Pearl: Value & Selling, Buying, Commerce of Pearls Page 426



	VALUES AND COMMERCE OF PEARLS 355 Black pearls do not seem to have been regarded with any favor by the ancients, and we find no mention of them by medieval writers. Only fifty years ago a perfectly round, black pearl, weighing 8 grains, was sold for £4 ($20) ; to-day this pearl would easily bring £100 ($500). Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III, may be said to have brought them into favor ; she owned a splendid necklace of black pearls which was sold at Christie's, after the fall of Napoleon, for the sum of £4000 ($20,000). Some time later, the Marquis of Bath bought, at Christie's, the pearl which formed the clasp of the necklace, paying £1000 ($5000) for it; he destined it for the center of a bracelet. Greenish-black pearls are perhaps valued higher than any other colored pearls, if they have the proper orient ; this is probably partly owing to their rarity. A bluish-black pearl possessing a fine orient commands almost the same price as a pure black pearl. Those which are found in the Placuna placenta are often of a dull gray hue, while those produced by the Pinna squamosa are generally brown in color. Baroque pearls were formerly much worn and appreciated in Spain and Poland. Their price varies greatly, according to their size, their beauty, and also to their scarcity in any particular place. The pieces of pearl detached from the shells—often half-pearl and half mother-of-pearl, and called "de fantaisie"—are always very irregular in form, and sometimes offer a certain resemblance to a part of the human or animal form.¹ How is it that such quantities of jewels are continually brought from the East, and such a wealth of them continues to exist there, when there are now no very extensive mines that maintain a constant supply? The reason is that from time immemorial, precious stones have been the form in which wealth, in those lands, has been hoarded and preserved. Until very recently, in the Orient, interest-bearing securities have been unknown; and hence jewels have been sought and kept as an investment, and sold only when money was needed for special purposes, as in times of war, famine, or other emergency. Their small bulk made them easy to conceal and to transport, and hence they were well adapted for such use. How long this condition will last, is perhaps dependent only upon the introduction of interest-paying investments, and of the new forms of Western civilization that involve greater'expenses and require means of income in excess of the older and simpler conditions. The wealth of jewels possessed by Oriental monarchs, notables, and dealers, has been the theme of story and tradition, time out of mind. We of the West have been disposed to regard these tales as largely ex- ¹ Charles Barbot, "Traité Complète des Pierres Précieuses," Paris, 1858, pp. 464, 465.