The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-25
LEMON DIAMONDS IN FASHION.
They Bring Good Prices-Points About
Yellow Diamonds.

In6y BRING GOOQ RrlCe6-FOlptS AOOuC
Yellow Diamonds.
From the Neto York Herald
Here" said the jeweler. sis lemon dia-
mond I'll bet as much as you please you
don't know anything about lemon dia-
monds."
81 you bet that, you win" 1 replied, ''for
/ never heard of them before"
"The lemon diamond" he proceeded, sis
of the exact shade of the outside peel of q
lemon. 1t isn't yellow or orange, it is just
lemon-colored 1t is the fashionable stone
of the day, and 1t is sold as high as $500 a
carat, being little more than the blue dia-
mond.
Thirty years ago blue or lemon dia-
mond was rejected as off color by dia-
mond merchants, and disposed OF as inferior
stock at the rate of SO or $40 carat. To-
day they rank as high as the white stones,
though, to my way of thinking, tie white
diamond-which is nothing more or less
than the fac slmile that drop OF pure,
sparkling water, is the finest on earth. Put
one II these stones in glass or spring water
and you won't be able to find 1t, it so closely
| resembles the water.
"It's popular fallacy that the size of the
diamond counts most. lt doesn't l can
sell you a diamond weighing one carat for
$50, S35. $40, and at S. advance on those
prices all the way up to $500 a carat. |
L "A
l cought In London for 1850.
THE big stones of the common sort are
| worth only the same price as she small ones.
| Thus a 20-carat stone of the $50 per carat
variety will be worth only 5000; but 90
carat stone of the kind that is valued at
$500 for the single carat would be sold for
| 800 900.
The reason for this is that there is an
abundance Of the poorer stones. They
| come from the African mines, which are
| inexhaustlble, and which will supply the
| world with all the diamonds it needs for a
thousand years or more. But the more val
liable stones are not found in such large
numbers, because they come from the East
| Indies where the supply is exhausted, and
| from Brazil, where there are few good dia-
monds left
''The popular impression of q diamond
merchant Is that he is rolling in money, but
he isn't. l tell you why. A man brings
me paper OF diamonds containing, per
hsps. 81 900 worth, and buy them from
him, and the rate l pay him is not more
than per cent. above the cost OF importa-
ton. His profit is small and mine is cor
respoadingly so.
THE man who makes money out of the
| diamonds is he who sells them ty the paper
unset. just as soon as you begin TO set the
| diamonds you embark In q speculative
business. Fashions cham 9, and a setting
1 OOab YOU EuDuT61b ON uOl6Tb IOE L00
| labor In it you find is worth only the in
trinsio value Of the gold you put in it, be-
cause it is out of date and you cannot mar
| ket it.
| Few people realize the dead loss In the
| jewelry business. There is another point
| too. As soon as you set a diamond and try
to dispose Of it at promiscuous sale, you
| find il harder 30 do so than il the diamond
! were loose. The unit for the diamond
broker is paper Of loose stoaeS, aud when
You begin to offer him diamond pins, rings
and breaches, just so soon do you lose on
| the transaction.
"When jeweler fails, he Ia able to pay
| generally only 25 per cent dividend. A
dry good dealer pays 80 per cent The
reason for this Is that the jewelers. assets
consist generally Of a lot of played out
machinery and ebsolete jewelry, which,
| though it cost him large sum of money
| is valuable only as SO much gold and prec-
| ious stones.
1.-The price Of diamonds huotuates all the
time, and this 10 another source Of danger to
| US. None of the Maiden lane dealers are
making any money now. Most of them are
| dealers merely, and not geologists or ex-
perts, aud they are likely to overestimate
the value OF a stone. | can give you no
better example than the fact that when a
parcel of stones has reached the custom
house. and the officials there have suspected
tnhb In6I were unuerNAlueu, L0eY nave dp-
pointed a committee of six experts, and the
experts Ia their valuation have varied as
much as $50 a carat. In a case like that
the matter is settled by striking an aver
age. But 1t shows how hard it IL to deter
mine the worth of q stone.
The yellow diamonds, not being more
valuable on account of their size, are split
up into small stones. 1t 10 remarkable how
much individuality diamond has. Notwo
that ever existed were ever alike. Take a
five-carat stone and cut it in two, and the
halves will be entirely different in every
wsy. Everything, may remark depends
on the cutting. The facets must be geomet-
rically correct.
"You can color diamond to any shade,
but not so that 10 will stand examination by
an expert"
"What do the street dealers in imitation
diamonds do to make their pins and rings
sinner
Dip them in alcohol, generally, just be-
fore they sell them. But it wears OF soon.n