CELEBRATED PEARLS.
The most celebrated pearl which has been seen in modern times is described by the famous traveller Tavernier.
Found by an Arab in the neighbourhood of Catifa, it was purchased in 1633, by the King of Persia, for the sum of $260,400.
The pearl known as the Peregrina, bought
by Philip II., king of Spain, weighed 134 carats; it was in the form of
a pear, and of the size of a pigeon's egg. It came from Panama, and was
estimated at more than 50,000 ducats.
Another
still more famous pearl was brought from the Indies by Gorgibus of
Calais, and presented to Philip IV., king of Spain; it had the form of
a pear, and weighed 126 carats.
"How
have you ventured," asked Philip IV. of the merchant, "to put all your
fortune into such a little object?" "I knew that there was in the world
the King of Spain to buy it of me," the merchant answered. There was
but one royal way of rewarding such faith as this, and Philip IV.
became forthwith the owner of the pearl of Gorgibus.
The
inventory of 1789 shows that the crown of France possessed at that time
pearls to the value of $186,000, among which occurred—
