Leisure hours among the gems

by Augustus C. Hamlin

The process of diamond-cutting has within a few years been established in the United States, and is due to the energy and superior inventive talent of Mr. Henry D. Morse, of Boston. This gentleman conceived the idea of arranging a machine for the cutting and polishing of these gems, to enable the American jewellers to have their work performed at home, instead of sending it to Europe.

While engaged in perfecting his appliances, chance threw in his way an itinerant vendor of porcelain, who had in former years served as laborer in the diamond ateliers of Amsterdam. The sight of the rough gems and the apparatus recalled to the Jew the scenes of his youth, and awakened a desire of renewing his former occupation; and he offered to perform the part of diamond-cutter. But, as the process was carefully considered, it was discovered that the Jew could only cut the facets of the diamond, and the art of the subsequent polishing he did not understand. It seemed strange that an artisan who possessed the rare ability to tell at a glance how large a gem the stone would cut, how to avoid internal imperfections, and how to take advantage of its cleavage planes, could not polish the facets after he had cut them. But such was the fact; for the two processes of cutting and polishing are widely different, and require separate instruction. However, the deficiency was soon supplied by an acquaintance, who was induced to leave Holland and act as polisher in the American diamond adventure.

The establishment was now complete, but the business was at first confined to recutting and repolishing gems that had been damaged by long use or accident. The inventive genius of Mr. Morse made several important changes in the machinery required by the lapidary, and displaced the rude and cumbersome apparatus of the old system. At first but two or three men were employed; but after the discovery of the South African diamond mines, the rough gems imported to this country soon furnished material for a more extensive establishment than was at first contemplated; and so the workshop was enlarged, and the workmen increased, until twenty-four polishing wheels were put in operation by steam power, and a force of thirty persons employed in the various parts of the process. At first none but foreigners were employed in the labor; but Mr. Morse believed that American ingenuity could master all the difficulties of the process, and finally succeeded in educating a corps of workmen who soon proved to be far superior to any of the artisans imported from the diamond-cutting establishments of Amsterdam. Now the atelier of Mr. Morse may be considered as essentially American both in its artists and its arrangements.

Many fine gems of large size have been polished by Mr. Morse, and among them four of the great weight of fifty karats each. And very recently he has ventured to attempt the cutting of a great diamond from South Africa, weighing one hundred and twenty-five karats. The operation was a successful one, and after three and a half months’ labor a beautiful gem of seventy-seven karats weight was obtained, which is greatly admired by amateurs and experts, not only on account of the rare beauty and perfection of the mineral itself, but also as a remarkable specimen of workmanship in shaping its present form.

The process of cutting the diamond is divided at Amsterdam into several distinct branches, and workmen are educated to perform one part, but not another. Thus the cleaving, the cutting, and the polishing have special operators, who become expert in performing well the parts assigned to them without attempting the others.

This ceremony and care adopted by the Jews has undoubtedly produced skilful workmen; but we see no reason why all the parts may not be perfectly acquired by an intelligent mechanic. The art of cleavage, however, requires tact, and ought to include some knowledge of mineralogy.

For the particulars of the art of diamond-cutting, we will refer our readers to the interesting chapters by Jeffries, Mawe, and Barbot; but we will, however, briefly mention some of the forms adopted for the diamond, and how they are produced.

The table and the rose patterns were the first regular forms adopted by the lapidaries. The first was simply the top of the stone ground flat with a corresponding flat bottom of less area, with its four upper and lower sides parallel to each other. As the light passed through the stone without much refraction, the beauty of the mineral was not developed by this pattern.

It has been stated that the rose shape was invented in Paris under the auspices of Cardinal Mazarin, but Tavernier describes the diamonds of Aurungzeb of India as being of the rose-cut. Therefore we must give a more ancient date to the pattern than Mazarin’s day. The form of the rose-cut is simply that of a hemisphere covered with small facets. Its flattened base is therefore admirably adapted for incrustation work, and the foil on which it is generally set serves as a refracting mirror for the entering rays of light.

The rose pattern has several names which indicate the number of facets which they may bear. If it has but twelve or less facets it is called an Antwerp rose; if but eighteen or twenty it is a semi-Holland, and a Holland rose if it bears twenty-four facets. At the present time these gems are not in much demand, unless for incrustation work, for which they are superior both in effect and in adaptability to the surface of the object to be ornamented.