NEW PEARL MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15482, 13 December 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

NEW PEARL MYSTERY.

•;j: 'ALLEGED "FAKING" PROCESS. ENHANCEMENT OF VALUE. Pearl mysteries appear to crop up afresh every day in Paris. The latest is about a true pearl alleged to have been tampered ;. with and given an artificial orient. The pearl, it is said, was worth, on account of its size and rarity, about £2000, but by means of some artificial process its j orient was greatly enhanced, so as to give j it a market value of about £10,000. The j Syndicnl Chamber of Jewellers ami dealers j in pearls and precious stones took umbrage I at the proceedings. It amounts to downI right falsification, and these proceedings j must be stopped, declared some of its i members. The president of the chamber considered it his duty to act, and a meetj ing was called, at which a large number , of jewellers were present. A paper was ! then read to them, which informed them as follows: " The Syndical Chamber of . Dealers in Diamonds. Pearls, and Precious Stones, having learned that an attempt ■ has. been made to tell falsified pearls, has lodged a complaint with the judicial authorities against a person not named. The ; courts ordered the seizure of a large pearl, and judicial inquiry is now being made by a magistrate, M. Chesnay." The pearl in question, it- is allcg&L bad I been taken round by a travelling broker i to a number of jewellers and offered for i nale for the sum of £10.000. The pearl i weighs about 66 grains, and when it is remembered that the largest pearl in the ~. famous necklace of Mr. Mayer did not weigh 50 grains, it will be seen that the ' pari must have been a very precious one if its orient was what it should have been. It was still in the possession of this travel- \ ling agent when the complaint was lodged I by the Syndical Chamber, and the au--1 thorities ordered the confiscation of the ! pearl. The travelling broker explained | that he was not the owner. He had j merely been asked to try to negotiate its j sale. The owner, he said, was a wellI known" Paris merchant in jewels, whose ' fortune might be anything from £200.000 to £500,000. Owner's Explanation, ij The jeweller, when questioned about the • matter,- readily admitted that be was the ■! owner. He added that he was astonished ? at the proceedings started bv the Syndical Chamber. In an interview he states :— I "I bought the jewel from a well-known dealer for the sum of £3500. I considered that tho-value of the jewel might be enhanced by subjecting it to a treatment by a specialist. The treatment is a current ' one in our trade. All my colleagues have ! recourse to it constantly. It was never suggested that there was anything reprehensible in such a treatment, which changes , nothing in the nature or composition of ; . the pearl. The pearls are scraped, and then subjected to ultraviolet rays, or simply to the light of the sun. Thev cain in brilliancy, and acquire an orient that they may not have had before. If the operation succeeds it is a profitable one, | but it docs not always succeed. In the pearl that has been confiscated the workdone diminished the weight of the pearl by about five grains, but the orient became wonderful, and I consider that it is now i worth £12.500. The pearl was completely ;' transfigured, and I showed it to the jewel- ] ler from whom I had purchased it. "A travelling broker then asked me to | let him have it to offer it for sale to some American customers. I did so without ; any misgivings. Instead of taking it to j , his customers he showed it to the presil dent of the Syndical Chamber, and it was I confiscated. I was told that after the j treatment the pearl had been covered with I an imperceptible film of an artificial var- "- jiibH, a -fact of which I was not aware.' | - But even if so this is no falsification, as I the varnish was intended only as a preI servative, and when removed—which can ; easily be done by a solution of alcohol— j the orient is only all the more brilliant. j The treating of a pearl without chemicals - is quite legitimate, and nobody in our '■[ trade ever questioned it. ' Pearl Improvement." . It is that the pearl is not a true sea- ■ water pair!, but a common American | ■ fresh water pearl, which lias been tarni .-. pered with., to" give t't the orient of a true : pearl. Whatever the truth may be, this ■ 'new pearl mystery is being followed with j . - keen interest by the members of the trade. j The case has revelled the existence of i ouite an industry in pearl improvement. One man is said to have a great establishment in the suburbs, with electric installations and other means of producing I ultra-violet rays and ■ various secrets for |- ; improving the orient of the gems. Other workshops exist for turning mussel oearls' - Or fresh water pearls by an artificial proi cess into the semblance of true pearls. ] - --~ , " This is the modus operandi. A fresh [ water pearl of inferior quality is taken to ; : form the nucleus. Its surface is slightly ' dented, so that it presents a certain asperity. It, is then covered with several i ■ successive lavers of pearl matter, that is I ■.. to say-, of prdinarilv but specially prepared I j mother-of-pearl. This is an agglomerate ! /according to an elementary chemical proi cess. The surface of the pearl thus transformed is then polished, and its orient'is now susceptible of being tinged at will ; in white, pink, or yellow. . j -~ "But if this falsified nearl is subverted . to the test of an alcohol bath the trick is i ; at once evident. The superficial layers dis- ' solve, and the defective near] which formed j tbe nucleus is stripped of the elements I . which increased its size, weight, and Ins- 1 : . tre. This seems to be only an improveI ■ ment on the process invented by Jacquin, • j the rosary maker, in Paris, in 1680, who i claimed to have discovered the way to j make artificial pearls by means of ' fish i , scales. ' The Hindoo pearl artist connected with I | 'the case energetically denies having civen • ::. the pearl an artificial value. "My process ; is entirelv legitimate." he says, "and it j . is currently admitted." Hi strike-! back I at bis accusers by saying that everybody j in .tho trade knows that a lot of pearlj faking is carried on in Prm'?. He savs ; : that not to mention the Chinese pearls, , which have an opening that is eharaeteris- '• in and which is closed tin by some foreign ' i matter, "tkire are other unauthorised : i ways of manipulating pearls. Some of ' these processes enhance the temporary ' ..' beauty of the pearls, but diminish their intrinsic value. One of these consists in ' ! a filling-in process. There are pearls « which have nnlv one smooth outer skin. | The interior is broken un, or porous/' To 1 , - bide these defects, which considerably - diminish' the valor of a arl a. foreign i composition is introduced into the gem. ■which makes the interior lavers nnnr-nr ! as perfect as the outer skin. A no.irl thus i treated is essentially modified. The effect I lasts only a short time, and then the j interior breaks up. " Another way of faking is to produce ' artificial -"-bite pearls from natural-coloured pearls. White lvnrh are more precious, 1 and coloured pearls, therefore, are treated with a certain acid A pearl which might " live 50 vears in the ordinary way will ' after such a process live onlv 15. Persons 1 ] who purchase such pearls and wlio are led , I to believe that they are acquiring pure j natural gems are certainly imnosed upon." '