PRICE
Value, except in things which are constant and constantly changing hands, is a matter of opinion. Price is the expression of that opinion in money terms. Except in a few staple sizes and qualities, pearls are affected by so many details which determine their value that it is difficult to formulate rules to correspond and establish a base by which all may be judged.
Shape, size, color, luster, and perfection, afford a multiplicity of combinations sufficient to puzzle the judgment of the most expert, and when to this is added the fact that there is no other one like the piece to be valued so as to gauge opinion, there remains but one finality, the agreement between buyer and seller on a price.
Disregarding the fluctuations of price occasioned by temporary influences and the variations arising from local causes, this chapter is intended to give information of the price of pearls in the United States to retail dealers, and an idea of the relative value of different qualities and shapes.
First it should be remembered that the price of pearls is reckoned by the square of the weight, with the pearl-grain, 1/4 carat, as the unit. Given the price at $3.00 per grain base or multiple, a half grain pearl would be half of $3.00 or $1.50 per grain flat, or seventy-five cents for the pearl. At the same price a one grain pearl would be at $3.00 per grain multiple, $3.00 per grain flat and $3.00 for the pearl. Upon the same basis a two grain pearl would be twice three are six, $6.00 per grain flat and twice six are twelve, $12.00 for the pearl. Or it may be stated thus: multiply the grain number by itself and the product by the base price, as a 6 gr. pearl at $3.00 base, 6 × 6 = 36 × 3 = 108 dollars, the price of the pearl. This rule applies to all but rejections or those too poor for classification, and extraordinary pieces which by their extreme rarity pass beyond the governance of rules. The sign used in quoting a multiple price is a square. This placed after a price quoted means that it is the multiple price per grain, not the flat grain price.
The price of pearls has increased even more than that of diamonds in the last fifteen years. In common with many other things it has risen with the rapid increase of wealth and the tremendous additions to the world's stock of the standard or measure of values,—gold. Beyond this, the demand for pearls, owing to the adoption of them as a fashion in the United States where a large proportion of the world's wealth is being created, has been stimulated to such a degree that the price of them has advanced in a greater ratio to the depreciation of gold and other forms of wealth than most commodities.
Twenty years ago good round Indian pearls up to five grains could be bought for $1.50 base; to-day such pearls would cost $4.50 base and whereas in those days pieces of extraordinary luster were allowed to remain in the parcels and were sold at the same rate with the others, they are now culled from the lots and held for extraordinary prices. Size also now counts beyond the multiple of the square. The quality held at $4.50 base up to five grains costs $6.00 above that size, and at ten grains will bring $8.00 and over.
The yield of fine white pearls in sizes over ten grains is not large and as there has been and is a steady demand for large pearls for the centres of necklaces, sizes from ten to fifteen grains bring from eight to eleven dollars multiple when matched. Egg and pear-shaped pearls of the same grade, from five grains down, are worth twenty-five to thirty per cent. less than round pearls; between five and ten grains ten to fifteen per cent. less, and as they near fifteen grains and over the pear-shape become of equal value with the round.