[Caitlin]

City of Pearls part 3
Marco Polo described the situation he found in India 400 years earlier. "The best of the diamonds and other large gems, as well as the pearls, are all carried to the Great Khan and other Kings and Princes of those regions. In truth they possess all the great treasures of the world."
Then, the finest quality pearls were said to be Ceylonese; they were uniformly white, and they were rare. Ibn Battuta visited the island in 1344 and recounted a meeting with the king. "One day I went to him while there lay about a large number of pearls. His men were busy sorting and classifying the best. 'Have you seen any pearlfishing in the countries you come from?' he asked. 'Yes, on the islands of Gays and Kish [in the Arabian Gulf],' I said. Then he picked up a few and asked, 'Are their pearls like these?' 'They are inferior,' I replied. He was delighted and said, "These pearls are yours. Don't be shy, you can demand of me as many as you desire."
Today, Ceylonese pearls are unknown in Hyderabad, but the slightly yellowish ones from the Arabian Gulf, known as Basra pearls, are readily available both in newly restrung necklaces and in precious old settings. Dealer Madan Mohan, whose great-grandfather Raja Bhagwandas was the sixth nizam's jeweler, financier and friend, remembers as a child holding one in his hand the size of a chicken egg, weighing more than half a pound.
"The nizam would never string his pearls. He liked them undrilled so he could run his hands through them as if through grains of sand," recalls Mohan from his trove of family lore. Mohan keeps sketches his grandfather made of the nizam's prize jewels, and they show a galaxy of stones and settings, all made by his royal goldsmiths. A topaz kundun pendant with Mughal-cut emerald drops, hung from five strands of 10-millimeter (3/8") Basra pearls, dazzles the eye. That this piece was long ago broken up and reset seems an affront to the jeweler's art.
In Patthargatti's shops—some open to the hot city breeze, others crisply air-conditioned—the pearls most commonly sold today are the freshwater variety from China. Seventeen-year-old jewelsmith Muhammad Iftiqar sits streetside across from Mahboob's second-floor workshop stringing a jadavi lacha choker, an essential item in any woman's dowry. Its setting is gold-plated and the stones are colored glass; are the pearls genuine? "Absolutely," Iftiqar answers with an indignant look. "My customers could tell at a glance."
His stall's inventory is clearly aimed at a popular clientele, but even here a bride can be outfitted from head to toe. A complete wedding ensemble, called salafa, includes toe rings, anklets, bracelets, and armlets, as well as earrings, necklaces and forehead pendants. The price for all this: barely $100. And as an extra touch, Iftiqar also offers while-you-wait electroplating, which costs a mere 15 cents, and, he says, will turn base metal into gold—at least in appearance.