The Cecil Whig., 1881-06-11
FRAUDS IN JEWELRY.

apporlon accurately the lmmoranty
of the public who deceives in the wearing
of brass jewelry, and of the jewelers. who
deceive the public with fraudulent jewel
ry, and the acting and reacting of these
classes on one another, would be a nice
question in casuistry. No civilized people
wear as much jewelry as the Americans;
nor is it's use confined to any particular
class. 1t is estimated that $50, 600, 900 of
capital is invested i'll the .jewelry business.
But large numbers convey vague impress
sions. A more correct idea of its extent
l:es in such 4 tritling fact as that one
house alone. from the 18th of August to
the middle of November. put forth five
thousand pair of bangles. This is simply
the fashion of the hour which at present
is tinkling from the Fifth avenue to the
Five Points. and which in turn will give
way to another fleeting fashion, calling
suddenly upon the jewelers. immediate
resources. 1t is easy to see how ininrions
tins is to the jewelers. trade. In the first
place, it interferes with the production of
the higher class of work, of those artistic
pieces which We're formerly handed down
as heirlooms. Almost all houses have
their private designs. But these it being
almost impossible to protect are immedi-
ately copied i'll all grades down to the bas-
est materials. Men employed by unscru-
pulous houses will copy designs from
show windows. and an especially enter
prising agent has been known to sketch il
particularly choice piece worn by lady,
on his laundried cuff. Jewellers CANNOT
afford to produce cut work. A striking
design must be hastily pushed upon the
market and the harvest reaped at once.
When the mistress finds her ornament
copied in her maids fire gilt. she hastens
to discard it and seeks for IA greater nov
city. The same thing obtains throughout
the country. A travelling man finds it not
worth while to show the same goods twice.
be. Why this is old. Haven't you
brought anything new?' eXclaims the
commercial Athenian out West. When
the Castellani collection was in this coun
try there was one great ornament. beauti-
fully iridescent, which excited the admi-
ration and curiosity of the guild, nothing
having ever been seen like it before. At
length one gentleman by much labor and
repeated endeavors discovered the secret
Of this iridescence to lie in sweating lay
ers of gold one on the other. But such
zeal rs this is only possible for the man
who can indulge his love for his trade,
as no pecuniary good can be reaped from
it.
The second difficulty is more immedi-
ately Objectionable, and at the same time
could be more easily remedied. Artistic
debasement is a subtle quality, but fraud
is a tangible fact. Against this at preseut
the public and the honest dealer have alb
solutely no protection. There is large
number of INSCRIPTIONS dealers who
make BUSINESS of selling gold jeweiry
which contains more copper than con-
science, as it has been excellently put,
aud, strange to say. the laws rs at present
framed sustain them in it. To give a
ease IN point, man bought Il gold watch
of one of these men. Finding himself
swindled, he had the dealers arrested,
and the ease came to trial. 1t was dis
covered that the watch case contained
but four pennyweishts of gold; the rest
was brass or other alloy. Nevertheless,
the Judge decided that inasmuch as the
cost of the four pennyweights of gold
exceeded the cost of the alloy, the watch
was to all intents a gold watch. The
ways in which these frauds are perpe-
trated are numerous and most ingenious,
and the important branch of the business
is watches. The most desirable watch
case is of eighteen carat gold, it being
susceptible of higher polish and more
easily kept clean. A person wanting to
buy watch with 4 case of eighteen carat
gold will as often find that the back of
the watch alone is Of the required purity.
and that the value will degenerate until
the run will probably be of eight carat
gold. But the purchaser will pay all the
same the full value of the eighteen carat
gold. The customary way of trying a
watch is to ask for fifty, sixty or what
ever desired number of pennyweight case
one may want, for which the price is
probably $1.25 a pennyweight. Now in
buying of any but well-known honest
house the probability is that man is
buying twelve or thirteen pennyweights
Of steel spring, which he has paid for as
honest gold. The ingenuity with which
watches are followed out for the intro
duction of this spring would accomplish
good and worthy ends in some other di-
rsction. y watch has been sold to con-
tain thirty-six pennyweights of gold
which actually contained thirteen penny
weights of pure steel spring. In other
instances the stem is but shell of gold
filled with brass. Against such swindles
the purchaser has no protection but to
buy of houses of established reputation.
The honest houses have absolutely no re-
dress against these men, who are injuring
the jewellers trade except that which
comes from their own conscieuces void of
offence, which is satisfactory as far as it
goes, out which, unfortunately, does not
go far enough.
The favOritc proceeding is to engage
rooms in Maiden Lane, which is known
as the jewelers. street all over the coun-
try, and to advertise from their respecta-
BILE surroundings their fraudulent wares.
Jewelry purrorting to be of eighteen or
fourteen carat gold will be really of eight
carat gold coiored to represent eighteen
carat gold. A distinguished public man
wearing Il handsome pair of sleeve but
tons was asked by gentleman interested
in these matters to allow him to have his
buttons assayed, promising to return him
duplicate pair. The price paid for the
buttons was eighteen dollars. On assay
ing they proved to contain but five
grammcs of gold, when they should lave
contained at least five or six pennyweight
of gold. Often the fraud is much more
base. The American wedding ring,
which already has dropped from the
English twenty-five carat ring to eigh-
teen carats, is often but shell of gold
filled with brass, The great advance