Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1905 — DIAMONDS NOW ENGRAVED. [ARTICLE]

DIAMONDS NOW ENGRAVED.

Secret Tools Are Used in Delicate Process. Diamonds can be engraved in' a very artistic manner. This development of the diamond cutting art brings into existence a new class of jewelry, for which a considerable derand is expected. It was long! believed that the diamond could no| be engraved' with safe and satisfactory results. A few stones roughly engraved were found ia India, and a diamond was exhibited at the Paris exposition in 1878 in which a portrait of the king of Holland was scratched. But the work was imperfect and the stones were rather depoßshed than engraved. Some of the finest specimens of engraving on diamonds are the work of M. Bordiuet, a Paris jeweler. One isa scarf pin representing a yataghan, of which the blade is a slender diamond and the handle a ruby. Another is alarge circular stone on which a pansy with its foliage is engraved. In another case the design i» a knife made with two> diamonds. An elaborate piece of work is a bicycle, of which the wheels are two circular diamonds. Thespokes are represented by lines engraved on the diamonds. Another diamond is carved like a fish. A handsome brooch is a scarabeus surrounded by sapphires and brilliants. The most remarkable is a ring madeof one diamond, the interior surface being polished and the exterior elaborately engraved. Other examples are brooches, representing flies, of which the wings are thin, engraved diamonds and two diamonds engraved with armorial bearings, the imperial arms of Russia being used in one instance on shirt and cuff buttons. Formerly it was only possible to produce the polish on flat surfaces, but M. Bordinet has been able to do this on concave portions, as on the body and tail of a fish and theMnterfor of the ring. His tools produce not only straight lines as in the wheel, the racquet and the flies, wings> but a free modeling, as in the pansy, the Russian arms and the scarabaeus. He has invented these tools himself and intends that his son alone shall have the use of them. They are exceedingly delicate and difficult to handle. He lias spent thirty-flve years bringing them to perfection. It is comparatively but few years since it was possible to pierce holes in diamonds.. This feat made possible the placing of diamonds on a string, alternating with pearls. This work now is done generally in diamond cutting establishments. —Kansas City Star.