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FALSE PEARLS.
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177
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For
here the beadmakers are accustomed to make little globes of alabaster
or Volterra chalk, which are then covered with very white virgin wax ;
over this they afterwards spread the essence of the East, mixed with fish glue, by which means the extract of argentine remains fixed and bright on the round surface.
The
Venetian pearls are, instead, made of white glass fused into globules,
within which they pour substances of various colours by means of
particular processes, which, coming to us directly from the only city
that preserved the tradition of ancient art, are perhaps those same
which were used in the most remote antiquity.
The Lemaire pearls are balls of glass covered with a kind of varnish, composed of
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Many chemical compositions were proposed as substitutes for these. Barbot advises the mixture of
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pounded
separately, mixed and distilled twice. He asserts that this substance
serves to imitate pearls, or to represent them in painting, with
beautiful effect.
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