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HOW TO BUY DIAMONDS
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Advisers
usually know no more than the principals, so to sustain the role, they
criticise and object, until the dealer, in despair, flatters the
adviser and adds to the price of the stone, therefor, if he can.
Advisers generally have notions and prejudices favoring dealers of
their own acquaintance, and those prejudices are apt to be very much
stronger than a disinterested desire to serve the friend, and greater
than their knowledge of the stones under consideration. It is more
satisfactory, and safer, as a rule, for a man to make his own errors
than to adopt some one else's.
There
are a few general rules which may be useful to the buyer. Brilliancy is
the chief quality, because no stone of any color is desirable without
it. Color is important, and in the staple stones, is gauged by its
freedom from any tinge of yellow, brown or green, or by the degree to
which it is tainted. Tints of blue, especially of a bright violet
blue, on the contrary, increase the value. Decided colors are termed "
fancy," and their values are speculative. Perfection is largely a
matter of sentiment, but it also costs money.
Stated
roughly, price declines from four-grainers, by quarter carats to
one-grainers. Three-grainers average about ten to twelve per cent, less
than 4s; 2 grs. are worth nearly twenty per cent, less than 3s., and
quarter carats, twenty to twenty-five per cent, less than full half
carats.
This
rule, however, is subject to constant variations caused by the size
demand of the moment. By-waters are worth a little more than half the
price of crystals; decided browns that are not fancy, about one-third;
intermediate shades in proportion. Light imperfections
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