16 MANUFACTURE OF BLEAK SCALES INTO PEARLS. 



consist of white wax beads covered with nacre, or pearly 

 lustre. The cheap French pearls are glass balls filled 

 with white wax; the better and patented sort are opa- 

 lescent glass beads filled with gum mastic, these being 

 the finest imitation of the Oriental pearl, almost as 

 heavy, and always look and wear the same. Not so the 

 Eoman wax pearls ; they in time lose their nacre, and 

 in a heated room are apt to stick to the skin. 



As it will no doubt interest your readers, the ladies 

 in particular, to learn how these mock pearls are manu- 

 factured, I give the following translation from Dieula- 

 fait's book on diamonds, pearls, and precious stones, 

 1874: 



" False pearls are little hollow spheres of glass 

 covered internally with a coating imitating the orient 

 of natural pearls. Their fabrication comprehends two 

 series of operations — the production of the sphere, and 

 the introduction of the coating. The spheres are pro- 

 duced by the glass-blower, who by aid of an enameller's 

 lamp, solders the extremity of a tube having the proper 

 diameter, and blows into the tube when the substance 

 is of the right consistency. In this way very regular 

 Httle spheres are obtained, that serve for ' the composi- 

 tion of the ordinary quality of false pearls. 



** In pearls of great beauty the tube employed is 

 slightly opalescent, and the glass-blower, besides, gives 

 to the little spheres, while they are yet malleable, 

 certain slight perceptible inequalities of surface, by 

 gently tapping them with a small iron bar. This gives 

 them a yet greater resemblance to natural pearls, which 

 are very seldom absolutely regular. 



"No mention is made in ancient writers of artificial 

 pearls being made, and it is not till we come down to 

 the beginning of the sixteenth century that we find 



