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

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20                 The Working of Precious Stones.
the same reliquary, with three flat-cut, four-cornered facets, on both sides ; (3) a small Diamond in the form of a round mirror, set in a salt-cellar ; (4) a thick Diamond, with four facets ; (5) a Diamond, in the form of a lozenge ; (6) an eight-sided, and (7) a six-sided plain Diamond.
In the beginning of the fifteenth century, there are found traces of the art of Diamond-polishing in Paris, and there still exists in that capital a cross-way called La Courarie, where the Diamond-workers resided more than two hundred and fifty years ago.
In 1407, Diamond-cutting made great strides under Hermann, an able artist. The Duke of Burgundy gave a magnificent dinner at the Louvre to the King of France and his Court, and the noble guests received eleven Dia­monds set in gold. These gems were but imperfectly cut, yet with the intention and desire of heightening the play of light, and thus rendering the gift more gratifying to the guests they were intended to honor.
In 1434 Guttenberg learnt gem-cutting and polishing of Andreas Drytzehen of Strasbourg. It is known, too, that in the year 1590, a Frenchman, Claudius de la Croix, went to Nuremberg, and carried on the cutting of Rose Garnets.
It was in Bruges, in 1456, that Louis de Berquem who had lived long in Paris, made known his famous discovery of a mode of cutting the Diamond into regular facets. This increased the play of light considerably, and wrought so thorough a revolution in the jeweller's art, that his contemporaries regarded him as the father of Diamond-polishing and cutting. Just ten years afterwards, a guild of dia mond - cutters and lapidaries was established in Bruges.
In 147S, Louis de Berquem made his first experiment
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