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Sec. I, Ch. 4: Working of Precious Stones

Sec. I, Ch. 4: Working of Precious Stones Page of 366 Sec. I, Ch. 4: Working of Precious Stones Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
The Working of Precious Stones.                 19
weight to brilliancy, and size to effectiveness. They would have been horrified to sacrifice eighty carats of a stone weighing 186 carats—as was done in the case of the Koh-i-nûr—merely to enhance its effectiveness as a gem. To­day, on the contrary, we should be satisfied with a stone of eighty-six carats, if by losing the 100 we could obtain nearly a perfect gem. Accordingly, we see that the ancient lapidaries were generally content to rub down the angles, polish the surfaces, and retain, to a great extent, the natural shape each stone possessed when discovered.
The clasp of the regal mantle of Charlemagne, in the French National Collection, is set with Diamonds which have the natural planes of the octahedron only partially polished. In the year 1290 there was formed in Paris, a guild of gem-polishers and cutters, and in 1373 the art of diamond polishing was practised in Nuremberg ; the mode of procedure is, however, unknown to us. It was not till a subsequent date, that the famed " Jable-cutters " of Nuremberg formed themselves, in conjunction with the stone-engravers, into a regular guild. One of their rules was that apprentices to the lapidary's and engraver.'s art should be bound to serve for five or six years, under the pretext of the great difficulty and responsibility of their mystery, before they might venture to set up in business for themselves.
On Church ornaments of unascertained periods, but undoubtedly of great antiquity, Diamonds have been found having upper table-like surfaces with four polished borders, and the lower sides cut as four-sided prisms or pyramids.
In the inventory of the jewels of Louis, Duke of Anjou, exhibited in the years 1350—1368, the following cut Diamonds are mentioned :—(1) a Diamond of a shield shape, from a reliquary ; (2) two small Diamonds, from
Sec. I, Ch. 4: Working of Precious Stones Page of 366 Sec. I, Ch. 4: Working of Precious Stones
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