The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-08-13
LEMON DIAMONDS.
Specimens of the Pupu.ar Tint IiYfnR High
Prices Among Conuoisseurs,

Specimens of the Pupn.ar Tint IfYiDR High
Prices Among Conuoisseurs
"lTere" said the icweler. 'is lemon
diamond I'll bet MS much as you please
you don't know anything about lemon
diamonds
IF you bet that you win," / replied,
''for never heard Of them before
"rhe lemon diamond, he proceeded,
sis of the exact shade of the outside
peel of lemon. It isn't yellow or
orange, it is just lemon colored. 1t is
the fashionable stone of the day, and it
is sold as high as $500 a carat, being a
little more rare than the blue diamond.
Thirty years ago blue or lemon
diamond was rejected as off color by
diamond merchants and disposed of as
inferior stock at the rate of $l5 or $40 a
carat. To-day they rank as high as the
white stones, though TO my way of
thinking the white diamond, which is
nothing more or less than the fac-simile
of a drop of pure, sparkling water, is
the finest on earth. Put one of these
stones in a glass of spring water and
you won't be able to find it, it so closely
resembles the water.
of the diamond counts most. 1t doesn't.
1 can sell you diamond weighing one
| carat for $50, $50, $40, and at 50 advance
on those prices all the way up to $500 a
carat. | once owned stone weighing
Il carat and quarter that bought in
London for $3.50.
The big stones of the common sort
are worth only the same price as the
small ones Thus q 20 carat stone of
the $50 per carat variety will be worth
only 5000 But 20 carat stone of the
kind that is valued at $500 for the single
carat would be sold for $1,000
The reason for this is that there is
an abundance of the poorer stones.
They come from the African mines,
| which are inexhaustible, and which
will supply the world with all the dia-
monds it needs for LOCO years or more.
But the more valuable stones are not
found in such large numbers, because
they come from the East Indies, where
| the supply is exhausted, and from Bra
| I'll, where there are few good diamonds
| left.
'The popular impression of a dia-
mond merchant is that he is rolling in
money, but he isn't. tell you why
| A man. brings me Il paper of diamonds
containing, perhaps, $1,000 worth, and
/ buy them from him. and the rate
| pay him is not more than per cent.
above the cost of importation. His
profit is small and mine is correspond
ingly so.
THE man who makes money out of
diamonds is he who sells them by the
paper, unset just as soon as you begin
to set the diamonds you embark in a
speculative business. Fashions change,
and "a setting which has cost you hun
dreds of dollars for the labor in it you
find is worth only the intrinsic value of
the gold you put in it, because it is out
of date and you cannot market it.
Few people realize this dead loss in
the jewelry business. There is another
point too. As soon as you set diamond
and try to dispose of it at promiscuous
sale you find it harder to do so than if
the diamond We're loose The unit for
the diamond broker is a paper of loose
stones, and when you begin to offer him
diamond pins, rings and brooches, just
so soon do you lose on the transaction.
"When jeweler fails he is able to
pay generally only % per cent divi-
dend. A dry goods dealer pays so per
cent. The reason for this is that the
jewelers. assets consist generally of Il
lot of played out machinery and obso-
lete jewelry which, though it cost him
large sum of money, is valuable only
as so much gold and precious stones.
The price of diamonds fluctuates all
the time, and this is another source OF
danger to us. None of the Maiden lane
dealers is making any money now.
Most of them are dealers merely and
not geologists and experts and they are
likely to overestimate the value of d
stone. can give you no better exam,
pie than the fact that when parcel ot
stones has reached the custom house
and the officials there have suspected
that they were undervalued they have
appointed committee of six expert.
and the experts in their valuation have
varied as much as $50 carat In a cast
like that the matter is settled by strill
ing an average, but it shows how hare
it is to determine the worth of a stone
"The yellow diamonds, not being
|
are split up into small stones. 1t is re
markable how much individuality dia
mond has. No two that ever existed
were ever alike. Take five-carat ston,
and cut it into two and the halves
will be entirely different in every way
Everything l may remark, depends OF
the cutting. The faces must be accu
rately made and the angles must be ge
} ometrically correct
"You can color diamond to an,
shade, but not so that it will stand ex
animation by an expert"
What do the street dealers in imita
ton diamonds do to make their pins anC
rings shine?"
dip them in alcohol generally jus
before they sell them. But it wears of
) soon. IN. Y. Herald.
Sanitary Wall Papers.
| The sanitary wall nanarS which ~.