The morning news., 1889-03-28
TRICKS OF THE JEwELRY TRADE.
Diamonds Painted and Precious Stones
Veneered-Gold Mostly Alloy.
From the Chicago Nelcs

From the Chicago Neics.
There is no line Ct business in which
purchasers are so completely at the mercy
of store keepers as the jewelry trade" said
a leading dealer yesterday. "The masses
are caught by mere appearances. They
| know what pleases them, but have little
| Idea OF actual value. Few know the
difference between machine-made aud
handmade goods; still less can tell
| whether gold is six carats fine or
whether q stone is worth $40 or Sl00.
| Public trust in these matters is absolutely
| pitiable. Popular pride and ambition are
! stupendous., Mere looks and alleged price
are pr ctically all the buyer has to 60 by,
and the honesty of the dealer is his only safe
| guard. Then in addition to actual grades
of quality there are numerous snide prac-
| tices that are resorted to by disreputable
| merchants and manufacturers, so that If
person contemplates buying anything where
the risk is considerable it behooves him to
know something about the man he deals
| with
1.-TWO diamonds, for instance, may be of
the same size aud cut, yet one will be worth
twice, thrice, or perhaps a dozen ii nes as
much as the other. Yelow-white diamonds
are common ami blue-white are scarce, and
even experts find difficulty in giving the in-
termediate shades their proper place in
point of dollars and cents. Among ire
sponsible dealers it is a common practice to
paint tae stones SO as to make the yellow
diamonds whittier and the white diamonds
buer. The paint will not even resist
soap and water, and will wear off more
quickly than the thinnest possible film
of gold on brass ring. Yet for time it
| makes the stone look twice as valuable as IL
really is. A few days ago a gentleman
brought couple OF diamonds to me- to de-
| termine their value. After | had washed
them in soapsuds he could scarcely believe
they were mis- own jewels they were so
| yellow. 1t is a common trick Of confidence
mon to paint d amonds, and then ge a loan
on them of twice or thrice their value. l
will venture to say that two-thirds OF the
! people could not tell paste from genuine
| diamond.
Then there is the process of veneering
| other precious stones. A piece of glass or
crystal of the desired color and appearance
is taken as body and thin covering Of
| the genuine article is superimposed so as to
| convey the imp ession of being genuine.
| Such stone IN a setting deSi gned to cover
up tine deception would make dupes OF half
| the purchasers. The danger of being take
! in would not be so great were people better
! posted. Show man a lot out on the prairie
and tell him it Is worth 500 front foot
| and he will laugh at you for preSuming
upon his ignorance, but show him ruby
! OF sapphire anu Uoll llIu IL ~ HOIIH ol,OUO
| and he will believe you. The masses know
nothing about relative values in gems, and
the scope for deception is enormous.
"Then as to quality of metal and work
manship. There is jewelry in the market
sold for solid gold which is SO low in purity
| that respectable plate would be far pref
cradle 10 the so-called solid stuff A Ger
tain amount Of alloy is, of course, neces-
sary for durability, but the gold that is
actually manufactured into j9welry varies
in purity all the way from four or six carats
| fine to twenty. Fourteen carats fine is the
| standard, but there is an immense amount
of solid stuff of the low grade sid an
| nu lily, and good share of it is palmsd
off Tor the standard purity. This
cheap stuff is often dipped in bath Just 81
as to color it. The multitudes who are
ignorant enough to accept guaranty
tnat an article is solid rarely think perhaps
of degrees of purity and they are wofully
| taken in. AS a rule there is something
about all plated and cheap stuff that be-
trays its quality t. the experienced eye
Every manufacturer has his own designers
and, though copying is riie among the
| wOrkmen, you will rarely see goods cheap
in price without finding them cheap in de-
sign and workmanship.
"As a rule, | think people have crude
| ideas about our profits. The price of jew
elry is due principally TO the scarcity of
| the material used and the amount of labor
expended upon it. do not think that we
get more than 25 per oent. gross profit on
the average. When it is borne in mind
that styles are constantly changing, that a
large amount of capital is bound up. bear
| ing no interest, and that the value of the
| goods is constantly depreciating, owing to
| the hux of styles, this is not above
or even up to the average. II we could turn
our money over rapidly and not suffer loss
| from depr eciation, we would have pretty
good thing; but the numerous failures in
the jewelry business bear witness to what
say about small margins of profit. Dia-
mond dealers have possibilities of making
great profits legitimately, since, when
bought in the rough, the stones often turf
out exceptionally well. I have known q
diamond valued at 81 800 to be recut and
then sell readily for $1,000"