The genus of shell-fish, _Pentadinæ_, furnishes
the finest pearls as well as mother-of-pearl: it is found round the coasts
of Ceylon, near Ormus in the Persian Gulf, at Cape Comorin, and in some of
the Australian seas. The dealers in pearl-shells consider the Chinese from
Manilla to be the best: they are fine, large, and very brilliant, with
yellow edges. Fine large shells of a dead white are supplied by Singapore.
Common varieties come from Bombay and Valparaiso, from the latter place
with jet black edges. South Sea pearl-shells are common, with white edges.
The beautiful dark-green pearl-shells called _ear-shells_ or _sea-ears_
are more concave than the others, and have small holes round the margin:
they are the coverings of the _Haliotis_, which occurs in the Californian,
South African, and East Indian seas.
In the Indian collection of the Great Exhibition in London, specimens of
the finest pearl-shells were shown, known in commerce as _flat-shells_,
_ear-shells_, _green snail-shells_, _buffalo-shells_, _Bombay shells_. It
is stated that the shores of the Sooloo Islands afford the finest shells.
The beautiful tints of mother-of-pearl depend upon its structure;
the surface being covered with a multitude of minute grooves, which
decompose the reflected light. Sir David Brewster, who was the first to
explain these chromatic effects, discovered, on examining the surface
of mother-of-pearl with a microscope, "a grooved structure, like the
delicate texture of the skin at the top of an infant's finger, or like
the section of the annual growths of wood as seen upon a dressed plank
of fir. These may sometimes be seen by the naked eye; but they are often
so minute that 3,000 of them are contained in an inch." It is remarkable
that these iridescent hues can be communicated to other surfaces as a
seal imparts its impress to wax. The colors may be best seen by taking
an impression of the mother-of-pearl in black wax; but "a solution of
gum-arabic or of isinglass (white glue), when allowed to indurate upon
a surface of mother-of-pearl, takes a most perfect impression from it,
and exhibits all the communicable colors in the finest manner, when seen
either by reflection or transmission. By placing the isinglass between two
finely-polished surfaces of good specimens of mother-of-pearl, we obtain
a film of artificial mother-of-pearl, which, when seen by single lights,
such as that of a candle, or by an aperture in the window, will shine with
the brightest hues."
It is in consequence of this lamellar structure that pearl-shells admit
of being split into laminæ for the handles of knives, for counters, and
for inlaying. Splitting, however, is liable to spoil the shell, and is
therefore avoided as much as possible. The different parts of the shell
are selected as near as possible to suit the required purposes, and the
excess of thickness is got rid of at the grindstone. In preparing the
rough pearl-shell, the square and angular pieces are cut out with the
ordinary brass-back saw, and the circular pieces, such as those for
buttons, with the annular or crown-saw, fixed upon a lathe-mandrel. The
pieces are next ground flat upon a wet grindstone, the edge of which is
turned with a number of grooves, the ridges of which are less liable to
be clogged than the entire surface, and hence grind more quickly. If the
stone be wetted with soap and water, it is less liable to be clogged. The
pieces are finished on the flat side of the stone, and are then ready for
inlaying, engraving, polishing, &c. Cylindrical pieces are cut out of the
thick part of the shell, near the hinge, and are rounded on the grindstone
preparatory to being turned in the lathe. Counters, silk-winders, &c.,
are smoothed with Trent sand or pumice-stone and water on a buff-wheel
or hand-polisher, and are finished with rotten-stone moistened with
sulphuric acid, which develops finely the striated structure of the shell.
For inlaid works, the surface is made flat by filing and scraping; then
pumice-stone is used, and after this putty-powder, both on buff-sticks
with water; and the final polish is given with rotten-stone and
sulphuric acid, unless tortoise-shell, or some other substance liable to
be injuriously affected by the acid, be present in the inlay. In turned
works, fine emery-paper, rotten-stone and acid or oil are used. The
pearl handles for razors are slightly riveted together in pairs, then
_scraped_, _sand-buffed_ on the wheel with Trent sand and water; thirdly,
_gloss-buffed_ on the wheel with rotten-stone and oil, or sometimes with
dry chalk rubbed on the same wheel; and fourthly, they are _handed up_, or
polished with dry rotten-stone and the naked hand.
ARTIFICIAL PEARLS.--The art of making artificial pearls has been brought
to such perfection in Paris, that even jewellers and pawnbrokers have
occasionally had a difficulty in deciding between the artificial and
the real. The origin of this successful imitation is given as follows:
A French bead-maker named Jaquin, observing that when the small fish
called _ablette_, or bleak (_Cyprinus alburnus_), was washed, the water
was filled with fine silver-colored particles, collected some of these
for the purposes of his trade. He found that the soft shining powder thus
obtained had, to a remarkable degree, the lustre of pearls; hence, he
called it essence of pearl, or _essence d'orient_. He first made small
beads of gypsum and covered them with this substance; they were greatly
admired and eagerly sought after; but it was found that this pearly coat,
when exposed to heat, separated itself from the bead, and attached itself
to the skin of the wearer in a manner that was anything but pleasant. The
ladies themselves, it is said, suggested to Jaquin the making of hollow
glass beads, and covering the inside with essence of pearl. This he did,
and established a manufacture, of which some idea may be gained by the
following account. Slender tubes of glass are first prepared, called
_girasols_, a term applied to opal, and sometimes to the stone called
cat's-eye, and given to these tubes because the glass is of a peculiar
bluish tint. From these the artist blows minute globules, to the extent of
from two to six thousand per day, not caring to make them all perfectly
regular or free from blemish, because the natural pearls are not so. The
pearl essence is then mixed with a solution of isinglass, and is blown
while hot into each bead by means of a fine glass pipe. The solution is
spread equally over the whole internal surface, by shaking the pearls in
a vessel placed over the table where the workman sits, and to which he
gives motion by his foot. When the varnish is equally diffused and dry,
the beads are filled with white wax; this gives them the necessary weight
and solidity, and renders them less fragile. They are then bored with a
needle, and threaded on strings for sale. The holes in the finer sort are
lined with thin paper, that the thread may not adhere to the wax.
To produce one pound of scales no fewer than 4,000 fishes are required;
but this quantity of scales only yields four ounces of pearl essence. The
fish are about four inches long; they are sold at a cheap rate in the
markets after being deprived of their scales. The value of a pound of
washed scales in the Chalonnais is from fifteen to twenty-five livres. The
early manufacturers suffered great inconvenience from not knowing how to
preserve the scales from putrefaction, and consequently being obliged to
use the essence immediately it was obtained, lest it should acquire the
intolerable odor of decayed fish. Attempts were made to preserve them in
spirit of wine or brandy, but those liquors wholly destroyed their lustre.
At length it was discovered that these fishy particles can be kept for a
long time in solution of ammonia, and this enables the manufacturers of
artificial pearls to carry on a considerable traffic with distant places
where the fish is plentiful, the supply from the Seine, though abundant,
being insufficient for the purposes of the trade of Paris. Down to a
late period, the heirs of M. Jaquin continued to manufacture pearls to
a considerable extent, in the Rue de Petit Lion, at Paris. An elaborate
account of this art is given by De Beost, in a work entitled, "_L'Art
d'imiter les Perles fines_," from which most English descriptions of this
manufacture have been obtained.
[Illustration: ARTIFICIAL PEARLS IN THE MUSSEL (MYA MARGARITIFERA).]
In a recent number of the "Journal of the Society of Arts," it was stated
that an "oyster, or rather a mussel, of the species known to naturalists
as the _mya margaritifera_, in which the artificial pearls are formed by
the Chinese, had recently been sent to England. These pearls are only
obtained near Ning-po, and until lately very little was known of the
manner in which they were formed; and the account first published by Sir
Joseph Banks was generally questioned. The _Hermes_ steamer, however,
on a late visit to that place, was able to obtain several live ones, in
which, on being opened, several pearls, as many as eighteen or twenty,
were found in the course of formation. The one sent only contains simple
pearls adhering to the shell. It appears they are formed by introducing
some pieces of wood or baked earth into the animal while alive, which,
irritating it, causes it to cover the extraneous substance with a pearly
deposit. Little figures made of metal are frequently introduced, and,
when covered with the deposit, are valued by the Chinese as charms. These
figures generally represent Buddha in the sitting position, in which that
image is most frequently portrayed. Several specimens have, it is said,
been preserved alive in spirits, and others slightly opened, so as to show
the pearls."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 10: Dr. Faraday found that, by first exhausting the lungs by
several deep exhalations, so as to expel the carbonic acid, and then
taking a deep inspiration of fresh air, he was able to hold his breath for
two minutes and a half.]
ILLUMINATED, OR VELLUM-PAINTING.
AS it is the duty of a faithful journalist not only to "hit the follies
of the day," but to study the tastes of the times, we have now ventured
to make a few remarks on an art which has of late been revived, and which
is now not only much practised as an accomplishment, but widely diffused
as a means of general ornamentation. A slight sketch of its history will
perhaps form a not unacceptable introduction to our subject.
It would appear that the metallic portions, and the general idea of
illuminated painting, have been familiar to Oriental nations for ages;
numberless traces of it, as applied to decorative purposes, having been
discovered among those memorials now existing of the early Persian,
Arabian, and Moorish races. The Egyptians, too, appear to have possessed
the art of adding burnished gold or silver to their paintings; but
whether they ever thus ornamented manuscripts is not known to us--in all
probability they did not. Neither do the more ancient inhabitants of Italy
appear to have applied it to manuscripts, for none of those discovered
amid the ruins of the buried cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii are
illuminated.
Many writers have surmised that manuscripts were not thus decorated
until they began to assume something of the folio form; certainly, we
are not aware of any traces of illuminating having been found in those
rolled manuscripts which have descended to us. "The Dioscorides" in the
Library of Vienna, and the celebrated copy of "Virgil" in the Vatican
at Rome--both of which are supposed to date back so far as the fourth
century--are believed to be the oldest examples of illuminated MSS.
extant; and these can scarcely claim to be termed illuminated, for they
only differ from ordinary manuscripts in having colored capitals. It is
not until the seventh century that we find this art practised in any part
of Great Britain; and then, in its earliest form, it simply consisted in
staining the vellum purple or rose color, or inscribing the characters
in gold. In the British Museum is a splendid MS., termed the "Golden
Gospels," supposed to date from about the eighth century; its text is
entirely of gold. There are some beautiful decorations in this valuable
and curious relic of the patience, industry, and artistic powers of our
Anglo-Saxon ancestors. There is another illuminated manuscript copy of the
Gospels in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth Palace, supposed to be
nine hundred years old, and to have been painted by Moelbrigid Mac Durnan,
Abbot of Derry, for Athelstan, who presented it to the city of Canterbury.
In those early ages, illuminating was applied only to religious and
devotional MSS.; and it was chiefly done by members of the religious
orders, for a very good reason--that they appear to have been almost
the sole depositories of what learning and fine arts then existed. The
celebrated St. Dunstan is said to have been a skilful illuminator, and is
represented, in one of the pictures of an old manuscript, as busily at
work decorating a missal.
The earlier specimens of illuminating which have descended to us are
mostly crude and simple, consisting chiefly of colored capitals, stained
ground, and metallic letters. For several ages the art does not appear
to have made much progress, except that the capital letters increase in
size, in ornament and beauty; and about the twelfth century we find them
assuming a gigantic height, abounding in florid development, gorgeous
in hues, and often exquisite in execution. In the early part of the
fourteenth century an alteration is perceptible--the MS. pages assume
an illuminated border, which at first only passes down one side, but
gradually extends along the top and the bottom of the page; and, after a
lapse of years, constitutes a complete frame to the text.
These borders at first consist simply of foliage or scrolls; but, as the
art improves, and doubtless is more fostered and patronized, arabesques
are introduced, in which forms of marvellous grace and beauty, linked
in inextricable twinings, shine forth in all the gorgeous hues of a
brilliant sunset; and these are, at a later period, gemmed with medallions
or miniature paintings, illustrative of portfolios of the text. Indeed,
several of the most celebrated painters of those days did not disdain
to enrich MSS. for some high personage with specimens of their artistic
skill. This continued until the middle of the sixteenth century.
Subsequently, a progressive decline in the excellence and artistic beauty
of illuminated painting becomes very evident. It is true that, in the
middle of the seventeenth century, it was florid, gorgeous, and, to a
certain degree, admirable, but it was not the beauty of art; the rococo
taste was beginning to dawn--that strange exuberance of fancy which heaped
in one mass the most incongruous details, and was often more cumbrous and
grotesque than graceful and harmonious. Nor was it probably only to this
cause that the decline in the art may be attributed--the introduction of
printing, and its gradual diffusion, had made manuscripts less valuable.
The Reformation also, doubtless, had its share in depreciating illuminated
painting, which soon ceased to be practised to any extent--excepting in
Catholic countries--for the decoration of missals.
Then comes a period of some hundred or hundred and fifty years, during
which the art may almost be said to be extinct; nor is it until within
the last ten or twenty years that it has received much attention. Then,
when lithographic printing, and various similar improvements, facilitated
the reproduction of an indefinite number of copies of any given subject,
and the still further invention of color-printing and chromo-lithography
came into exercise, the value of a study of illuminated painting was
perceived, and its applicability to all purposes of literary ornamentation
developed. The title-pages of albums, of music, and of annuals; the covers
of magazines and books; the initial letters of articles in periodicals;
the decorations on circulars, cards, labels, and numberless other
similar productions, whether printed, colored, gilded, or stamped--all
will be found more or less derivable from the old style of illuminated
manuscripts; indeed, a person who has not studied it can form little idea
how largely its principles enter into all this kind of decorations.
It has been said that this branch of the art of painting is so mechanical
as to be easily taught in a few lessons to those who have no previous
knowledge of drawing. This we cannot fully admit. It is true such persons
may acquire a smattering of the art--a crude, inartistic style of working
it; but, unless they have a correct eye, good taste, and some judgment,
they cannot achieve anything that will not betray the amateur.
It is by no means an easy matter to give practical written instructions
for illuminated painting on vellum; for it is not merely directions as to
what materials shall be used, and the mode of employing them, that are
required, but principles for general guidance which have to be inculcated.
The desired effects cannot be produced by a heterogeneous assemblage of
forms and colors, but only by careful and artistic combinations of the
appropriate and the harmonious.
In the matter of letters, allegorical letters, suitable to the subject
they are to commence, may be obtained by arranging animals, fishes,
reptiles, &c. &c., into the requisite forms.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
Fig. 1 represents an L adapted for a paper on botany.
For those who may wish to paint from these cuts, we state that the leaves
are of sap-green, shaded with Prussian green, and just touched at the tips
with gold; the small ones are more delicately tinted than the others.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
Fig. 2 is a T adapted for a paper on woods or forest trees. It is painted
in Vandyke brown, and shaded with black, and the leaves and ground are
green.
In an old MS. at the British Museum, the human form is most oddly
contorted into grotesque semblances of capital letters. An initial for a
paper on war may be composed of armor, weapons, &c.
Fig. 3, an S, is suitable for a heroic poem, or romantic tale of
chivalry. For agriculture, we form our initial of corn, or the implements
of husbandry, and such like; for music, of musical instruments and
characteristic ornaments.
The S in the annexed cut is of silver, burnished and wrought (terms which
we shall presently explain); the flag is painted in ultramarine, and
striped and bordered with silver the spear-headed staff is shaded with
Vandyke brown, and its decorations put in with silver.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
[Illustration: Fig. 4.]
Fig. 4 is not an allegorical letter, but simply decorative, and adapted
for a title-page, rather than an initial. The darker and central parts of
the letter are of vermilion, shaded with carmine; and the ornamentation
of gold burnished and wrought. The letter in Fig. 5 belongs to the same
class, and is only a modification of style; the white ground is merely
shaded up with soft touches of carmine. The varieties of letters which
can be formed are endless, and may be as quaint and as ideal as fancy can
devise, provided they are also appropriate, and do not depart from the
gracefully-curved line of beauty.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.]