DIAMOND.
87
century,
when trying to deprive inferior diamonds of colour, and to cut them so
that they might acquire the brightest lustre, discovered the double
facetting which renders the play of light so wonderful in the
brilliant, and which is now adopted in gems of the best quality. At
Venice those who exercised that art continued longer than was the case
in France. Some remained there even in 1825, but the last of these died
blind and poor in the hospital. At present, diamond-cutting is
principally practised in Holland ; after that country, in England ; and
after England, in France, where it promises to revive.
As
we have remarked, diamond-cutting, up to the present day, has
necessarily varied with time and art progress. The first form was that
called Indian, or Indian lustre. When the cleavage of this was known,
table-cutting and cutting in thin plates were discovered, and of late
years great quantities of these have been brought from India; so much
so, that at the coronation of Queen Victoria it was found possible, in
excess of magnificence, to present many of the guests with their
likenesses in a frame which, in place of glass, had one of these leaves
of large, thin diamonds. To this form, which we may call primitive,
succeeded Berqueen's invention, from which this stone took the name of
brilliant. The most simple cutting of the brilliant is now in sixteen
facets, eight upper and eight under ; in the smaller ones they often
make but four upper and four under facets. Both are called single
brilliants ; and the sets met with in commerce, " single
