18 ORIGIN AND VALUE OF BLEAK SCALE PEARLS. 



" Tlie art of making imitation pearls is ascribed to 

 one Jacqnin, a cliaplet and rosary manufacturer at 

 Passy, 1680. Noticing the water after cleaning some 

 white fish (Leuciscus alhurnus), a species of dace, was of 

 a silvery appearance, he gradually collected the sedi- 

 ment, and with this substance (to which he gave the 

 name of essence d^ orient), and with a thin glue made of 

 parchment, he lined the glass beads, and afterwards 

 filled them with wax. The method of making the 

 round bead is by heating one end of a glass tube and 

 blowing into it two or three times, which then expands 

 into a globular form. The workman then separates the 

 bead, places the end which has been heated on a wire, 

 and heats the other end. This process is called border- 

 ing or edging. The best pearls are made in the same 

 way, the holes of the tubes being gradually reduced by 

 heat to the size of those of the real pearls, the workman 

 taking each bead on an inserted wire, and, by con- 

 tinually turning them round in the flame of the lamp 

 used, they become so true as to be strung as evenly as 

 the Oriental pearls. The lamp used is similar to a 

 glassblower's foot-bellows apparatus, and the work is 

 always done by lamp-light, daylight being unsuitable. 

 Seven pounds' weight of fish scales give one i)ound of 

 essence cVorient.'^ 



Some fifty years since the French were large pur- 

 chasers of bleak scales from oiu* Thames fishermen; 

 they now supply themselves from their own rivers. 

 The value of their export is over 1,000,000 francs 

 annually, besides the fabulous quantity used in France. 



