Pearls : their origin, treatment and identification /

A well-written and interesting treatment of a major part of the pearl industry. The subject material is very effectively presented to pique the interest particularly of the nonspecialist. Taburiaux's combination of historic and geographic coverage of natural pearl production in the first section of the book provides a very interesting introduction to this industry. This section, integrated with the rest of his presentation, results in a very thorough overview of the pearl industry and provides the reader with an appreciation of the industry's full dimension. Coverage of the subject of pearl production is more universal in this book than in most others written on the subject, such as Shohei Shirai's The Story of Pearls (1970). It is obvious from the tenor of the writing that Taburiaux has a strong interest in the business aspects of the industry. There is a fairly complete glossary of industry terms, but there are no references to provide guidance to other literature on the subject. Even with this shortcoming, the volume would be a very good source to get a wide-ranging and fairly thorough understanding of the pearl industry. Recommended for college libraries.-W.K. Hershberger, University of Washington