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shades, from dead opaque white, having but little value, 
through various tints of pink, yellow and salmon, passing 
through a more decided form of these colors, or a faint 
purple, into a bright red, so closely resembling a drop of 
molten copper as almost to deceive the eye. Some are very 
light green and brown, others rose-color, and still others 
are pale steel-blue, or russet and purplish brown. The 
white and the pink pearls are exceedingly beautiful, and 
the finest, owing to their delicate sheen or layers, are at 
times more lustrous than even the best oriental pearls. 
This lustre is increased by their greater transparency, and 
a really fine white, pink, yellow or iridescent pearl is often 
found quite translucent. In addition to their color and 
lustre, they are beautifully iridescent. They are found in 
many odd and remarkable shapes. 
Elongated fish-like forms, formed and found near the 
hinge of the shell, and called hinge baroque pearls, are 
abundant. Others, with but a slight addition of gold and 
enamel, seem to represent human and animal heads, bat 
and bird wings, and similar objects. Mallet-shaped pearls 
are found with fine color and lustre at each end, but gener- 
ally with opaque sides; also grouped or bunched masses 
of pearly nacre, made up of from one to over one hundred 
distinct pearls in fanciful shapes, are of occasional occur- 
rence. Feather-like forms with curiously raised points, 
and an odd, rounded variety with raised, pitted markings, 
are quite abundant. A pearl was mounted in this country 
that strikingly resembles the bust of Michael Angelo, and 
a number of unique designs have been made of baroques, 
similar to those mounted by Dinglinger and exhibited in 
the Green Vaults at Dresden. Although the pearls used 
here have not been as large as those shown in Dresden, 
greater taste has been employed in mounting them. The 
variety of the forms being so great, an artist has a wide 
field for imagination. The pearls, however, have but 
slight value unless they are beautiful and lustrous. 
