(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Other types of diamond Rosette seem to have existed but since they are known only from paintings (some of which have been listed and discussed by Fritz Falk) it is impossible to give accurate descriptions of the gems used in their composition. I have come to believe that the Rosettes Falk lists and those which I have examined myself in paintings were all exceptional designs resulting from deliberate experiments or from attempts to emulate top quality Rosettes produced by well-established cutters.
On a small domestic altar dating from the early seventeenth century, made in the Imperial Court Workshop in Prague, there is a nine-petalled Double Rosette—the only one of its kind I have ever come across. It is about 22cm in diameter, with components of a standard type, but each stone is individually set. The usual ‘pistil’ in the center of the ‘flower’ is replaced by a group of thin wires terminating in small enamel globes. The composition is apparently made up of stones from an ordinary Rosette which was broken up, and the diamonds are badly soiled. The stones are colorless but appear quite yellow because of the heavy mounting.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Concerning Gems
Albert Ramsay (Albert Ramsay & Co, 1925) writes:
Few things that man has made use of in his evolution from barbarity to civilization have so much of romance, superstition and fascination woven about them as have precious stones. It is probable that the same subtle lure of a beautiful gem, which even the most matter-of-fact man or woman knows, led Adam and Eve, when the world was young, while they inhabited the Garden of Eden, when not busy with its fruits, to gather certain bright pebbles, which saved and prized, became the first precious stones of history.
As far back toward this date as written accounts take us, we find jewels playing an important part in the history of the world. There were the twelve stones, each the symbol of a tribe of Israel; also the twelve stones of the High Priest’s breast-plate. In Ezekiel, the covering of the King of Tyre was described as containing nine precious stones. Each of the Apostles was associated with a precious stone. In Revelation, John describes twelve precious stones in connection with the Heavenly City. The histories of Egypt. Greece, and Rome, and more modern countries, often refer to some important crown jewel, or otherwise famous gem.
Few things that man has made use of in his evolution from barbarity to civilization have so much of romance, superstition and fascination woven about them as have precious stones. It is probable that the same subtle lure of a beautiful gem, which even the most matter-of-fact man or woman knows, led Adam and Eve, when the world was young, while they inhabited the Garden of Eden, when not busy with its fruits, to gather certain bright pebbles, which saved and prized, became the first precious stones of history.
As far back toward this date as written accounts take us, we find jewels playing an important part in the history of the world. There were the twelve stones, each the symbol of a tribe of Israel; also the twelve stones of the High Priest’s breast-plate. In Ezekiel, the covering of the King of Tyre was described as containing nine precious stones. Each of the Apostles was associated with a precious stone. In Revelation, John describes twelve precious stones in connection with the Heavenly City. The histories of Egypt. Greece, and Rome, and more modern countries, often refer to some important crown jewel, or otherwise famous gem.
The Rise Of French Painting
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Lancret, who lived on till 1743, continued Watteau’s Italian comedy manner, and had considerable success with his theatrical portraits, two of which are in the Wallace Collections. He is seen at his best in the portrait of an actress known as ‘La Belle Grecque’, which has a vivacious charm of its own and is full of life. The pose of the figure is particularly happy and conveys admirably a sense of movement. But while they could imitate more or less cleverly the superficial appearance of Watteau’s pictures, neither Lancret nor Pater were able to give their paintings that undercurrent of pathos which lifts Watteau’s work high above the trivial.
Only a very superficial observer of Watteau’s pictures would accuse him of being a painter of frivolities, a chronicler of picnics. Watteau lived in an artificial age, and being a true artist he could not help reflecting something of its artificiality. The French Court life of his day had the splendor of autumn leaves about to fall. Watteau, himself a dainty rose with canker in the bud, shows us the hectic charm of a civilization already being consumed by mortal malady; but his honesty and intellectual insight prevented him from pretending that the happiness of his puppets was anything more than a passing moment of self-deception. His pictures haunt us, not because of their gaiety, but by reason of their gentle, uncomplaining melancholy; and the late Sir Frederick Wedmore penetrated to the secret of Watteau when he laid stress on ‘the reflective pathos, the poignant melancholy, which are among the most appealing gifts of him who was accounted the master of the frivolous, of the monotonously gay.’
Watteau is unique in his qualities of drawing and color. There have been many painters who were great draughtsmen, and a number of painters who have been great colorists; but those who were supreme both in drawing and color we can count on the fingers of one hand. Watteau is among them. If we look at the little figures in a typical Watteau like ‘The Conversation’, we perceive that the drawing rivals that of Raphael in its perfection of form and that of Rembrandt in its expressiveness. Watteau’s powers of drawing many be studied still further in his chalk drawings in the British Museum Print Room.
As for his paint, hardly among his predecessors will you find anything so exquisite in color and so jewel-like in quality. The brightness of his palette, and the little touches with which he laid on his color, make his pictures vibrate and sing as those of no other artist had done before. Watteau was not only a great master; he was one of those pioneer artists whose original research and brilliant achievements have given a new impetus to the art of painting.
The Rise Of French Painting (continued)
Lancret, who lived on till 1743, continued Watteau’s Italian comedy manner, and had considerable success with his theatrical portraits, two of which are in the Wallace Collections. He is seen at his best in the portrait of an actress known as ‘La Belle Grecque’, which has a vivacious charm of its own and is full of life. The pose of the figure is particularly happy and conveys admirably a sense of movement. But while they could imitate more or less cleverly the superficial appearance of Watteau’s pictures, neither Lancret nor Pater were able to give their paintings that undercurrent of pathos which lifts Watteau’s work high above the trivial.
Only a very superficial observer of Watteau’s pictures would accuse him of being a painter of frivolities, a chronicler of picnics. Watteau lived in an artificial age, and being a true artist he could not help reflecting something of its artificiality. The French Court life of his day had the splendor of autumn leaves about to fall. Watteau, himself a dainty rose with canker in the bud, shows us the hectic charm of a civilization already being consumed by mortal malady; but his honesty and intellectual insight prevented him from pretending that the happiness of his puppets was anything more than a passing moment of self-deception. His pictures haunt us, not because of their gaiety, but by reason of their gentle, uncomplaining melancholy; and the late Sir Frederick Wedmore penetrated to the secret of Watteau when he laid stress on ‘the reflective pathos, the poignant melancholy, which are among the most appealing gifts of him who was accounted the master of the frivolous, of the monotonously gay.’
Watteau is unique in his qualities of drawing and color. There have been many painters who were great draughtsmen, and a number of painters who have been great colorists; but those who were supreme both in drawing and color we can count on the fingers of one hand. Watteau is among them. If we look at the little figures in a typical Watteau like ‘The Conversation’, we perceive that the drawing rivals that of Raphael in its perfection of form and that of Rembrandt in its expressiveness. Watteau’s powers of drawing many be studied still further in his chalk drawings in the British Museum Print Room.
As for his paint, hardly among his predecessors will you find anything so exquisite in color and so jewel-like in quality. The brightness of his palette, and the little touches with which he laid on his color, make his pictures vibrate and sing as those of no other artist had done before. Watteau was not only a great master; he was one of those pioneer artists whose original research and brilliant achievements have given a new impetus to the art of painting.
The Rise Of French Painting (continued)
A Diamond-based Computer
Physicists at Harvard University have shown that diamonds can be used to create stable quantum computing building blocks at room temperature + the goal is a quantum supercomputer that could be much faster and more powerful than anything available with conventional electronics. Here is a link to the abstract.
Tavalite Enhanced Gemstones
Here is what Tavalite’s site @ http://www.tavalite.com/category_s/17.htm says about treated stones.
Sevan Bicakci
Turkish designer Sevan Bicakci rose to fame when he won Town & Country Couture Design awards in 2006 and 2007 + he is renowned for creating difficult to replicate unique designs that represent the beauty of Turkey + he describes his jewelery: 'Byzantine emperor or the Ottoman sultan meets Alice in Wonderland.'
Useful link:
www.sevanbicakci.com
Useful link:
www.sevanbicakci.com
First Books
Economist writes about the auction trade’s busiest bookseller: Bloomsbury Auctions + collector’s dedication + other viewpoints @ http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/artview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10518600
Useful link:
www.bloomsburyauctions.com
Useful link:
www.bloomsburyauctions.com
Unique Gifts For George Bush
Here is an interesting story from the Middle East: In Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed presented George Bush with a necklace consisting of a number of increasingly large solid gold stars encrusted with scores of diamonds + rubies + emeralds + Saudi Arabia went even further with a jewel-laden gold medallion dangling from a chain encrusted with rubies + emeralds + other viewpoints @ http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1703515,00.html
Swing Time
Swing Time (1936)
Directed by: George Stevens
Screenplay: Erwin S. Gelsey, Howard Lindsay, Allan Scott
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers
(via YouTube): Swing Time - Rogers and Astaire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxPgplMujzQ
Swing Time Trailer (1936)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNOMw2W-o8o
The musical + those dances + Astaire's grace + that otherness makes the film so natural.
Directed by: George Stevens
Screenplay: Erwin S. Gelsey, Howard Lindsay, Allan Scott
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers
(via YouTube): Swing Time - Rogers and Astaire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxPgplMujzQ
Swing Time Trailer (1936)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNOMw2W-o8o
The musical + those dances + Astaire's grace + that otherness makes the film so natural.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
A Modern Double Rosette
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Few Diamond Rosettes have been preserved, but I have managed to examine most of the surviving examples in great detail. The one in the pendant kept in the Grϋnes Gewölbe in Dresden was exhibited in Helsinki in the late 1960s, and inspired a large reproduction—12cm in diameter—in acrylic plastic. This reproduction was symmetrized according to what seemed, from a study of most of the surviving Double Rosettes, to be ideal proportions. It was then sent to a skilled cutter of fancy shapes, who was asked to produce the necessary components in high grade, precision cut diamonds.
Various problems faced the cutter. The first was to find enough flawless fine white rough in the right sizes and shapes. The cutter then had to find the grain in each little piece, and if the grain turned out to be unsuitable, the piece had to be rejected and a new piece found. It took six months for the job to be completed. The finished diamonds, together with a large bill, were accompanied by a firm refusal ever to repeat the task. To avoid tarnishing the metal and to enable the diamonds to be kept clean with a small brush and suitable fluid, it was decided to make the mounting of platinum and the setting open. The work of setting the stone proved to be immensely difficult and took a highly skilled and experienced master setter a whole week. How much simpler it must have been when the diamonds were first set in a bed of pitch!
The light effects of this diamond Rosette are spectacular, because the gems are clean. It seems that the reason that the slightest soiling ruins the extraordinary and subtle beauty of a diamond Rosette is because the crown and pavilion angles are so near the critical angles for reflection and refraction. When the experiment was made of soiling the stones of this jewel with grease and dirt, the magnificent light effects were almost completely lost.
From the models in acrylic plastic it can be seen how the narrow central facets of the lozenge-shaped components could be mistaken for fissures between the stones. Mielich and other artists may have been misled in this way into depicting Double Rosettes with one shape of stone only. They also often confused light and shadow. In fact, they not infrequently depicted cuts which, for one reason or another, could not possibly have existed. In his book, Gregorietti reproduces a detail of Lucrezia Panciatichi’s pendant containing a ten-petalled Rosette. The artist, Agnolo Bronzino, has made the same mistake as Mielich, since this must have been a Double Rosette with twenty stones—ten each of two different cuts.
Few Diamond Rosettes have been preserved, but I have managed to examine most of the surviving examples in great detail. The one in the pendant kept in the Grϋnes Gewölbe in Dresden was exhibited in Helsinki in the late 1960s, and inspired a large reproduction—12cm in diameter—in acrylic plastic. This reproduction was symmetrized according to what seemed, from a study of most of the surviving Double Rosettes, to be ideal proportions. It was then sent to a skilled cutter of fancy shapes, who was asked to produce the necessary components in high grade, precision cut diamonds.
Various problems faced the cutter. The first was to find enough flawless fine white rough in the right sizes and shapes. The cutter then had to find the grain in each little piece, and if the grain turned out to be unsuitable, the piece had to be rejected and a new piece found. It took six months for the job to be completed. The finished diamonds, together with a large bill, were accompanied by a firm refusal ever to repeat the task. To avoid tarnishing the metal and to enable the diamonds to be kept clean with a small brush and suitable fluid, it was decided to make the mounting of platinum and the setting open. The work of setting the stone proved to be immensely difficult and took a highly skilled and experienced master setter a whole week. How much simpler it must have been when the diamonds were first set in a bed of pitch!
The light effects of this diamond Rosette are spectacular, because the gems are clean. It seems that the reason that the slightest soiling ruins the extraordinary and subtle beauty of a diamond Rosette is because the crown and pavilion angles are so near the critical angles for reflection and refraction. When the experiment was made of soiling the stones of this jewel with grease and dirt, the magnificent light effects were almost completely lost.
From the models in acrylic plastic it can be seen how the narrow central facets of the lozenge-shaped components could be mistaken for fissures between the stones. Mielich and other artists may have been misled in this way into depicting Double Rosettes with one shape of stone only. They also often confused light and shadow. In fact, they not infrequently depicted cuts which, for one reason or another, could not possibly have existed. In his book, Gregorietti reproduces a detail of Lucrezia Panciatichi’s pendant containing a ten-petalled Rosette. The artist, Agnolo Bronzino, has made the same mistake as Mielich, since this must have been a Double Rosette with twenty stones—ten each of two different cuts.
Jewelers Of Phoenicia And Greece
(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:
3. Cameo Portraits
In Alexander’s reign there appeared the first true cameo, but not until later, during the supremacy of Rome, did this type of gem cutting gain the popularity which at various periods it has held since then, sometimes rising to prominence in the world of fashion, sometimes almost forgotten by it.
The cameo, which has been called a great technical innovation, is the reverse of an intaglio. The design, instead of being hollowed out so that it lies below the surface of the stone, is carved in relief—that is, it rounds above its background like a miniature bas-relief. It could not be used as a seal but was purely ornamental. Cameos were cut not only in sardonyx—the design carved in the upper white layer of the stone with its underlying red-brown layer serving as a background—but they were frequently cut in stones of a single color, such as sard, and even the transparent garnet, peridot, ruby and, more rarely, emerald.
Portraiture, in ancient Egypt, had been carried to a high point, but it was the sculptor not the lapidary who was called upon to make likeness in stone. In Greece, the engraver of gems at first depicted gods and goddesses, often full-length figures, but never portraits of real people. During the reign of Alexander, however, the engraver of gems ventured into the field of portraiture. Trained to portray the surpassing beauty of the gods, he perhaps found it difficult, in the beginning, to relinquish the ideals of proportion and contour required in deities. At any rate, his first efforts at human portraiture were rather too godlike to be good likeness. One looks upon those all too perfect Greek profiles with some doubt as to their truth. It took many years and the fall of Greece to bring gem portraiture down to the hard facts of realism.
The young Alexander was a beautiful youth—a fact fully appreciated by himself. And when, in due course, his beard began to grown he refused to allow the classic contours of cheek and chin to be thus hidden from view, so he shaved, and thereby set a fashion in Greece and Italy which lasted hundreds of years. Although he lived to the age of thirty-three his portraits on coins and gems always show him as an ageless, beardless youth.
His ‘engraver in ordinary’ was Pyrgoyteles—he alone was permitted to cut the royal likeness. ‘If any other artist should be discovered to have cut the most sacred image of the sovereign, the same punishment should be inflicted upon him as was appointed for sacrilege.’
After the death of Alexander, the gem cutter, no longer forbidden to ‘cut the most sacred image of the sovereign,’ engraved many stones with the divine profile. They were for the most part deep cut intaglios. In spite of the fact that cameo cutting was especially suited to portraiture, intaglios long continued to outnumber cameos. The great popularity of the little gems bearing the portrait of Alexander is believed to have originated in the idea that since he had been such a favorite of fortune his likeness on a precious stone must bring good luck to its owner.
In the period between the death of Alexander and the conquest of the East by Rome, the work of the Greek goldsmith underwent great changes. Gems from far places were now at the disposal of the jewelry maker. Precious stones traveled in company with ginger, pepper, and Chinese cinnamon up the Persian Gulf in galleys and then across the Arabian desert on camel back to the many Mediterranean ports which were a part of the Hellenistic world. Now, for the first time, was introduced the true topaz, the color clear, yellow wine; also the amethyst, long known in Egypt but new to the Greeks; and there was a new stone so exactly the color of sea water that it was said to become invisible if submerged in it, so transparent was the gem—hence its name, ‘aquamarine’. Another new stone was the Syrian garnet, deep red purple in color; and since it was a soft stone it was very popular with the engraver. He gave it a flat base and a strongly convex top, and on this arched surface he engraved figures and portraits.
In its new form the ring stone retained only a trace of the original scarab shape. Any transparent red stone cut in this manner was known as ‘carbuncle.’ Today, only one stone is referred to as a carbuncle and that is a fine garnet cut, as the French say, en cabochon. Large carbuncles were mounted in large rings which were hollow shells, not solid bands of gold.
Rings, necklaces, bracelets and other products of the jewelry shop were an important item of Greek export trade, and Italy was one of the chief trade centers. But all too soon, from the standpoint of Greece, Italy’s position shifted from that of customer to that of master. The Greek craftsman became the Roman slave. Fortunately, however, he was still permitted to make fine jewelry.
3. Cameo Portraits
In Alexander’s reign there appeared the first true cameo, but not until later, during the supremacy of Rome, did this type of gem cutting gain the popularity which at various periods it has held since then, sometimes rising to prominence in the world of fashion, sometimes almost forgotten by it.
The cameo, which has been called a great technical innovation, is the reverse of an intaglio. The design, instead of being hollowed out so that it lies below the surface of the stone, is carved in relief—that is, it rounds above its background like a miniature bas-relief. It could not be used as a seal but was purely ornamental. Cameos were cut not only in sardonyx—the design carved in the upper white layer of the stone with its underlying red-brown layer serving as a background—but they were frequently cut in stones of a single color, such as sard, and even the transparent garnet, peridot, ruby and, more rarely, emerald.
Portraiture, in ancient Egypt, had been carried to a high point, but it was the sculptor not the lapidary who was called upon to make likeness in stone. In Greece, the engraver of gems at first depicted gods and goddesses, often full-length figures, but never portraits of real people. During the reign of Alexander, however, the engraver of gems ventured into the field of portraiture. Trained to portray the surpassing beauty of the gods, he perhaps found it difficult, in the beginning, to relinquish the ideals of proportion and contour required in deities. At any rate, his first efforts at human portraiture were rather too godlike to be good likeness. One looks upon those all too perfect Greek profiles with some doubt as to their truth. It took many years and the fall of Greece to bring gem portraiture down to the hard facts of realism.
The young Alexander was a beautiful youth—a fact fully appreciated by himself. And when, in due course, his beard began to grown he refused to allow the classic contours of cheek and chin to be thus hidden from view, so he shaved, and thereby set a fashion in Greece and Italy which lasted hundreds of years. Although he lived to the age of thirty-three his portraits on coins and gems always show him as an ageless, beardless youth.
His ‘engraver in ordinary’ was Pyrgoyteles—he alone was permitted to cut the royal likeness. ‘If any other artist should be discovered to have cut the most sacred image of the sovereign, the same punishment should be inflicted upon him as was appointed for sacrilege.’
After the death of Alexander, the gem cutter, no longer forbidden to ‘cut the most sacred image of the sovereign,’ engraved many stones with the divine profile. They were for the most part deep cut intaglios. In spite of the fact that cameo cutting was especially suited to portraiture, intaglios long continued to outnumber cameos. The great popularity of the little gems bearing the portrait of Alexander is believed to have originated in the idea that since he had been such a favorite of fortune his likeness on a precious stone must bring good luck to its owner.
In the period between the death of Alexander and the conquest of the East by Rome, the work of the Greek goldsmith underwent great changes. Gems from far places were now at the disposal of the jewelry maker. Precious stones traveled in company with ginger, pepper, and Chinese cinnamon up the Persian Gulf in galleys and then across the Arabian desert on camel back to the many Mediterranean ports which were a part of the Hellenistic world. Now, for the first time, was introduced the true topaz, the color clear, yellow wine; also the amethyst, long known in Egypt but new to the Greeks; and there was a new stone so exactly the color of sea water that it was said to become invisible if submerged in it, so transparent was the gem—hence its name, ‘aquamarine’. Another new stone was the Syrian garnet, deep red purple in color; and since it was a soft stone it was very popular with the engraver. He gave it a flat base and a strongly convex top, and on this arched surface he engraved figures and portraits.
In its new form the ring stone retained only a trace of the original scarab shape. Any transparent red stone cut in this manner was known as ‘carbuncle.’ Today, only one stone is referred to as a carbuncle and that is a fine garnet cut, as the French say, en cabochon. Large carbuncles were mounted in large rings which were hollow shells, not solid bands of gold.
Rings, necklaces, bracelets and other products of the jewelry shop were an important item of Greek export trade, and Italy was one of the chief trade centers. But all too soon, from the standpoint of Greece, Italy’s position shifted from that of customer to that of master. The Greek craftsman became the Roman slave. Fortunately, however, he was still permitted to make fine jewelry.
The Cutting And Polishing Of Gems
Albert Ramsay (Albert Ramsay & Co, 1925) writes:
The art of cutting precious stones can be traced back through the centuries. In 1285 a guild of gem cutters existed in Paris; about a century later there were lapidaries at work in Nuremburg and it is likely that the craft was followed long before this time. To Ludwig Van Berguen, of Bruges, is given the credit of first cutting diamonds with a symmetrical arrangement of facets. This was about 1460.
It is difficult to get precise information concerning the tools of the early gem cutters, but inasmuch as those of modern lapidaries are so very simple, it is probable that there has been little change in the instruments used in the trade. But while few changes mark the equipment of the modern lapidary, yet great strides have been taken toward greater skill and finesse on the part of the workers in the craft and the display of judgment that makes for getting the utmost in beauty and value from the rough gems.
In no other craft is the mental quality of judgment as important as in that of the lapidary. In the cutting of a valuable gem from the rough stone the slightest error in judgment may mean a vast difference in the beauty of the finished gem and a difference of many dollars in its value. Next to judgment the qualities that are of value in a lapidary are experience and skill and a trained delicacy of touch.
It will be interesting to the buyer of gems to know the routine of carrying the rough stone through the various processes that finally produce the finished polished gem as it is found at the jewelers. It may be well to explain here that the cutting and polishing of diamonds is a special craft—the lapidary who works in diamonds seldom concerns himself with other gems. It is also interesting to know that with the diamond to obtain brilliancy is the prime requisite, while with most other gems the matter of color is given precedence and brilliancy is a subservient quality.
The cutting and polishing of the diamond is very largely a mechanical, mathematical application of pressure and friction, while most other gems are manipulated with a human delicacy of touch and a perfection of technique which constitute the whole secret of success in gem cutting. The cutter of gems other than the diamond has a license for following his own ideas and he may alter or modify the cutting to bring out the peculiarities of any stone and depart as far as he wishes from the conventional. I shall describe here the various processes through which a rough gem stone passes.
The best judgment of the lapidary is called into play in his first consideration of the rough stone, for it is here that his experience and wisdom provides for getting the greatest measure of beauty and value from the uncut gem, and for minimizing waste and loss of weight. After passing upon the characteristic of a rough stone and deciding upon the method of getting the most from it, the lapidary, if the gem requires it, then puts it through the process known as ‘slitting,’ should this be required.
This process of dividing the rough stone is accomplished by holding it against the edge of a thin metal circular revolving plate. The biting edge of this plate is due to the diamond dust which it contains. The delicate operation of ‘slitting’ provides pieces of the stone in suitable sizes for further working. If the gem is to be faceted it is then further fashioned toward the shape it is destined to assume on a flat, horizontal or vertical revolving wheel. In order to facilitate handling each individual gem is then mounted with cement on the end of a tiny holder of wood. This holder looks very much like the ordinary pen holder. In this operation the extreme of judgment is required and considerable latitude is given the operator that he may bring out the individual characteristics and beauty of each gem.
After the faceting is complete the gem is still dull, colorless and uninteresting, and is now passed on to the polisher, whose work is to bring the utmost in brilliance and color to the surface of the gem. The polisher is usually a man who has no other connection with the gem than in polishing the work of the cutter. The work of the polisher is more mechanical than that of the cutter, but it is work of great delicacy nevertheless. The polisher must brighten and polish the facets, but in no way must he enlarge the tables or change the angles of the gem as designed by the cutter. The gem in the hands of the polisher may bring to light a number of faults—a tiny flaw may grow larger, an edge or angle may chip or a vein prove troublesome, and it requires a real craftsman, an operator with an exquisite nicety of touch, a man of infinite patience to carry the work of the cutter to completion and to do it with the least investment of time.
The discs used in polishing are similar to those used in cutting, except that instead of using an abrasive substance on the surface a variety of polishing materials, such as Tripoli or Rotten Stone is used. The discs used in both cutting and polishing are made of various materials, depending upon the peculiarities and hardness of the gem being handled. They are made of iron, brass, copper, lead, gun metal, bell metal, tin, pewter, etc. For polishing cabochon gems vertical wheels of copper, iron, wood, leather and felt are also used.
The art of cutting precious stones can be traced back through the centuries. In 1285 a guild of gem cutters existed in Paris; about a century later there were lapidaries at work in Nuremburg and it is likely that the craft was followed long before this time. To Ludwig Van Berguen, of Bruges, is given the credit of first cutting diamonds with a symmetrical arrangement of facets. This was about 1460.
It is difficult to get precise information concerning the tools of the early gem cutters, but inasmuch as those of modern lapidaries are so very simple, it is probable that there has been little change in the instruments used in the trade. But while few changes mark the equipment of the modern lapidary, yet great strides have been taken toward greater skill and finesse on the part of the workers in the craft and the display of judgment that makes for getting the utmost in beauty and value from the rough gems.
In no other craft is the mental quality of judgment as important as in that of the lapidary. In the cutting of a valuable gem from the rough stone the slightest error in judgment may mean a vast difference in the beauty of the finished gem and a difference of many dollars in its value. Next to judgment the qualities that are of value in a lapidary are experience and skill and a trained delicacy of touch.
It will be interesting to the buyer of gems to know the routine of carrying the rough stone through the various processes that finally produce the finished polished gem as it is found at the jewelers. It may be well to explain here that the cutting and polishing of diamonds is a special craft—the lapidary who works in diamonds seldom concerns himself with other gems. It is also interesting to know that with the diamond to obtain brilliancy is the prime requisite, while with most other gems the matter of color is given precedence and brilliancy is a subservient quality.
The cutting and polishing of the diamond is very largely a mechanical, mathematical application of pressure and friction, while most other gems are manipulated with a human delicacy of touch and a perfection of technique which constitute the whole secret of success in gem cutting. The cutter of gems other than the diamond has a license for following his own ideas and he may alter or modify the cutting to bring out the peculiarities of any stone and depart as far as he wishes from the conventional. I shall describe here the various processes through which a rough gem stone passes.
The best judgment of the lapidary is called into play in his first consideration of the rough stone, for it is here that his experience and wisdom provides for getting the greatest measure of beauty and value from the uncut gem, and for minimizing waste and loss of weight. After passing upon the characteristic of a rough stone and deciding upon the method of getting the most from it, the lapidary, if the gem requires it, then puts it through the process known as ‘slitting,’ should this be required.
This process of dividing the rough stone is accomplished by holding it against the edge of a thin metal circular revolving plate. The biting edge of this plate is due to the diamond dust which it contains. The delicate operation of ‘slitting’ provides pieces of the stone in suitable sizes for further working. If the gem is to be faceted it is then further fashioned toward the shape it is destined to assume on a flat, horizontal or vertical revolving wheel. In order to facilitate handling each individual gem is then mounted with cement on the end of a tiny holder of wood. This holder looks very much like the ordinary pen holder. In this operation the extreme of judgment is required and considerable latitude is given the operator that he may bring out the individual characteristics and beauty of each gem.
After the faceting is complete the gem is still dull, colorless and uninteresting, and is now passed on to the polisher, whose work is to bring the utmost in brilliance and color to the surface of the gem. The polisher is usually a man who has no other connection with the gem than in polishing the work of the cutter. The work of the polisher is more mechanical than that of the cutter, but it is work of great delicacy nevertheless. The polisher must brighten and polish the facets, but in no way must he enlarge the tables or change the angles of the gem as designed by the cutter. The gem in the hands of the polisher may bring to light a number of faults—a tiny flaw may grow larger, an edge or angle may chip or a vein prove troublesome, and it requires a real craftsman, an operator with an exquisite nicety of touch, a man of infinite patience to carry the work of the cutter to completion and to do it with the least investment of time.
The discs used in polishing are similar to those used in cutting, except that instead of using an abrasive substance on the surface a variety of polishing materials, such as Tripoli or Rotten Stone is used. The discs used in both cutting and polishing are made of various materials, depending upon the peculiarities and hardness of the gem being handled. They are made of iron, brass, copper, lead, gun metal, bell metal, tin, pewter, etc. For polishing cabochon gems vertical wheels of copper, iron, wood, leather and felt are also used.
The Rise Of French Painting
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
It was on August 28, 1717, that Watteau was definitely admitted to the Academy. All successful candidates are required to deposit a diploma work after their election, and it was for this purpose that Watteau eventually painted his famous masterpiece, ‘L’Embarquement pour Cynthére,’ which is now in the Louvre. In this poetically conceived picture, which shows a crowd of gallant youths and fair maidens about to embark for the legendary isle of perfect love, Watteau revealed a science of color harmony which was one hundred and fifty years ahead of his day. He had already excited the admiration of his contemporaries by a method of painting which was as successful as it was original. He would cover his canvas copiously and, to all appearance, vaguely with a thick layer of pigment, and on this he would proceed, so to speak, to chisel out his detail. Figures, sky, and landscape background were then built up by a series of minute touches, which gave his pictures a peculiarly vibrating and scintillating effect. His division of tone and his wonderful orchestration of complementary colors make Watteau a forerunner of the prismatic coloring of the more scientific painters of the nineteenth century.
Unfortunately he was not destined to enjoy long the fame and fortune which now awaited him. The privation and hardship of his early manhood had undermined his always frail constitution and left him a prey to phthisis.
As if he knew the end was approaching, he worked feverishly during his last years. For a time he lived with a wealthy collector named Crozat, for whose dining room he painted a set of ‘The Four Seasons.’ Though very comfortable at M Crozat’s house, which was filled with precious things and with paintings and drawings by old masters he admired, a desire for more complete independence led Watteau to leave it and live with his friend Vleughels, who afterwards became Principal of the Academy at Rome. In 1718 he left Vleughels, and shut himself up in a small apartment alone with his dreams and his illness, displaying then that craving for solitude which is said to be one of the symptoms of phthisis. Later somebody having spoken well of England, he suddenly had an almost morbid longing to cross the Channel.
In 1719 he came to London, where he painted and had some success, till the climate made him ill and unable to work. He returned to France more exhausted and weaker in health than he had ever been before, but slightly recovered during a six month’s stay with his friend, the art dealer Gersaint, for whom he painted a sign, an exquisitely finished interior with figures, in the short space of eight mornings—he was still so weak that he could only paint half the day. Then, hoping that he might recover his strength in the country, a house at Nogent was lent to him, but there his health rapidly declined and he gave himself up to religion, his last picture being a Crucifixion for the curate of the parish. Still pathetically hopeful that change of air might do him good, he begged his friend Gersaint to make arrangements for him to journey to Valenciennes. But while waiting for strength to move to his native town the end came, and on July 18, 1721, he died suddenly in Gersaint’s arms. He was only thirty seven years old.
The real sweetness and generosity of Watteau’s nature is well illustrated by a touching incident during the last months of his life.His pupil Jean Pater (1696-1736) had offended him, as Lancret had also done, by imitating his own style and subjects too closely, and in a fit of ill-temper he dismissed him from his studio. But during his last illness Watteau remembered how he had suffered in his youth from the jealousy of his seniors, and he reproached himself with having been unjust as well as unkind to Pater. He besought his friend Gersaint to persuade Pater to return to him, and when the latter arrived the dying man spent a month giving Pater all the help and guidance that he could in order to atone for his former injustice.
Pater, though possessed of less individuality than Lancret, was in many respects the best of Watteau’s followers, and, like his master, he also died young. He was haunted by a fear that he would become old and helpless before he had saved enough to live upon, and he worked so incessantly and feverishly to gain his independence that eventually his health broke down and he died in harness at forty.
The Rise Of French Painting (continued)
It was on August 28, 1717, that Watteau was definitely admitted to the Academy. All successful candidates are required to deposit a diploma work after their election, and it was for this purpose that Watteau eventually painted his famous masterpiece, ‘L’Embarquement pour Cynthére,’ which is now in the Louvre. In this poetically conceived picture, which shows a crowd of gallant youths and fair maidens about to embark for the legendary isle of perfect love, Watteau revealed a science of color harmony which was one hundred and fifty years ahead of his day. He had already excited the admiration of his contemporaries by a method of painting which was as successful as it was original. He would cover his canvas copiously and, to all appearance, vaguely with a thick layer of pigment, and on this he would proceed, so to speak, to chisel out his detail. Figures, sky, and landscape background were then built up by a series of minute touches, which gave his pictures a peculiarly vibrating and scintillating effect. His division of tone and his wonderful orchestration of complementary colors make Watteau a forerunner of the prismatic coloring of the more scientific painters of the nineteenth century.
Unfortunately he was not destined to enjoy long the fame and fortune which now awaited him. The privation and hardship of his early manhood had undermined his always frail constitution and left him a prey to phthisis.
As if he knew the end was approaching, he worked feverishly during his last years. For a time he lived with a wealthy collector named Crozat, for whose dining room he painted a set of ‘The Four Seasons.’ Though very comfortable at M Crozat’s house, which was filled with precious things and with paintings and drawings by old masters he admired, a desire for more complete independence led Watteau to leave it and live with his friend Vleughels, who afterwards became Principal of the Academy at Rome. In 1718 he left Vleughels, and shut himself up in a small apartment alone with his dreams and his illness, displaying then that craving for solitude which is said to be one of the symptoms of phthisis. Later somebody having spoken well of England, he suddenly had an almost morbid longing to cross the Channel.
In 1719 he came to London, where he painted and had some success, till the climate made him ill and unable to work. He returned to France more exhausted and weaker in health than he had ever been before, but slightly recovered during a six month’s stay with his friend, the art dealer Gersaint, for whom he painted a sign, an exquisitely finished interior with figures, in the short space of eight mornings—he was still so weak that he could only paint half the day. Then, hoping that he might recover his strength in the country, a house at Nogent was lent to him, but there his health rapidly declined and he gave himself up to religion, his last picture being a Crucifixion for the curate of the parish. Still pathetically hopeful that change of air might do him good, he begged his friend Gersaint to make arrangements for him to journey to Valenciennes. But while waiting for strength to move to his native town the end came, and on July 18, 1721, he died suddenly in Gersaint’s arms. He was only thirty seven years old.
The real sweetness and generosity of Watteau’s nature is well illustrated by a touching incident during the last months of his life.His pupil Jean Pater (1696-1736) had offended him, as Lancret had also done, by imitating his own style and subjects too closely, and in a fit of ill-temper he dismissed him from his studio. But during his last illness Watteau remembered how he had suffered in his youth from the jealousy of his seniors, and he reproached himself with having been unjust as well as unkind to Pater. He besought his friend Gersaint to persuade Pater to return to him, and when the latter arrived the dying man spent a month giving Pater all the help and guidance that he could in order to atone for his former injustice.
Pater, though possessed of less individuality than Lancret, was in many respects the best of Watteau’s followers, and, like his master, he also died young. He was haunted by a fear that he would become old and helpless before he had saved enough to live upon, and he worked so incessantly and feverishly to gain his independence that eventually his health broke down and he died in harness at forty.
The Rise Of French Painting (continued)
Gamble
The American Heritage Dictionary lists the following four options for the definition of the word gamble:
1. To bet on an uncertain outcome, as of a contest.
2. To play a game of chance for stakes.
3. To take a risk in the hope of gaining an advantage or a benefit.
4. To engage in reckless or hazardous behavior: You are gambling with your health by continuing to smoke.
Can gambling only be done in a casino, online or otherwise? Why is it that no one considers entrepreneurs gamblers? I think there is a big gray area + gamblers could be perceived as willing losers who occasionally win.
I think the concept could be applicable to gem business. I know many who are engaged in the pursuit of speculative profits who, by their own lack of skill are really gambling + they are knowingly trading gemstones without an identifiable edge.
1. To bet on an uncertain outcome, as of a contest.
2. To play a game of chance for stakes.
3. To take a risk in the hope of gaining an advantage or a benefit.
4. To engage in reckless or hazardous behavior: You are gambling with your health by continuing to smoke.
Can gambling only be done in a casino, online or otherwise? Why is it that no one considers entrepreneurs gamblers? I think there is a big gray area + gamblers could be perceived as willing losers who occasionally win.
I think the concept could be applicable to gem business. I know many who are engaged in the pursuit of speculative profits who, by their own lack of skill are really gambling + they are knowingly trading gemstones without an identifiable edge.
Wine Appreciation
(via BBC) Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have shown that a person's enjoyment of wine can be heightened if they are simply told that it is an expensive one + researchers also managed to pass off a $90 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon as a $10 bottle and presented a $5 as one worth $45 + the volunteers' brains were scanned to monitor the neural activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex - the area of the brain associated with decision-making and pleasure in terms of flavour + higher ratings were given to the more 'expensive' wines + according to Oliver Johnson, CEO of the UK-based Wine Society, the volunteers appeared to have been associating the price of the wine with prestige + they were expecting it to be a good vintage, with a good label, even though they didn't have that information + Johnson says this response was common with certain prestige products such as clothing, cars and, nowadays, handbags + other viewpoints @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7187577.stm
It's amazing + I think it could be applicable to the gem and jewelry sector.
It's amazing + I think it could be applicable to the gem and jewelry sector.
Serpentine From Liaoning Province, China
Chinese serpentine (s) have been appearing on the jewelry markets of Russia and the Far East for some time + they are convincing simulants (imitations) for nephrite or jadeite.
Chinese serpentines are found in the provinces of Sichuan, Quinghai, Shenxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning + China has the world’s largest chrysotile-asbestos deposit in Shimian, Ya’an prefecture, in Sichuan province + popular serpentine varieties include retinolite + williamsite + bowenite + green marble + they are used for interior decoration + sculpture + cabochons + beads + gemstones.
Standard gemological tests should easily identify the specimens, but if in doubt always consult a reputed gem testing laboratory.
Chinese serpentines are found in the provinces of Sichuan, Quinghai, Shenxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning + China has the world’s largest chrysotile-asbestos deposit in Shimian, Ya’an prefecture, in Sichuan province + popular serpentine varieties include retinolite + williamsite + bowenite + green marble + they are used for interior decoration + sculpture + cabochons + beads + gemstones.
Standard gemological tests should easily identify the specimens, but if in doubt always consult a reputed gem testing laboratory.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The Mona Lisa Smile
Dr. Armin Schlechter, a manuscript expert believes the centuries-old mystery behind the identity of the ‘Mona Lisa’ in Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrait is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo + the experts at the Heidelberg University library say dated notes scribbled in the margins of a book by its owner in October 1503 confirm once and for all that Lisa del Giocondo was indeed the model for one of the most famous portraits in the world.
More info @ http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080114/wl_nm/germany_mona_lisa_dc
Theft Of The Mona Lisa
http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/mona_lisa/mmain.html
More info @ http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080114/wl_nm/germany_mona_lisa_dc
Theft Of The Mona Lisa
http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/mona_lisa/mmain.html
Green Quartz
Some amethysts from certain localities change the color to green when heat-treated under the right conditions. They are known as Prasiolite or Greened-Amethyst. They are inexpensive + frequently encountered in the gem market in all shapes and sizes. There are irradiation+ heat treated green amethysts in the market.
Synthetic green quartz are also available. Synthetic green quartz was reported in the United States in 1954. Its commercial production started in 1960, mostly in Russia. Bi-colored stones in yellow + green, and multi-color in purple + yellow + green were synthesized in 1955 + 1997 respectively. Today visual identification of green quartz is difficult. If in doubt always consult a reputed gem testing laboratory.
Synthetic green quartz are also available. Synthetic green quartz was reported in the United States in 1954. Its commercial production started in 1960, mostly in Russia. Bi-colored stones in yellow + green, and multi-color in purple + yellow + green were synthesized in 1955 + 1997 respectively. Today visual identification of green quartz is difficult. If in doubt always consult a reputed gem testing laboratory.
The Birth Of Plenty
The Birth Of Plenty : How The Prosperity Of The Modern World Was Created by William Bernstein is an interesting book that examines the nature, causes, and consequences of economic growth + other viewpoints.
Here is what the description of The Birth Of Plenty says (via Amazon):
In the breakthrough spirit of Against the Gods, William Bernstein's The Birth of Plenty has the topical uniqueness and storytelling panache to literally create its own category and reader. Based upon the premise that mankind experienced virtually zero economic growth from the dawn of time until 1820, this provocative, bigpicture book identifies the four conditions necessary for sustained economic progress--property rights, scientific rationalism, capital markets, and communications and transportation technology-- and then analyzes their gradual appearance and impact throughout every corner of the globe. Filled with bestselling author William Bernstein's trademark meticulous research and page-turning writing style, The Birth of Plenty explores:
- Where the world economy could be headed next
- Implications of the book's thesis for today's society
- How the absence of one or more of the conditions continues to threaten beleaguered regions
Rare is the book that proposes an entirely new premise, validates that premise with inarguable research and analysis, and then explains beyond question both the relevance and the implications of its premise to the reader and the world at large.
The Birth of Plenty is just such a book. From its unique, topical subject matter to its tremendous review potential, this insightful book will be one of the most talked-about volumes of the publishing season.
1st chapter free here
Here is what the description of The Birth Of Plenty says (via Amazon):
In the breakthrough spirit of Against the Gods, William Bernstein's The Birth of Plenty has the topical uniqueness and storytelling panache to literally create its own category and reader. Based upon the premise that mankind experienced virtually zero economic growth from the dawn of time until 1820, this provocative, bigpicture book identifies the four conditions necessary for sustained economic progress--property rights, scientific rationalism, capital markets, and communications and transportation technology-- and then analyzes their gradual appearance and impact throughout every corner of the globe. Filled with bestselling author William Bernstein's trademark meticulous research and page-turning writing style, The Birth of Plenty explores:
- Where the world economy could be headed next
- Implications of the book's thesis for today's society
- How the absence of one or more of the conditions continues to threaten beleaguered regions
Rare is the book that proposes an entirely new premise, validates that premise with inarguable research and analysis, and then explains beyond question both the relevance and the implications of its premise to the reader and the world at large.
The Birth of Plenty is just such a book. From its unique, topical subject matter to its tremendous review potential, this insightful book will be one of the most talked-about volumes of the publishing season.
1st chapter free here
Talk To Her
Talk To Her (2002)
Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
Screenplay: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Rosario Flores
(via YouTube): ALMODOVAR – Talk To Her – Hable Con Ella
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNdzcTZUW54
I think Almodóvar fashions a wondrous tale + it's a unique film.
Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
Screenplay: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Rosario Flores
(via YouTube): ALMODOVAR – Talk To Her – Hable Con Ella
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNdzcTZUW54
I think Almodóvar fashions a wondrous tale + it's a unique film.
Jewelers Of Phoenicia And Greece
(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:
In the meantime Greece had been forging ahead toward that high pinnacle of excellence in the arts which has made her achievements a standard for all time.
Little portrayal of jewelry is found in Greek statuary; the Greek sculptor loved too well the beauty of the human body unadorned by trinkets to break the pure line of arm or hand with a clutter of jewelry. But the flesh-and-blood ladies of Greece were not so austere in their taste; they wore crowns, diadems, earrings, bracelets, rings, pins for the hair, brooches and necklaces, whose elaborate workmanship can scarcely be described as denoting a love of simplicity.
Gold was wrought with the delicacy of fine lace and minute embroidery; and occasionally a gemstone, perhaps an emerald or garnet, or a touch of bright enamel, was introduced by way of color. The rich lady of that day did not, like her modern prototype, wear quantities of brilliant gems whose settings were subordinate to the stones. Her jewelry depended for its superb beauty on the artistry of the craftsman.
Particularly characteristic was the use of pendants; the Grecian lady was all ajangle with them. Her necklace might be composed of seventy-five or more tiny dangling vases, each ornamented with filigree and held to a band of woven chain by finer chains masked at the top by rosettes. Little vases of gold were typical of Greek jewelry; sometimes they were interspersed with golden flowers, or heads of animals. As for earrings, the jeweler outdid himself in fertile invention. He did not stop at earrings recognizable to us as such, but enlarged and embellished them with tiny images of the gods and series of ornamental pendants suspended by delicate chains until the weight of metal involved was too great to be supported by the ear. It is thought that these super earrings were fastened to the diadem and hung down over the ears, giving to the face the appearance of being set in gold like an exquisite cameo. With gold tassels at the ends of her girdle, gold ball-shaped buttons to fasten her dress at shoulder or neck and a row of thin gold plates to border her draperies, the lady of fashion could indeed be resplendent; but possibly she did not carry all this wealth of metal at one and the same time. However, her varied demands on the goldsmith kept him busy.
Athens was humming with the activities of the craftsmen—leather workers, potters, jewelers, and their assistants. Small workshops were enlarged, and guilds of skilled workers (forerunners of our present labor unions) were formed. This did not mean that the craft of jewelry making was divided into separate branches as it is today. An apprentice was still expected to learn from start to finish how to shape gold and engrave stones. In fact, a new task had by now been added to those already practised by the engraver of gems. In the seventh century B.C., when the more convenient custom of purchasing with money instead of by barter was introduced, it was the jeweler, already an adept in the cutting of intaglios, who cut the dies for stamping coins.
In the meantime Greece had been forging ahead toward that high pinnacle of excellence in the arts which has made her achievements a standard for all time.
Little portrayal of jewelry is found in Greek statuary; the Greek sculptor loved too well the beauty of the human body unadorned by trinkets to break the pure line of arm or hand with a clutter of jewelry. But the flesh-and-blood ladies of Greece were not so austere in their taste; they wore crowns, diadems, earrings, bracelets, rings, pins for the hair, brooches and necklaces, whose elaborate workmanship can scarcely be described as denoting a love of simplicity.
Gold was wrought with the delicacy of fine lace and minute embroidery; and occasionally a gemstone, perhaps an emerald or garnet, or a touch of bright enamel, was introduced by way of color. The rich lady of that day did not, like her modern prototype, wear quantities of brilliant gems whose settings were subordinate to the stones. Her jewelry depended for its superb beauty on the artistry of the craftsman.
Particularly characteristic was the use of pendants; the Grecian lady was all ajangle with them. Her necklace might be composed of seventy-five or more tiny dangling vases, each ornamented with filigree and held to a band of woven chain by finer chains masked at the top by rosettes. Little vases of gold were typical of Greek jewelry; sometimes they were interspersed with golden flowers, or heads of animals. As for earrings, the jeweler outdid himself in fertile invention. He did not stop at earrings recognizable to us as such, but enlarged and embellished them with tiny images of the gods and series of ornamental pendants suspended by delicate chains until the weight of metal involved was too great to be supported by the ear. It is thought that these super earrings were fastened to the diadem and hung down over the ears, giving to the face the appearance of being set in gold like an exquisite cameo. With gold tassels at the ends of her girdle, gold ball-shaped buttons to fasten her dress at shoulder or neck and a row of thin gold plates to border her draperies, the lady of fashion could indeed be resplendent; but possibly she did not carry all this wealth of metal at one and the same time. However, her varied demands on the goldsmith kept him busy.
Athens was humming with the activities of the craftsmen—leather workers, potters, jewelers, and their assistants. Small workshops were enlarged, and guilds of skilled workers (forerunners of our present labor unions) were formed. This did not mean that the craft of jewelry making was divided into separate branches as it is today. An apprentice was still expected to learn from start to finish how to shape gold and engrave stones. In fact, a new task had by now been added to those already practised by the engraver of gems. In the seventh century B.C., when the more convenient custom of purchasing with money instead of by barter was introduced, it was the jeweler, already an adept in the cutting of intaglios, who cut the dies for stamping coins.
The Double Rosette
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Because Rosettes were always in a closed setting with the stones fixed in a bed of black pitch, it was impossible to keep the stone clean, even though a sheet of foil protected them from the pitch. Moisture entered through the tiny gaps between the petals, causing the foil to tarnish and eventually decompose, and thus allow the pitch to soil the undersides of the diamonds. This is probably the main reason why the design was discarded after such a relatively short time. Open settings, which make it possible for the gems to be kept clean from underneath, might perhaps have saved these exquisite compositions.
In 1027 the Emperor Conrad II set a nobleman of Werd (now Donauwörth, in Bavaria) on a diplomatic mission to the Byzantine Emperor. On his return the nobleman brought with him relics of the Holy Cross which had been presented to him, and founded a small convent where they could be preserved. This convent later became the Benedictine Abbey zum Heiligen Kreuz at Donauwörth.
When he visited the abbey in 1496, the Emperor Maximilian I decided to donate a work of art worthy of containing the relics, and commissioned the Antwerp-born master goldsmith Lucas to create a richly decorated monstrance. It took Lucas seventeen years to complete it, and it can still be admired both as a beautiful receptacle for the relics and as a magnificent work of art worthy of the Emperor. When the abbey was closed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the monstrance became part of the Oettingen-Wallenstein Library and Art Collection now housed at Harburg Castle, near Donauwörth. We know that Master Lucas received from the Emperor not only the silver for the monstrance but also the gems, including the Rosettes already set and needing only to be fixed to the frame. So the four diamond Rosettes, as well as the ruby and fluorite Rosettes, must all have been fashioned before 1496, in a specialist workshop.
Among the liturgical objects in the cathedral of Augsburg, in Bavaria, is a gold and silver cross set with diamonds, pearls and colored gems. The front of the cross is made of gold, the back of chased silver, hinged at the top to form a box for holy relics. It is dated 1494 and was executed by the brothers Jörg and Nicolas Seld, members of a well-known Augsburg family of jewelers. The most important part of this cross lies at its center—a beautifully executed and well-preserved ten-petalled Double Rosette. On the four arms there are less attractive five-petalled Single Rosettes. This work clearly demonstrates how a diamond Rosette can take the place of a single gem of equal size without any loss of magnificence.
The central eight-petalled Double Rosette in the wedding ring of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria, is one of the best known pieces of Rosette jewelry in existence. Sadly, however, its underlying foil has completely deteriorated, with the result that the diamonds have not only lost their original brilliance but now look like very ordinary, if translucent, black stones with only a faint surface luster.
A ten-petalled Rosette, the earliest documented, appears in a portrait of Princess Margaret, the three year old daughter of the Emperor Maximilian I, painted by the Master of Moulins in 1483 (now in the Musée de Versailles, Paris).
The small diamonds of the six-petalled Double Rosette in Duchess Anna’s pendant are all different, in outline as well as in faceting. The cutter had not worked with the precision normally required at the time, and this irregularity was probably the reason that the outer setting featured a series of additional prongs, placed against the blunt rounded ends of the fan-shaped outer diamonds, where the pitch was quite visible between the gems. The gems are at the lowest end of the scale in clarity, and have disturbing dark inclusions. The diamonds are not colorless, and one of them is distinctly brownish. It therefore seems that the pendant was never intended to display wealth, but was probably used as an amulet. In spite of all this, the original foils may have disguised many of these imperfections and achieved wonders of reflection.
Because Rosettes were always in a closed setting with the stones fixed in a bed of black pitch, it was impossible to keep the stone clean, even though a sheet of foil protected them from the pitch. Moisture entered through the tiny gaps between the petals, causing the foil to tarnish and eventually decompose, and thus allow the pitch to soil the undersides of the diamonds. This is probably the main reason why the design was discarded after such a relatively short time. Open settings, which make it possible for the gems to be kept clean from underneath, might perhaps have saved these exquisite compositions.
In 1027 the Emperor Conrad II set a nobleman of Werd (now Donauwörth, in Bavaria) on a diplomatic mission to the Byzantine Emperor. On his return the nobleman brought with him relics of the Holy Cross which had been presented to him, and founded a small convent where they could be preserved. This convent later became the Benedictine Abbey zum Heiligen Kreuz at Donauwörth.
When he visited the abbey in 1496, the Emperor Maximilian I decided to donate a work of art worthy of containing the relics, and commissioned the Antwerp-born master goldsmith Lucas to create a richly decorated monstrance. It took Lucas seventeen years to complete it, and it can still be admired both as a beautiful receptacle for the relics and as a magnificent work of art worthy of the Emperor. When the abbey was closed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the monstrance became part of the Oettingen-Wallenstein Library and Art Collection now housed at Harburg Castle, near Donauwörth. We know that Master Lucas received from the Emperor not only the silver for the monstrance but also the gems, including the Rosettes already set and needing only to be fixed to the frame. So the four diamond Rosettes, as well as the ruby and fluorite Rosettes, must all have been fashioned before 1496, in a specialist workshop.
Among the liturgical objects in the cathedral of Augsburg, in Bavaria, is a gold and silver cross set with diamonds, pearls and colored gems. The front of the cross is made of gold, the back of chased silver, hinged at the top to form a box for holy relics. It is dated 1494 and was executed by the brothers Jörg and Nicolas Seld, members of a well-known Augsburg family of jewelers. The most important part of this cross lies at its center—a beautifully executed and well-preserved ten-petalled Double Rosette. On the four arms there are less attractive five-petalled Single Rosettes. This work clearly demonstrates how a diamond Rosette can take the place of a single gem of equal size without any loss of magnificence.
The central eight-petalled Double Rosette in the wedding ring of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria, is one of the best known pieces of Rosette jewelry in existence. Sadly, however, its underlying foil has completely deteriorated, with the result that the diamonds have not only lost their original brilliance but now look like very ordinary, if translucent, black stones with only a faint surface luster.
A ten-petalled Rosette, the earliest documented, appears in a portrait of Princess Margaret, the three year old daughter of the Emperor Maximilian I, painted by the Master of Moulins in 1483 (now in the Musée de Versailles, Paris).
The small diamonds of the six-petalled Double Rosette in Duchess Anna’s pendant are all different, in outline as well as in faceting. The cutter had not worked with the precision normally required at the time, and this irregularity was probably the reason that the outer setting featured a series of additional prongs, placed against the blunt rounded ends of the fan-shaped outer diamonds, where the pitch was quite visible between the gems. The gems are at the lowest end of the scale in clarity, and have disturbing dark inclusions. The diamonds are not colorless, and one of them is distinctly brownish. It therefore seems that the pendant was never intended to display wealth, but was probably used as an amulet. In spite of all this, the original foils may have disguised many of these imperfections and achieved wonders of reflection.
The Rise Of French Painting
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Through all this period of drudgery and semi-starvation, Watteau never despaired, and snatched every opportunity to improve his art, drawing from Nature at night and during his rare holidays and leisure moments. Then by a happy chance he made the acquaintance of the decorative artist Claude Gillot, who, after seeing Watteau’s drawings invited the young man to live with him.
Rescued from his miserable factory, Watteau worked with enthusiasm at the ornamental painting of his new friend, who was then chiefly engaged in representing scenes from Italian comedy. Watteau, who in his poverty and ill-health worshipped elegance and all the graces of life, soon rivalled and surpassed his tutor in painting slim Harlequins, simple Pierrots, dainty Columbines, and other well-defined characters of Italian comedy; and it may be that Gillot grew jealous of his protégé. After a period of warm friendship, the two artists parted on bad terms, and though Watteau in after life never ceased to praise Gillot’s pictures, he kept silent about the man, and would never answer when questioned about the breach between them. Gillot, on the other hand, tacitly acknowledged his pupil’s superiority, for some time after the quarrel he abandoned painting and devoted himself to etching.
When Watteau left Gillot, his fellow-assistant, Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743), who afterwards became his pupil, left with him, and both young men found employment with Claude Audran, a painter of ornaments, who was also a guardian of the Luxembourg Palace. This stay with Audran had a profound influence on the art of Watteau. There were no gardens of the Luxembourg in those days, and the park attached to the royal palace was full of wild and natural beauty which appealed to the young artist, and drew forth his powers as a landscape painter. It was here that he discovered and learnt to paint those noble clumps of trees which form the background to the figures of his idylls and pastorals.
Inspired thus by the externals of the palace, Watteau was also profoundly moved by what was within, the picture gallery containing the series of great paintings by Rubens which illustrated the life of Marie de Medicis. Watteau viewed these spirited paintings again and again; he copies them with zest, and became so saturated with Rubens that eventually he was able to deflect his fellow-countrymen from Italian ideals and revivify French paintings with the vigorous realism of Rubens. His worship of the great Fleming, to whom he felt himself related by ties of race as well as artistic sympathy, never degenerated into servile imitation: ‘by means of a gradually widening realism,’ says the distinguished French critic M Camille Mauclair Watteau ‘arrived at the point of preserving in his small canvass all Rubens’ admirable breadth, while achieving a masterly originality of grouping.’ A superb example of Watteau’s powers in this respect is his exquisite ‘Lady at her Toilet’ in the Wallace Collection. Here a theme, in which Rubens could hardly have avoided a certain coarseness, becomes a model of grace and refinement.
Once again the jealousy of a senior threatened Watteau’s progress. Watteau showed his master a realistic painting of soldiers on the march, and Audran, who naturally did not want to lose so talented as assistant, advised him not to paint realistic pictures lest he should lose his skill as a decorator. But Watteau, determined to devote himself to original work, was now diplomat enough to avoid a quarrel, and desirous of leaving Audran courteously, he informed him that he must return to Valenciennes to visit his family. At Valenciennes the young artist continued his studies of nature and contemporary life, and he painted a series of military pictures illustrating camp life, marches, and outpost duty. But after staying there long enough to justify his visit, he returned to Paris, where he was now not altogether unknown.
At this time his great desire was to win the Prix de Rome and to visit Italy, and with this object he competed in 1709, the subject set by the Academy being ‘David granting Abigail Nabal’s Pardon.’ The prize, however, was won by a student named Grison, Watteau being placed second and thus losing his opportunity of visiting Rome.
Still desirous of studying in Italy, and still hopeful that the Academy might help him to accomplish his desire, Watteau three years later contrived to get two of his military pictures hung in a room through which Academicians were in the habit of passing. Several admired the ‘vigorous coloring, and a certain harmony which made them appear the work of an old master,’ and one Academician, de la Fosse by name, made inquiries as to the painter. It was then discovered that his young painter, already twenty nine, was so modest that all he wanted from the Academy was its influence with the King that he might receive a small grant to enable him to study in Italy.
Attracted by his talent and modesty, M de la Fosse sought an interview with Watteau which had the most surprising results. With a rare generosity the Academician told the young man that he had no need to seek instruction in Italy, that he undervalued his own ability, and the Academicians believed he was already capable of doing them honor; in short, he had only to take the proper steps to be accepted a member of their society. The young artist did as he was told, and was immediately received as a member of the French Academy.
In all the long and memorable history of the Academy of France no incident similar to this has ever been recorded. That a young artist, without friends or fortune, who had failed to win the Prix de Rome and humbly begged for help in his studies, should spontaneously and unanimously be elected in Academician, is a miracle without precedent or sequel in the history of all Academies. This unique event was the turning point in Watteau’s career, and henceforward his fame was assured and he was able to earn his living in comfort.
The Rise Of French Painting (continued)
Through all this period of drudgery and semi-starvation, Watteau never despaired, and snatched every opportunity to improve his art, drawing from Nature at night and during his rare holidays and leisure moments. Then by a happy chance he made the acquaintance of the decorative artist Claude Gillot, who, after seeing Watteau’s drawings invited the young man to live with him.
Rescued from his miserable factory, Watteau worked with enthusiasm at the ornamental painting of his new friend, who was then chiefly engaged in representing scenes from Italian comedy. Watteau, who in his poverty and ill-health worshipped elegance and all the graces of life, soon rivalled and surpassed his tutor in painting slim Harlequins, simple Pierrots, dainty Columbines, and other well-defined characters of Italian comedy; and it may be that Gillot grew jealous of his protégé. After a period of warm friendship, the two artists parted on bad terms, and though Watteau in after life never ceased to praise Gillot’s pictures, he kept silent about the man, and would never answer when questioned about the breach between them. Gillot, on the other hand, tacitly acknowledged his pupil’s superiority, for some time after the quarrel he abandoned painting and devoted himself to etching.
When Watteau left Gillot, his fellow-assistant, Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743), who afterwards became his pupil, left with him, and both young men found employment with Claude Audran, a painter of ornaments, who was also a guardian of the Luxembourg Palace. This stay with Audran had a profound influence on the art of Watteau. There were no gardens of the Luxembourg in those days, and the park attached to the royal palace was full of wild and natural beauty which appealed to the young artist, and drew forth his powers as a landscape painter. It was here that he discovered and learnt to paint those noble clumps of trees which form the background to the figures of his idylls and pastorals.
Inspired thus by the externals of the palace, Watteau was also profoundly moved by what was within, the picture gallery containing the series of great paintings by Rubens which illustrated the life of Marie de Medicis. Watteau viewed these spirited paintings again and again; he copies them with zest, and became so saturated with Rubens that eventually he was able to deflect his fellow-countrymen from Italian ideals and revivify French paintings with the vigorous realism of Rubens. His worship of the great Fleming, to whom he felt himself related by ties of race as well as artistic sympathy, never degenerated into servile imitation: ‘by means of a gradually widening realism,’ says the distinguished French critic M Camille Mauclair Watteau ‘arrived at the point of preserving in his small canvass all Rubens’ admirable breadth, while achieving a masterly originality of grouping.’ A superb example of Watteau’s powers in this respect is his exquisite ‘Lady at her Toilet’ in the Wallace Collection. Here a theme, in which Rubens could hardly have avoided a certain coarseness, becomes a model of grace and refinement.
Once again the jealousy of a senior threatened Watteau’s progress. Watteau showed his master a realistic painting of soldiers on the march, and Audran, who naturally did not want to lose so talented as assistant, advised him not to paint realistic pictures lest he should lose his skill as a decorator. But Watteau, determined to devote himself to original work, was now diplomat enough to avoid a quarrel, and desirous of leaving Audran courteously, he informed him that he must return to Valenciennes to visit his family. At Valenciennes the young artist continued his studies of nature and contemporary life, and he painted a series of military pictures illustrating camp life, marches, and outpost duty. But after staying there long enough to justify his visit, he returned to Paris, where he was now not altogether unknown.
At this time his great desire was to win the Prix de Rome and to visit Italy, and with this object he competed in 1709, the subject set by the Academy being ‘David granting Abigail Nabal’s Pardon.’ The prize, however, was won by a student named Grison, Watteau being placed second and thus losing his opportunity of visiting Rome.
Still desirous of studying in Italy, and still hopeful that the Academy might help him to accomplish his desire, Watteau three years later contrived to get two of his military pictures hung in a room through which Academicians were in the habit of passing. Several admired the ‘vigorous coloring, and a certain harmony which made them appear the work of an old master,’ and one Academician, de la Fosse by name, made inquiries as to the painter. It was then discovered that his young painter, already twenty nine, was so modest that all he wanted from the Academy was its influence with the King that he might receive a small grant to enable him to study in Italy.
Attracted by his talent and modesty, M de la Fosse sought an interview with Watteau which had the most surprising results. With a rare generosity the Academician told the young man that he had no need to seek instruction in Italy, that he undervalued his own ability, and the Academicians believed he was already capable of doing them honor; in short, he had only to take the proper steps to be accepted a member of their society. The young artist did as he was told, and was immediately received as a member of the French Academy.
In all the long and memorable history of the Academy of France no incident similar to this has ever been recorded. That a young artist, without friends or fortune, who had failed to win the Prix de Rome and humbly begged for help in his studies, should spontaneously and unanimously be elected in Academician, is a miracle without precedent or sequel in the history of all Academies. This unique event was the turning point in Watteau’s career, and henceforward his fame was assured and he was able to earn his living in comfort.
The Rise Of French Painting (continued)
Heard On The Street
In the gem/jewelry/art markets, as in life, the only way to grow and preserve yourself is to get rid of what is not working for you.
Greg Raymer
I found Greg Raymer WSOP, Champion of 2004, an interesting personality, because when we won the title he did not let it go to his head + he uses a small fossil as a card protector while he plays poker + he plays within himself; a lesson for all.
Five Reasons To Go To Tucson
Derek Levin shares his views on the Tucson Gem and Mineral show + the business opportunities for gem and jewelry entrepreneurs + the worldwide network of people and cultures + other viewpoints @ http://www.jewelryartistmagazine.com/feature/tucson08.cfm
Useful links:
www.colored-stone.com
www.gemmaker.com
Useful links:
www.colored-stone.com
www.gemmaker.com
Monday, January 14, 2008
The Craftsman
The Craftsman by Richard Sennett is an interesting book that engages many dimensions of skill + Sennett apprises us of the surprising extent to which we can learn about ourselves through the labor of making physical things + this thought-provoking book explores the work of craftsmen past and present, identifies deep connections between material consciousness and ethical values, and challenges received ideas about what constitutes good work in today’s world.
(via Amazon) Why do people work hard, and take pride in what they do? This book, a philosophically-minded enquiry into practical activity of many different kinds past and present, is about what happens when people try to do a good job. It asks us to think about the true meaning of skill in the 'skills society' and argues that pure competition is a poor way to achieve quality work. Sennett suggests, instead, that there is a craftsman in every human being, which can sometimes be enormously motivating and inspiring - and can also in other circumstances make individuals obsessive and frustrated."The Craftsman" shows how history has drawn fault-lines between craftsman and artist, maker and user, technique and expression, practice and theory, and that individuals' pride in their work, as well as modern society in general, suffers from these historical divisions. But the past lives of crafts and craftsmen show us ways of working (using tools, acquiring skills, thinking about materials) which provide rewarding alternative ways for people to utilise their talents. We need to recognise this if motivations are to be understood and lives made as fulfilling as possible.The book divides into three parts: the first addresses the craftsman at work.
This is a story of workshops - the guilds of medieval goldsmiths, the ateliers of musical instrument makers, modern laboratories - in which masters and apprentices work together but not as equals. In its second part the book explores the development of skill: knowledge gained in the hand through touch and movement. A diverse group of case studies illustrates the grounding of skill in physical practice - from striking a piano key to the use of imperfect scientific instruments like the first telescopes or the anatomist's scalpel. The argument of the third part is that motivation counts for more than talent.Enlightenment thinkers believed that everyone possesses the ability to do good work, and that we are more likely to fail as craftsmen due to our motivation than because of our lack of ability. The book assesses and challenges this belief, concluding by considering craftsmanship as more than a technical practice, and considering the ethical questions that craftsmen's sustaining habits raise about how we anchor ourselves in the world around us.
Useful links:
Richard Sennett
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sennett
Richard Taylor
www.wetaworkshop.co.nz
David Trubridge
www.davidtrubridge.com
(via Amazon) Why do people work hard, and take pride in what they do? This book, a philosophically-minded enquiry into practical activity of many different kinds past and present, is about what happens when people try to do a good job. It asks us to think about the true meaning of skill in the 'skills society' and argues that pure competition is a poor way to achieve quality work. Sennett suggests, instead, that there is a craftsman in every human being, which can sometimes be enormously motivating and inspiring - and can also in other circumstances make individuals obsessive and frustrated."The Craftsman" shows how history has drawn fault-lines between craftsman and artist, maker and user, technique and expression, practice and theory, and that individuals' pride in their work, as well as modern society in general, suffers from these historical divisions. But the past lives of crafts and craftsmen show us ways of working (using tools, acquiring skills, thinking about materials) which provide rewarding alternative ways for people to utilise their talents. We need to recognise this if motivations are to be understood and lives made as fulfilling as possible.The book divides into three parts: the first addresses the craftsman at work.
This is a story of workshops - the guilds of medieval goldsmiths, the ateliers of musical instrument makers, modern laboratories - in which masters and apprentices work together but not as equals. In its second part the book explores the development of skill: knowledge gained in the hand through touch and movement. A diverse group of case studies illustrates the grounding of skill in physical practice - from striking a piano key to the use of imperfect scientific instruments like the first telescopes or the anatomist's scalpel. The argument of the third part is that motivation counts for more than talent.Enlightenment thinkers believed that everyone possesses the ability to do good work, and that we are more likely to fail as craftsmen due to our motivation than because of our lack of ability. The book assesses and challenges this belief, concluding by considering craftsmanship as more than a technical practice, and considering the ethical questions that craftsmen's sustaining habits raise about how we anchor ourselves in the world around us.
Useful links:
Richard Sennett
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sennett
Richard Taylor
www.wetaworkshop.co.nz
David Trubridge
www.davidtrubridge.com
Ulysses' Gaze
Ulysses' Gaze (1995)
Directed by: Theo Angelopoulos
Screenplay: Theo Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Maia Morgenstern, Erland Josephson
(via YouTube): Ulysses´Gaze. A tribute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAz9Vc2lVVA
Ulysses´Gaze official movie trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaUEulIEBV8
Ulysses´ Gaze. Dance Scene (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoPy6AAC16M
Ulysses´ Gaze. Dance Scene (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE5B7WSEOao
I think Ulysses' Gaze is a synopsis of 20th century Greek history in a film + it's natural + I enjoyed it.
Directed by: Theo Angelopoulos
Screenplay: Theo Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Maia Morgenstern, Erland Josephson
(via YouTube): Ulysses´Gaze. A tribute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAz9Vc2lVVA
Ulysses´Gaze official movie trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaUEulIEBV8
Ulysses´ Gaze. Dance Scene (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoPy6AAC16M
Ulysses´ Gaze. Dance Scene (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE5B7WSEOao
I think Ulysses' Gaze is a synopsis of 20th century Greek history in a film + it's natural + I enjoyed it.
Jewelers Of Phoenicia And Greece
(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:
2. Goldsmiths Of The Classic Period
Slowly, very slowly, the once simple Greek began to learn for himself the art of shaping metals and engraving stones. At first his ambition led him only as far as copying the products brought from the Orient. Seemingly it nearly always happened like that. The novice craftsman who had already seen some particular type of jewelry started by sedulously copying the work of the master. Sometimes the pupil would outstrip the master in point of technique, yet never lay hold for himself of a single spark of originality, but only continue to imitate. In other cases, the one-time copyist would turn creative and his work would take on new forms. The craftsmen of Greece were among those who in time became creative and produced new designs.
Although at first the early Greek jewelry followed faithfully along Oriental lines—the sphinx of Egypt and the winged bull of Assyria appearing constantly in designs—yet after a time the goldsmith began to develop his own ideas of decorative art; and even when the pattern itself was borrowed from others it was given Greek characteristics. The little sacred beetle of Egypt continued to be the most popular form of signet, but interest gradually shifted from the convex back of the scarab to the device engraved on its stomach. The beetle was no longer carved with realism; its engraved base became a reflection, in miniature, of Greek art. Various gods and demons, the sphinx, the sirens, and warriors and horsemen were carved, always intaglio, on scarabs of carnelian, agate and chalcedony. They were set in swivel rings and served both as seals and ornaments.
As the artists of Greece became increasingly independent, the goldsmith modified and changed an established form until its derivation might be traced. For instance, of the little Egyptian beetle so long in vogue, he retained only its general scaraboid form, and this he set in a new manner. The signet stone, instead of being mounted on a swivel, was set solidly in a bed hollowed out of the metal of the ring.
On its now flat top the engraver cut not deities but scenes taken from daily life and especially those portraying the affairs of the gentler sex-perhaps a woman taking a bath or playing on some musical instrument. And presently, turning to nature herself for inspiration, the craftsman began to use flowers, leaves, animals, and the beauty of human body to furnish models for his designs. These he engraved on precious stones and wrought in gold. Gold, not merely as a setting for gems, but in its own right became his favorite medium. It was ornamented with embossed patterns impressed by means of stone molds, or its surface was covered with intricate designs built with tiny dots of gold, each soldered expertly into place. Rich filigree ornamentation was made with fine threads of gold twisted and bent into elaborate patterns. Enamels were used sparingly and gemstones only when they enhanced the beauty of earrings, necklaces, pendants, amulets and other jewelry.
Like the people of the East, the ancient Greeks believed in the magic powers of precious stones. But after a time, although the masses still clung to such superstitions, the more enlightened developed a certain skepticism concerning the matter; the Greek physician, for example, took a radical step. He declared that disease was not the work of some evil spirit, but that aches and pains were due to physical causes. Therefore a precious stone designed to cast out a devil (that did not exist anyway) could not cure physical ailments.
So far, his reasoning was all to the good, but even the progressive physician could not rid himself of a belief in the essential healing power of gems. He merely shifted their powers from magic to what he considered a commonsense basis. Herbs were good as medicine, but precious stones, being more rare and valuable, were even better. Fortunately the patient was not required to swallow a gem whole. The dose was made easy to take (if not palatable) by grinding the stone into powder and then mixing it with some liquid. This method of preparing the expensive remedy was practical only when the stone was comparatively soft. If it were very hard and therefore difficult to reduce to powder the patient could wear it next his skin—an external application equivalent to a plaster. Jasper, so worn, was prescribed for epilepsy; amber and coral were held in high esteem as cures for eye and throat troubles. This profound faith in the healing virtues of certain gems has taken such deep hold on the mind of mankind that it still exists, and we shall come upon it again and again in later times and in countries far from the Mediterranean.
Goldsmiths Of The Classic Period (continued)
2. Goldsmiths Of The Classic Period
Slowly, very slowly, the once simple Greek began to learn for himself the art of shaping metals and engraving stones. At first his ambition led him only as far as copying the products brought from the Orient. Seemingly it nearly always happened like that. The novice craftsman who had already seen some particular type of jewelry started by sedulously copying the work of the master. Sometimes the pupil would outstrip the master in point of technique, yet never lay hold for himself of a single spark of originality, but only continue to imitate. In other cases, the one-time copyist would turn creative and his work would take on new forms. The craftsmen of Greece were among those who in time became creative and produced new designs.
Although at first the early Greek jewelry followed faithfully along Oriental lines—the sphinx of Egypt and the winged bull of Assyria appearing constantly in designs—yet after a time the goldsmith began to develop his own ideas of decorative art; and even when the pattern itself was borrowed from others it was given Greek characteristics. The little sacred beetle of Egypt continued to be the most popular form of signet, but interest gradually shifted from the convex back of the scarab to the device engraved on its stomach. The beetle was no longer carved with realism; its engraved base became a reflection, in miniature, of Greek art. Various gods and demons, the sphinx, the sirens, and warriors and horsemen were carved, always intaglio, on scarabs of carnelian, agate and chalcedony. They were set in swivel rings and served both as seals and ornaments.
As the artists of Greece became increasingly independent, the goldsmith modified and changed an established form until its derivation might be traced. For instance, of the little Egyptian beetle so long in vogue, he retained only its general scaraboid form, and this he set in a new manner. The signet stone, instead of being mounted on a swivel, was set solidly in a bed hollowed out of the metal of the ring.
On its now flat top the engraver cut not deities but scenes taken from daily life and especially those portraying the affairs of the gentler sex-perhaps a woman taking a bath or playing on some musical instrument. And presently, turning to nature herself for inspiration, the craftsman began to use flowers, leaves, animals, and the beauty of human body to furnish models for his designs. These he engraved on precious stones and wrought in gold. Gold, not merely as a setting for gems, but in its own right became his favorite medium. It was ornamented with embossed patterns impressed by means of stone molds, or its surface was covered with intricate designs built with tiny dots of gold, each soldered expertly into place. Rich filigree ornamentation was made with fine threads of gold twisted and bent into elaborate patterns. Enamels were used sparingly and gemstones only when they enhanced the beauty of earrings, necklaces, pendants, amulets and other jewelry.
Like the people of the East, the ancient Greeks believed in the magic powers of precious stones. But after a time, although the masses still clung to such superstitions, the more enlightened developed a certain skepticism concerning the matter; the Greek physician, for example, took a radical step. He declared that disease was not the work of some evil spirit, but that aches and pains were due to physical causes. Therefore a precious stone designed to cast out a devil (that did not exist anyway) could not cure physical ailments.
So far, his reasoning was all to the good, but even the progressive physician could not rid himself of a belief in the essential healing power of gems. He merely shifted their powers from magic to what he considered a commonsense basis. Herbs were good as medicine, but precious stones, being more rare and valuable, were even better. Fortunately the patient was not required to swallow a gem whole. The dose was made easy to take (if not palatable) by grinding the stone into powder and then mixing it with some liquid. This method of preparing the expensive remedy was practical only when the stone was comparatively soft. If it were very hard and therefore difficult to reduce to powder the patient could wear it next his skin—an external application equivalent to a plaster. Jasper, so worn, was prescribed for epilepsy; amber and coral were held in high esteem as cures for eye and throat troubles. This profound faith in the healing virtues of certain gems has taken such deep hold on the mind of mankind that it still exists, and we shall come upon it again and again in later times and in countries far from the Mediterranean.
Goldsmiths Of The Classic Period (continued)
The Double Rosette
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Aware of the very limited supply of large diamonds at acceptable prices and inspired by the success of Single Rosettes, cutters experimented with various combinations of small rough in an attempt to create attractive alternatives. Some of these turned out to be truly impressive. The four-petalled Rosette had already appeared by 1411 and the Single Rosettes with five to nine components some thirty years later. Finally, in about 1480, the ingenious Double Rosette made its appearance. Combining two completely different cuts in one design was an original and daring idea, and the result was incomparably beautiful. The fashioning of these cuts called not only for the greatest precision but also for a very large stock of rough from which to select the appropriate cleavages. It is possible that these Double Rosettes were the work of one single craftsman, or a small group of collaborators. The settings, it seems, were all produced by casting, another indication of a degree of specialization unusual at that time.
The new design comprised anything from ten to eighteen diamonds of two different shapes: the fan-shape, familiar from the Single Rosette, and the lozenge, which had the outline of an equilateral parallelogram. The lozenge cut, which was developed specifically for the Double Rosette, is quite intricate. It has two sloping main facets in the crown, similar to a Hogback. These meet at an angle of approximately 100° and are separated by a ridge shaped like a arrow, tapering facet, sharply pointed at the outer end of the stone and broad enough at the inner end to allow a pin to fix it in the center of the jewel.
The Double Rosette, even though it may appear to be quite flat, produces a distinctly three-dimensional effect which gives fascinating fire and brilliance. Earlier, such light effects had been arrived at by chance as, for instance, when ideal height proportions were discovered in Burgundian Point Cuts. It is possible that large, richly faceted Burgundian diamonds, with their almost circular outlines, were the models for which the new Rosettes were intended as a popular substitute. Calculations show that the display of a Double Rosette with sixteen components weighing about 3ct matches that of a Burgundian Point Cut of approximately 16ct—which would have to have been cut from a rough weighing at least 20-25ct! To make the Rosette it would suffice to have sixteen small cleavages weighing less than half a carat each.
I have investigated the effects of different kinds of light on a well-fashioned and clean Rosette. When dirty, Rosettes are dull and without luster, but when clean they sparkle brilliantly with all the colors of the rainbow. Candlelight seems to be particularly flattering to them.
The Double Rosette (continued)
Aware of the very limited supply of large diamonds at acceptable prices and inspired by the success of Single Rosettes, cutters experimented with various combinations of small rough in an attempt to create attractive alternatives. Some of these turned out to be truly impressive. The four-petalled Rosette had already appeared by 1411 and the Single Rosettes with five to nine components some thirty years later. Finally, in about 1480, the ingenious Double Rosette made its appearance. Combining two completely different cuts in one design was an original and daring idea, and the result was incomparably beautiful. The fashioning of these cuts called not only for the greatest precision but also for a very large stock of rough from which to select the appropriate cleavages. It is possible that these Double Rosettes were the work of one single craftsman, or a small group of collaborators. The settings, it seems, were all produced by casting, another indication of a degree of specialization unusual at that time.
The new design comprised anything from ten to eighteen diamonds of two different shapes: the fan-shape, familiar from the Single Rosette, and the lozenge, which had the outline of an equilateral parallelogram. The lozenge cut, which was developed specifically for the Double Rosette, is quite intricate. It has two sloping main facets in the crown, similar to a Hogback. These meet at an angle of approximately 100° and are separated by a ridge shaped like a arrow, tapering facet, sharply pointed at the outer end of the stone and broad enough at the inner end to allow a pin to fix it in the center of the jewel.
The Double Rosette, even though it may appear to be quite flat, produces a distinctly three-dimensional effect which gives fascinating fire and brilliance. Earlier, such light effects had been arrived at by chance as, for instance, when ideal height proportions were discovered in Burgundian Point Cuts. It is possible that large, richly faceted Burgundian diamonds, with their almost circular outlines, were the models for which the new Rosettes were intended as a popular substitute. Calculations show that the display of a Double Rosette with sixteen components weighing about 3ct matches that of a Burgundian Point Cut of approximately 16ct—which would have to have been cut from a rough weighing at least 20-25ct! To make the Rosette it would suffice to have sixteen small cleavages weighing less than half a carat each.
I have investigated the effects of different kinds of light on a well-fashioned and clean Rosette. When dirty, Rosettes are dull and without luster, but when clean they sparkle brilliantly with all the colors of the rainbow. Candlelight seems to be particularly flattering to them.
The Double Rosette (continued)
In Search Of The Precious Stone
Albert Ramsay (Albert Ramsay & Co, 1925) writes:
During my return trip from the mines I was afforded an opportunity to test the theory of psychologists to the effect that our subconscious minds control our involuntary actions and the result seemed to verify their contention. When we had arrived within about two miles of Thabeitkin I decided to walk the balance of the distance alone in hopes of bagging a bird or two for breakfast. I was proceeding quietly when a peculiar rustling in the bushes beside the road attracted my attention. Man eating tiger!—such was the thought that darted through my mind, bringing with it the recollection of the tragedy at Thabeitkin and my former fear, not dead but sleeping, sprang into life with renewed vigor. I felt instinctively that nothing but a tiger could have made that sound. Before I could budge the tomb-like silence of the jungle was shattered by a crash as of some heavy body precipitating itself through the underbrush. I then comprehended what the writers of ‘thrillers’ mean when they say: ‘His hair stood on end.’ My brain refused to function; my feet were rooted to the ground; my eyes were hypnotically fixed upon the spot from whence the tawny brute was about to spring. I stood thus transfixed, with beads of cold perspiration trickling down my forehead for what seemed an age but was, as a matter of fact, a few seconds, before the bushes parted and there appeared—not the striped form I had expected but the tusks of an elephant. Another moment and the chain which he wore upon one of the hind legs became visible, branding him a tame work-beast employed by the natives in the transportation of teakwood logs. I suddenly went as limp as a balloon tire which has formed a mesalliance with a nail and before my legs had received the bulletin flashed from my mental control station I was establishing new records for all distances up to and including two miles. Whether my failure to conduct myself in a normal manner immediately after the truth was discovered was due to exceptionally fast feet or to an unusually slow brain, is a matter of conjecture. At any rate I barely missed going right through the village and into the river.
Being desirous of adding to my collection of sapphires I turned my attention to the mines of Ceylon. Approaching Ceylon across the Bay of Bengal the empyrean dome of the firmament is apparently supported by the peaks of the mountains which rise sheer from the ocean’s depths. As the intervening distance decreases, more and more of the island becomes visible until finally, cloaked in luxuriant tropical foliage, framed by a beach of glistening white sand and set in the midst of an indigo sea, it resembles an Emerald mounted upon a slab of lapis lazuli.
Much of the sapphire-bearing ground in Ceylon is planted to rubber trees. The native miners lease sections from the plantation owners and sink shafts between the trees, frequently going down to the depth of seventy feet in order to cut the helam or sapphire bearing stratum. When that has been accomplished they drift along the helam by digging horizontal galleries. The loosened earth is carried to the shaft and raised to the surface by the aid of a windlass. Here it is piled until a sufficient quantity has been accumulated to warrant washing. The washing is performed in baskets and the operation is supervised by the owner who personally collects the gems as they are exposed. The stones are removed to the home of the plantation-owner for safe-keeping and once a month they are sold. The aphorism that self-preservation is the first law of nature was aptly demonstrated at one of these sales. The barefooted Singhalese buyers were grouped in a circle heatedly bidding for the stones. One of their number discovered a scorpion too close to his feet for comfort and, being a public-spirited individual, he informed the community of the peril by shouting: ‘Scorpion!’ at the top of his lungs. A story is told of a fleeing negro who heard the bullet of a pursuer twice—once when it passed him and again when he passed it; well, he was standing still compared to those Singhalese. Scattering gems in all directions they headed for the jungle where the last one arrived just in time to hear the warning word the second time. The intruder was killed and his mangled form exhibited to the natives as, one by one, they gingerly returned. Even that assurance failed to revive the enthusiasm of the assemblage in sapphires and the uneasy manner in which the buyers scrutinized the ground during, the balance of the sale bespoke lack of confidence in the famous words of Ethel Barrymore: ‘That’s all there is is. There is no more!’ Needless to say, that particular sale was not a success financially.
Star sapphires, native to Ceylon and Burma, are found in the same beds as sapphires. They possess a property of which even many jewelers are ignorant, i.e no matter into how many parts of a star sapphire may be cut each fragment will contain a six-pointed star of elusive light. I also acquired some fine specimens of cat’s eyes, which are steadily increasing in popularity.
As previously indicated, success in the gem business is largely dependent upon the buyer’s ability to accurately appraise the merits of concealed in the rough stones and my early training and experience in that particular fitted me admirably for the task which confronted me upon my trip. In the course of my career I have seen unscrupulous dealers take advantage of many men whose business should have rendered them immune to fraud, to mention nothing of the cases of people in whom ignorance in the matter of gems was excusable.
Upon my return from the Orient I went to South America to petition the Colombian government to grant me an option which would enable me to work the Muzo emerald mines, near Bogota, the country’s capital. These mines, which at that time had been inoperative for a number of years owing to litigation, produce emeralds far superior in quality to those found in the Siberian or other fields. I also desired to purchase a magnificent collection of emeralds which the government was holding in its vaults. The emerald is a gem has figured prominently in the annals of romance and tragedy throughout the ages. The ancients ascribed to it the power to sharpen wits, confer riches and enable its owner to foretell future events, but modern society places its stamp of favor upon the emerald for the more practical and self-evident reason of its beauty. Many persons of unquestionable discrimination and refined taste prefer the fires which smolder in the emerald’s depths to the icy austerity of the diamond. My Colombian trip proved interesting and profitable but the incidents which made it so may not be told at this time.
The foregoing are but a few experiences gleaned during my wanderings into distant lands, not only that I might obtain the jewels, but that I might also sense the thrill which comes from searching them out in nature’s hiding places. To me a gem is not merely a cold, inanimate bauble. It symbolizes years of somebody’s life consecrated to obtaining it; it is moist with the sweat of labor amid untold perils and under tropic sun; it is warm with the lifeblood of its discoverer, and as I hold it upon the palm of my hand, I can again feel the pulse of that man leap as it must have done when he first beheld the fruit of his toil. Can you blame me for being fascinated?
During my return trip from the mines I was afforded an opportunity to test the theory of psychologists to the effect that our subconscious minds control our involuntary actions and the result seemed to verify their contention. When we had arrived within about two miles of Thabeitkin I decided to walk the balance of the distance alone in hopes of bagging a bird or two for breakfast. I was proceeding quietly when a peculiar rustling in the bushes beside the road attracted my attention. Man eating tiger!—such was the thought that darted through my mind, bringing with it the recollection of the tragedy at Thabeitkin and my former fear, not dead but sleeping, sprang into life with renewed vigor. I felt instinctively that nothing but a tiger could have made that sound. Before I could budge the tomb-like silence of the jungle was shattered by a crash as of some heavy body precipitating itself through the underbrush. I then comprehended what the writers of ‘thrillers’ mean when they say: ‘His hair stood on end.’ My brain refused to function; my feet were rooted to the ground; my eyes were hypnotically fixed upon the spot from whence the tawny brute was about to spring. I stood thus transfixed, with beads of cold perspiration trickling down my forehead for what seemed an age but was, as a matter of fact, a few seconds, before the bushes parted and there appeared—not the striped form I had expected but the tusks of an elephant. Another moment and the chain which he wore upon one of the hind legs became visible, branding him a tame work-beast employed by the natives in the transportation of teakwood logs. I suddenly went as limp as a balloon tire which has formed a mesalliance with a nail and before my legs had received the bulletin flashed from my mental control station I was establishing new records for all distances up to and including two miles. Whether my failure to conduct myself in a normal manner immediately after the truth was discovered was due to exceptionally fast feet or to an unusually slow brain, is a matter of conjecture. At any rate I barely missed going right through the village and into the river.
Being desirous of adding to my collection of sapphires I turned my attention to the mines of Ceylon. Approaching Ceylon across the Bay of Bengal the empyrean dome of the firmament is apparently supported by the peaks of the mountains which rise sheer from the ocean’s depths. As the intervening distance decreases, more and more of the island becomes visible until finally, cloaked in luxuriant tropical foliage, framed by a beach of glistening white sand and set in the midst of an indigo sea, it resembles an Emerald mounted upon a slab of lapis lazuli.
Much of the sapphire-bearing ground in Ceylon is planted to rubber trees. The native miners lease sections from the plantation owners and sink shafts between the trees, frequently going down to the depth of seventy feet in order to cut the helam or sapphire bearing stratum. When that has been accomplished they drift along the helam by digging horizontal galleries. The loosened earth is carried to the shaft and raised to the surface by the aid of a windlass. Here it is piled until a sufficient quantity has been accumulated to warrant washing. The washing is performed in baskets and the operation is supervised by the owner who personally collects the gems as they are exposed. The stones are removed to the home of the plantation-owner for safe-keeping and once a month they are sold. The aphorism that self-preservation is the first law of nature was aptly demonstrated at one of these sales. The barefooted Singhalese buyers were grouped in a circle heatedly bidding for the stones. One of their number discovered a scorpion too close to his feet for comfort and, being a public-spirited individual, he informed the community of the peril by shouting: ‘Scorpion!’ at the top of his lungs. A story is told of a fleeing negro who heard the bullet of a pursuer twice—once when it passed him and again when he passed it; well, he was standing still compared to those Singhalese. Scattering gems in all directions they headed for the jungle where the last one arrived just in time to hear the warning word the second time. The intruder was killed and his mangled form exhibited to the natives as, one by one, they gingerly returned. Even that assurance failed to revive the enthusiasm of the assemblage in sapphires and the uneasy manner in which the buyers scrutinized the ground during, the balance of the sale bespoke lack of confidence in the famous words of Ethel Barrymore: ‘That’s all there is is. There is no more!’ Needless to say, that particular sale was not a success financially.
Star sapphires, native to Ceylon and Burma, are found in the same beds as sapphires. They possess a property of which even many jewelers are ignorant, i.e no matter into how many parts of a star sapphire may be cut each fragment will contain a six-pointed star of elusive light. I also acquired some fine specimens of cat’s eyes, which are steadily increasing in popularity.
As previously indicated, success in the gem business is largely dependent upon the buyer’s ability to accurately appraise the merits of concealed in the rough stones and my early training and experience in that particular fitted me admirably for the task which confronted me upon my trip. In the course of my career I have seen unscrupulous dealers take advantage of many men whose business should have rendered them immune to fraud, to mention nothing of the cases of people in whom ignorance in the matter of gems was excusable.
Upon my return from the Orient I went to South America to petition the Colombian government to grant me an option which would enable me to work the Muzo emerald mines, near Bogota, the country’s capital. These mines, which at that time had been inoperative for a number of years owing to litigation, produce emeralds far superior in quality to those found in the Siberian or other fields. I also desired to purchase a magnificent collection of emeralds which the government was holding in its vaults. The emerald is a gem has figured prominently in the annals of romance and tragedy throughout the ages. The ancients ascribed to it the power to sharpen wits, confer riches and enable its owner to foretell future events, but modern society places its stamp of favor upon the emerald for the more practical and self-evident reason of its beauty. Many persons of unquestionable discrimination and refined taste prefer the fires which smolder in the emerald’s depths to the icy austerity of the diamond. My Colombian trip proved interesting and profitable but the incidents which made it so may not be told at this time.
The foregoing are but a few experiences gleaned during my wanderings into distant lands, not only that I might obtain the jewels, but that I might also sense the thrill which comes from searching them out in nature’s hiding places. To me a gem is not merely a cold, inanimate bauble. It symbolizes years of somebody’s life consecrated to obtaining it; it is moist with the sweat of labor amid untold perils and under tropic sun; it is warm with the lifeblood of its discoverer, and as I hold it upon the palm of my hand, I can again feel the pulse of that man leap as it must have done when he first beheld the fruit of his toil. Can you blame me for being fascinated?
The Rise Of French Painting
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
The Art Of Watteau, Chardin, Boucher, Fragonard And Greuze
1
Coming events in the world of politics cast their shadows before them on the field of art, and as soon as we begin to study closely the national painting of France during the seventeenth and succeeding century, we become conscious of two streams of tradition, one democratic and derived from the Low Countries, the other aristocratic and inspired by Italy.
These two French schools of painting, which mirror respectively the life of the nobles and the life of the peasants, give us warning of that sharp division of the classes which were afterwards to meet and mingle in the clash and conflict of the French Revolution.
The seventeenth century, which in its beginning and middle period had seen art flourishing in Holland with the rise of the Dutch Republic, witnessed towards its close the shifting of political interest from Holland to France, and the rapid growth and development of a group of artists who added to the glory of the court of Louis XIV. Although France had given birth to artists of considerable distinction long before the end of the seventeenth century, it was not till the reign of the Grand Monarch that she evolved a distinct national style of her own.
The earlier French painters were almost wholly under the influence first of Flanders and then of Italy. Thus Jean Clouet, who in 1516 was appointed Court Painter to King Francois I, was the son of a Brussels artist, and both he and his son Francois Clouet (c.1510-72), who succeeded him, carried on a Flemish tradition. Though the feminine grace of the drawing of the Clouets has been held to be characteristic of France, yet the style of both artists was so close to that of their great contemporary Holbein that it can hardly be accepted as distinctly national.
Flemish again in character was the work of the three brothers Le Nain—Antoine and Louis, who both died in 1648, and Matthieu, died 1667—who came from Laon and settled in Paris. The gentle seriousness of their paintings of rustics foreshadows the peasant masterpieces of Jean Francois Millet. They are the ancestors of the democratic painters of France. Another painter closely associated with the age of Louis XIV, Philippe de Champaigne (1602-74), who painted numerous portraits of Cardinal Richelieu, was actually born in Brussels, though he established himself in Paris at the early age of nineteen. His portraiture, with its clear outline and suave coloring, is also northern rather than southern in character.
Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) and Claude le Lorrain (1600-82) were great masters whose innovations left an indelible impress on landscape painting—the development of which will be traced in a subsequent chapter—but though born in France, both of them spent the greater part of their lives in Rome. Their art belongs to Europe generally rather than to France. The portrait-painter Pierre Mignard (1610-95) and his great rival Charles le Brun (1619-90), who as architect and sculptor as well as painter dominated the Louis Quatorze period, were both trained in Rome and entirely Italian in style.
None of these men was strong enough to found a distinct and national French style; and the kind of painting which we look upon today as being essentially and characteristically French was not born till Antoine Watteau left his home in Valenciennes for Paris. It was this weakling, whose frail form was prematurely ravaged by consumption, who founded the greatest and strongest of all the modern schools of painting.
Antoine Watteau was born in 1683 at Valenciennes, near the Franco-Flemish frontier. His father, a tiler and carpenter, was in poor circumstances, and the boy is said to have had an unhappy childhood. Watteau senior bore the reputation of being a hard man, and wanted his son to become a tiler like himself; and when young Antoine at last obtained permission to study in the studio of a local artist, one Guerin, who was painter to the municipality of Valenciennes, the father refused to pay the expenses of his son’s education.
After the death of Guerin in 1702, Antoine Watteau, then aged nineteen, ran away to Paris with a scene-painter called Metayer. But when they had arrived in Paris, this man soon abandoned his young companion when he had no more work to give him, and henceforward Watteau, already in delicate health and disowned by his father, was alone in Paris, without money, clothes, or resources of any kind. In desperate poverty he at last found employment in a wretched workshop where cheap religious pictures were produced by the dozen, to be retailed by country shopkeepers. Nowadays chromolithographs have saved artists form this kind of drudgery, but in the early eighteenth century even the lowest-priced colored card had to be done by hand. What was required of Watteau and his fellow-laborers was rapidity of execution in making copies of popular subjects, and for this work the pay was the equivalent of half-a-crown a week one daily meal of soup.
Yet even in this miserable trade Watteau managed to distinguish himself, and was entrusted with the reproduction of a ‘St Nicholas’ that was in great demand. One day the mistress of the workshop forgot to give Watteau the ‘St Nicholas’ to copy, and remembering her oversight later in the day, she climbed up to Watteau’s attic to scold him for idling. After she had worked herself up into a passion, Watteau amazed her by showing her his day’s work, a perfect St Nicholas, which he had completely finished from memory.
The Rise Of French Painting (continued)
The Art Of Watteau, Chardin, Boucher, Fragonard And Greuze
1
Coming events in the world of politics cast their shadows before them on the field of art, and as soon as we begin to study closely the national painting of France during the seventeenth and succeeding century, we become conscious of two streams of tradition, one democratic and derived from the Low Countries, the other aristocratic and inspired by Italy.
These two French schools of painting, which mirror respectively the life of the nobles and the life of the peasants, give us warning of that sharp division of the classes which were afterwards to meet and mingle in the clash and conflict of the French Revolution.
The seventeenth century, which in its beginning and middle period had seen art flourishing in Holland with the rise of the Dutch Republic, witnessed towards its close the shifting of political interest from Holland to France, and the rapid growth and development of a group of artists who added to the glory of the court of Louis XIV. Although France had given birth to artists of considerable distinction long before the end of the seventeenth century, it was not till the reign of the Grand Monarch that she evolved a distinct national style of her own.
The earlier French painters were almost wholly under the influence first of Flanders and then of Italy. Thus Jean Clouet, who in 1516 was appointed Court Painter to King Francois I, was the son of a Brussels artist, and both he and his son Francois Clouet (c.1510-72), who succeeded him, carried on a Flemish tradition. Though the feminine grace of the drawing of the Clouets has been held to be characteristic of France, yet the style of both artists was so close to that of their great contemporary Holbein that it can hardly be accepted as distinctly national.
Flemish again in character was the work of the three brothers Le Nain—Antoine and Louis, who both died in 1648, and Matthieu, died 1667—who came from Laon and settled in Paris. The gentle seriousness of their paintings of rustics foreshadows the peasant masterpieces of Jean Francois Millet. They are the ancestors of the democratic painters of France. Another painter closely associated with the age of Louis XIV, Philippe de Champaigne (1602-74), who painted numerous portraits of Cardinal Richelieu, was actually born in Brussels, though he established himself in Paris at the early age of nineteen. His portraiture, with its clear outline and suave coloring, is also northern rather than southern in character.
Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) and Claude le Lorrain (1600-82) were great masters whose innovations left an indelible impress on landscape painting—the development of which will be traced in a subsequent chapter—but though born in France, both of them spent the greater part of their lives in Rome. Their art belongs to Europe generally rather than to France. The portrait-painter Pierre Mignard (1610-95) and his great rival Charles le Brun (1619-90), who as architect and sculptor as well as painter dominated the Louis Quatorze period, were both trained in Rome and entirely Italian in style.
None of these men was strong enough to found a distinct and national French style; and the kind of painting which we look upon today as being essentially and characteristically French was not born till Antoine Watteau left his home in Valenciennes for Paris. It was this weakling, whose frail form was prematurely ravaged by consumption, who founded the greatest and strongest of all the modern schools of painting.
Antoine Watteau was born in 1683 at Valenciennes, near the Franco-Flemish frontier. His father, a tiler and carpenter, was in poor circumstances, and the boy is said to have had an unhappy childhood. Watteau senior bore the reputation of being a hard man, and wanted his son to become a tiler like himself; and when young Antoine at last obtained permission to study in the studio of a local artist, one Guerin, who was painter to the municipality of Valenciennes, the father refused to pay the expenses of his son’s education.
After the death of Guerin in 1702, Antoine Watteau, then aged nineteen, ran away to Paris with a scene-painter called Metayer. But when they had arrived in Paris, this man soon abandoned his young companion when he had no more work to give him, and henceforward Watteau, already in delicate health and disowned by his father, was alone in Paris, without money, clothes, or resources of any kind. In desperate poverty he at last found employment in a wretched workshop where cheap religious pictures were produced by the dozen, to be retailed by country shopkeepers. Nowadays chromolithographs have saved artists form this kind of drudgery, but in the early eighteenth century even the lowest-priced colored card had to be done by hand. What was required of Watteau and his fellow-laborers was rapidity of execution in making copies of popular subjects, and for this work the pay was the equivalent of half-a-crown a week one daily meal of soup.
Yet even in this miserable trade Watteau managed to distinguish himself, and was entrusted with the reproduction of a ‘St Nicholas’ that was in great demand. One day the mistress of the workshop forgot to give Watteau the ‘St Nicholas’ to copy, and remembering her oversight later in the day, she climbed up to Watteau’s attic to scold him for idling. After she had worked herself up into a passion, Watteau amazed her by showing her his day’s work, a perfect St Nicholas, which he had completely finished from memory.
The Rise Of French Painting (continued)
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Juan Muñoz
The Spanish sculptor Juan Muñoz (1953-2001) was an interesting storyteller + I think he knew how to connect subjective human perceptions + he saw poetry in things, and translated what he saw into an inimitable art + he understood other storytellers.
Juan Muñoz: A Retrospective is @ Tate Modern, London, from January 24 - April 27, 2008.
Useful link:
tate.org.uk
Juan Muñoz: A Retrospective is @ Tate Modern, London, from January 24 - April 27, 2008.
Useful link:
tate.org.uk
Heard On The Street
Gem / art / jewelry traders are not born + anyone given the passion + determination + willingness to work hard + lose + fall down + keep getting up can learn to trade successfully.
Karuturi
Karuturi is India's largest floriculturist company + the company has a strong foothold in Africa + growing roses in Africa is a good deal due to suitable climate, cheap farmland and labour costs, and advantages in trading with the US + European Union, the primary markets for roses in the world + African countries need not pay any duty for exporting roses to Europe + Karuturi Networks was already the largest exporter of roses from Ethopia and has the biggest greenhouse in Ethopia for roses + in 2007, it acquired Dutch floriculture major Sher Agencies, which owns large farm land in Kenya + the global floriculture market is estimated to be $80 billion + Karuturi has ambitious plans to come up with greenfield projects in Vietnam and Cambodia to get a stronger foothold in the Asian markets.
Useful links:
www.karuturi.com
www.rosebazaar.com
Useful links:
www.karuturi.com
www.rosebazaar.com
Invest In Gold Funds, Not Jewelry
The experts say when the dollar weakens gold prices go up, and vice-versa + so invest in a gold fund, not jewelry because gold continues to remain a solid bet for the future + a good way to invest in the yellow metal is in the form of paper, that is, through gold funds + these funds can easily be bought and sold + as the underlying gold of your fund is in the form of bullion, there are no losses in terms of design and making charges + traditional (in Asia) investments in gold tend to be in the form of jewelry + there might be a significant loss of value when you sell your gold because a lot of your purchase price goes towards design and making charges + gold bars and coins are becoming good options + a little gold in your portfolio is good investment strategy.
Changyu Wine
Changyu Wine Group Company, Ltd., Yantai, whose previous name was Changyu Pioneer Wine Company,Yantai, was established by a well-known overseas Chinese merchant giant, Mr. Chang Bishi, with a history of 108 years + it is not only the first industrialized winery in China, but also the largest winemaking enterprise in Asia now.
Useful link:
www.changyu.com.cn
Useful link:
www.changyu.com.cn
A Bull In China
A Bull In China by Jim Rogers provides a list of companies that are relevant to the trends/observations in a section (Jims Sino Files!) + these lists are an excellent way to understand the landscape of Chinese economy + the writing style is very conversational and easy-flowing.
Here is what the description of A Bull In China says (via Amazon):
If the twentieth century was the American century, then the twenty-first century belongs to China. Now the one and only Jim Rogers shows how any investor can get in on the ground floor of “the greatest economic boom since England’s Industrial Revolution.”
In this indispensable new book, one of the world’s most successful investors, Jim Rogers, brings his unerring investment acumen to bear on this huge and unruly land now being opened to the world and exploding in potential.
Rogers didn’t just wake up a Sinophile yesterday. He’s been tracking the Chinese economy since he first went to China in 1984 in preparation for his round-the-world motorcycle trip and then again, later, when he saw Shanghai’s newly reopened stock exchange (which looked like an OTB office). In the decades that followed–especially in recent years, with the easing of Communist party financial dictates–the facts speak for themselves:
• The Chinese economy’s growth rate has averaged 9 percent since the start of the 1980s.
• China’s savings rate is over 35 percent (in America, it’s 2 percent).
• 40 percent of China’s output goes to exports (so there’s no crippling foreign debt).
• $60 billion a year in direct foreign investment, combined with a trade surplus, has brought Beijing’s foreign currency reserves to over $1 trillion.
• China’s fixed assets–ports, bridges, and roads–double every two and a half years.
In short, if projections hold, China will surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy in as little as twenty years. But the time to act is now. In A Bull in China, you’ll learn what industries offer the newest and best opportunities, from power, energy, and agriculture to tourism, water, and infrastructure. In his trademark down-to-earth style, Rogers demystifies the state policies that are driving earnings and innovation, takes the intimidation factor out of the A-shares, B-shares, and ADRs of Chinese offerings, and encourages any reader to trust his or her own expertise (if you’re a car mechanic, check out their auto industry).
A Bull in China also features fascinating profiles of “Red Chip” companies, such as Yantu Changyu, China’s largest winemaker, which sells a “Healthy Liquor” line mixed with herbal medicines. Plus, if you want to export something to China yourself–or even buy land there–Rogers tells you the steps you need to take.
No other book–and no other author–can better help you benefit from the new Chinese revolution. Jim Rogers shows you how to make the “amazing energy, potential, and entrepreneurial spirit of a billion people” work for you.
Useful links:
www.jimrogers.com
http://seekingalpha.com
Here is what the description of A Bull In China says (via Amazon):
If the twentieth century was the American century, then the twenty-first century belongs to China. Now the one and only Jim Rogers shows how any investor can get in on the ground floor of “the greatest economic boom since England’s Industrial Revolution.”
In this indispensable new book, one of the world’s most successful investors, Jim Rogers, brings his unerring investment acumen to bear on this huge and unruly land now being opened to the world and exploding in potential.
Rogers didn’t just wake up a Sinophile yesterday. He’s been tracking the Chinese economy since he first went to China in 1984 in preparation for his round-the-world motorcycle trip and then again, later, when he saw Shanghai’s newly reopened stock exchange (which looked like an OTB office). In the decades that followed–especially in recent years, with the easing of Communist party financial dictates–the facts speak for themselves:
• The Chinese economy’s growth rate has averaged 9 percent since the start of the 1980s.
• China’s savings rate is over 35 percent (in America, it’s 2 percent).
• 40 percent of China’s output goes to exports (so there’s no crippling foreign debt).
• $60 billion a year in direct foreign investment, combined with a trade surplus, has brought Beijing’s foreign currency reserves to over $1 trillion.
• China’s fixed assets–ports, bridges, and roads–double every two and a half years.
In short, if projections hold, China will surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy in as little as twenty years. But the time to act is now. In A Bull in China, you’ll learn what industries offer the newest and best opportunities, from power, energy, and agriculture to tourism, water, and infrastructure. In his trademark down-to-earth style, Rogers demystifies the state policies that are driving earnings and innovation, takes the intimidation factor out of the A-shares, B-shares, and ADRs of Chinese offerings, and encourages any reader to trust his or her own expertise (if you’re a car mechanic, check out their auto industry).
A Bull in China also features fascinating profiles of “Red Chip” companies, such as Yantu Changyu, China’s largest winemaker, which sells a “Healthy Liquor” line mixed with herbal medicines. Plus, if you want to export something to China yourself–or even buy land there–Rogers tells you the steps you need to take.
No other book–and no other author–can better help you benefit from the new Chinese revolution. Jim Rogers shows you how to make the “amazing energy, potential, and entrepreneurial spirit of a billion people” work for you.
Useful links:
www.jimrogers.com
http://seekingalpha.com
Umberto D
Umberto D (1952)
Directed by: Vittorio De Sica
Screenplay: Vittorio De Sica (screenplay uncredited); Cesare Zavattini (screenplay); Cesare Zavattini (story)
Cast: Carlo Battisti, Maria-Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari
(via YouTube): Umberto D - Final sequence (Spoilers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erornDbrlkk
Umberto D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEfWeu2geGI
Umberto D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ift2ptZ6JXE
I think the Italian Neorealism concept + perfect clarity defines the film.
Directed by: Vittorio De Sica
Screenplay: Vittorio De Sica (screenplay uncredited); Cesare Zavattini (screenplay); Cesare Zavattini (story)
Cast: Carlo Battisti, Maria-Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari
(via YouTube): Umberto D - Final sequence (Spoilers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erornDbrlkk
Umberto D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEfWeu2geGI
Umberto D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ift2ptZ6JXE
I think the Italian Neorealism concept + perfect clarity defines the film.
Jewelers Of Phoenicia And Greece
(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:
1. Phoenician Traders And Craftsmen
The Phoenicians were the most adventurous sailors of their time. Acting chiefly as middlemen, their merchants not only traveled through the Mediterranean but also sought ports never reached by Egyptian ships.
Meanwhile, because of his contacts with Egypt and Assyria, where the fine glass and metal work for export trade was produced, the Phoenician developed more than a tradesman’s interest in these crafts. He wished to make as well as sell merchandise—it was good business to produce at home the goods sold abroad. So presently the artisans of Phoenicia were turning their energies to absorbing from their powerful neighbors technical knowledge concerning the minor arts. From the Egyptians they learned to make glassware and glass beads (so valuable as an article of barter), also to cast bronze, to solder gold to gold, and to shape the precious metal into jewelry. From the Babylonians they learned the at of engraving gemstones.
The Phoenicians were apt pupils, but their work continued to be a composite of the designs and methods originated by other nations. And when, after a time, Phoenician ships sailed from home ports laden with fine metal work, glass vessels and beads, jewelry, little carved amulet-scarabs, cylinders and seals—all ‘made in Phonencia’—these articles, be it noted, were excellent examples of Egyptian and Assyro-Babylonian techniques, patterns and traditions.
It was in the wearing, rather than in the making of jewelry that the Phoenicians seem to have achieved a touch of originality, particularly in the matter of earrings. A lady of fashion had her ears pierced along the rim as well as at the lobe, thus she could decorate the edges of her ears with gold rings, each carrying a drop-shaped pendant. A sound like the tinkling of tiny bells must have marked her every turn of the head.
The people of southeastern Europe still lagged far behind the high point of development reached in the Orient. They could not make for themselves the marvelous things brought to their shores by the black-bearded Phoenician traders, but when opportunity came they were as eager to purchase ornaments by barter as were the North American Indians when they exchanged furs for glass beads.
Now and again a merchant galley would land at one of the towns that bordered the sea and the inhabitants would crowd wide-eyed about her to gaze up at the strange vessel with her high stern, great sails and many oarsmen. Then under the practised hands of the sailor-merchants the ship would become such a sumptuous example of window-dressing as might fill a modern merchant with envy. Draped textiles of deep purple, gorgeous, barbaric embroideries, and fine raiment made a telling background for other luxuries. There would be platters of bronze richly engraved with the fabulous bearded sphinx, the winged bull, or perhaps a hunting scene on the Nile. There would be perfume bottles of carved alabaster, graceful vases of deep-toned, patterned glass, fans of ostrich plumes or peacock feathers and, most prized of all, the heaped jewels—necklaces, bracelets, earrings, amulet-pendants, and head-ornaments of pale gold set with precious stones or enriched with many colored enamels. And for backdrop to such a scene there was always the splendor of sea and sky.
The people who came to buy offered in exchange for foreign luxuries the products of their own countries. The Greeks, still ignorant of the mysterious processes by which raw metals and colored stones were fashioned into ornate form, were, as their later development proved, especially sensitive to beauty, therefore they were willing customers. Their own land produced olives and grapes in great abundance; and when a Phoenician galley came to display her wares, men and women thronged the shore carrying oil and sweet wine, fragrant and strong, which they offered in exchange for products made by Oriental craftsmen.
Jewelers Of Phoenicia And Greece (continued)
1. Phoenician Traders And Craftsmen
The Phoenicians were the most adventurous sailors of their time. Acting chiefly as middlemen, their merchants not only traveled through the Mediterranean but also sought ports never reached by Egyptian ships.
Meanwhile, because of his contacts with Egypt and Assyria, where the fine glass and metal work for export trade was produced, the Phoenician developed more than a tradesman’s interest in these crafts. He wished to make as well as sell merchandise—it was good business to produce at home the goods sold abroad. So presently the artisans of Phoenicia were turning their energies to absorbing from their powerful neighbors technical knowledge concerning the minor arts. From the Egyptians they learned to make glassware and glass beads (so valuable as an article of barter), also to cast bronze, to solder gold to gold, and to shape the precious metal into jewelry. From the Babylonians they learned the at of engraving gemstones.
The Phoenicians were apt pupils, but their work continued to be a composite of the designs and methods originated by other nations. And when, after a time, Phoenician ships sailed from home ports laden with fine metal work, glass vessels and beads, jewelry, little carved amulet-scarabs, cylinders and seals—all ‘made in Phonencia’—these articles, be it noted, were excellent examples of Egyptian and Assyro-Babylonian techniques, patterns and traditions.
It was in the wearing, rather than in the making of jewelry that the Phoenicians seem to have achieved a touch of originality, particularly in the matter of earrings. A lady of fashion had her ears pierced along the rim as well as at the lobe, thus she could decorate the edges of her ears with gold rings, each carrying a drop-shaped pendant. A sound like the tinkling of tiny bells must have marked her every turn of the head.
The people of southeastern Europe still lagged far behind the high point of development reached in the Orient. They could not make for themselves the marvelous things brought to their shores by the black-bearded Phoenician traders, but when opportunity came they were as eager to purchase ornaments by barter as were the North American Indians when they exchanged furs for glass beads.
Now and again a merchant galley would land at one of the towns that bordered the sea and the inhabitants would crowd wide-eyed about her to gaze up at the strange vessel with her high stern, great sails and many oarsmen. Then under the practised hands of the sailor-merchants the ship would become such a sumptuous example of window-dressing as might fill a modern merchant with envy. Draped textiles of deep purple, gorgeous, barbaric embroideries, and fine raiment made a telling background for other luxuries. There would be platters of bronze richly engraved with the fabulous bearded sphinx, the winged bull, or perhaps a hunting scene on the Nile. There would be perfume bottles of carved alabaster, graceful vases of deep-toned, patterned glass, fans of ostrich plumes or peacock feathers and, most prized of all, the heaped jewels—necklaces, bracelets, earrings, amulet-pendants, and head-ornaments of pale gold set with precious stones or enriched with many colored enamels. And for backdrop to such a scene there was always the splendor of sea and sky.
The people who came to buy offered in exchange for foreign luxuries the products of their own countries. The Greeks, still ignorant of the mysterious processes by which raw metals and colored stones were fashioned into ornate form, were, as their later development proved, especially sensitive to beauty, therefore they were willing customers. Their own land produced olives and grapes in great abundance; and when a Phoenician galley came to display her wares, men and women thronged the shore carrying oil and sweet wine, fragrant and strong, which they offered in exchange for products made by Oriental craftsmen.
Jewelers Of Phoenicia And Greece (continued)
In Search Of The Precious Stone
Albert Ramsay (Albert Ramsay & Co, 1925) writes:
From Siam I turned my attention to the famous ruby mines in Burma. Those unversed in mineralogy it is difficult to conceive sapphires and rubies belonging to the same species. Such is the case however, as both are corundum and possess similar physical characteristics—color excepted. They rank in hardness second only to the diamond. Carat for carat rubies of the first quality are rarer and consequently more valuable than diamonds of a corresponding grade. No other stone increases as rapidly in value in proportion to increase in weight as does the ruby. Dark red rubies are found in Siam and purplish ones in Ceylon but Burma alone may claim the wonderful pigeon-blood ruby.
To reach the mines I went first to Rangoon, the capital of Burma. The outstanding feature of Rangoon is the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, glittering in its golden armor. In passing, a few words descriptive of this Buddhist holy-of-holies might be apropos. Erected in 588 B.C according to tradition three women were buried alive during the rites which accompanied its inception. The Pagoda, 370 feet high, is built in the center of a vast terrace 166 feet above the ground. Upon its summit is a sort of network headpiece dangling with bells. This structure is jewel-encrusted, the upper dome being covered with eight-of-an-inch thick plates of solid gold, and the lower part overlaid with burnished goldleaf. Above all floats a banner studded with gems worth more then $1,000,000. The Shwe Dagon is surrounded by some fifteen hundred minor pagodas which, with their garish trimmings and waxwork show of alabaster images, impart the atmosphere of a fair to the entire scene.
The narrow, tortuous streets of Rangoon swarm with yellow-robed Buddhist priests, grotesque in appearance, their heads and eyebrows shaven in accordance with the mandates of their creed. The prevalence of holy men in Burma is due to a custom whereby the sons of the better families devote a certain portion of their lives to the priesthood, just as, in more civilized countries, young ladies attend convents with a view to culture and education.
Mandalay, immortalized in verse by Kipling, was reached after an eighteen hour rail journey to the northward. There I embarked upon the Irrawaddy, one of India’s great rivers. All day the quaint steamer nosed its way cautiously upstream, following the twistings and turnings of the tortuous channel. The overhanging ferns caressed the surface of the sluggish stream and each feathery leaf of the palms lining the banks found its counterpart mirrored upon the glassy surface of the backwaters. Huge rafts of teak logs, manned by Burmans, drifted slowly by, upon their journey to the sea. Waterfowl, disturbed in their quest for fish amid the bending reeds, took wing with a whirr calculated to gladden the heart of the sportsman. When night settled upon the jungle it was necessary to drop anchor owing to the dangers attending navigation in the dark. The moon, red and hot-looking, peered from behind the distant hills and, as if satisfied with what it had seen, climbed into the star-dusted heavens to be reflected later upon the river’s expanse in all of its silvery splendor. I reached Thabeitkin the following morning.
Thabeitkin is a small village and impresses one with the belief that is clinging desperately to the riverbank lest the jungle, encroaching upon the three remaining sides, succeed in crowding it into the stream. When I arrived, the village was in a state of excitement bordering upon panic over the recent destruction of one of the inhabitants by two man-eating tigers. These beasts are held in such mortal dread by the natives and so many terrifying tales are told of their depredations that I climbed into dark and I freely confess that I spent a very restless night. The following day i was so engrossed in preparations for my trip to Mogok, the ruby mines re located, that all disturbing thought of the predatory felines was banished. The British government has connected Thabeitkin and Mogok by an excellent road, seventy miles in length. The journey is a gentle ascent and the scenery, interesting for the entire distance, is particularly beautiful when nearing Mogok from which point a panoramic view of the surrounding country is obtained. Mogok, being about five thousand feet higher than the river, has a climate delightfully cool in contrast to the heat prevailing in the valley. The mining district comprises about two hundred square miles and the mines, controlled by the Burma Ruby Company, are worked in accordance with the most modern practice, surrounding hills being gradually leveled in the course of operations. Through a coincidence the finest ruby ever found in these mines was discovered on Armistice Day, 1918. It was christened ‘The Peace Ruby’ and was purchased by a native merchant for $100,000. He later sold it to an Indian Rajah. The choicest rubies are sent to the London market and the company holds weekly sales at which the native buyers purchase the balance of the output. After crudely cutting the stones thus obtained the dealers dispose of them to outside interests.
In Search Of The Precious Stone (continued)
From Siam I turned my attention to the famous ruby mines in Burma. Those unversed in mineralogy it is difficult to conceive sapphires and rubies belonging to the same species. Such is the case however, as both are corundum and possess similar physical characteristics—color excepted. They rank in hardness second only to the diamond. Carat for carat rubies of the first quality are rarer and consequently more valuable than diamonds of a corresponding grade. No other stone increases as rapidly in value in proportion to increase in weight as does the ruby. Dark red rubies are found in Siam and purplish ones in Ceylon but Burma alone may claim the wonderful pigeon-blood ruby.
To reach the mines I went first to Rangoon, the capital of Burma. The outstanding feature of Rangoon is the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, glittering in its golden armor. In passing, a few words descriptive of this Buddhist holy-of-holies might be apropos. Erected in 588 B.C according to tradition three women were buried alive during the rites which accompanied its inception. The Pagoda, 370 feet high, is built in the center of a vast terrace 166 feet above the ground. Upon its summit is a sort of network headpiece dangling with bells. This structure is jewel-encrusted, the upper dome being covered with eight-of-an-inch thick plates of solid gold, and the lower part overlaid with burnished goldleaf. Above all floats a banner studded with gems worth more then $1,000,000. The Shwe Dagon is surrounded by some fifteen hundred minor pagodas which, with their garish trimmings and waxwork show of alabaster images, impart the atmosphere of a fair to the entire scene.
The narrow, tortuous streets of Rangoon swarm with yellow-robed Buddhist priests, grotesque in appearance, their heads and eyebrows shaven in accordance with the mandates of their creed. The prevalence of holy men in Burma is due to a custom whereby the sons of the better families devote a certain portion of their lives to the priesthood, just as, in more civilized countries, young ladies attend convents with a view to culture and education.
Mandalay, immortalized in verse by Kipling, was reached after an eighteen hour rail journey to the northward. There I embarked upon the Irrawaddy, one of India’s great rivers. All day the quaint steamer nosed its way cautiously upstream, following the twistings and turnings of the tortuous channel. The overhanging ferns caressed the surface of the sluggish stream and each feathery leaf of the palms lining the banks found its counterpart mirrored upon the glassy surface of the backwaters. Huge rafts of teak logs, manned by Burmans, drifted slowly by, upon their journey to the sea. Waterfowl, disturbed in their quest for fish amid the bending reeds, took wing with a whirr calculated to gladden the heart of the sportsman. When night settled upon the jungle it was necessary to drop anchor owing to the dangers attending navigation in the dark. The moon, red and hot-looking, peered from behind the distant hills and, as if satisfied with what it had seen, climbed into the star-dusted heavens to be reflected later upon the river’s expanse in all of its silvery splendor. I reached Thabeitkin the following morning.
Thabeitkin is a small village and impresses one with the belief that is clinging desperately to the riverbank lest the jungle, encroaching upon the three remaining sides, succeed in crowding it into the stream. When I arrived, the village was in a state of excitement bordering upon panic over the recent destruction of one of the inhabitants by two man-eating tigers. These beasts are held in such mortal dread by the natives and so many terrifying tales are told of their depredations that I climbed into dark and I freely confess that I spent a very restless night. The following day i was so engrossed in preparations for my trip to Mogok, the ruby mines re located, that all disturbing thought of the predatory felines was banished. The British government has connected Thabeitkin and Mogok by an excellent road, seventy miles in length. The journey is a gentle ascent and the scenery, interesting for the entire distance, is particularly beautiful when nearing Mogok from which point a panoramic view of the surrounding country is obtained. Mogok, being about five thousand feet higher than the river, has a climate delightfully cool in contrast to the heat prevailing in the valley. The mining district comprises about two hundred square miles and the mines, controlled by the Burma Ruby Company, are worked in accordance with the most modern practice, surrounding hills being gradually leveled in the course of operations. Through a coincidence the finest ruby ever found in these mines was discovered on Armistice Day, 1918. It was christened ‘The Peace Ruby’ and was purchased by a native merchant for $100,000. He later sold it to an Indian Rajah. The choicest rubies are sent to the London market and the company holds weekly sales at which the native buyers purchase the balance of the output. After crudely cutting the stones thus obtained the dealers dispose of them to outside interests.
In Search Of The Precious Stone (continued)
Dutch Painting In The Seventeenth Century
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
4
All classifications of so individual a thing as art are bound to be artificial and imperfect; but just as we may say that the genre-painters of Holland depicted the life of the city, and the landscape-painters the life of the country, so a third group of artists mirrored another phase of national activity in constituting themselves painters of shipping and the sea. Holland, as England once knew to her cost, was, and still is, a great maritime nation, and her sea-captains and shipowners inevitably set up a demand for pictures of the element on which they triumphed and prospered. Moreover, this low-lying land was at the mercy of the sea, which was only kept back by the dykes, so that every Dutchman may be said to have had a personal interest in the ocean. One of the earliest painters of sea-pieces with shipping was Hendrik Dubbels (1620-76), who was the master of a more famous sea-painter, Ludolf Bakhuizen (1631-1708). Bakhuizen is as much a painter of shipping as of the sea, and in addition to being a picture-painter he was a naval architect who made constructive drawings of ships for the Russian Tsar Peter the Great. There is a great deal of spirit in his sea-pieces, particularly in his tempestuous subjects, but his storms, as John Ruskin pointed out, were storms that belonged to melodrama rather than to Nature.
We do not feel, however, that there is anything theatrical in the marines of his far greater contemporary, Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707), who belonged to a famous family of artists settled in Amsterdam. Some critics hold that the younger Van de Velde is at his best when depicting shipping in a calm, and assuredly he has painted the stillness of the sea with a beauty and true dignity which go straight to the heart of every sailor. But there are pictures also in which Van de Velde has portrayed crashing waters under a charged sky, and if he rarely essayed to express the terrors of a great storm, yet he succeeds perfectly in conveying the excitement and somewhat perilous exhilaration of a stiff breeze. As example of his powers in this direction is ‘A Gale’, in which we see the waves washing over a fishing-smack in the foreground, while farther on a frigate proudly approaches with bellying sails, and still farther in the distance a second frigate rides out the gale at anchor beneath the dark clouded sky. This gale is not awe-inspiring, as it might have been had Ruisdael painted it, but it is a picture that instinctively makes us square our chests and brace ourselves to meet the wind. Both the Willem van de Veldes, the father and the son who soon surpassed him in accomplishment, came over to London in 1677 and entered the service of Charles II. Willem van de Velde the Younger died at Greenwich, and owing to his long sojourn in England his pictures are plentiful in our public galleries, where they have served as models for Turner and other British sea-painters.
Painting, so flourishing in Holland at the beginning of the seventeenth century, was dead or dying when the next century dawned. The rapid rise of art to the eminence attained by Rembrandt was followed by an equally rapid decadence, so that in the early years of the eighteenth century Dutch painting, while maintaining a creditable level of craftsmanship, had sunk to the meticulous and uninspired painting of fruit, flowers, and the odd collections of inanimate objects known as ‘still life’. In the Netherlands the vein of Rubens was now exhausted and his true heir appeared in France in the person of that strangely attractive painter, Antoine Watteau.
4
All classifications of so individual a thing as art are bound to be artificial and imperfect; but just as we may say that the genre-painters of Holland depicted the life of the city, and the landscape-painters the life of the country, so a third group of artists mirrored another phase of national activity in constituting themselves painters of shipping and the sea. Holland, as England once knew to her cost, was, and still is, a great maritime nation, and her sea-captains and shipowners inevitably set up a demand for pictures of the element on which they triumphed and prospered. Moreover, this low-lying land was at the mercy of the sea, which was only kept back by the dykes, so that every Dutchman may be said to have had a personal interest in the ocean. One of the earliest painters of sea-pieces with shipping was Hendrik Dubbels (1620-76), who was the master of a more famous sea-painter, Ludolf Bakhuizen (1631-1708). Bakhuizen is as much a painter of shipping as of the sea, and in addition to being a picture-painter he was a naval architect who made constructive drawings of ships for the Russian Tsar Peter the Great. There is a great deal of spirit in his sea-pieces, particularly in his tempestuous subjects, but his storms, as John Ruskin pointed out, were storms that belonged to melodrama rather than to Nature.
We do not feel, however, that there is anything theatrical in the marines of his far greater contemporary, Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707), who belonged to a famous family of artists settled in Amsterdam. Some critics hold that the younger Van de Velde is at his best when depicting shipping in a calm, and assuredly he has painted the stillness of the sea with a beauty and true dignity which go straight to the heart of every sailor. But there are pictures also in which Van de Velde has portrayed crashing waters under a charged sky, and if he rarely essayed to express the terrors of a great storm, yet he succeeds perfectly in conveying the excitement and somewhat perilous exhilaration of a stiff breeze. As example of his powers in this direction is ‘A Gale’, in which we see the waves washing over a fishing-smack in the foreground, while farther on a frigate proudly approaches with bellying sails, and still farther in the distance a second frigate rides out the gale at anchor beneath the dark clouded sky. This gale is not awe-inspiring, as it might have been had Ruisdael painted it, but it is a picture that instinctively makes us square our chests and brace ourselves to meet the wind. Both the Willem van de Veldes, the father and the son who soon surpassed him in accomplishment, came over to London in 1677 and entered the service of Charles II. Willem van de Velde the Younger died at Greenwich, and owing to his long sojourn in England his pictures are plentiful in our public galleries, where they have served as models for Turner and other British sea-painters.
Painting, so flourishing in Holland at the beginning of the seventeenth century, was dead or dying when the next century dawned. The rapid rise of art to the eminence attained by Rembrandt was followed by an equally rapid decadence, so that in the early years of the eighteenth century Dutch painting, while maintaining a creditable level of craftsmanship, had sunk to the meticulous and uninspired painting of fruit, flowers, and the odd collections of inanimate objects known as ‘still life’. In the Netherlands the vein of Rubens was now exhausted and his true heir appeared in France in the person of that strangely attractive painter, Antoine Watteau.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton was an American silent film comic actor and filmmaker + he is remembered as one of the great comic innovators of the silent era + his trademark was physical comedy with a stoic, deadpan expression on his face, earning him the nickname 'The Great Stone Face' + I love watching his films.
Useful links:
www.busterkeaton.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Keaton
Useful links:
www.busterkeaton.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Keaton
Market News
I think the upmarket gem and jewelry firms are getting jittery from the economic slowdown in various phases + high-end consumers + consumers, at every level, are tightening their spending + the world's largest economy could contract causing a recession.
Heard On The Steet
Successful gem / jewelry / art traders have learned to filter, modulate and use whole brain thinking to their advantage as they trade the numbers + they realize that when the time is up, it is up and they are able to get out and get ready for the next opportunity + they know that time is on their side, and they are prepared for it.
George Orwell
'A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.'
- George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)
- George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)
Aglianico del Vulture
Aglianico del Vulture is a red wine produced in Basilicata (Vulture area) + it is considered one of the finest wines that is produced in Italy from Aglianico grapes + the color of the Aglianico wine is ruby garnet red with a dry and savory taste + 11.5-13 % alcohol.
Pareto Distribution
I think the Pareto distribution, named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, is a power law probability distribution concept that links with social, scientific, actuarial, and many other types of observable phenomena + it could be applicable to gem + jewlery + art trading.
The Shop Around The Corner
The Shop Around The Corner (1940)
Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch
Screenplay: Miklós László (play), Samson Raphaelson, Ben Hecht (uncredited)
Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart
(via YouTube): The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Part 1/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOv03vAtrqE
The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Part 2/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csb0id2iPaw
The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Part 3/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cOmYtUm-EU
I think it was a touching movie + I enjoyed it.
Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch
Screenplay: Miklós László (play), Samson Raphaelson, Ben Hecht (uncredited)
Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart
(via YouTube): The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Part 1/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOv03vAtrqE
The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Part 2/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csb0id2iPaw
The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Part 3/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cOmYtUm-EU
I think it was a touching movie + I enjoyed it.
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