Jewel case

“ Some try to imitate one quality of our jewel, and some another. Some of the court jewellers of the usurper make a paste or tinsel jewel, which, when the sun shines, has a lustre a little like that of ours. The young courtiers often wear this; but when the sun is clouded or sets, it ceases to shine: so that even its outward resemblance is very imperfect, and it does not even pretend to imitate the secret of the fountain or the magic glass. ”

“ At the opera the more elaborate jewels can be enjoyed from farther away; by most, any one person’s jewels are seen but for a glance or at a distance. But here, there is opportunity to observe the matching of stones or of the balanced jewels in a parure. While one jewel may contain stones of various colors, there should not be such variety from jewel to jewel; to be avoided, for example, are such combinations as a sapphire bracelet with a ruby brooch or an emerald necklace with a turquoise bracelet. And the colors of the jewels, as always, must harmonize with one’s gown and one’s complexion. ”

“ The glorious lights I had admired not twenty days ago were half gone; a dull, salty-red tinge was creeping over the superb green and the scintillating black which had made me covet the jewel with such longing. Yet it remained, even in its comparative poverty, the most remarkable gem I have ever put hand upon.
"The stone is certainly going off," I said in answer to him. "What guarantee have I that it will not be worthless in a month's time?"
"You have my word. It is a tradition of our family that he who owns that heirloom when it begins to fade must sell it or die—and sell it at its worth. ”

“ In addition to the enormous quantity used, a distinctive feature of Renaissance ornaments is the preference shown for colour. The placing together of bright-coloured gems with delicately worked gold invariably enriched with polychrome enamels is the fundamental motive of the jewellery of the period. So admirable was the craftsman's taste that each jewel forms in itself a scheme perfect in design and colour, and the rubies, emeralds, and sapphires introduced for the sake of their colour values, serve the composition as a whole without overwhelming it ”

“ Was it possible that there could be two sets of matching green diamonds, two infatuated lovers who had chosen the same pattern of ornament, the same strange inscription, and the same tint of stones? Such a thing was out of the question. Either Brewer had made a mistake when he said that the necklace had been buried with his wife—a theory which presupposed his return to his normal common sense—or some scoundrel had stolen it from her coffin. I determined to wire to him at once, and had written out a message when the second mystery in the history of the trinket began to unfold itself. ”

“ Wise men may decry the baleful fascination of jewels, but, none the less, the jeweller’s window continues to draw the crowd.
Like brilliant moths that appear only at night, jewels are tabooed in the day hours. Dame Fashion sternly condemns gems in the day time as evidence of hopelessly bad taste. No jewels are permitted in any ostentatious way, and yet a woman may, even in good society, wear a few [Pg 138] thousand dollars’ worth of precious stones, without seeming to be overdressed, provided the occasion is appropriate, as in the case of functions held in darkened rooms. ”

“ You remember the necklace of green diamonds I gave my poor wife, and buried with her?"
"Am I likely to forget that folly?" I asked.
"Well," he continued, "it was stolen from her grave in the little cemetery near Raincy——"
"I know that," said I.
"You know it!" he cried, looking up aghast. "How could you know it?"
"Because it was offered to me yesterday."
"Good God!" he exclaimed, "offered to you yesterday! But it could not have been, for my servant bought it in a shabby jeweler's near the Rue St. Lazarre! Look for yourself, and say what do you call that?" ”

“ The stone that I shall give you is an exact replica in a newly-invented paste of the stone that is the price of what I have bought from you. When the commissionaire brings round the Blue Diamond, touch the jewel boldly—take it in your hand, as it is permissible to do—and substitute the paste. Have no fear! I will undertake that the act is undetected. Thenceforth wear your prize undismayed; boast of it as you will. The one—the only—drawback to your perfect happiness must be that society will believe your jewel to be false, while you have the exquisite joy of knowing it to be genuine. ”

“ Remembering the “before” and beholding the “after,” a woman’s eyes will light with a new recognition. The old jewels were, in the main, massy with metals. The new ones are graced with an airy technique of jewel design. It is no commercial slogan but experienced truth that the light modern patterns make the jewel more beautiful and the wearer more gracefully young. And the husband, who was last to yield and permit that “waste of time and money” called a remodelling, will be the first to sense the new beauty and importance of the jewel, and to extend his admiring praise. ”

“ I remember there was a lot of talk about it at the time, but the necklace was never recovered. The clasp, too, has a remarkable history."
"All great jewels have," said Musard. "In fact, all noteworthy stones have dual histories. Their career as cut and polished gems is only the second part. Infinitely more interesting is the hidden history of each great jewel, from the discovery of the rough stone to the period when it reaches the hands of the lapidary, to be polished and cut for a drawing-room existence. ”

“ The stone was dimming. It had lost colour since I had seen it; it had lost, too, I judged, at least one-third of its value. I had heard the old woman's tales of the capricious changefulness of this remarkable gem, but it was the first time that I had ever witnessed for myself such an unmistakeable depreciation. The woman read the surprise in my eyes, and answered my thoughts, herself thoughtful, and her dark eyes touched with tears.
"You see what I see," she said. "The jewel that you have in your hand is the index to my husband's life. He has told me so often. When he is well, it is well ”

“ Then, in one of those flashes of thought which often mean much to a man, I had it in my mind that both the diamonds and the topaz above them would sit well upon the arms of Pauline; I even saw her in my fancy coquetting to me for the present. I began to laugh aloud at the other [208] thoughts, to call them echoes of childish schooling, to handle the chalice and the ring of jewels, and to tell myself that there would be no bigger fool in Europe if I did not take them. ”

“ Here were rubies of infinite perfection, diamonds set in a hundred shapes, ropes of pearls, boxes of opals, bracelets of every known pattern, rings scarce to be numbered, aigrettes, necklaces—in short, such a stupendous show that the dark and dingy bedroom was lighted with wondrous light, a myriad rays flashing up from the bed, until the whole place seemed touched with a wand, and changed to a chamber of a thousand colors. Before the bed of jewels the old man stood chattering and moaning ”

“ It proposed to adapt the luster and beauty of jewels to commercial uses. We were being content with crude imitation colors in our commercial glass, when we could quite as easily have the actual structure and the actual luster of the jewel in it. We were painfully hunting over the earth, and in its bowels, for a few crystals and prettily colored stones which we hoarded and treasured, when in a manufacturing laboratory we could easily produce them, more perfect than nature, and in unlimited quantity. ”

“ Count Eglamore said that I must.
THE DUKE (Raises the necklace, and lets it drop contemptuously.) Oh, not such trumpery as this. I have in Florence gems which have not their fellows anywhere, gems which have not even a name, and the value of which is incalculable. I have jewels engendered by the thunder, jewels taken from the heart of the Arabian deer. I have jewels cut from the brain of a toad, and from the eyes of serpents. I have jewels which are authentically known to have fallen from the moon. ”

“ A plain gold bracelet or watch, for example, may be worn with a gold and pearl ensemble. Similarly, a plain gold piece can be worn with a multicolored jewel—if the gold in the two pieces is of the same shade. Gold jewels, however, should not be worn with other metals, such as diamonds set in platinum. Silver, gold, platinum, or palladium: the same metal should characterize the ensemble.
In the Spotlight
There will be occasions, in many women’s lives, when they will officially be the center of attention. ”

“ That trick has been performed with better-known stones than the Heredith diamond. In fact, it strikes me as possible to sell the whole necklace that way. The disposal of the necklace depends largely upon who stole it—upon whether it has fallen into experienced or inexperienced hands. There are jewel dealers who ask no awkward questions if they can get things at their own price. ”

“ The jewel worn as a personal ornament may be merely decorative, such as the aigrette or the pendant, or it may be useful as well as ornamental, such as the brooch or the girdle. Gems and precious stones are not jewels, in the present sense, until the jeweller's skill has wrought and set them. This definition will be found to correspond with the term minuteria adopted by Italian writers on the goldsmith's art for objects in precious materials employed for the adornment of the person, as distinct from grosseria—those fashioned for household use or ornament. ”

“ I may say that these stones were of a delicious pale green tint, almost the colour of the great jewel in the vaults at Dresden, and that their fire was amazing. I have known a gem of the hue to be worth nearly a hundred pounds a carat; and as the lot I had averaged two carats apiece, their worth was very considerable. I had not learnt what were Brewer's instructions in the matter of expense; but I wrote to him by the next post congratulating him on his marriage and informing him that I would set the green diamonds in a necklace, and sell them for two thousand pounds. ”

“ We at least know a number of things that have appeared plausible in their time, and are now no more to be thought of; namely, an amulet, a pendant to a collar of state, a decorated umbilicus, the head of a stilus, a military standard, the handle of a book-pointer, the tip of a sceptre.
Our review of the abortiveness of early speculations concerning the design and use of the Jewel drove us by a process of elimination to seek a place for it in the helmet. In favour of this new theory historical evidence has been adduced, such as has not been offered in support of any other explanation. ”

“ A jewel, or a piece of jewelry, is a costly ornament, especially of gold, platinum, or precious stones; or of stones set in one of these metals.
A precious stone is one highly prized for human adornment. Its value is measured mainly by its beauty, its rarity, and its durability. The precious stones are, by general understanding, limited to the diamond, the ruby, the emerald, and the sapphire. The pearl, though strictly not a stone and far less durable, is nevertheless, because of its beauty and the rarity of superb specimens, included among the precious gems. ”

“ Jewels in English History
The finest known piece of Anglo-Saxon days is the Alfred Jewel, a gold plaque of cloisonné enamel found in 1693 at Newton Park. It is an oval two inches long, a little over an inch high, and an inch deep. At the tip of the oval is a boar’s head. Rock crystal covers the main plaque of translucent enamel, blue, white, green, and brown, shaped in the head of a man. Some think this may represent a saint, or the Christ; some say it is a portrait of Alfred the Great, for along the edge in gold are the letters: Aelfred mec heht gewyrcan, “Alfred had me worked.” ”

“ I remembered with a smile of contempt that the lady was to show me, during a short interview, how the whole of a jeweler's occupation was soon to be done with; how diamonds and sapphires and even the precious metal itself, were presently to be as common as pebbles in a brook; and I concluded with easy assurance that if any children's hospital depended upon my being convinced, it would have to close its doors at an early date. I had seen so much of this sort of thing; so many stories of fortunes lying in a metal pot had been whispered into my ear ”

“ Without regard to the loss of weight from uncut stone, jewelers are now shaping diamonds in many fancy cuts—which only the most flawless gems can sustain—for the sake of the pattern of the entire jewel.
The potentialities of the abstract design are far from being exhausted, and a jeweler who is a genuine artist has here a fertile field. If a woman has selected a jeweler as carefully as she has chosen her coiffeur, and finding him good has continued to seek his counsel, he should be able to suggest or to create a clip that will both express and illuminate her personality. ”

“ Actual jewel-work and settings, as a rule, displayed good quality of workmanship. The general tendency lay in the direction of the coloured stones popular in ancient times—the topaz, peridot, aquamarine, and amethyst; together with precious stones, such as emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds, and with pearls. The latter were generally reserved only for the most sumptuous ornaments, but were occasionally used in conjunction with jewels of less value. ”

“ I remarked.
"Yes," he said; "but it is easily cured, if once we can persuade [Pg 146] them to look through the jewel instead of looking at it; for then they see the King with the jewel on His breast, and the smile in His eyes, and their doubts melt away in floods of happy tears. This I know," he added, "for I was once one of these. I had neglected to use my jewel; and then an enemy, in the guise of a friend, persuaded me to question its genuineness; but I ventured to look through it once again, and since then I do not look at my jewel, but gaze through it to the King's heart ”