About the Early Value of Pearls and the Supply of Drilled Pearls

The value of a pearl depends first on its luster or orient, as it is termed in the trade; second, on its shape, round being the most valuable, next drop or pear shape, and lastly on its texture or skin. The skin of a fine pearl should be free from any wrinkles, scratches, or spots. Pearls increase in value in proportion to an increase in size much faster than does any other gem, and are figured unlike any other gem. For instance, if

A one-grain pearl at $5.00 base is valued at $5.00.

A five-grain pearl at $5.00 base is worth $125.00.

A ten-grain pearl at $5.00 base is worth $500.00.

For a long time pearls have had a far greater sale in Europe than in America. All jewelers of much prominence abroad carry very large stocks of pearls. But the pearl business in America is now very large and gives every promise of increasing greatly in the future.

Increase in Value

The increase in value of pearls has been going on during the last twenty years very rapidly, and the increase has been far greater than is the case with diamonds or even with emeralds. The causes for this advance in price are better known than in the case of diamonds, and the probable value of pearls in the future can therefore be more definitely forecasted. Regarding these points I will draw largely from a personal letter from Mr. Ludwig Nissen, of New York:

Average Annual Value of Pearl Fisheries

In brief, then, the cause for the advance in price of pearls is simply that the supply is now absolutely inadequate to meet the demand. The supply is chiefly from two sources,--the fisheries and the accumulated stores of the great Indian rajahs. The fisheries, the only primary source, are gradually being exhausted. In the last five years, statistics show that there has not been an average of ten million dollars' worth of pearls from all the fisheries combined, while much more than ten million dollars' worth of pearls are sold annually in New York City alone. Furthermore, there has not been a new pearl fishery discovered in the last fifty years. This exhaustion of the fisheries has been accelerated by the methods used. In former years divers went down to the bottom of the sea to pick out and get the oysters which they thought might contain pearls, but since the demand has so largely increased, divers are no longer employed. Grapples are used in their stead and are operated in the same way as dredging machines, scraping up everything, large and small. When these small oysters are opened and seed pearls taken, there is obviously no chance for the pearls to grow larger, "on the same principle that where one picks a peach blossom, one cannot pick a peach." In this manner the pearl fisheries are being robbed instead of being conserved, and the supply must continue to decrease.

Drilled Pearls

Drilled pearls are practically the only ones found on the European market today, and this fact points to the second source of supply. These drilled pearls are old pearls gradually accumulated and held for centuries by the pearl-loving princes of India. New pearls from the fisheries are never drilled, both because the gems may be desired for other purposes than for necklaces, and also because the moisture otherwise held within the hard outer skin can, in the case of drilled pearls, ooze out between the skins, the pearl little by little dries up and becomes lighter. The old pearls of the Indian princes were always drilled so that they might be strung and thus carried with greater security by the owner. The fact that most of the pearls on the market are drilled shows again that we are dependent for our supply on these accumulations which are the result of centuries of pearl fishing, and until four or five years ago large numbers of these old pearls were lured from their ancient owners by the large prices offered. But now even this supply, limited as it must be, is beginning to dwindle. Lastly, great difficulties are now encountered in securing pearls from these sources.

Pearl Syndicate

A pearl syndicate has been formed which collects all the pearls it can secure in all parts of the East, ships them to London and Paris, and then demands such high prices that often a whole year must be consumed in dickering before a bargain can finally be reached. Taken together, all these reasons explain why pearls have advanced so rapidly in price, and also why fine large pearls have increased most rapidly in value. It would also appear from this, that since the supply is so inadequate to the demand, pearls, and especially fine ones, must inevitably advance greatly in the future.