VALUES AND COMMERCE OF PEARLS 359
More
than 90 per cent, of the pearls of commerce, whether they are round,
perfect, half- or seed-pearls, are of oriental origin ; that is, pearls
from the true pearl-oyster. About 8 per cent, are probably from the
fresh-water mussels, three fourths of which are from the United States.
American
fresh-water pearls have had many prejudices to overcome, often because
of the natural indifference in regard to anything that is found at home
or is easily obtainable. It has been said that, in comparison with
foreign pearls, they had less specific gravity; that they were not so
hard, and that their luster was not as good. It is certain, however,
that the skin is generally smooth, and although they may not have so
peculiar an orient, their brilliancy equals that of any known pearls.
Sometimes they are translucent and either pink or of a faintly bluish
tint, like molten silver. More frequently their hue is white, rose,
pale yellow, or pale copper, deepening to copper red until they
resemble the most intense and highly polished copper button.
According
to the estimates of the value of European fresh-water pearls given by
seventeenth and eighteenth century writers, their worth was considered
to be one half that of oriental pearls of approximately the same
quality. Few European pearls, we feel sure, were ever found that
possessed the wonderful beauty and brilliancy of the pearls found
either in the Miami or the Mississippi and its many tributaries.
So
great a quantity of the poorer quality of pearls have been found,
principally in the Mississippi Valley, that a foreign dealer has bought
30,000 ounces of baroque pearls at $1 an ounce, and of the slightly
better grades fully 100,000 dollars' worth were obtained in the year
1906. The exportation was strictly limited to the poorer qualities.
When pearls are worth from $1 to $6 a grain and upward, they are rarely
sent abroad, as the regular pearls of this quality are much appreciated
by Americans, and find a ready sale in the United States. The poor
pearls above mentioned were principally sent to New York, either from
the local fishermen, or else through the dealers in sweet-water shells,
in lots of a fraction of an ounce, or in bags weighing a number of
pounds. Thirty thousand ounces would equal 18,180,000 grains.
After
all the fine pearls have been selected—buttons, baroques, turtlebacks,
haystacks, wings, petals and other pearls that can be used in any way
as a jewel on this side of the water—the balance of the material is
sold by the ounce, varying in price from $1 to $5. These are shipped to
Germany, France, and Austria, where they are again selected for cheaper
forms of jewelry than are made in the United States. Of these pearls
the baroques and slugs go mainly to
