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COLORED DIAMONDS
White,
of course, is the basic color, the color by which the trade judges the
diamond. Forgetting for a moment the "fancies," we find that the
so-called white diamond really covers many shades ranging all the way
from the "blue-white" to a dirty yellow, with varying shades of brown
in between. Indeed (and this is when the layman begins to feel a dizzy
spell approaching), the average brown or yellow diamond on the market
is regarded in the trade as a white stone. The "white" stones, in fact,
are gradated in this manner (although it is well to keep in mind that
this is the average, while some jewelers have different tables):
Blue white
White
Fine silver cape
Silver cape
Light cape
Cape
Bywater (or bye) for stones visibly yellow, generally
called "canary" Dark cape Fine light brown Light brown Brown Dark brown
Bear
in mind there is not a division of separate colors in the above table;
they are a gradation of colors, one merging gradually into the other.
These gradations of color and of quality, however, do not eliminate the
question: What about colored stones? Are they inferior stones? Diamond
men will say, usually, that if you like colored stones you like them
and therefore the best thing to do is to get "perfect colored stones."
Yet in their own minds is the convic-
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