Hawaii Holomua, Volume I, Number 26, 17 ʻOkakopa 1893 — IMITATION GEMS AND THEIR WEARERS. [ARTICLE]

IMITATION GEMS AND THEIR WEARERS.

Aa hlfni(w WUk u Eip#rt, ‘’Yea." »ai<,l the proprietor of a well-known “ imitation gem” ahop. not far from Regent Cm'oa. “imitation stonea are mueh roor« worn than formerly. And why not? They are as pretty; indeed, it is on!y experts who ean detect tben nowadays. eo well are the real geros imitated. And, then, they are so mueh cheaper. '‘Do I mean to say that detection is impossibler’ he continued, repeating my qnestion. “Well, I don’t go so far as that, but Tenr nearly.” A little tray was pushe<i aoross the glass casc towanls me, It was nearly full of stones; opala, diamonds. sappbires, rubies. turquoises, emeralds, anJ pearls, the latter both wbite and black *‘Thosearo mixed gems, some are real and some we mannfacture in our factory near Paris. See if yon ean piek ont whicb aro real stones. Take them to the light,” said the man, “if you like to, sir,” I stepped to the door into th« light, whieh was unusually strong; even for a July day in London, and atterapted to “spot” tho penuine stoues. I felt all the wUile tbat 1 was going wrong with the pearls, diamonds, omoralds, and tnrqaoises. the rubiea aud sapphires seeming to me, after a close scrntiny, comparatively easy of detection. Whilst I beld the little tray, with it* sparkling, scintillating contents in my hand— whioh, if all the stones had been real and of higb gr«do, woald h«ve repre»ented a smalt fortune —I must confess to at first feeling mueh as I should had I been asked to gness whieh tbimb1e tbe pea was under. After about ten rainutes, however, I faad made a selection, and we both returned to the oounter. The gems I bad ehoeen aa real were spread out on a shallow tray lined wiīh wbite Telvet. and, fixing a lens into bis eye. tbo jeweller proceeded to examine zny selection. 1 bad picked out twenty-six stooes of T&rions kinds as real. Seventeen were imitation. My greatest failure waa with the diamocJs.pearls.anii tun]Uoise». whieh would. I think, bare dec«irej almoei anybody, so true in coIour, lustre, and geoeral appearance were they. My greatest eueeeea was with rubies and sapphires. Eren to tny eomparattTeiy inexperienced eyes. imitatioDs ol the iormer aeemed ”murky” in colonr. anJ of tbe latter wanting in tbe peculiar *'fire” whieh fine siones have. **Toa have done remarkabiy weil.” aaid he when he had finiahed sbowmg me mv mistakes; “far better, indeed. thsn nme out o( ten inuteon —1 supposa yoa are an amsteorf” he obeerred— voold bave done. “Yon wouW be sorprised to know how many of tbe beat people wear imitation aionea. I could teli yoo some namee that

would astonish tdu. bnt of course I mostn t. I could mentiou at least twenty titled ladie«. whose family jewels are of world-wide repntation. who hare ‘dummy’ sets. either mannfactnred by ns or some similar firm, for general use, the fsmily gems and heirlooma being reserved for wear npon State occasions. You would be snrprised to know how many ladies habitnally keep their real sets locked np in the ‘safe deposits' of London. "Yon see this : ” he continued. taking a magnificent diamond and turquoi»e necklet from a drawer. “We have just got this over from Paris —made as a facsimile of a family jewel —for the Countess W .” Giving a key to an assistant, he said: "Get me Ladv W 's uecklet out of the aafe/’ In a few minutes the assistant returned. and I had in my right haml a necklet valued at £7,000. and in my left one whieh hail cost scarcely a hundredth part as mueh And yet had I changed hands 1 scarcely think one person in twenty would have known that I had done so. ‘‘Whoaro our nnneipal custoroers. sir! Well, almost eveiy class. From the servant girl whose wages are five shillings a week, and who likes to do the swell on Sundays with a bracelet or ring, whieh if real would be worth £30 or £40; to the Princess who, in fear of Iosing her jowels, h«s, as I havo told yon, a duplicate set of imitations. "I could tell you a good many queer stories. As you perhaps know. actresses are rather fond of having their jewels stolen. Well, some years ago au actress had her jewels stolen. She was greatly commiserated with upon her heavy loss; aud a certain nohleman who waa paying her attention replaced some of the stolengems. Thejewelleryshe had, had stolen we made. The real goms never existed! Another time a well-known ‘Society’ leader had her jewels stolen. Again the •burgletl’ articles were ‘our make.’ The real ones were in a solicitor's safe, not many miles from Chanceiy Lane. ‘‘The ‘Johnuies' and young club men are good customers of ours. They like to make secondrat« burlesque ‘8tars’ handsome presents, and even if their idols find out that the stones are not geniune, they don’t like to say anvthing becaose of the ‘chatT they would have to pot np with from their fel!ow artistes sometimes, when a young fellow is ▼ery particular, the pnneipal or chief stone is real, and Ihe remaining ones sham. Onlr the other day a young lady brought in a pendant, whieh had been porchased here, and askod us if the ceotre stone was real. Sbe didn't suspect the others. tbongh «11 of tbem were of Parisian make. Of courae. we satisfied her npon the genuineneas of the sapphire. She never asked aboot the other», and we didn t enligbten her. "Mind giving the infonnation, sir—why shonld I ? e dou't profess to deal in anythlog exoept ahama, A bad trade. isn’t it? And aneh atODM a* we ean trothfnUy aay are 'onr own manofacture. ’ Fonnerly there waa a great objeetion to th« wearing of imiiaiion gems and jewelierr. Nowaday» tho praetice of doing ao ia inei—iing by kapa and bo«ada" —