They
are even less desirable than those which are decidedly yellow, though
persons of a little knowledge will often buy them in preference to
others which are better, because they are not yellow and are cheap.
"Fancies"
include all decided colors, or those having a rare and beautiful tint.
Yellow pearls as generally found are not classed among them because the
color is not fine, but dark,— "brackish" one might term it. A clean
buttercup yellow, or an orange yellow, would be "fancy" however. On
the other hand a deep pink is seldom fine as the color is then almost
invariably muddy, whereas the clean delicate light pink pearls are rare
and highly esteemed. A clear grass green is never seen but the color
occurs in very beautiful bronze and peacock shadings. Various shades of
blue, rose, copper, and red with bronze effects, and black are included
in this classification.
Black
pearls are much prized, and the term covers a wide range of dark shades
of gray, slate, brown and red. The ideal color however is sufficiently
deep to be, as the name indicates, black, though it has not the
metallic
105
