THE FASHION OF PEARLS
million
dollars. From Rome the fashion spread with the advance of civilization
through all the nations of Europe and followed their colonizations
westward. Only in the last decade has the use of pearls in the United
States become sufficiently general to place them in the list of things
that are a fashion.
Many
large pearls of pear, egg, or drop shape, and some round, are used as
pendants, to be hung on slender gold neck chains, or suspended from
brooches of diamonds. They are bored at the smaller end to a depth of
about one-eighth of an inch, the hole is filled with a composition
which hardens rapidly, and in this a gold wire, looped at one end for
connecting, is inserted. Formerly the pearl was drilled quite through
and the suspending wire riveted, but this is rarely done now as it
lessens the value of the pearl and destroys the perfect pendant effect.
This is a European fashion. The Chinese mount pearls by boring into the
body of the pearl at two, three or four points and inserting the bent
ends of spreading wires so that the gem is clasped as by spreading
finger tips.
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