Girdle And Quality Of Gems
THE GIRDLE AS AN INDICATOR OF QUALITY
By examining the accuracy with which the facets of the crown meet the facets of the pavilion along the girdle, even the inexperienced person is able to judge the relative skill of the lapidary. It goes without saying that the skilled workman will pay equal attention to all parts of the gem and not just to those which are most obvious.
Offset or mismatched facets are shown in Figure 20 along with other cutting errors that can be easily detected with the naked eye or under low magnification. Such defects are seldom glaring but they depart from the ideal and are silent signs that the basic material of the gem was not considered worthy of the best cutting skill, or that the lapidary was sloppy in his work. It is almost an invariable rule in the lapidary arts that the finest materials are sent to the finest cutters for treatment. Only by doing this will it be possible to realize the fullest potential value of the rough. Thus, every indication of poor cutting should make the buyer suspicious of quality, and, of course, of real value. This rule is rigidly applied to the most expensive rough and relaxes as the rough becomes cheaper, until the most slapdash lapidary work generally appears upon gems cut from the poorest rough.