The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-11-10
THE DIAMOND
CUTTING INDUSTRY
Its Great Growth in the Last
Twenty-Five Years.
THE CUTTING In AMERICA.
HOW ROUGH DIAMONDS ARE MAR
KETED.
london the Centre For Rough
Dfamonds-Ant1yern the Head
quarters For Diamond Cutting.
Copyright. 1895, ny Geo. F. King,
Limited.)

Copyright, 1895, hy Geo. F. King.
Limited)
The diamond-cutting Industry in
Holland was formerly confined to q
comparatively few Jewish families IN
Amsterdam, the traditions Of the art
being handed down from father 10 son
for generations. Indian gems were cut
up ID about 1925, when the Brazliian
diamond mines were discovered. Inc
Dutch made a favorable treaty With
Portugal. whereby almost the entire
output of those mines came into their
hands, and prosperity shone upon the
diamond cutters
In the beginning of the present CEN
tury, however diamonds became SO
scarce, through the primitive way of
working the mines. and the increased
demand, that all the diamord-cutting
establishments. both in Amsterdam
and Antwerp, came 70 standstill, and
tEe cutters had to adopt other occu-
pations Toy a living. at that time
the eminent banking firm of Hope 6,
Co, London. arranged with the Portu-
gese government 10 take all their
rough diamonds at the fixed price Of As
frs. $50 per carat, While they sold the
polished diamonds at 100 frs. ($32).
rearing that through the depression
ana subsequent abandonment Of all
the diamond works the art would be
lost for Holland. and their monopoly
would then be useless, Hope & Co. Sc
lected seven young men whom they
apprenticed at their own expense with
some old Observation-Disclosures.
Revival in :he Industry.
On the discovery of tine Cane dia-
monds in lS69-7O. a new era opened for
the cutting trade. Quantities of
rough diamonds came suddenly TO
London, but there were no work-peo-
pie to cut them-at least not enough
There nor in Amsterdam and Antwerp.
even with reinforcements from the old
hands who had long since abandoned
the trade
The South African diamonds were
first discovered in the surface gravel
and were obtained at little expense;
hence they could be sold cheaply. but
as the public was yet under the spell
OF the old prices a large margin of
profit was realized. This naturally
caused many to leave other occupa-
tons and learn the diamond trade.
Everyone bought rough diamonds and
was IN haste to have them cut To get
ahead of the old merchants, these new
fecged diamond merchants bribed the
Work-people, and so rate of compen-
sation was established whereby the
W0rkmen received princely wages. In
order to keep all these advantages. the
Work-people formed a union, with the
rules: First-not to work for less than
the then ruling high pay; and second.
not TO take any ndW apprentices not
even their own sons, to learn any of
the three different branches. of cleav-
ing cutting and polishing. For several
years these rules were vigorously en-
forced. Still, a few workmen held
aloof from the union, and these made
GO a. fsa,r
from 1.5O0f to 2,500f for a cleaver and
somewhat less for the two other
branches of the trade.
After these fat years were passed,
then arrived the lean years. Rough
diamonds rose in price, owing to the
large capital required to mine them.
The speculation in polished diamonds
fell off, the union could not be kept to-
gether, and wages gradually declined,
so that the ordinary work people now
only make living, though the best of
them are still paid like artists, as some
of them really are.
The Growth of Diamond Cutting in
Twenty-Five Years.
Twenty-Five years ago the wholesale
diamond merchants of Amsterdam did
not exceed eight in number but the
development of the African mines so
increased the trade, that within the
past decade several diamond exchanges
or clubs have been established, as
headquarters for the transaction of
business. One Of these the ''Handels- /
bond has eight hundred members, I
and owns a fine building with rooms
so arranged with respect to light as to
facilitate the sale Of the gems. Others. !
known as the Adams" the "Golcon- /
da" and the "Koh-i-nur" are generally I
thronged with brokers and merchants, !
,lt-@ r-l,t@o
houses. The male members of these |
clubs are called courtiers, and the fe-
male brokers courtesans. At present
there are between fifty and sixty large /.
diamond polishing establishments, en-
ploying some 3, 500 polishers, but no lon
ger at the princely wages of from $50 (
10 5000 a week, which were paid when /
the African mines first began to pro-
duce so largely. and goods of the sec !
ond and third quality brought much (
higher prices. Today they only re- /
ceive SIS to $40 week, and some even
less. There are ten taousand people I
engaged in diamond cutting in Iol- /
land
Antwerp the Great Diamond Cutting
Centre.
Antwerp has been rapidly becoming /
one of the greatest diamond-cutting
centers. While in 1870 there were four
mills ard 200 diamond workers, in /
1898 there were rs mills and 4 900 work /
ers. and diamonds are annually cut to
the value of 1000, 900 francs London
comes third in Importance; here the
diamond polishers, brokers, importers,
and dealers in rough diamonds must
number about LOG persons. St
Claude and adjoining cities in the Jura
mountains, in France, have several
diamond cutting establishments. that
employ in various capacities about
! coo people Paris comes next with
several diamond works; these will
reach about 500 individuals. Geneva
and Berlin each possess a diamond
cutting shop AT each Of which. perhaps
100 people are employed; and finally,
Nanau. the jewelry center in
IIesse. Germany, where much
goldsmith worh is done. and
where a few years ago they establish
ed two large diamond mills, and four
or five small ones, all operated by
steam power, which employed about
five hundred persons.
A. Idar and Oberstein about one
thousand more are similarly engaged,
giving a total of about sixteen thou
sand five hundred persons occupied in
the diamcn., Industry in Europe
In 1887 the De Beers mining combina-
ton was effected at Kimberly to regu-
late the output and SO prevent a fall in
prices such as was feared under the
competition thea beginning to be felt
among the mining companies. Since
then the annual output has been care
r.Tl