Seed-pearl
tiaras sell for from $75 to $200 or $300 each. The work is almost
entirely done by girls, either German or of German origin. As labor is
higher and pearls have advanced in price, none of the old work could
now be duplicated for the amount it cost twenty or thirty years ago.
The stringing of the pearls on the English scroll means probably twelve
hours of continuous work. An efficient pearl worker receives $3.50 a
day, which consists of not more than eight hours, as, owing to the very
trying character of the work, clear daylight is necessary to see the
holes in the small pearls and in the mother-of-pearl shell.
The
foundation of all seed-pearl work is mother-of-pearl. The shell is
brought in thin plates, measuring from one and one half to two and one
half inches square. One of the most popular and attractive patÂterns is
the English scroll. If a design is to be repeated, a brass figure is
made. For the fabrication of a brooch, for instance, a design is first
made by drawing on a paper or cardboard ; then a brass plate or pattern
is cut out, leaving spaces wherever there are to be no pearls. After
this a slab of stock mother-of-pearl, nearest the size of the brass
plate, is selected, and is sawn out, using the brass plate as a guide
for the outlines. The mother-of-pearl is then pierced wherever a pearl
is to be secured, and the pearls for its embellishment are chosen, and
are strung onto the mother-of-pearl outlines with a special horsehair
thread. All the work that remains for the jeweler is the addition of a
pin or catch on the back. A representation is given of the designs, the
brass plate, the mother-of-pearl, the horsehair, the pearls, and the
completed brooch made by this model.
Fine
horsehair is used for stringing seed-pearls, because the holes drilled
in them are usually too small to admit of the use of silk, and it is
very important that what is known as pulled hair, taken from a living
horse, should be used, as otherwise the hair is too brittle. This hair,
in bunches of from eight to fourteen inches in length, is sold at an
average price of $1.50 a pound, and frequently only one ounce is
selected for use from the entire pound.
All
the pearls used by the seed-pearl workers are purchased in strings and
bunches ; the finest are those known as the Chinese seed-pearls ; they
are drilled and strung in bunches, weighing three ounces, and are worth
$40 an ounce. They are drilled with so fine an aperture that silk will
not pass through the pearl, and only horsehair can be used. The Indian
Madras pearls, however, have a larger drill hole and can be strung with
silk ; they are at present worth from eight to fifteen cents a grain,
that is, $48 to $90 per ounce.
Immense
quantities of these very minute pearls are also used in bunches or
strings, sometimes as many as twenty or thirty strings
