Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-07-26
DIAMOND SETTING.
Changes which Competition has Wrought
in the Jewelry Business.


Changes which Competition has Wrought
in the Jewelry Business.
"Ten years ago." said manufacture
ing jeweler, "there was but one dia-
mond cutter in the city. When he got
sick there was nobody to cut diamond.
Now there are plenty of cutters, and
they use improved machinery, by the
use of which they can cut diamonds
better and more cheaply than it can be
done anywhere in the world. Our
diamond cutters can take many inn
ported stones and add 25 per cent. to
their value by improved cutting. The
/ obvious increase in the number of
| diamonds worn has compelled the
education of workmen to meet the de-
mand.
! Another thing has been done. This
| is an invention of the American manu-
| facturer, and consists of the appllca-
ton of machinery to diamond setting.
I The old-time workman would have
| considered with horror the idea of
putting any thing but hand work on a
piece of diamond jewelry. Every thing
about it had to be done by slow and
laborious hand work. But a shrewd
workman got the idea that a good deal
Of the setting of a diamond may be
done quite as well by machinery as by
hand, and a good deal quicker and
more cheaply. The fact is that where
many diamonds are set they resolve
themselves into sizes about as regular
as the sizes of any other commodity.
1t is easy enough to prepare settings to
suit any size of diamonds that are sold
in the market.
cit may seem a trifling thing to esti-
mate the cost of a setting-or at least
the difference between a handmade
setting and machine-made setting;
but the inevitable result of competi-
ton has been to get the cost of manu-
featuring even diamond jewelry down
to the lowest rate. AS to the value of
the diamond itself, the experts have
become able to fix that nicely.
''There is plenty of nonsense in the
talk about the wonderful work of old
time jewelers.. You may go up and
look at it in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art. Our modern jewellers will
take the best of it and reproduce it in
fac-simile at prices that would stir the
ancient jewellers in their graves. The
application of steam, electricity and
labor-saving machinery has worked a
revolution in the jewelry business. You
90 to buy suit of clothes in the Bow
cry and they throw you in a watch
better than Kings carried a hundred
years ago.
''There are artists and those who
pretend to be artists who rave about
the wonderful handwork that is put on
metal vases, especially by Japanese
workmen. The wonder to a skilled
American workman is that such hand
work should be accepted at any
price. You see, for instance, an
effort to mark a circle. The
utmost skill of the human hand,
with greatest expenditure of time and
money, can not make circle as per-
feet as a lathe will do it at trifing
cost. You can buy peachblow vase
for nineteen cents. And then there
are American carpets that look to most
of us as artistic as the vaunted Persian
rugs; indeed, have noticed that a
good many of the alleged imported
tapestries are homemade.
''In the jewelry business, as much as
in any other, there has been introduced
machinery. Enormous expense for
patterns, designs, tools and machinery
is often incurred for the production of
some little article of jewelry that is
sold at price that is simply wonderful.
The workman who makes plain gold
rings can now earn more money at it
than he could only a few years ago
when the price paid was much greater.
1t is all due to the Introduction of ma
chinery. IN. y Sun.