Here again [in PI. V] are figures of the largest pearls of which we have knowledge, in the order of their numbers.
No.
1 is the figure of a pearl which the King of Persia bought in the year
1688 from an Arab who had just received it from the fisheries at Al
Katif. It cost him 32,000 tomans, or 1,400,000 livres of our money at the rate of 46 livres and 6 deniers per toman.1 It is the largest and most perfect pearl ever discovered, and it has not the least defect.
No.
2 is the figure of the largest pearl which I saw at the Court of the
Great Mogul. It is suspended from, the neck of a peacock made of
precious stones, and rests on the breast, and this peacock suTmounts
the throne.
No. 3 is the figure of a pearl which I sold, on my last journey, to Shaista Khan,2
uncle of the Great Mogul and Governor of Bengal. It weighs 55 carats,
but the water is somewhat dead ; it is the largest pearl which has ever
been taken from Europe to Asia.
No.
4 is the figure of a large pearl perfect both as regards its water and
its form which is like that of an olive. It is in the middle of a chain
of emeralds and rubies that the Great Mogul sometimes wears round his
neck, and it hangs down to his waist.
No.
5. As a round pearl of perfect form, this is the largest I know of, and
it belongs to the Great Mogul. Its equal has never been found, for
which reason the Great Mogul has not worn it, but has left it with
other jewels which are unmounted. For if a match for it had been found,
the pair might have been used as ear pendants, and each of the two
pearls would have been placed between two rubies or two emeralds, in
1 32,000 X 4«. 6d. =
1,472,800 livres = £110,460, and 32,000 tomans at £3 9«. = £110,400.
Ainslie, referring to this in his chapter on pearls as a drug,
erroneously states that Tavemier himself paid the enormous sum of
£110,000 for this pearl. (Materia Medica, vol. i, p. 294.) A value of £64,000 for this pearl is mentioned by Streeter (Precious Stones and Gems, 3rd
edition, part iii, p. 14), but that sum appears to have been derived
from an underestimate of the equivalent values of the livre and toman,
as known to Tavemier.
*
See for the incidents connected with the sale of this pearl, vol. i,
p.;113. It was the cause of serious disagreement between Tavernier and
Shaista Khan. Tavernier states that it came from the American pearl
fishery.
