THE FASHION OF PEARLS
brought
$89,000, and another collar once owned by the same Queen containing
thirty-three black pearls, weighing 1040 grs. was sold for $20,240.
Several fine strings were sold in London in 1903. Among them a
three-row necklace from the Aquila Jewels for $22,400. A string of 198
finely matched gem pearls, round and graduated, was sold at Christie's
for 6,500 pounds. A triple row of 153 of the same kind brought 6,500
pounds. Many important sales have been made in the States, during the
last ten years especially, but as they were made privately, and as
buyers here are averse to any publicity they are not chronicled. It is
a fact well known to jewellers, that Americans in their home market are
extremely difficult. They demand a degree of perfection, not only in
the gems themselves, but also in the matching of them, rarely exacted
in other countries. There are strings of pearls in this country which
if less magnificent, for extreme perfection and beauty are seldom
equalled by the more notorious jewels of Europe, and princely sums
have been paid for single pieces of great size and purity. Greater
quantities of the coveted treas-
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