| They would be soaked in mineral oil which would penetrate the nacre increasing the shine, and adding moisture to the nacre. I would like to point out that I do not know a lot about the Cortez pearls, so I am not saying this is what they do, this would just be a reason for the mineral oil treatment.
Their is an old tale that says if you pass a pearl through a chicken it will expell lusterous and perfect. While I would not feed pearls to a chicken, this story is simply explaining that oils are good for the pearls. |