Superlatives Exhausted

Parched and stinking, Bahrein Island barely breaks the surface of the Persian Gulf. European pates soon addle, uninsulated from its vicious sun. Before its troughs of rotting oysters, queasy European nostrils quail. Impervious to sun and stink, Arab traders hunker down, paddle the bubbling compost, comb it with their fingers.

A blue-gummed, henna-bearded gaffer, Jack Horner-like, pulls out a lump. Feverishly he wipes the gluey carrion on a corner of his burnoose. Marshallah! A rose-pink pearl, pale, perfect, which--flesh-embedded--escaped the first casual pawing of the opened shells.

Wrapped in a shred of muslin and tucked in a soiled sash, the Pink Pearl is taken to Linga, across the Gulf. There appraisers sit with ancient scales, chaffer to the utmost kran,* seal their purchase with a solemn glass of tea. From Linga, the Pink Pearl journeys to Bombay or Bagdad, where foreign experts laud its lustre, symmetry, and flawlessness; drive less ceremonious bargains; swaddle the Pink Pearl in fluffy cotton; scurry back, elated, to the great jewellers of Fifth Ave., Bond St., Rue de la Paix.

Fifty-nine such Pink Pearls were recently threaded by Black, Starr & Frost (Manhattan) into one exquisite necklace, delicately blended, delicately matched. Amateur and professional connoisseurs last week acclaimed it the most magnificent in existence; exhausted superlatives; declared $685,000 a reasonable price.

Pearls fall into two main classes: true pearls and freshwater pearls. True pearls, or "orientals," are formed in oysters by the deposition of concentric layers of nacre, an iridescent substance, around a microbe or some other irritant. Freshwater pearls are formed in molluscs out of non-nacreous material, and are far less lustrous and valuable.

Four factors determine choice of true pearls: size, color, symmetry, and lustre. Size, of course, is immediately dependent on the length of the collector's purse, but the other three are judged by his taste and knowledge.

Imprimis, color: avicula margaritifera, the pearl oyster, is a capricious mother. Sometimes her offspring is white, sometimes pink, yellow, blue, black, but unless they are grotesquely malformed, all are precious. In the Far East, cream yellow is the favorite tint because it shows to excellent advantage against the Oriental skin. Similarly, Westerners prefer pink pearls; not a deep pink, which is almost invariably muddy, but a pale rosee. Color can best be examined by placing the pearl on white cotton under a strong natural light.

Item, symmetry: for earrings or a single pendant, the teardrop pearl is still fashionable, but for necklaces, bracelets, and tiaras, perfect sphericity is required. Experts know it on sight. Amateurs roll their pearls across a smooth black surface.

Item, lustre: for which there is neither test nor definition. It is the mellow glow emanating from an unblemished "skin," soft, warm, alive. If pearls are held between the eye and the light, some will show a translucent encircling band about one-fifth the width of their diameter. Such have the finer lustre.

And lack of lustre promptly confesses an imitation to the expert. Less practiced eyes look at the thread holes. When true pearls are drilled, the skin at their poles remains flat and smooth. Imitation pearls are built around this hollow core, which therefore is considerably larger and has perceptible lips. Other proofs of true pearls: they are not easily frangible (imitations are only wax-filled glass balls); being organic, they are dulled and ultimately dissolved in vinegar's mild acetic acid (imitations dull but do not dissolve).

One by one, the Famous Fifty-nine dribbled through unknown channels into the coffers of Black, Starr & Frost. Some they have had for 20 years. Others were collected by their agents in Continental and Eastern markets. Where they may have nestled, whence they may have come, no man can tell save only this: none is "old;" i.e., has ever been worn. As each pearl came in, experts scrutinized; demanded flawless texture, absolute sphericity, iridescent blush. A dozen, a score passed muster. The necklace was conceived. Pearl by perfect pearl, it grew until six months ago the fifty-ninth completed the only famous necklace now in existence. All the others have been broken up, have disappeared: the Comtesse de Castiglione's was sold for $84,000 in 1901; Queen Sophie of Holland's (133 pearls) was sold for $188,000; a few years ago, Carder distributed the $1,000,000 Thiers necklace.

Many magnificent and historic individual gems still survive. Black, Starr & Frost has an emerald presumably from the Russian Crown collection. Tiffany recently acquired a ruby considered the finest it ever owned. Last week, Queen Mary of England attended the opening of Parliament wearing the Cullinan diamond, largest in the world, estimated to be worth $25,000,000.

* Persian monetary unit; value, roughly 9-c-.