posely
omitted any mention of the pearl collections in private hands at the
present time, some of which are more valuable than many of those noted
in the following pages, we have, nevertheless, given the principal
sales of pearls at auction during the past twenty years. Many specimens
of remarkable size and beauty have changed hands in this way, more
especially in England.
Cleopatra Pearls. Next
to that "pearl of great .price," mentioned by Christ, probably the most
famous of all pearls were the two which Pliny records as having been
worn in the ears of Cleopatra, "the singular and onely jewels of the
world and even Nature's wonder." This writer does not note their size,
but estimates their value at sixty million sestertii. We have already
quoted the passage in which Pliny relates how one of these pearls was
dissolved and swallowed by Cleopatra in order to win a wager she had
made with Antony. After the death of that queen the other pearl "was
cut in twaine, that in memo-riall of that one hälfe supper of theirs,
it should remaine unto postérité, hanging at both the eares of Venus
at Rome in the temple of Pantheon."* Budé estimated the value of the
pearl dedicated to Venus at 250,000 escus of gold.2
Another
famous pearl mentioned by Pliny was the one which Julius Caesar
presented to Servilia, mother of Brutus, the value of which he notes as
six million sestertii.3
1 Pliny, "Naturall Historie," London, 1601, * Budé, "De Asse," Paris, 1514.
Lib. IX, c. 35.
s Pliny, "Historia Naturalis," Lib. IX, c. 35.
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