PEARLS AND IMITATION PEARLS 111 



for the manufacture of such things as brooches, rings, 

 pins, and cuif-links. 



Imitation Pearls and Pearl Essence 



The imitation-pearl industry is one of America's 

 novel industries, having been developed during the 

 past ten years. When the World War demoralized 

 the French essence d'Orient industry, American 

 chemists at once worked out commercial methods of 

 preparation of this valuable lustrous lacquer, and 

 soon large quantities of it were being manufactured. 

 The Japanese also began making imitation pearls of 

 excellent quality. To-day imitation pearls are cheap 

 because of the stiff competition between the Ameri- 

 can, French, and Japanese products. Even the 

 poorest country maiden can afford to wear a string 

 of "indestructible pearls" which can be distinguished 

 from those of her wealthy sisters only by an expert. 



Few ladies ever dream that the nacre of the pearl 

 is obtained from supposedly useless, foul-smelling 

 fish-scales. Miladi's indestructible pearls are merely 

 solid opal glass beads coated with a lacquer the 

 pigment of which is crystalline guanine prepared 

 from the silvery sheen of fish scales. 



The lustrous substance of essence d'Orient, with 

 which the imitation pearls are coated, occurs on the 

 scales of most fishes and gives them their char- 

 acteristic brilliance. When examined under the 

 microscope, this nacreous substance is seen to be 

 composed of various sizes of small blade-like crystals. 

 When the epidermis of the scales is scrubbed off 



