![]() ![]() The buying and selling of diamond jewelry was not on the collective consciousness. During the actual war years, activities in the gemstone and metal industries were being diverted to the war effort. The average person was able to accumulate diamonds due to the development of mass production cutting techniques and more diamond deposit discoveries.īy the mid to late 1920s, the one-carat “blue white perfect” (D flawless) was up to approximately $500 per carat.Įconomies were recuperating from the crash and the winds of war were blowing in Europe. The preceding Edwardian era and the Art Deco period relied heavily on the use of diamonds in a white on white pattern (diamonds in platinum) in all sorts of jewelry uses. ![]() The 1920s in the United States was a period of economic growth and expansion until the stock market crash of 1929. In June, 1909, diamond dealer Roseau sold it to Cartier who, in turn, sold it to Evelyn Walsh Maclean for $80,000 in 1911.Ĭollector stones were sought after by the wealthy and influential, but at the same time, a “good one-carat perfect” sold for $100 (this was before GIA nomenclature) according to Jewelers Circular Keystone Centennial Issue, June, 1969. The most famous blue diamond, firmly entrenched in the American memory, is the Hope Diamond, which started its twentieth century journey in November, 1901, when it was valued at 18,115 British pounds to satisfy the personal debts of Lord Hope. De Beers had gained firm control over diamond distribution and began to establish an organized world market. We will loosely divide the century into periods, using the one-carat D flawless diamond as a touchstone to weave through the decades.Īn abundance of diamonds yielded by new discoveries in Africa and Brazil allowed the average person to become a diamond owner, a privilege previously reserved only for European royalty and American aristocracy. The jewelry industry is no exception to this phenomenon, and tracing diamond pricing records is one way of gaining that historical perspective. A s we greet the future, symbolized by the much heralded millennium, we also have the impulse to look back over the past decades of the twentieth century and review the progress of history. ![]()
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