Diamonds and Precious Stones: Their History, Value, and Distinguishing
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IVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO 1 III I III I II II III I II! I II 3 1822019442839 RR.G.S. .. :. , 335% DIAMONDS AND PRECIOUS STONES: THEIR HISTORY, VALUE, AND DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS. WITH SIMPLE TESTS FOR THEIR IDENTIFICATION BY HARRY EMANUEL, F.R.G.S. SECOND EDITION, WITH A NEW TABLE OF THE PRESENT VALUE OF DIAMONDS. LONDON: JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, PICCADILLY. 1867. right of Translation is reset ved. PREFACE TO NEW EDITION HE rapid exhaustion of the first edition, and the numerous demands for more copies, having proved to the Author that, contrary to his expectation, a plain and unvarnished statement of facts connected with precious stones has proved interesting not only to the trader in gems, and to the amateur in mineralogy, but to the general public he has been emboldened to publish another edition, in which he has made several important corrections and additions which have been necessitated by the course of events. has The prediction of the rise in the value of diamonds been verified, as will be seen by a comparison of the present table of values with that of the preceding edi- crisis and tion in spite of an unprecedented subsequent iv Preface to New Edition. commercial depression, and notwithstanding the number of purchasers of gems must have been lessened by the ruin of the thousands of persons who, when making, according to their idea, a solii investment, were in fact only purchasing an unlimited liability. Notwithstanding this commercial crisis and depression, the value of diamonds bas steadily augmented. The Author has incurred considerable animosity in ' some quarters from having disclosed the secrets of the trade,' but he considered at the time, and still thinks, that to an honest dealer, knowledge on the part of the public is a evil benefit instead of an ; and against those who bring a stigma on an honourable profession by unfair means, he is only too delighted to put the public on their guard. As stated in the first edition, this work has been written with no view to benefit the Author in any manner. H. E. Clarence Terrace, Regent's June 1867". numerous, and the task is apt to be lit ter than a farce. In default of more satisf; work not a few unions fall back in the on oakum-picking. One union, int^, Bvoms the difficulty by making scarcely /any attempt to get any work done at all. In of the of time the respect length worked, outdoor pauper has a distinct advantage over the ordinary workman. In no trade in London does a week'iWork consist of less than 62^houfs' work. In no s tone-yard does it imply more tMan 45, in the 42 in several it is in one majority only ; 3y ; union lastVrinter it was actually 32. /Moreover, carpenters tor engineers have to be ^iWork by 7 o'clock evek in the coldest weather The stone- its till is gates 8 ; 8 30 or 9 hour. One uni last winter operations at The theory amely, that the r^en would have d to seek employment before was found a con- ce,however,iy ce by the c/ass of applicants who preferred to Ne in bed tillAheir wives had got the breakfast reaoy, and \vxien the hour was spon, ci altered to 9 a.m. numbers promptly dropped to little more than At this point th will doubtless .be asked " How much man earn in a week 1" Strictly speaking, the wer is that he earns nothing. The task se m is not remunerative work at which he can wages, but merely a tess test to prove his rity. Accordingly, the relief given him de not on the amount of work he has accom but simply on his sc necessity as meas ythei number of his family. sc man recei on in A single ^he average, money fc and food taken a man with a ai ther, 9d., , wife and three ch en 7s. 4 and a man with a Tiled wife and six chi 9s. 9d. t may be thought Vi that this is too lofr, but it m kt be remembered, in the first p' that no allowance is made for rent. If a m has not sufficient credit to be " "allowed to ritn his rent" till ke gets back into work, he is su/posed to be a fit calke for the work- house rather /than the stone-yard\ Further, the iicale for a man with a large family ik only slightly what ihe best class of workmen secure for htly fcolow " D themselves /as unemployed benefits from their rtone trade soci/tiea. If a mechanic caA keep the the door on 12s., 9s. 9d. cannot too small for the applicants to ~yard, who are almost entirelyVmskilled it the scale given above is th\ average two widely separate extremes, either of is difficult^to justify, Fot example,!* single i expected to subsist for a week on 2s.\4d. at rhithe; in Battersea he is allowed 5o. fld. for tihe/same period. Similarly 6s. 8d. will hardly Huffice for a man with a wife and six children,\but ;fco/ iudsre bv the standard iust attem -f/ML-S DIAMOND CUTTING. MOV 4 * TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. Sir, My attention has been drawn to some statistics given in your paper of October 18 regarding the diamond cutting industry of Amsterdam. The public are probably not aware of the extent to which this interesting in- dustry has been revived in London. N early 200 years ago Englishmen were the finest dia- ond cutters in the and the trade all world, was j nearly carried on in London, and at the present time old English cut diamonds will always fetch a very high price, as the cutting is still so much prized. Through religious perse- cution the cutters migrated to Amsterdam, where they have since remained. At the present time anyone visiting one of the largest diamond cutting factories in Amsterdam will be shown a model of the Koh-i-noor and told that it was cut and polished at their factory, when it is an undis- puted fact that both Her Majesty the Queen and the late Prince Consort took BO great an interest in the cutting that Messrs. Garrard, the Queen's jewellers, had a room specially fitted up for it to be cut in, and it was all done at Messrs. Garrard's present establishment in the Hay- market. The Duke of Wellington put the first facet on and Her Majesty and nearly all the members of the Royal Family assisted in putting on those most perfect facets other occupation which they can return to when a depres- sion comes on in the diamond trade, but at the present time there are now a great number actually in full work. Up to the end of 1885 out of four of the principal mines of South Africa viz., Kimberley, De Beers, Bultfontein, and Du Toit's Pan, no less than 33 million carats of diamonds (or more than? six-and-a-half tons' weight) have been extracted, realizing about 40,000,000. The diamonds now discovered are nearly all found in British possessions, viz., Africa and India. Mines are now being developed in New South Wales, and yet the vast majority of the stones are still sent to foreign countries to be cut and polished, -which, I am sure, every Englishman will consider ought not to be, especially as we have so many good workmen aid , with no employment. With the of the British public and the Press the trade could be into a t developed very : large and thriving industry,as not only is there an immense opening for men to cut and polish the large stones, but at the present time the supply of small brilliants to use as decorations round other gems, &c., is not equal to the demand. As one of the secrets connected with greatest " the trade consists in the one word patience," there is an immense field for the employment of women. As a nation, the Americans are the finest judges of dia- monds in the world. American buyers insist on getting the finest stones and the most perfect of cutting. India takes a very large quantity of the white stones, as the. natives invest their capital in them as we do in stocks and shares, but they will not take yellow or coloured diamonds nor stones with flaws or specks in them. Kussia takes the large and yellow stones. China has only lately opened up her country to the diamond trade,as until recently Chinese subjects were not allowed to decorate themselves with these magnificent gems, but just recently the Empress of China has broken through that custom by wearing at Court a very superb diamond necklet, so there is now a demand in that vast continent. " In the report you quoted were these words, Besides Antwerp, the diamond industry is carried on extensively nowhere else." If that be so where does America go to for her finest cut diamonds ? Well, I am very thankful to say, London. I believe the last official report published was that America took about 3,000,000 worth of cut diamonds annually from England. It is a well known fact that where the British workman has mastered his art, no matter what art that may be, he is absolutely unsurpassed. We are actually at the present time permitting the diamond cutting industry to extend from Amsterdam to Antwerp, New York, and Paris, and oven Switzerland is employing large numbers of both male and female workpeople in "this art.