IMITATIONS AND DOCTORED
mother-of-pearl,
but imitations of this character are scarce and find no place in the
market. The few made are found usually in parcels of freshÂwater pearls
and are put there by unscrupulous dealers, as also are hematite balls
and even buckshot, to be sold with the lot by weight as genuine pearls.
Since
the price of pearls has advanced so rapidly, much ingenuity has been
shown in the improvement of poor pearls. Button pearls grown to the
shell are broken out and the under or flat side carefully scraped and
smoothed to hide the irregular lines of juncture between the pearl and
the shell. Protuberances on the surface of round pearls are scraped off
and the broken skin edges smoothed down so as to be unnoticeable to the
naked eye.
In
a like manner chalky rings and spots are toned down. Surface cracks are
filled by soakÂing the pearls in a solution and if the pearl has been
pierced, interior cracks can also be rendered unobservable. A serious
objection to pierced pearls arises from the ease with which interior
defects can be doctored where the skin is pierced and a boring made
through the
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