Diamond merchant

“ Diamond merchants have adopted a very delicate and highly honorable method of offering polished Diamonds for sale—they employ confidential men, to take: brilliants of various qualities, in separate lots, to the trade ”

“ One day we handled some packages of spotless gems that the broker had been months collecting; they were beautiful indeed. One package, worth many thousands of dollars, contained yellow diamonds, selected stones in size, colour, and purity. Those of yellow tinge are bought and worn by the East Indians.
The pure white stone is of more value than the yellow because not so plentiful. It is a strange fact that these diamond merchants seldom wear diamond jewellery; they prefer rubies or corals to the too common gem, the diamond. ”

“ From the names on the doors, however, one learns that the majority of their occupiers profess to be dealers in diamonds and precious stones, and those who know about diamonds will inform you that they do deal therein to a very considerable extent, and will have strange tales to tell of the huge quantities of precious stones which the merchant of that dingy thoroughfare have in their safes, and will hold until some long-looked-for turn in the market comes.
Its population is much given to gather in knots on doorsteps and at the corners of streets. ”

“ A respectable French merchant sold it in that year to Prince Demidoff, Grand Huntsman to the Czar, for a large sum, apparently one hun [Pg 193] dred and eighty thousand dollars. One would like to know where the above respectable merchant got the diamond, but unfortunately he seems not to have furnished any history with it—perhaps because it might have made him appear less respectable. ”

“ That a diamond could cost 2000 ducats ($5000) , a very large sum in Shakespeare's time, is noted in one of his earliest plays, the Merchant of Venice (Act iii, sc. 1) , and the following injunction emphasizes the great value of a fine diamond: [25]
Set this diamond safe In golden palaces, as it becomes. I Henry VI, Act v, sc. 3.
"Histories", p. 116, col. B, line 54.
In Pericles we read (Act iii, sc. 2) :
The diamonds of a most praisèd water Do appear, to make the world twice rich. Third Folio, 1664, p. ”

“ But if the case of the buyer appears a bad one, the case of the tradesman, if he fails to obtain a purchaser, is still worse. We allowed that 30l. per cent. profit was necessary to render the transaction profitable to the seller; a year has passed away and the diamonds remain unsold. Diamond alone can cut diamond, it is said, but there is a worm with sharp adamantine teeth grawing at the stones; behold, it has devoured the 15l. per cent. legitimate trade profit on the year, and there only remains 15l. ”

“ Hence, the acquisition even of a moderately large diamond, is what mere money can not always command; and many are the favors, both political and of other kinds, for which a diamond of a large size, or of uncommon beauty, may be offered as a compensation, where its commercial price, in money, neither can be tendered, nor would be received. ”

“ The prince ran to the jeweller to ask him the value of the magnificent single stone. The dealer examined, weighed, and tested the thing, admitting that he had rarely seen so perfect a specimen of petrified carbon. ‘But it’s a bit of paste,’ exclaimed the prince with glee. The dealer examined and weighed again, subjected the stone to more tests, and finally pronounced the gem to be a diamond, a diamond of the first water, which in the trade would229 fetch at the lowest estimate a hundred thousand roubles, and for which he, if it was to be disposed of, would be willing to give eighty thousand. ”

“ Now, suddenly, and as yet secretly, the diamond output of the world has been increased fiftyfold—that is, gentlemen, within the year I can place another billion dollars' worth of diamonds, at the prices that hold now, in the open market ”

“ The purchasing power of the West Germans, British, French and Italians had improved to the point where the flight of jewelry was from the United States to Europe. The time had come when the baubles were more important to the buyers than American dollars.
Despite the ebb and flow of the diamond trade, diamonds remain one of the most tightly controlled commodities in the world. Each diamond-producing country tries to police the production to maintain price stability—since diamonds are an important means of earning dollar exchange. ”

“ One of the public journals of London lately spoke of a proposed corporation, to be known as the "Diamond Trust," which is certainly a significant evidence that the market requires to be carefully controlled as to the quantity which is annually put upon it. In old times a diamond was simply valued as a diamond ”

“ This ring of mine would lose half its beauty were not the signet encircled and enchased with these lesser brilliants, which grace it and set it off. The central diamond is man, firm and entire, his value depending on himself alone; and this circle of lesser jewels are women, borrowing his lustre, which he deals out to them as best suits his pleasure or his convenience. Take the central stone from the signet, and the diamond itself remains as valuable as ever, while the lesser gems are comparatively of little value. ”

“ The differential advantage of diamonds, when it is borne in mind that the conspicuous display of wealth is not the only purpose, as a rule, for which any of these things are bought, that the concrete diamond, or other good bought, is a bundle of valuable services, [489] of which the displaying of wealth is only one, is not, necessarily very great. ”

“ A jewel's price is not so much for its size and weight as for its particular lustre. But common commercial people—like myself—even if they have the good fortune to find a diamond likely to surpass all others in the market, are never content till they have tested it. ”

“ Manager Grost told Urleigh that he had found no trace of Goles anywhere; neither had the diamonds nor rubies been recognized in any of the legitimate marts—but that meant nothing. The Diamond Trade had its Under World, through which wandered gems as precious and perhaps a thousand times more interesting than anything one could learn about the legitimate traffic of the surface trade, which by comparison is prosy and uneventful. The $200,000 worth of diamonds had sunk into this Under World, leaving hardly a trace. ”

“ Say a one-carat diamond is now worth under a gold standard $25.00. If a carat diamond was adopted as the unit of value for our monetary system—one-carat declared by our law to be a dollar, and diamonds the only money of redemption, you would not say that a carat diamond was worth $25.00 ”

“ We will consider first the diamond, not because we regard it the foremost in interest among minerals, but because it is to-day reckoned commercially, as it was in the time of the Latin philosopher, Pliny, nearly two thousand years ago, “Maximum in rebus humanis,”—“The most costly of human possessions.” But we must, however, slightly modify the remark, and now apply it to the rare colored varieties of the gem, since commerce and refined taste rank the red sapphire far above the colorless diamond in value, and sometimes even the emerald and rare blue sapphires exceed it in price. ”

“ And it is a very difficult one to answer, for curiously enough stones above a certain size lose their commercial value, for few have the money or inclination to buy gems of enormous size, and fewer still would be bold enough to wear them. Nobody but a King or a Queen, for instance, could wear a diamond which on an ordinary person would look and certainly be taken for the lustre from a candelabra. ”

“ They gave value to the diamond, that in a small stone, easy of concealment, immense wealth might be hidden. They invented the bill of exchange, by which they could at pleasure transfer from one country to another their wealth, and avoid the danger of spoliation from the hand of power and intolerance. ”

“ India, with its millions of people who prefer to invest their gains in a gem to all other known property, will furnish an eager market for the diamond for many ages to come. The history of the influx and absorption of silver by that country furnishes an interesting parallelism. ”

“ As great nuggets of gold have occasionally been found, so has a diamond been discovered large enough to make the greatest ruler pause to pay its price, and one which it took an entire country to give to that ruler who sways his sceptre over countries in which the world’s greatest diamonds have been found.
When the God of the Mines called his courtiers to bring him all known gems, he found them to be of all colors and tints, and of varying hardnesses, such as the ruby, emerald, sapphire, etc., etc. ”

“ Inferior brilliants may be bought very low; I have now a lot before me, in which are some of two grains, for which I would not give four guineas per carat, and roses of the same denomination may be bought at forty or fifty shillings.
Bad discolord diamonds are sold to break into powder, and may be said to have a more extensive sale than brilliants with. all their captivating beauty. In many operations of art they are indispensible; the fine Cameo and Intaglio owe their perfection to the diamond, with which alone they can be engraved. ”

“ While the diamond excitement was still raging the people were inflamed at finding there was gold about them in great quantities. The diamond hunters in many instances became gold diggers, because there was even more money to be made in gold digging than in hunting for diamonds. ”

“ They form the principal part of the crown jewels of kings, not only from their beauty, but because they are supposed to comprize the greatest value in the smallest bulk; for a diamond, no larger than a nut or an acorn, may be the representative sign of the territorial value of a whole country, the equivalent in commercial exchange of a hundred fortunes, acquired by severe toils and privations. ”

“ The advent of a lovely woman, duchess or actress, into the world affects the diamond market as the sensitive plant is affected by the approach of a human hand. A thousand waves and wheels are set in motion. Dealers, designers, skilled workmen, and common cutter—all feel the magnetic thrill. Even the thieves in the underworld become busier and greater quantities of raw diamonds are stolen. Buyers make hurried journeys to Amsterdam and Antwerp. ”

“ The price of diamonds is subject to considerable fluctuations, which, proceeding from the markets of London, Paris, and Amsterdam, are most sensibly felt in the diamond districts, for the great European houses in whose hands the trade of the rough stones is concentrated, and who dispose of considerable capital, are able to wait for better times, while the small Brazilian trader or miner is soon obliged, for want of money, to sell his stones at any price. ”

“ They gave our party cocoanuts and cereals, tortoise-shells, skins of wild beasts that were most skillfully dressed, and a soft quality of lamb’s wool, in exchange for knives, glass beads, compasses, colored crayons, mirrors and other inexpensive trinkets.
“When I got my eye upon the king’s mammoth diamond I was so amazed that I trembled with eagerness. The gem must have weighed fully five hundred carats, and being intent to obtain it for myself I offered my silver watch, a fountain pen, my comb and brushes and a quantity of buttons in exchange for the diamond. ”

“ Now and then she would throw a cautious [Pg 37] glance around her, but there was no one in sight—no one but the young man yonder with the diamond gleaming on his hand, and his pockets full of gold—yes, gold, for the last piece he had thrown her was yellow and shining. ”

“ When cut and polished, a brilliant of the first or purest water in England, weighing one carat, is valued at 12l., a rose diamond of the same weight at 8l., while the value of all those of a larger size is calculated by multiplying the square of the weight in carats by twelve or eight, except for those exceeding twenty carats, the price of which increases at a much more rapid rate. The enormous value ascribed to large diamonds is, however, merely fanciful, for they are worth neither more nor less than what purchasers may be inclined or able to give for them. ”

“ Although we believe that there are immense diamond placers yet to be discovered in Africa, Asia, and America, we do not think that the gem will ever lose its high rank in the wants of fashion and ornamentation, or that its price will ever again descend to the valuation of 1848 except in transient times of far-extended commercial distress. The misfortunes of any one country will not affect the established price to any great extent, since the demand from other countries is so great as to preserve a well-marked equilibrium. ”

“ The diamond is considered of the most value, still its intrinsic value is but trifling; by heat it can be burned like other coal; I esteem gold as more valuable, for it cannot be consumed by fire. We would like to have a little of this metal, for how much better would it be to drink out of a gold cup than out of an old rusty tin basin. ”

“ The description of the properties of diamond would not be complete without a reference to the other valuable, if utilitarian, purposes to which it is put. Without its aid much of modern engineering work and mining operations would be impossible except at the cost of almost prohibitive expenditure of time and money. ”

“ To sell a diamond which bears the name of Philip the Second and once adorned his royal hand, an historic stone which the Duke of Alba touched for ten years in the hilt of his sword—no, no, I cannot! Elie Magus estimates my necklace and ear-rings at a hundred and some odd thousand francs without the clasps. Will you exchange the other jewels I made over to you for these? you will gain by the transaction, but what of that? I am not selfish. ”