Imitation pearl

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Imitation pearls are artifacts that are supposed to resemble natural pearls and can often hardly be distinguished from them. Imitation pearls are not to be confused with cultured pearls .

Types of imitation pearls

There are several ways to imitate pearls:

Wax beads
consist of small, delicate, hollow glass spheres, to which dyes or the like are attached from the inside and then the remaining cavity is filled with wax. They were invented by Jacquin around 1655 and allow some of the most beautiful imitations of real pearls, such as B. the
Fish silver beads
Glass balls on which ground fish scales have been applied or a kind of wax pearl, the hollow glass balls of which are swung out inside with a mass of fish silver and glue (so-called pearl essence ) and then filled with wax (so-called Bourguignon pearl or fish pearl ). They are especially popular in Paris , Strasbourg , Schwäbisch Gmünd ; Vienna , Venice , Lauscha etc. produced.
Mallorca and Majorica pearls
Glass balls (also mother-of-pearl balls) on which synthetic guanine crystals are applied
Composite beads
Turned polished mother-of-pearl balls
Antilles pearls
Turned mother-of-pearl balls, sometimes with a brownish or bluish mother-of-pearl luster
Perles des Indes
powdered mother-of-pearl with binding agent pressed into balls
Roman beads or alabaster beads
Made of natural or fiber plaster with an iridescent surface
Girasol pearls
Solid colored plastic, earlier also opal balls
Gagat pearls
Bullets made of petrified coal , risk of confusion with black coral
Ciro pearls
The core consists of oyster mussels. The mother-of-pearl of the oyster is ground into the finest powder and applied in a complex, mechanical process around a small ball made from the same mussels. The core of the Ciro pearl consists of 100% pure mother-of-pearl. By using the most modern technologies, Ciro pearls are always perfectly round and have a unique shine.

Artificial pearls

Main article: Artificial pearl

In contrast to imitation pearls, artificial pearls do not claim to imitate real pearls in a deceptively real manner, but are only generally small spherical objects that often have a hole through their center for the purpose of threading them. Consequently, imitation pearls are a sub-group of artificial pearls.