“Lady in Pearls” was the identification label placed on this photo when I had it reproduced several years ago. I liked that very much—it sort of sounds like the title of a Van Gogh painting to me. If I had labeled the tag it would have just simply read, “1946 graduation picture”.
Now as coincidence has it, I have recently come into possession of those pearls. They were in a box of old family pictures that an aunt gave my brother, and he in turn passed along to me. I am making it my duty to find out something about them. As you can see they are quite discolored. I will make an attempt to clean them, but they should be restrung too. Maybe I’ll check into that later on.
The pearls are resting in their original velvet case. The inscriptions indicate that they are Deltah Pearls. That company existed from 1893 until the 1950's when it merged with another. During the 40's famous movie stars advertised for Deltah Pearls, including Elizabeth Taylor, Loretta Young and Martha Vickers. I had never heard of Martha, but I discovered that she gets slapped by Humphrey Bogart in a film entitled, "The Big Sleep". Here she is.
Unfortunately, my Deltah Pearls are simulated, not natural or even the cultured ones. I can tell this because some of the coating has chipped off one of the larger pearls and I can see a glass bead underneath. I learned that this is one of the ways faux pearls are made; a luminescent finish is applied to the glass. Such is my luck! Oh well, let me just finish with a posthumous greeting of "Happy Mother's Day" to my mom, the "Lady in Pearls"!
