109-111. Three brilliant pendants composed of very fine large stones, with brilliant drops and pendants of false pearls,—2,600 guineas. (Keane.)
112. A bracelet, composed entirely of brilliants, the centre an oval sapphire,—£2,250. (Carter.)
113. A pair of long ear-rings composed of very large brilliants,—£3,255. (Stevens.)
114. A brilliant brooch, formed as a double pink,—£1,470. (Stevens.)
The whole realized upwards of £50,000 ($250,000) gold.
The quantity of diamonds now in circulation in fashion, and hoarded by commerce, is enormous, and may be estimated by the ton. Yet the requirements of society and the arts are so vast that the gem apparently seems to be a rare stone, while in reality it ranks low down in the scale of rarity.
Although we believe that there are immense diamond placers yet to be discovered in Africa, Asia, and America, we do not think that the gem will ever lose its high rank in the wants of fashion and ornamentation, or that its price will ever again descend to the valuation of 1848 except in transient times of far-extended commercial distress. The misfortunes of any one country will not affect the established price to any great extent, since the demand from other countries is so great as to preserve a well-marked equilibrium.
India, with its millions of people who prefer to invest their gains in a gem to all other known property, will furnish an eager market for the diamond for many ages to come. The history of the influx and absorption of silver by that country furnishes an interesting parallelism.
Most of the people of the earth entertain superstitious fancies, and especially invest the gems with spiritual powers or special attributes. Hence the innate love of ornament, combined with the desire of possessing a rare treasure, will always give to the gems a prestige and a commercial value above all other things. Puritanical morality may rail against the gems as luxuries; but the nature of man must be changed before these ideas can be universally adopted. The refinements of civilization, as well as the follies of barbaric ages, call for the ornamentation of jewels and gems. And modern economy may, with Tiberius, complain in vain of that “rage for jewels and precious stones which drains the empire of its wealth, and sends, in exchange for its baubles, the money of the commonwealth to foreign nations.”
A brilliant writer has lately stated that “Pictures, gems, china, bronzes, bric-à-brac of every sort, rare shawls, rare engravings, and even rare fruits, flowers, and dogs are steadily tending upwards in value, as if their price depended upon a want and not a caprice. It is the most curious illustration of the unchangeableness of the law which governs even caprices that we are acquainted with; and tends to indicate that the desire for the rare, which we all notice and smile at, in bibliopoles, antiquarians, entomologists, and every variety of the genus collector, is not an exceptionable eccentricity, but a permanent attribute of the human mind, though only noticed in those who have wealth to indulge in some unusual or splendid form. It is like the desire of accumulation, one of the passions, and not one of the mere tastes of men; and may be relied on in business, almost as certainly as self-interest, vanity, or ambition.”