The Portland daily press., 1881-07-28
Identifying Precious Stones.
The characteristics by Which Jewellers
Can Recognize Diamonds Handled by
Them.
New York Sun.


A witness in court recently testified that
there was at Tiffany's wax impression of q
diamond alleged to have been stolen. A re-
porter of the Sun asked at Tiffany & Co.'s for
information as to their methods of recording
and identifying diamonds.
Mr.. J. R. Andrews, who has charge OF the
diamond department, said that the statement
was erroneous. eve do not take wax impress
sions of diamonds" he said, Except when we
send an order abroad for diamond Of special
shape in order to match one we have Ii
would be very hard to describe all tho facets Of
diamond SO that it could be matched exactly,
but by taking a wax impression we can repro
duce the exact size and shape. Still, wax
impression would give no idea of color or puri-
ty, and these characteristics make all the diff
ference in the world in the value of precious
stones. A diamond as big as pea may be
worth $500, or it may be worth $1,000.
"How then, are you able to identify unset
diamonds?"
Mr.. Andrews took the reporter into little
glass-enclosed room, and taking some hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of diamonds out
of safe, placed them upon table covered
with black CLOTH
"Here now is diamond he said, holding
up flashing yellow crystal as big as pigeons
egg, THAT is one of the remarkable diamonds
of the world, and could be identified anywhere.
1t wheigs 125 carats, and is worth $4,000.
While yellow diamonds are plentiful, yet there
are few with clear, decided tint like this; and
it is peculiar in its cutting from the fact that
it has two rows of facets from the girdle, or
largest circumference of the stone, to the table,
rs thc flat top of the stone is called. In the
ordinary style OF cutting a brilliant there is
only one row of facets between grdle and ta-
bic. Here is a diamond" picking up brill
| liant clear as drop of dew and flashing with
| coors like rainbow, "that weighs only "a
carats, and is yet worth 81 800 from the fact
that 1t is of purest water. diamond as nota-
bic as this we could positively identify from its
| characteristics. Here is another" picking up
yellow stone. "that weighs nearly as much
| q carats, and is yet worth only S275, because
of its color. Yellow diamonds are hard to
identify by appearance, because they are 50
plentiful. Diamonds come Of all colors, pink,
blue and brown being rare and worth much
more than yellow. The pure white, free from
stain or flaw, is the most valuable OF all. Odd
colors are so rare that they afford a ready
means of identification. Here is black
diamond" he said, holding up a large
brilliant that oddly combined perfect
transparency with n blackish tint, that
is one OF the largest and best black dia-
monds in the world. 1t weighs five carats,
and is worth $500. Now, here" picking up
q beautiful diamond of clear pink hue is =
great curiosity, that we could readily identify
anywhere. Ii weighs elght caratS, less q six
teenrh, and is worth 5000. The color is a
rare one, and it is exquistely pure. Here Is
another extraordinary diamond" He showed
large pear-shaped stone of cinnamon color
That is an Easts Indian gem, and is very old
Although it weighs seventeen carats, it is not
worth as much as the smaller pink brilliant
on account Of its color. Its value is "a 900.
Such marked stones as those have shown YOU
we could positively identify by their character
istics But their would ba no means of iden-
tifying such stones as these" he said, a, he
poured handful of small diamonds on the Ia
ble They were nearly all off color, and Of
small size.
'How, then do you avoid mistakes, and ro-
tect yourself against claims when you take
diamonds to set?'
I'm the first place, We will have nothing to
do with paste, no matter what price might be
offered us 10 Set It, Nobody in the store is al
lowed 10 wear paste gem, and if bv mistake
paste brilliant is taken in at the repair count,
er it is immediately sent back to the owner
That rarely happens Sometime ago, when we