Breeding pearls

This notion of "breeding pearls" turns out to be charming. I'm only linking an image for the first page, but you should really click through and read the whole article.



And speaking of Paul Collins (two posts back), I was excited to see a Frank Buckland reference towards the end:



A selection from Frank Buckland's works being one of the ornaments of the Collins Library.

Is this notion of "breeding pearls" still current anywhere?