ROMANCE OF DIAMONDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 7 August 1928, Page 5

ROMANCE OF DIAMONDS

THE SECRET OF CUTTING

DISCOVERY BY A CLERK With the exception of the few stones cut in k Antwerp, all the rough diamonds of the world are cut ip Amsterdam. There the diamond-cutting business is" carried on among seventy to eighty establishments, which give, employment to 1,200 cutters. The first cutting of a diamond (says the Washington "Star") was accomplished 455 years ago. The ancient knew nothing of the hidden beauty of the stone. But, even in the rough, the diamond won the favour of princes, and very gradually the experiments revealed some of its fires. Until the fourteenth century enamelled buttons were the chief articles of jewellery. In the beginning .of that century, when the price of enamels fell so low as to bring the decorated buttons within the reach of all purses, er.amelling lost the favour of the fine world, and buttons of gold and .silver, ornamented with pearls, diamonds and coloured stones, took the places of the enamels. The finest of the stones then known was a-diamond —a formless mass the size of a pigeon's egg, a gem worn on great occasions by the King of Portugal. In 1470, when Bruges /was .a residence city, the court lived a life of extravagant luxury. Men and women went about in garments stiff with gold and silver ornaments, and sewed over with pearls and precious stones. But the stones were uncut and shapeless. Charles, the son of the Duke of Normanby,* owned a great diamond. He | amused himself, by exhibiting it to his "chaperon," But "as* he declared its virtues he bewailed its shape and lack of light. At that time one of the important jewel merchants of Bruges was served by a clerk who was a- native of Flanders, a young man named Louis de Berquem," who was deep in hopeless love of his master's daughter. Young Berquem was on the verge of despair when, one night, as he was hanging up his apron, he saw his master bending above his bench, groaning at the uselessness of his labour. When Berquem asked, "Can I do something for you before I go" the master sneered, "Yes, bring me a tool that will cut these cursed stones. I will pive a fortune to the man that does.it." From that hour on the boy thought of nothing but to find the means of conquering the hardness of the diamond. All day he did the bidding of his master;" all "night he sat at a rough bench in his attic, trying in vain to inako some impression on a stone stolen from tho workroom. One night he fell asleep at his bench and dreamed that an angel said to him: "Iron is _ the master cutter; steel is iron purified. Take a file, get powder; take thy steel and powder it, then cut." Berquem awoke. He fixed two diamonds in a vyce, filed with frantic energy, and collected the fallen dust. That done, he made a set of little wheels, and with wheels well powdered with diamond dust set to work to win a fortune. Some days later he stood before his master and in his outstretched palm lay a brilliant diamond whose facets gleamed with light. History states that Berquem kept the secret of his invention until he won his fortune and his bride. His first' >customer was Charles the Bold, whose great rough diamond was the first Royal jewel cut-.,