Funny Knotty!

Were peal strands that much available? I would think not... simply considering how much more scarce pearls would have been. Other settings might have been more common, and that would imply setting in metal of sorts.

Somewhat more recent examples of pearl embroidery - using seed pearls - I am familiar with hands on were made with white horse hair, of which strands can bee a meter long, no problem. However, I don't think anyone can guarantee that the pearls had never been re-attached, so... we've got a problem there, haven't we. In what I've seen, the seed pearls were strung separately, then the row attached with a second thread to the cloth to created pearl contours around figures and patterns of embroidery. That's not terribly exotic, the seed pearl parures of Victorian times are done in a similar manner and same horse hair, only difference being the base: pierced MOP... you know. Another use of seed pearls in similar pieces would be to make fringe borders with single pearls or clusters of tree - again, nothing exotic, there would be knots between the pearls and the thread hidden between layers of cloth.

For more, I'll have to search .