Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/127

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SAPPHIRE.
91

weighing four carats, sold for £60; it would require to be recut, when it would be reduced to thirteen or fourteen grains.

Rubies in lots, Indian cut, of small sizes and of different qualities, are at all times to be had, and sell at from fifteen to sixty-five shillings per carat; but a perfect stone of a carat or six grains may be deemed rare, and falls little short of the value of the Diamond: nay, in some cases, rubies of two, three, or four carats, if very fine, are much scarcer, and even more valuable than diamonds of equal weight.

I Have frequently been called upon to value stones in the India-house, &c. but I have rarely met with a good ruby above a carat and a half.

From this gem I pass to another of the same family, which if it yields in beauty, is yet more rare.