Content area
Full Text
$98,000 in captured sunlight sparkles on the table, in the form of a perfect 6.5 carat diamond nestled in pure gold.
"Did you ever see anything like that?" asks Ronald Barasch. The proprietor at Schiffman Jewelers sits back in his chair with the dignified air of someone who has been surrounded with beauty for the past 44 years. He secretes the ring away and reveals another, seemingly equal gem.
"Take a look through the jeweler's eye at this," he says. The second specimen, under the glass, reveals tiny bubbles and fissures, where the first was a clear lake of brilliance.
"Buying a diamond is certainly a blind item to the average individual. You've got to deal with someone with a good reputation. It's easy to get schnookered."
Over the 55 years Irving Schiffman Jewelers has been in business, first under Mr. Schiffman himself and then his sons-in-law Judah Samet and Barasch, they've built up just that reputation in Pittsburgh and around the country. Schiffman got his start selling watches out of a suitcase on the fourth...