Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1884-10-10
QUARTZ JENELRY.
An Extensive Industry Carried on In
California.
San Francisco Chronicle.


The making of quartz jewelry is
peculiarly a California industry. Its
manufacture was begun iu the early
days following the gold discovery.
At first miners and others of that class
had the quartz roughly cut and as
roughly mounted it N gold in some
shape approaching an ornament. The
two firms who twenty years ago rep
resented the quartz jewelry business
were of this city, and conducted busi-
ness under the name of r. B. Gray
and Frontier & Bellmere. Both have
long since abandoned the business,
and have divided the mantle of their
trade among several jewellers. But
the city is too small to permit of any
one house making one branch of bus
mess a speciality, and though there is
one firm which has given to California
quartz a great prominence in its man
ufacturing establishments, yet the
patronage for quartz trinkets, compar-
ed with more valuable articles, is so
small that it hardly pays the proprie-
tors to more extensively engage in its
manufacture. Nc proverb is truer
than that mo prophet is without
honor save in his own country" and
this saying is equally applicable to
the jewelry under discussion. Though
quartz can be made and is made into
the most tasty and varied ornaments,
yet the demand for them by our own
people is very slight. Some few in
stances have been quoted of a miner
who, liking to recall to bis memory
the remembrance of his hard-working
days when he toiled in the mountains,
buys for himself and his female rela-
tives large quantities of this jewelry,
but these instances are very few, and
are daily growing less. With eastern
tourists and English wanderers who
are doing" the country the sale is
large. and as class they are remark
ably appreciative of the work 5estow
ed upon this industry. 1t is true that
IN most cases it is bought as souvenir
of their stay in California-that is.
when those articles are purchased
which are more properly intended for
the use Of ladies. But as the jeweler
manufactures heads for walking canes
and elaborate snuff boxes, it may be
confidently expected that some of this
ware is not destined for the cabinet OF
curiosities with which SO many trav-
elers delight to cucumber their recep-
ton halls.
Though quartz fit for the art of the
jeweler is found all over California,
the best is that coming from the mines
of Grass Valley. 1t is not often that
miner comes across rock which
would find sale among the jewelers..
The gold had to be evenly distributed
and not lumpy, SO that after it had
passed through the necessary stages
which prepare it for setting, the spots
and seams of gold are well scattered
through the rock. The quartz which
the miner thus procures IS sent down
either to bank or an assay Office,
and from there the jeweler receives
notice that consignment is ready for
auction. The bids then depend en-
tirelv on the state of the stock held by
the different bidders, aud should a
jeweler happen to be IN want of quartz
the amount paid would perhaps be
double that which he would pay any
other occasion. AS rule, the Jew
eler pays much higher for the rough
quartz than would one who desired
to purchase solely for the gold to
melt. The quartz as taken by the
ieweler is brought in Jumps weighing
from one to ten pounds, and 10 this
condition it IS handed over to a me-
chanic for the purpose of being cut
into slabs. The process is an easy one,
and is nearly similar to thai followed
by the marble cutters. The saw by
which the operation is performed is
circular, and is made of sheet tin and
charged with water and emery. The
quartz is held up to it, and in its rev.
olution it divides the quartz The
slabs into which the rock is cut do
not generally exceed one-eighth of an
inch in thickness. The preliminary
work is then over. It is not till the
jewelry is made, the fittings, as it
were, that these slabs are again cut,
then fitted into the gold and cemented.
1: is then ground off level with the
gold, and finally polished till it as
sumes that brightness as when expos
ed for sale.