The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-11-04

DIAMONDS, PEARLS N
the others were truly beautiful and artis-
tic. / cannot quite describe them, only
to say that the designs were copied from
ancient historical pieces, and they were
as complicated and intricate as the chas-
ing and rehausse work on the dishes.
There were several pins mounted as
crowns, others for pendants and pins.
One triangle Of diamonds had a line of
olivines on the inside of the diamonds.
The gentleman told me that this sea-
son ~olivines, which resemble emeralds SO
closely that the lay person nno tell
the difference, are very fashionable when
set with diamonds.
Rubies are not called for as often now
rs s~apphires, turQuoises, pearls and en-
eralds. Opals have outlyed the super
stition about their being unlucky, and
rings, pins and pendants are very fash
ionable.
Pearls are said to be almost as dear
al diamonds now, and opals are very
dear, though perhaps not quite so costly
as sapphires and emeralds. There was
al opal pin, oval in shape and nearly an
Inch long, of beautiful fire and luster.
This was surrounded with a row of oil
wines In a quaint fretted design, and be-
yond these was q row OF diamonds of
perfect form and water.
Turquoise set round with diamonds is
a fayorite jewel. | was told that the
American turquoise is the finest and that
it does not change color like those from
Russia and the east. Every American
turquoise has on the underside a sort Of
scroll mark in relief, and in this way
buyers can know the best. My inform
ant told me that pearls lose their luster
and beauty sometimes n become val
ueless. Turquoise fades when it Is the
eastern and sometimes crumbles, and
opals nave been known to fly into a mil
lion pieces when subjected to heat. So
it seems that diamonds, emeralds, ru-
bies and s~apphires are the safest to buy.
There are numberless beautiful floral
sprays of diamonds, birds that bend with
every motion Of the wearer and no end
of blazing stars, %sunbnrsts and half and
crescent moons. Rings seem mostly to
have one fine stone of some color in the
center, with q circle of diamonds. Opal
in various shapes seems a favorite.
After leaving this place / went to an
other where opals are received in the
rough and wrought into their kaleido-
scopic play Of prismatic colors. That is,
after all, scarcely the thing to say, as I
found that the rough opal held all those
coIors and showed them, though naturally
no jewel looks SO well In the rough as
when polished and set.
The opals are found in strata In broken
powders and are evidently OF volcanic
origin. The powders when broken open
are often found to have a small quantity
Of liquid In them. The opaline stratum
is sawed out, and the gentleman in
charge, who, in fact. is the importer him
self, showed me a tiny boxful of thin
slabs of opal. They were possibly a third
OF an inch thick. The pieces are sawed
from these slabs to be rounded into shape
and polished ready for mounting. No
mounting is lone here. The gems after
being finished are sold to jewellers. An
opal half an inch long and a little over an
eighth wide costs from $50 to $3.50, ac-
eording TO les fire. Only the Australian
opals are cut.
The Mexican opals have scarcely n
market value. used to think they were
beautiful until / saw the Australian
gems. In this place they have a tiger
E6{6k II 6 over an inch long and about
k~hxnezfourths Of ~ inch hiah. Tho long