Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-05-14
CoIors of Precious Stones.

TT appears that every precious stone
| II has what may be called its normal
q color for rubes. blue for sap
| phires. green for emeralds and SO on. but
| that the same sort of stone viii he found
| in all the various shades of its own nor
| NAL color That shade I'm which stone Is
| most rarely found is called its per
! lection color" or 1.-The gem color The
perfection color of the ruby is thus known
as pigeon blood that of the apphire
as "cornfower' or royal blue. The
color of the finest emeralds lis called
| ''velvety.
| Diamonds should he blue-white. With
| these stones the color is of less import
ance than the brilliance or that indefin-
able thing the jewellers call quality
There are stones, says one expert,
whose qualities. like those of men. are
all negative. They show no striking
! flaws even. Avoid them others are
faulty: but somehow one likes them.
! They have character. 4 crystallized
dewdrop that holds the play of the sun
| will have more lovers, though there
| be a black spot in the heart of 1t. than
dead stone that barely winks at the
| light of high noon. even if IL be per-
| feet
The term quality" refers to that
! gives to some diamonds an extraordi-
nary Are and brilliancy. Some off
! color stones have a finer quality than
white gems
After brillianey the next considera-
ton is color. of the blush white.
which brings the highest prices. there
are two kinds. a fine. clean TINT ana
one that is dark. For the season that
, the latter is more easily discerned
many choose il as the more Naluah le.
| 4 decided tint is desirable but it must
| be free from any blackish admixture
| Among colored diamonds the rarest
| tint is ruby red The best known OF
such diamonds is the "Halphen." which
| weighs but one carat There are red
diamonds of other shades. but ms
| ruby-colored one, is said to be unique
| Next in rarity are the sapphire-blue
diamonds. of which. according to
streeter. there are only five specimeps
wonderful of these is the famous
Hope" diamond.
| The stone known as the Duke OF
| Brunswick's blue-drop diamond, of SIX
| or seven carats. is thought to have
| been cut from the Hope" diamond
! after it had been stolen from the
| French crown jewels of the three re
| naming blue stones one weighs only
| five grains. and one of four and half
| carats is rather pale in color.
| The finest green diamond is the Dres-
den specimen shown in a Inc G 5ba,t
| forty carats. and cost, in 1913, oo,eVo
| thalers. 1t is not emerald green but
| is much lighter in color.
blacklist spots az their cores. BLACK dia-
monds are found in Borneo and Brazil,
| and the hardest substances known
Ordinary diamond dust has no effect on
them. They must he ground and polished
with their own dust.
one of teh finest oranse-colored dia-
monds known. and the largest OF any
kind in this country. is the Tiffany dia
mond Ii is from south Africa and
weighs 125i2 carats Yellow diamonds
| lose their color by most artificial lights.
| but electric light intensifies it Fine
orange or canary diamonds are scarce
| Pink and violet diamonds even more
rare The commonest of the colored dia-
| monds the yellowish ones. which are
| hardly deep enough ~ tone to count as
more than mere off colored" white
stones
Certain precious stones evince the curl
! Gus quality of turning color quite OF
| themselves. Chief among these is the
turquoise. which has the unpleasant habit
! of turning green. Ii is said that the
of perfume by the wearer of turquoises
| is often responsible for this change. Also
| those who wear these stones must guard
| against their contact with any acid or
grease.
One of the most peculiar of popular
precious stones is the alexandria,
| which. when of fine quality. is a beau
| tiful pistachio green by daylight and
a rich raspberry red by artificial light.
Inferior specimens of this stone show
the same change of color. but the tints
are not so beautiful. The alexandria
was named for Alexander II of Russia.
1t was found in his dominons on the
very day. in 1880 when he came of age.
and. curiously enough. the colors ii
shows. red and green. are those of his
flag. Fine specimens are both rare and
valuable.
Sapphires sometimes display the same
quality of changing color. In their
case it is from blue by daylight TO a
decided purple by artificial light. Some
years ago a jeweler made up a cres-
cent of sapphires which in the daytime
ranged from bright blue at one end
to beautiful plum color at the other
At night. however. they became uni
form rich purple.