["In The Tropics", The Western Mail (Perth, WA), Thursday 12 July 1923, page 2]
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Pearls of Price.
Some valuable pearls have been found in North-West waters. Last year one is said to have brought £4,000. and there were others valued at £1,000 or more. One of the most beautiful "stones" ever found in Broome waters was an eighty grain "drop," sold in the local market for £5,000. Another of forty grains realised £4,000. A very valuable pearl found in 1917 off Broome lighthouse was contained in what is known as a "blister" of 303 grains. At first sight it had little apparent value and was bought cheaply. The purchaser entrusted it to a pearl cleaner to treat--i.e., to open and investigate the possibilities of a secreted gem. His art was erentually responsible for the production of a pearl which realised several thousand pounds.
A few weeks back the discovery was reported from Broome, through the Fisheries Department, of a pearl estimated in value at "between ten and twenty-five thousand pounds," the wide divergence in price not being accounted for. The finder or owner's name, location of find, or size of the "stone" were not made public. The find was made from a lugger, in the operations of which Messrs. Claude Hawkes and Arthur Male, the latter of the firm of Streeter and Male, are said to be interested. Thc boat at the time was working off the Ninety-Mile Beach opposite a point known as the Red Hill, twelve miles south of Wallal, and in the same working other pearls of value were recovered.
Mr. Hawkes says that the account given of thc gem was erroneous, but would not disclose any particulars beyond stating it was a pearl of great price, and had not been offered for sale, nor had it been shown to any of the Continental or other buyers who at this time of the year make Broome their headquarters. At the present time it is under seal in one of the Broome banks, and nothing has been decided as to its future. The gem was evidently seen by one or two people in Broome, is said to weigh 107 grains, and is described as being about the size of a lemonade bottle stopper, excepting that it might be a little bit thick or flat at the base, but not so much so that it might not be rolled from one end of a billiard table to the other. Its lustre is perfect and such that it might bare and such that it might have just left the hands of the pearl cleaner. It is, therefore, a perfectly natural gem.
Pearls have no fixed price. It is largely a matter of somebody's need and the caprice of wealth. Some local people mention ten thousand pounds as this pearl's value; other people say more. The gem may be put on the London market in or about British Empire Exhibition time. On the other hand, some royal marriage or the capricious sordid competition among American women of wealth are factors that might weigh largely in its changing ownership at a price even well beyond its present alluring value. The relative merits of Carbine and Eurythmic as racehorses are as nought compared with the divided opinion existing in Broome as to whether the latest find is the best pearl that has ever come out of the North. Old-timers will have it that the 170 grain "drop" found by Joe. Eacott off the Ninety-Mile Beach some years ago was just as good a "stone." This was a perfect gem of its kind, and was sold in Broome for £5,000, later for £9,000, and subsequently for a greater sum, eventually taking its place among the Crown jewels worn at the coronation of King Edward the Seventh. Any estimate of the value of pearls recovered in a season cannot be given; that is an owner's private business, but in a good year perhaps £100,000 might cover it.
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