RARITY
It is human nature to treasure the rare, sometimes for rarity’s sake alone. Among gems, for example, synthetic ruby has never been as highly esteemed as natural ruby because it is made in relatively enormous quan¬tities and is therefore much too common. On the other hand, synthetic star ruby, carefully controlled from manufacture to final retail sale in cut form, is able to command a good price because it is both beautiful and considerably rarer than ordinary transparent synthetic material.

While synthetic gems can be fully as handsome as their natural counterparts, natural gems of equal quality or even of much lesser quality find a ready market and sell for much higher prices. The preference for the natural is a highly important human factor.

Paradoxically, rarity, as will be shown, can be a handicap if it goes too far. It is well known among dealers in art objects, antiques, and jewels that before any person can appreciate the worth of a masterpiece, he must have pointed out to him all of the factors which make such an item desirable.

In the case of well-known gems such as diamond, ruby, sap¬phire, and emerald, nearly every prospective buyer has heard and read about them from childhood. By the time he becomes an adult, he has firmly fixed in his mind that these gems are precious, beautiful, and desirable. He has even accepted one gem, the diamond, as an indispensable part of the engagement ring. The average jeweler does not have to con¬vince the bridegroom-to-be that he should buy his fiancee a diamond engagement ring; this has already been done for him, and the sale nego-dations merely need to settle such mundane details as quality, size, and price.

This happy situation for the jeweler does not apply in the case of other gems, particularly if they are not well known. Thus, the transparent andalusite from Brazil, a handsome and durable gem, is readily salable only to connoisseurs or collectors of the unusual because it is so rare and its supplies so uncertain that no one in the trade wishes to risk a promo-donal campaign to acquaint the public with its virtues in the hope that profitable sales will result. Because of the problems briefly touched upon above, the vast majority of retailers in gems and gem-set jewelry avoid handling rare or unusual gemstones and stick to the “safe” standard gems which need no educational campaign to insure a supply of informed customers.