COLOR AND FLAWS 151
consideration to careful inspection through a jeweler's loup or magnifying eyeglass.
This
general insistence on perfection finally affected the better educated
class of buyers, so that they also demanded freedom from flaws in
addition to the positive qualities of color and life. The tremendous
demand for diamonds in the United States developed in the last decade,
coupled with the control of the world's supply held by the
Anglo-African Diamond Syndicate, has finally enabled that powerful
corporation to check this unreasonable demand for absolute perfection.
The Syndicate has of late forced upon the American public, imperfect
stones, not only by marking the price of perfect stones much higher
relatively, but also by reducing the proportionate quantity of them in
the diamonds they market. Since the price of diamonds has been raised
to the present high figure, there has been a noticeable willingness in
the trade to overlook minor flaws. Dealers have been driven to the
endeavor to show goods at a price which would appear reasonable
compared with stones bought ten years ago. This effort to hide the wide
difference of price for the same goods, that exists between now and
then, has forced many dealers to accept imperfections which they would
have refused formerly, in order to get stones at somewhere near old
prices. Original parcels of perfect stones are rare now, nor will the
importer allow the perfect ones to be taken from mixed lots, except at
a very considerable advance. When the imperfections are slight, the
parcel is quoted as " clean." If the buyer is persistent, he will learn
that the lot contains a certain percentage of perfect stones and the
balance is slightly pique (which means
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