The Arizona sentinel., 1888-08-11
DIAMOND SETTING.
Changes which Competition has Wrought
 in the Jewelry Business.

Changes which Competition has Wrought in the JewelrY Business.
 "Ten years ago." said fnanufactur- ing ieweler, "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 i'm ported stones and add 25 per cent. to their value by improved cutting. The obvious increase in the number of diamonds ,worn has compeled the education of workmen to meet the de- mand.
 Another thing has been done. This ls an invention of the American manu- tacturer, and consists of the applica- tion of machinery to diamond setting. 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 shrewd workman got the idea that good deal of the setting of 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. It is easy enough to prepare settings to suit any size of diamonds that are sold in the market.
 '1t may seem trifling thing to esti- mate the cost of setting-or at least the difference between handmade setting and machine-made setting; but the inevitable result of competi- tiop 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 jewellers. 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 go to buy suit of clothes in the Bow cry and they throw you in 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 circle. The utmost skill of the human hand, with greatest expenditure of time and money, can not make a circle as per feet as a latSe 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 few years ago when the price paid was much greater. It is all due to the introduction of ma chinery. ."-N r. Sun.