Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/47

This page has been validated.
DIAMOND.
11

Those of a carat each, if very fine, and well selected, are now worth nine guineas to ten pounds. Three years ago, I offered twelve pounds each for eight, and could not obtain them.

Brilliants, from five grains to six, if pure, are worth from thirteen to fourteen pounds; if perfectly fine, and of the full weight of six grains, they are worth seventeen to eighteen pounds each; I have, for such, paid twenty pounds.

Brilliants of two carats each, are worth from twenty-seven to thirty pounds, Stones of this weight, if well proportioned, are considered of a fine size, and well calculated for pins, or the centre of clustres. Indeed, well proportioned diamonds from six grains to two carats each, are always in demand, and are retailed at from twenty to thirty-five pounds, each, according to their degree of per-