nearly
two millions of francs ; Julius Csesar presented to Servilia, the
sister of the celebrated Cato, of Utica, a pearl which he purchased for
one million two hundred thousand franc».
Lollia
Paulina, the wife of Caligula, wore ornaments to the value of eight
millions of francs. The ladies went so far as to ornament their buskins
with pearls. Nero lavished pearls upon his lewd women. In modern times
Buckingham distributed in the halls of the Empress Ann, of Austria, and
of King Louis XIII., pearls to the value of three hundred thousand
francs.
The
baroques, which are excrescences in the mother of pearl, are sometimes
very large, and display some extraordinary figures and inconceivable
freaks of nature. They are held in high estimation, and are mostly worn
in Spain and Poland.
Caire,
the celebrated French jeweller, possesses many baroques ; one
representing a bearded dog ; another, representing the order of the
fleece. ' He had a mother of pearl containing a large excrescence,
representing a Chinese with crossed legs.
The
prices of pearls, from one carat upwards, were formerly determined
like those of diamonds, viz : if the carat b· fixed at five dollars,
and a pearl weighs four carats, take the square, or sixteen, which
multiplied by five is equal to eighty ; so that a pearl of four carats
was estimated at eighty dollars.
At present the following are the prices of pearls :
The baroque pearls are sold at from three hundred to one thousand francs per ounce.
