Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1875 — Fashionable Diamonds, Rubies and Pearls. [ARTICLE]

Fashionable Diamonds, Rubies and Pearls.

Diamonds are set to show the stone alone without any gold being visible. The crown setting is still in vogue and, to avoid all appearance of metal, jewelers make the claws that hold the stone of platinum so nearly the color of the diamond that it scarcely shows at all. The favorite diamond ear-rings are solitaire knobs worn as close to the ear as possible. It is better, however, to have them hang below the ear, as this shows the stone better than the rosette solitaires fitted into the lobe. Most ladies understand that the clear whiteness of the diamond Ufts great beauty, and that diamonds of the first water, artistically cut, can rest upon their own merits without the aid of enamel or other ornament to develop them. There are diamonds,

however, which, without being “ off color,” have a peculiar straw tint of their own, and connoisseurs value (these very highly. Notable among these is a peerless yellow diamond, exhibited here, that cost $5,000 at the Duke of Brunswick’s sale. Sapphires are now usually associated with diamonds, as the blue gem is a gloomy stone and requires the diamond to brighten it. Warm, delicious rubies are shown in th< rare shade known among dealers as “ pigeon’s blood." This glowing tint is very highly prized and when the stone is beyond three carats it is of greater value than diamonds and almost priceless. Rose pearls set like diamonds in knife-edge setting, or else in pierced gold, as turquoises are mounted, are preferred to the string pearl sets. The latter, howevdt, are always pretty, never very decidedly out of fashion be had for $45 a set. Strings of fine pearls for brides’ necklaces cost from s;k>() up to SIO,OOO. — Harper's Baear.