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Adamas, Diamond

Adamas, Diamond Page of 453 Adamas, Diamond Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
DIAMOND-CUTTING.
41
powder alone, though a somewhat tedious operation. As for the " faces " quoted by Laborde as meaning facets cut by art, it is almost demonstrable from their arrangement specified, that they were no more than the natural faces of the crystal. The stone " in the fashion of a forget-me-not" is actually described as formed out of four—that is, four small diamonds set in the shape of that flower ; and the escutcheon-shaped one may well be only a native flat stone. It may be confidently asserted that no medi­aeval ring, of a make earlier than 1470, can be produced, set with a Diamond that appears to have been artificially cut to any pattern, however simple.
As for the French origin of the art, some of his examples are but ill-chosen for his case. The name Herman bespeaks a Teu­tonic origin ; and another of the jewellers is mentioned as resi­dent at Bruges. His three experts too, the " diamant slypers," are all Flemings.
Laborde makes several objections to the received account of L. de Berquem's discovery. First, that De Boot, himself a Belgian, says nothing about it. But his silence in this case proves nothing, inasmuch as he never has named (it not entering into his plan) the authors of many other inventions cited in the course of his treatise. Again, " that the name Berquem rarely occurs in the registers of the city of Bruges ;" but if it does occur at all, that suffices to establish the existence of such a family there. Lastly, he makes merry at the idea of Charles losing at Granson, in March, 1475, a Diamond which was cut by Berquem in 1476, the year after ; but this, intended for a knock-down argument, is based upon a misquotation of his own, as can easily be proved.
The story about L. de Berquem, and his accidentally discover­ing, by rubbing two Diamonds together, that one would bite upon the other (the true principle of Diamond-cutting), rests solely upon the authority of Robert de Berquem, calling himself his descendant, who, two centuries after his epoch, in the year 1669, being established in Paris in the same line, as goldsmith and jeweller, published a treatise on precious stones, entitled ' Les Merveilles des Indes Orientales.' Let us see what he really does say :—" Au même temps Charles, dernier duc de Bourgogne, à qui on avait fait récit [of this discovery] lui mit trois gros dia-
Adamas, Diamond Page of 453 Adamas, Diamond
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