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FAMOUS PEARLS AND COLLECTIONS 465
they were transferred to the custody of the National Museum where they now are.
Thiers Necklace. In
the galleries of the Louvre at Paris may be seen a pearl necklace
formerly owned by the wife of President Thiers (1797-1887), consisting
of 145 pearls in three rows. The weights of the three largest
individual pearls are fifty-one, thirty-nine, and thirty-six grains,
respectively. The aggregate weight is 2079 grains, and the value at the
time of their deposit was estimated at 300,000 francs. This is on a
base of $2.02 ; at a higher valuation the figures would be :
the last being very probably nearer to the correct value of the necklace at the present time.
Tiffany Queen Pearl. Doubtless
the most famous pearl ever found within the limits of the United
States, and likewise one of the choicest, is the well-known "Queen
Pearl," found in Notch Brook near Paterson, New Jersey, in 1857.1
In form it is a perfect sphere, and weighs ninety-three grains. The
history of the discovery and of the sale of this beautiful gem is set
forth on page 260.
The Bapst Pearls. Very
practical is the account given by Streeter of a pair of magnificent
spherical pearls exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1878 by Messrs.
Bapst of Paris. One of these pearls—then weighing 116 grains—was
purchased by Mr. Streeter in 1877, and by him sold to a leading
merchant of London, who skilfully removed a blemish on it, reducing it
to 113^ grains in weight. After holding it for some months, it occurred
to him that it would match a pearl sold by Hunt and Roskell to Dhuleep
Singh about fifteen years previously. On comparison, the two were found
to match perfectly, one weighing 113% and the other 11334
grains. The two were eventually sold early in 1878 "for £4800, which
was even then much below their value, and to-day they would be worth
£10,000. They were exhibited in the great Paris Exposition in 1878,
where they attracted universal attention, and were pronounced by
connoisseurs to be the most extraordinary pair of pearls ever seen in
Europe. They were sold from the exhibition to an individual for a very
large sum." 2
1"Gems and Precious Stones of North 2 Streeter, "Pearls and Pearling Life," Lon-
America," New York, 1892, PI. VIII, p. 229. don, 1886, pp. 295, 296.
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