Diamond suit

“ With the rise in popularity of the marquise and teardrop diamonds, the demand for the emerald-cut diamond has waned. Cutters look for rough material which can be shaped into the marquise, teardrop, or the round diamond. The round stone has never lost its popularity and continued year after year among the fashion leaders. ”

“ The two black suits, by reason of their inconsequential valuation, are practically eliminated from the sea of competitive bidding. The Diamond creates only a slight ripple, and even the Heart has to be unusually strong to resist the strenuous wave of the No-trump. ”

“ Elaborate studs, waistcoat-buttons, and wrist-links, are all abominable. The last, particularly, should be as plain as possible, consisting of plain gold ovals, with, at most, the crest engraved upon them. Diamonds and brilliants are quite unsuitable to men, whose jewelry should never be conspicuous. If you happen to possess a single diamond of great value you may wear it on great occasions as a ring, but no more than one ring should ever be worn by a gentleman. ”

“ The eight peers' daughters that held up her train were in the same sort of dress, all white and silver, with great quantities of jewels in their hair and long locks; some of them very pretty and well-shaped, it is a most becoming dress. The Princess wore a mantua and petticoat, white damask with the finest embroidery of rich embossed gold. On one side of her head she had a green diamond of vast size, the shape of a pear, and two pearls prodigiously large that were fastened to wires and hung loose in her hair; on the other side small diamonds prettily disposed ”

“ Diamond studs are not worn by men of the better sort, even when in evening dress; they are considered vulgar and ostentatious. Three studs in a dress shirt are to be preferred to one. Indeed, the single stud is as unartistic as anything well could be. Fashion changes in jewelry, as in everything else; but if a man follows the rule: “Plain, good, and seem to serve a purpose,” he will never go far wrong.
It should not be necessary to add that the wearing of imitation diamonds is the very extreme of vulgarity. ”

“ Gold should be seen on the jewels, accented with a few diamonds. Pearls with diamonds are also effectively in place. Always there is distinction, as I have said, in one earclip with a black pearl, one earclip [218] with a white, while a black and a white pearl are set together in a finger ring.
For a White House cocktail party, jewelry with diamonds and multicolored stones may be worn. Still more appropriate, with the simple cocktail dress, is a parure. An especially effective set is a pearl necklace with a diamond clasp on each side, and matching earclips, bracelet, and ring. ”

“ Dress, indeed, must have swallowed up almost every thing at a time when James and his courtiers set the fashion of appearing in a new garb almost every day. When the Duke of Buckingham was sent to France to bring over Henrietta Maria, he provided, amongst others, one suit of white uncut velvet, and a cloak set all over with diamonds, valued at £80,000; besides a feather made of great diamonds, and sword, girdle, hat-band, and spurs, thick set with the same. Another suit of purple satin, embroidered all over with pearls, was valued at £20,000. ”

“ The bandeau which bound her luxuriant curls was of diamonds also, and about her neck the magnificent diamond necklace lately presented by Marie Caroline with the ciphers of the Royal children. Even a plain woman must have glowed in such a dress set off with such a galaxy of jewels but with her velvet skin of lilies and roses, her bright hair, and the crimson bow of her lips she was a figure of dazzling beauty to strike the coldest into amazement. ”

“ Across it she wore the daintiest bit of precious lace, white lace, the merest apology for a cap, two long lappels pinned together by a diamond brooch, while the huge full clump at the back, unmistakably real, was studded with small diamond stars. She was dressed in a blue satin gown, set off with a profusion of white lace, and on her arm she wore a large heavy gold bracelet. ”

“ At last, from out of its silver paper and casing, the jewel lay revealed, and she stood, gazing a little awestruck at its flashing beauty.
It was a diamond star, to be worn as a brooch, and, every spike radiating from the centre diamond of great size and brilliancy, was composed of selected stones. Worked in across the star, in sapphires, were the words "Regina Imperatrix," and [Pg 125] the blue and white lights from sapphire and diamond shone dazzlingly from their satin bed. ”

“ And he felt certain that it, at least, was genuine; people just don't put glass or a rhinestone into that kind of mounting, like an engagement ring. Or if they do, they use a chunk of glass or a rhinestone that's bigger and flashier, one that looks like a three-carat diamond instead of a one-carat one. But the other stuff could be anything. Oh, probably some of it was costume jewelry, but if even a few pieces were real, he'd settle happily. And if the green stones in those earrings were emeralds they'd be worth at least twice what the diamond was worth. ”

“ Besides this I found a great lace collar or falling band, a pair of silk stockings, shoes with gold buckles set with diamonds, and a great penthouse of a hat adorned with a curling feather fastened by a diamond brooch; whiles hard by was an embroidered shoulder-belt carrying a long rapier, its guards and quillons of wrought gold, its pommel flaming with great brilliants. Beholding all of which gauds and fopperies, I vowed I'd none of them, and cowering beneath the sheets fell to shouting and hallooing for my lady ”

“ In the present day, precious stones having soared far out of reach of all but the really rich, fashion rather prefers a large semi-precious one to a microscopic diamond. "Fashion," however, is merely momentary and local, and the great majority will probably always consider a diamond the only ring to have. ”

“ The men who deal in diamonds in the place of their origin no more wear them than do the men who dig them. Old buyers who have handled the precious stones all their lives are not only plainly dressed but have none of the tendency toward personal adornment so widespread among Brazilians. Two American diamond-men I met had huge blacksmith hands on which a ring would have looked absurd, and the only diamonds one sees in Diamantina are those offered for sale in “parcels” or show-windows, or those worn by an occasional tenderfoot. ”

“ Joseph entered.
"Here is the address of the jeweler, my lord; his name is Baudoin."
"My dear M. Doublet, you will go, I beg you, to this jeweler, and tell him to bring here, in an hour, a diamond necklace worth about two thousand louis. Women can never have too many jewels, now that dresses are trimmed with them. You will arrange with the jeweler for the payment."
"Yes, my lord. It is on account of the surprise that I do not groan this time. Diamonds are like buildings, the value remains; and, besides, this surprise to the marchioness! ”

“ You will meet with a great many diamonds of a rough cinnamon-coloured coat, opaque; this sort is generally very hard, and, when cut, contain a great deal of life and spirit; but the colour is very uncertain; it is sometimes white, sometimes brown, and sometimes of a fine yellow. Rough diamonds are frequently beamy, that is look fair to the eye, yet are so full of veins to the centre, that no art or labour can polish them. A good diamond should never contain small spots of a white or gray colour of a nebulous form ”

“ With full grey hair, diamonds alone are superb, though if the complexion is light some color will still prove charming. Best would be amethyst with turquoise set in platinum, or Madeira topaz with sapphires set in gold.
Important Considerations in Selecting Earclips
Women who are slender and petite should select earclips with an airy appearance. An earclip can be large, yet still be light and airy. Such a clip may be designed of pierced metal, lacy and delicate, or of twisted gold, platinum or palladium. Long diamond earclips are appropriate only for formal occasions and for evening wear. ”

“ For a second we saw the face of a beautiful woman with hair like golden sheen, and were both amazed to discover that in place of rows of sequins she wore a single ornament suspended upon her white, unfurrowed brow. Apparently it was carved from a single diamond of enormous size and exceeding lustre, but its shape puzzled us; it was fashioned to represent a curious device of arrowheads. ”

“ Long streamers of black tulle floated from a diamond soup-tureen which surmounted her hair. Narrow puffings of white traversed her black velvet gown in all directions, making her look somewhat like a railway map, and a diamond fan-chain defined, or attempted to define, what was in its nature neither definable nor confinable, to wit, her waist, or what had been, in early youth, her waist.
The entire company was stirred by the arrival of the dowager duchess, and it undoubtedly added new eclat to what was already a fashionable event ”

“ Short dinner gowns, colorful cocktail dresses or separates are best enhanced by jewels of light texture. Jewelry of twisted gold wire conveys this effect; or the gold wire used as setting for diamond or pearls. Like the flowers in colorful profusion around, jewels with stones of different colors are in good taste, providing of course that the colors are in harmony. An all-white costume will not do justice to diamonds; if a woman looks attractive in white, she should wear with it colored stones or pearls. Sapphires, however, may be combined with diamonds, most pleasantly with a fair complexion ”

“ A large clasp is apt to turn or become entangled in the hair.
With a pearl necklace, a clasp of a colored stone, such as a ruby or an emerald, will make an effective complement, highlighting the pearls; but for any necklace a diamond clasp offers perfect harmony. A frequently available diamond to use for such a clasp may be found nestling next to the little finger of the left hand—the diamond of the engagement ring, “grown too small along the years.” Such a stone has lost none of its sentimental value. Its sparkle and the memory of courtship nights may be preserved in a necklace clasp. ”

“ The asterism, or star-like form of six rays, which is so beautifully displayed by the sapphire when it assumes a certain form of internal arrangement of crystallization, is sometimes, though very rarely, witnessed in the diamond. There is one of this description to be seen in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.
The diamond is rarely found of a perfect shade of blue; but there are now in Europe several magnificent gems of this description. Foremost of all of them stood the famous blue diamond of 672⁄16 karats, belonging to the French crown. ”

“ But it serves simply to illustrate my thought, which I emphasize by saying if you do not have the actual diamond-mines literally you have all that they would be good for to you. Because now that the Queen of England has given the greatest compliment ever conferred upon American woman for her attire because she did not appear with any jewels at all at the late reception in England, it has almost done away with the use of diamonds anyhow. All you would care for would be the few you would wear if you wish to be modest, and the rest you would sell for money. ”

“ The first, bearing the head of a negro in agate, encircled with a band of {229} rubies, has an outer border of open scrollwork, of white, heightened with red enamel. On each side and below is a table diamond; and above, a crown set with triangular faceted diamonds (Pl. XXIX, 4) . Lack of space precludes detailed reference to the other three enseignes de chaperon. They are equally attractive, both on account of their design and the high quality of their workmanship.
Those unable to afford such costly ornaments wore hat-brooches or medallions in cheaper materials, either bronze or copper. ”

“ I had my own diamond necklace on, and my hair was tout brillant, all glittering with jewels.
His picture set with diamonds I had placed stitched to my vest, just, as might be supposed, upon my heart (which is the compliment in such cases among the Eastern people) , and all being open at the breast, there was no room for anything of a jewel there. ”

“ Madame S——r wore a very rich blonde dress, garnie with plumes of ostrich feathers, a large diamond fastening each plume. One lady wore a diadem which —— said could not be worth less than a hundred thousand dollars. Diamonds are always worn plain or with pearls; colored stones are considered trash, which is a pity, as I think rubies and emeralds set in diamonds would give more variety and splendor to their jewels. ”

“ Any of the corundum gems therefore may be used in any type of jewel without undue risk of wear or breakage. Customers of jewelers should, however, be cautioned against [122] wearing ruby or sapphire rings on the same finger with a diamond ring in cases where it would be possible for the two stones to rub against each other. So much harder than the ruby is the diamond (in spite of the seeming closeness of position in Mohs's scale) that the slightest touch upon a ruby surface with a diamond will produce a pronounced scratch. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He dug his hand into his trousers pocket and produced a ring containing a solitaire diamond as big as a hazelnut.
"I took a chance on the size already," he said, "but I bet yer it will fit like it was tailor-made." ”