46.-ON PEARLS, AND THE UTILIZATION AND APPLICATION OF THE 

 SHELLS IN WHICH THEY ARE FOUND IN THE ORNAMENTAL ARTS, AS 

 SHOWN AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 



BY GEORGR KRKDRRICK KUNZ. 



Iii these pages I have sought to bring together a series of notes from the World's 

 Columbian Exposition, regarding the exhibits of pearls and pearl-bearing shells 

 to be seen there, and the various ways in which these beautiful materials have 

 been or may be employed in jewelry proper and in other of the decorative arts, such 

 as inlaying, cameo work, and the like. With these are included some notes upon the 

 use of pearls by the mound-builders of prehistoric America. 



Before proceeding to describe any of these exhibits in detail, it may be well to 

 take a general view of the subject of pearls and pearl shells. 



The term pearly is applied strictly only to those shells that are iridescent or 

 nacreous. These are of several families, especially the Aviculidce, to which belongs 

 the true pearl oyster, Meleagrina, in its several varieties mentioned further on, and 

 the Unionidce, or fresh- water mussels, found in all countries of the globe, but especially 

 abundant in the interior river system of North America. These two latter groups furnish 

 the greater part of the pearls of commerce, while most of the mother-of-pearl is from 

 the shells of the first-named family. Other pearly shells, more or less employed for 

 ornamental work, are the Nautilus, the Turbo, family, the Trigonia, and particularly the 

 Raliotis family, or abalone shells, which furnish the green mother-of-pearl used with 

 such fine effect for inlaying, etc., in connection with the usual white variety. 



Other groups of shells also yield pearl-like concretions or are used in the orna- 

 mental arts; but not being iridescent or nacreous, they are not properly pearly, and 

 their beauty is that of color effects simply. Such are in particular the large marine 

 univalves commonly known as conchs. Of these, the pink conch of the West Indies, 

 Strombus glgas, is used to a small extent for cameo work, and largely for the beautiful 

 pink jewelry carved out of pieces of the shell, to form brooches, earrings, etc., and 

 cut into bead forms in imitation of the rose-colored pearl. The cameo-shell proper, 

 or king-conch, Cassis cornuta, is of a wholly different family, and its white and brown 

 layers afford the finest material for shell cameos. All these and various other colored 

 shells are used also in mosaic work. 



I shall take up the subject of the Columbian exhibits in about the following order: 



(1) Pearls and pearl jewelry, with further notes upon fresh- water pearls, and also 

 upon ornamental articles of which pearls form a part, as shown in the German section; 



(2) pearls from the prehistoric mounds of the Mississippi Valley; (3) shell carvings, 

 cameos, and inlayings, in many forms; and lastly, remarks on the Unio shells of our 



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