ENGRAVED DIAMONDS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5474, 31 December 1904, Page 9

ENGRAVED DIAMONDS.

Diamonds can 1 3 engraved in a ver J artistic ■ manner. This development of the diamond-cutting art brings into existence a new class of jewellery, for which a considerable demand is expected. It was long beheved that the diamond could not be engraved with safe or satisfactory results. A few stones roughly engraved were found in India, and a’diamond was exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 167 a on which a portrait of the King of Holland waa scratched. But the work was imperfect, and the stones wore rather depolished than engraved. Some of the finest specimens of engraving bn diamonds are the work of M. Bordinet, a Paris jeweller. One is a scarf-pin representing a yataghan, of which the blade is a -slender diamond and the handle a ruby. Another is a large circular stone on wh ch a pansy With its foliage is engraved. In another care the do gn is a knife made with two diamonds. An elaborate piece of work is a bicycle oi which the wheels are two circular diamonds. The opoitcs are represented by lines engraved on the diamonds. A small hole .s p.erced at each axle. Another diamond is carved Lke’ a-fish. A handsome brooch is a scarahaous, surrounded oy sapph.res and brilliants. The most remarkable is a ring made of one diamond, the interior surface being polished and the exterior olabo•afely engraved. Other examples arc brooches, rep. esen ing flies, of which he wings are thin eng-aved diamonds, hd two diamonds engraved -with aruorial bearings, the imperial arms oi lussia be hg used in ono instance on hirt' and cuff buttons. Formerly it was only possible to produce the po'iah on flat surfaces, hut M. Bordinet has been able to do this on concave portions, as on the body and tail of a fish and the interior of the ring. His tools produce not only straight linos, as in the wheel, the racquet and the flies’ w:ngs, but a free modelling, as in the pansy, the Russian arms and the soaiabaeus. He has invented the-e tools himself and intends that his son alone shall have the use of (hem. They are exceedingly delicate and difficult to handle. He has spent hirty-five years bring.ng them to perfecion. It is comparatively but few years since it was pos ihle to pie oe holes in diamonds. This feit made poes.hle the placing of diim-’nds on ti string, alternating with pearls