The preparation
of this book has been a joint labor during the spare moments of the two
authors, whose time has been occupied with subjects to which pearls
are not wholly foreign—one as a gem expert, and the other in the
fisheries branch of the American government. But for the views and
expressions contained herein, they alone are personally responsible,
and do not represent or speak for any interest whatever. For many years
the writers have collected data on the subject of pearls, and have
accumulated all the obtainable literature, not only the easily
procurable books, but likewise manuscripts, copies of rare volumes,
original edicts, and legislative enactments, thousands of newspaper
clippings, and interesting illustrations, many of them unique, making
probably the largest single collection of data in existence on this
particular subject. It was deemed advisable to present the results of
these studies and observations in one harmonious volume, rather than in
two different publications. This publication is not a pioneer in an
untrodden field. As may be seen from the appended bibliography, during
the last two thousand years hundreds of persons have discussed
pearls—mystically, historically, poetically, and learnedly. Among the
older writers who stand out with special prominence in their respective
periods are the encyclopedist Pliny, in the first century a.D.; Oviedo
and Peter Martyr of the sixteenth century; the physician Anselmus De
Boot, and that observant traveler and prince of jewelers, Tavernier, in
the seventeenth century. It would be difficult to do justice to the
many writers of the nineteenth century and of the present time; but
probably most attention has been attracted by the writings of Hessling
and Möbius of Germany; Kelaart, Streeter, Herdman, and Hornell of Great
Britain; Filippi of Italy, and Seurat and Dubois of France. While the
book is a joint work in the sense that each writer has contributed
material to all of the chapters and has critically examined and
approved the entire work, the senior author has more closely applied
himself to the latter half of the text, covering antiquity values,
commerce, wearing manipulation, treatment, famous collections,
aboriginal use, and the illustrations, while the junior author has
attended to the earlier half of the book, with reference to
