Los Angeles herald., 1905-10-30
LOS ANGELES IS
HOME OF GEMS
RAREST STONES ARE CUT BY
ANGELEN0S
southern California Produces Many
Precious SpecImens-LocaI LapI-
daries Turn Out Scarabs
Sold In Egypt

each winter as well as a great NUMBER
of permanent inhabitants will be sur
prised to learn that they usually over
look completely a local art and indus
try in which this city eXcelS any otner
city of the country except New YORK
and possibly Chicago. .,-o,,
Los Angeles has one of the three men
in the United States who are thorough
experts in the ancient art of engraving
canoes. Large quantities Oh precious
stones are shipped here. from all parts
of the country to be cut by local lapl-
daries. At least 80 per cent of the
stones cut here are marketed III new
York and eastern centers and many
fair woman on Broadway is wearing
stones that she imagines were cut
abroad but were really fee grodu9dt tafns 4m inc
Every variety of precious stone is
cut and polished in this city with the
gcepttion Of the diamoHGb wb,cS Safhete thers
are no finer garnets to be had in the
whole world. Amethysts, sapphifiefs' ppaanifs'
turquoise kunzite' to9rmaline; Spessise
aquamarines, emeralds topaz ana car
nelians are the gems OF which, largo
quantities are found in California or IN
Utah. Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona and
Kunzte a Rare Gem
The finest garnets are brought to the
surface by ants in making their nests
in Arizona and are picked up by IN
dams in the neighborhood of ant hills;
San Diego county. produces kunzite ana
spessite. Turquoise. comes from Ne
vada and New Mexico. Large .quant-
ties of chrysolite come from Arizona.
San Diego county produces fine tourma-
line and l1unzite. Abalone pearls are
found in abundance about Santa cara
lima islands Carnelians come from the
San Jacinto mountains. Sapphires are
brought here from Montana for cut
ting. Aquamarines are found IN san san
Diego county and it is expected that
cmeralds will be discovered there be
fore long. Chrysophrase is found IN
,txrn md a fO1ln0
San Bernardino, though the best quail
ity of these stones comes from Austria
liza. San Diego county IS the oRly
place in the world where the beautiful
and rare stone called kunzite Is found;
Tiffany of New York and local
lapidary are said to be the only P6TTs PP6Ts
rare and beautiful gem; .PropabIy4 ~, IL
would surprise many of the wealthy
eastern ladies who BUY thelr ne 1oo ku1I,ef El tie
those gems were cut here in Los An
geles. ,. ..,,,,
from Egypt have worn scarabs and
Egyptian ornaments bought in Egypt
that local lapidary has Identified as
his own work executed in this country
and then shipped to Germany where
they were again sold.
Arizona Garnets the Best
The business, or rather, art, of prec-
ious stone cutting first began to At
tract lapdaries to this city about 1852
when the first fine qualities of tur-
quoise were found in country .contigil-
business has been well establlshed IN
this city and large quantities OF stones
ere shipped here even from Europe lo[
cutting, Alaska garnets are luli ol
flaws. and are useless in comparison
with the fine colored Arizona stone;
Aquamarines of the, largest size and
purest water are cut here. Opals are
not cut in great numbers, but large
quantities of turquoise are shaped and
polished here, for some OF the 1inest
turquoise in the world is to be bought
in Los Angeles. -,
And here let a word be said that will
be of interest to the purchaser. Lapl-
daries here say that the precious stones
above mentioned can be bought TO pet
ter advantage in this city than is com
monty supposed; Tor many OF , Ine eaSt a
decided advance on local prices. -,
The art of stone cutting is most dell
cate one and requires & years hsq OF ITds ida III
in Los Angeles was visited in ms WorK-
room where, surrounded by his cutting
engaged in grinding some fine gems for
the market.
Lapidary Talks of His Art
l .'TIoN. long does it take to learn the
business of gem cutting? Well, l spent
flour and one-half years in Germany At
lit before I thought that l had it's rudt-
and relatives were all lapidaries. My
mother was one of the best of experts in
the delicate and difficult task of drilling
II have a secret method that use in
drilling stones and in the making of the
drills There are mo not catev above six
with it. In, drilling stone one can rum m
Il very easily and this branch of my art
''of course a person can learn simple
round and oval polishing very easily. My
nephew of IA has spent three or four
time and has learned to turn out pretty
good work in the polishing of pebbles
such as are found about the beaches.
''But to do the grinding of the facets
The real artistic work of shaping a stone
So that its qualities Of light and shade
Shall be brought out to the best iae advant stIo
best adapted to save its weight and show
It's beauty, ah, that requires, long skill
and great experience, and is the work OF
a lifetime.
Machines Not All Satisfactory
MANY lapidaries now use an instrument
for holding a precious stone at the right ign
and it is a useful time saver. but some
kinds of fine grinding cannot be done
iapidary with his skilled and unaidcd
hand. In rough-shaping a stone we hold
it in our fingers against an ordinary car.
the surface of this wheel shall be per-
fectly smooth. There may be grooves and
hollows in it without It's hurting the
stone in the rough shaping.
1.-THE most significant instrument of the
lapidary is a little ,stylus-liSe wooden
stick which at it's end holds the stone to
be cut. The stone after its rough shaping
is firmly cemented to this rod. BY means
OF an inverted cone of concave surfaces
ndened with little asn aotGhes te fS whiGh Is
wheel, the lapidary holds the stick with
the stone firmly against the surface ice. of the
cut away. Again the stone is turned to
another position and held in place until
another facet has been ground down.
Requires Great Skill
"a simple cut for garnets consists .nf
twenty-four facets for the face and six
teen facets for the back. The diamond
cut" .so-called, consists of thirty-two ia
for the back The "old rose cut" used
in cutting diamonds in q particularly
front and forty at the tSe bach Mth the
the work increases If a facet is cut at
wrong angle or covers, too great an