Читать книгу The Book of the Pearl. The history, art, science, and industry of the queen of gems онлайн

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Learn from yon orient shell to love thy foe,

And store with pearls the wound that brings thee woe.

IV

STRUCTURE AND FORMS

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“This maskellez perle that boght is dere,

The joueler gef fore alle hys gold,

Is lyke the reme of hevenes clere”;

So sayde the fader of folde and flode,

“For hit is wermlez, clene and clere,

And endelez rounde and blythe of mode,

And commune to all that ryghtwys were.”

Fourteenth-century mss. of “Pearl,”

in the British Museum.

As Kadir Munshi says, “pearls have no pedigree”; their beauty is not to be traced to their origin, but exists wholly in the excellence of the surroundings in which they develop.

The pearl-bearing mollusks are luxurious creatures, and for the purpose of protecting their delicate bodies they cover the interior of their shells with a smooth lustrous material, dyed with rainbow hues, and possessing a beautiful but subdued opalescence. No matter how foul, how coral covered, or overgrown with sponges or seaweeds the exterior may be, all is clean and beautiful within. This material is nacre or mother-of-pearl. It consists ordinarily of an accumulation of extremely thin semi-transparent films or laminæ of a granular organic substance called conchiolin, with the interstices filled with calcareous matter. The nacre decreases in thickness from the hinge toward the lip of the shell, and terminates a short distance from the extreme edge.