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Cultured Pearls. Like all very valuable gems, pearls have stimulated the ingenuity of man to attempt to make imitations that would pass for genuine. Perhaps the most ingenious, as well as the most natural looking product, is the "cultured pearl." This is really natural pearl on much of its exterior, but artificial within and at the back. In order to bring about this result the Japanese, who originated the present commercial product, but who probably borrowed the original idea from the Chinese, call to their assistance the pearl oyster itself. The oysters are gently opened, small hemispherical disks of mother-of-pearl are introduced between shell and mantle and the oyster replanted. The foreign material is coated by the oyster with true pearly layers as usual, and after several years a sufficiently thick accumulation of pearly layers is thus deposited on the nucleus so that the oyster may be gathered and opened and the cultured pearl removed by sawing it out from the shell to which it has become attached. To the base is then neatly cemented a piece of mother-of-pearl to complete a nearly spherical shape, and the portions of the surface that have not been covered with true pearl are then polished. The product, when set in a proper pearl mounting, is quite convincing and really beautiful.
As the time during which the oyster is allowed to work upon the cultured pearl is doubtless far less than is required for the growth of a large natural pearl, the number of layers of true pearly material is considerably smaller than the number of layers that take part in the multiple reflections explained in the previous lesson, and hence the "orient" of the cultured pearl is never equal to that of a fine true pearl. It is frequently very good however, and for uses that do not demand exposure of the whole surface of the pearl, the cultured pearl supplies a substitute for genuine pearls of moderate quality and price. The back parts of the cultured pearl, being only polished mother-of-pearl, have the appearance of the ordinary pearl button, rather than that of true pearl. |
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Precious Stones Guide Vol 7
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