144 THE DIAMOND
trade.
As he could not sell it and it was odd — a merit to him — he put a
diamond in it and wore the ring himself. Immediately the diamond was
admired and sold, the buyer stipulating only that he would not buy the
setting. Another was put in its place and at once met with the same
fate. He repeated this until the ring could not be used further, and
the dealers upon whom he called had all become familiar with the ring
and probably with its salesmanship. A diamond in it looked whiter,
larger, and more brilliant than it did out of it, though the
manufacturer found in his experiments that occasionally a stone would
not appear to good advantage in it. Great care should be exercised in
the choice of a setting for a diamond, especially if it is a very fine
stone. Many fine gems are made to appear mediocre by the whims of
inexperience, or the ignorance of an inartistic jeweler.
There
have been many attempts to improve or change the color of diamonds. If
one remembers that color in a one carat stone may make a difference of
several thousand dollars in the price of it, one will realize the
incentive. At this writing a blue-white stone weighing one and one
quarter carats is held by the importer at twenty-five hundred dollars;
a perfect brilliant by-water of the same size can be bought for one
hundred and twenty-five dollars.
In
old times some charlatan periodically claimed the ability to remove the
coloring matter from diamonds. Some men of reputation made the same
claim, among them one who styled himself the " Inventor of the process
for the decoloration of diamond rough." The result was said to be
accomplished by heat and chemicals.
