English Masters Of The Eighteenth Century

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

Scene IV. The Countess’s Dressing Room
The gradations of ridiculous affectation in the Music Scene are finely imagined and preserved. The preposterous, overstrained admiration of the Lady of Quality, the sentimental, insipid, impatient delight of the Man, with his hair in paper, and sipping his tea, the pert, smirking, conceited, half-distorted approbation of the figure next to him, the transition to the total insensibility of the round face in profile, and then to the wonder of the negro boy at the rapture of his mistress, form a perfect whole. The sanguine complexion and flame-colored hair of the female virtuoso throw an additional light on the character....The gross, bloated appearance of the Italian Singer is well relieved by the hard features of the instrumental performer behind him, which might be carved of wood. The negro boy holding the chocolate, both in expression, color, and execution, is a masterpiece. The gay, lively, contrast to the profound amazement of the first.

Scene V. The Duel And Death Of The Earl
‘Silvertongue,’ the young lawyer whom in the last scene we saw passing a masquerade ticket to the Countess, has now been found out. The Earl, who surprised him with his wife, has fought a duel and is dying as the result, while the young lawyer escapes through a window as the Watch enters.

Scene VI. The Death Of The Countess
A bottle of poison on the floor shows that the Countess’s death is self-sought, while the paper near it, with the words, ‘Counsellor Silver-tongue’s Last Dying Speech,’ reveals the end of another leading character in the drama. While the father absentmindedly draws the rings from the fingers of his dying daughter, the half-starved dog ravenously snatching the meat from the table suggests with subtlety the straitened resources of the household as a result of previous prodigal expenditure.

While the merited success of his prints and subject pictures made Hogarth a very prosperous man, he served his simple character to the last, and on one occasion he walked home in the rain, completely forgetting that now he had his own coach, which was waiting for him. He had a town house at 30 Leicester Square (now rebuilt) and a country house at Chiswick, now a Hogarth Museum, and when he died in 1764 he was buried in Chiswick Churchyard.

English Masters Of The Eighteenth Century (continued)

Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)

Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is a powerful but very sensitive method + is useful for trace metal analysis, especially at very low levels of concentration + it’s used in forensic analysis for criminal investigations + biology + environmental scienecs + material sciences + geosciences + mineralogy + recently in gemology to determine the origin of a gemstone based on unusual elements or the pattern of elements in its chemical makeup + treated and untreated gem materials + new and rare gemstones (pezzottaite from Madagascar/Burma, tourmalines from Paraiba (Brazil), Nigeria, Mozambique), musgravite, taaffeite, etc) + pearls + each LA-ICP-MS analysis produces a large quantity of raw data, which has to be processed to have quantitative chemical analyses of gemstones + it’s expensive with high operation/maintenance costs + requires specialists for its operation.

Useful links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductively_coupled_plasma_mass_spectrometry
http://www.si.edu/mci/downloads/reports/ICP-Dussubieux.pdf
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/gem-identification.htm

Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior

I think Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior by Oskar Morgenstern + John Von Neumann is a great book + the discussion of poker and the role of bluffing + the area of bargaining and cooperative game theory is very interesting.

Here is what the description of Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior says (via Amazon):
This is the classic work upon which modern-day game theory is based. What began more than sixty years ago as a modest proposal that a mathematician and an economist write a short paper together blossomed, in 1944, when Princeton University Press published Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. In it, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern conceived a ground breaking mathematical theory of economic and social organization, based on a theory of games of strategy. Not only would this revolutionize economics, but the entirely new field of scientific inquiry it yielded--game theory--has since been widely used to analyze a host of real-world phenomena from arms races to optimal policy choices of presidential candidates, from vaccination policy to major league baseball salary negotiations. And it is today established throughout both the social sciences and a wide range of other sciences.

The Pearl Commission Report

CIBJO's Pearl Commission headed by Martin Coeroli (president) from French Polynesia + Shigeru Akamatsu (vice president) from Japan has released its 2008 Pearl Commission Report toward the CIBJO 2008 Congress that will take place April 14-16 at the Grossvenor House hotel in Dubai, UEA + it's all about treatments and disclosure + the durability of pearls cultured in seawater.

Useful links:
www.cibjo.com
www.cibjonews.com

The Art Of Losing Money Gracefully

Total internal reflection of James Arnold on art + art markets + other viewpoints @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3116985.stm

Elmer Bernstein

Elmer Bernstein was an Academy and two-time Golden Globe award winning American film score composer + he wrote the theme songs or other music for more than 200 films and TV shows, including The Magnificent Seven + The Great Escape + The Ten Commandments + The Man with the Golden Arm + To Kill a Mockingbird + Robot Monster + Ghostbusters + the fanfare used in the National Geographic television specials + Bernstein's music has some stylistic similarities to Copland's music but I love his music.

Useful links:
www.elmerbernstein.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Bernstein

The Masdar Initiative

The Masdar Initiative is an interesting concept by the government of Abu Dhabi + the magic mix and match of international joint ventures will develop 'The Masdar Sustainable City' that will produce no greenhouse gases and contain no cars + components will also include the world's largest hydrogen power plant + all energy will come from renewable resources, principally solar panels to generate electricity + buildings will be constructed to allow air in but keep the Sun's heat out + wind towers will ventilate homes and offices using natural convection.

Useful links:
www.masdaruae.com
www.fosterandpartners.com

I think it's a brilliant idea + I hope other emerging economies will follow Abu Dhabi's concept and develop sustainable cities.

Tips For Selling Champagne Diamonds

Rio Tinto Diamonds writes:

Market research shows that consumers are fascinated by natural color diamonds because of their rarity, uniqueness, elegance, sophistication, fashion appeal and affordability compared to white diamonds. This is particularly true of natural color champagne and cognac diamonds, which are a stunning alternative to ‘white’ or ‘colorless’ diamonds. These beautiful brown gems are ideal for the experienced diamond consumer wishing to try something new—something that will let her stand out and express her individual style and personality.

Research also demonstrates that retailers with well-educated salespeople behind the jewelry counter can dramatically increase sales of champagne diamonds.

One of the most important things your salespeople should know about champagne diamonds is that they are graded in the same way as colorless diamonds, with the exception of color. You will hear a range of colors used to describe brown diamonds. ‘Champagne’ should be used as the generic description for brown diamonds, following Argyle Diamonds’ official color categories (C1 to C7) that are now used throughout the world:

C1 – C2 : Light Champagne
C3 – C4 : Medium Champagne
C5 – C6 : Dark Champagne
C7 - Fancy Cognac

In addition, The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and International Gemological Laboratory (IGL), two respected and renowned international diamond grading laboratories, use three parameters to describe color in natural diamonds:

Hue: refers to the diamond’s dominant color.
Tone: refers to how much lightness or darkness a diamond retains.
Saturation: describes the strength and intensity of the diamond’s hue.

According to the Natural Color Diamond Association (NCDIA), some of the key elements to focus on to help you develop a successful champagne diamond business in your store include:

Education
Make sure you and your salespeople are well educated about the unique properties and merits of champagne diamonds and able to position them in a context that will appeal to both female and male shoppers.

Presentation
With champagne diamonds, understanding and explaining the unique story behind these beautiful gems to consumers is critical. Your salespeople also should emphasize that each champagne diamond is distinct. This is part of the category’s tremendous appeal. In addition, your salespeople need to ‘personalize the purchase’ for customers by stressing that they should focus on selecting a champagne diamond in a shade that reflects their personal style.

Availability
Always carry an assortment of champagne diamond jewelry. This sets you apart from your competition; it is considered an ‘upgrade’ to any diamond assortment and should be featured in windows and cases. It also establishes you as an expert in the category, grabs your customer’s attention and sparks conversations that will lead to sales.

Versatility
Stress to your customers that champagne diamonds come in a wide range of shades and price points. Making consumers aware that these stunning stones can be unique, fashionable and affordable can be a powerful selling point.

Design
Carrying champagne diamonds in a variety of jewelry designs is a perfect way to differentiate your store, show customers how stylish they are, and build interest and repeat business in the category.

Celebrities
Celebrities dictate style and fashion—and they can create a powerful ‘buzz’ for your champagne diamonds. Use fashion magazines, photos, and other materials in your store to show customers how Hollywood’s trendsetters have embraced champagne diamonds.

Marketing
Providing in-store brochures and other countertop materials on champagne diamonds will build credibility for you and your business, peak consumer awareness and interest in the category, and increase consumer confidence in the product. Use both in-store and online marketing tools to promote your champagne diamonds.

Useful links:
www.riotintodiamonds.com
www.ncdia.com

I think it's brilliant + Follow the rules + You will sell more diamonds.

The Full, Or High, Table Cut

(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:

The Full, or High, Table Cut was the predecessor of two modern cuts, the Emerald Cut and the Square Cut. It was square or rectangular in shape and not, as a rule, stepped. The crown was high with a relatively small table facet, and the pavilion deep with a culet of just the right size to act as a reflector. In keeping with the quandrangular outline, the Full Cut had four main facets above and four main facets below the girdle. There were sometimes additional facets, but these were insignificant. The cut of a diamond was of little importance until, in the sixteenth century, intrinsic beauty gradually replaced actual weight and apparent size. Once beauty became a factor in balancing the merits of one diamond against another, it became obvious that universal standards of some sort were needed.

Juan de Arphe y Villafane, a Spaniard of German descent (his grandfather came from the town of Harff in the Rhineland), was the first to produce written rules for the proportioning of Table Cuts in 1572, but he must have either been misinformed or had some reason for describing the proportions of a spread type with very poor light effects. Perhaps he was stressing the price factor and found proportions that could be applied to comparatively inexpensive rough. The light effects could then be improved by foiling, an art which both Cellini and de Boot declared, quite rightly, to be the cure for all unsatisfactory proportions. By the sixteenth century this art had already been perfected, but it dates back to the first century.

Anselme de Boot followed de Arphe, laying down the first rules for the proportions of a perfect Full Table Cut. De Boot, who called himself Boethius, was a native of Antwerp who became physician to the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. His De Gemmis et Lapidibus was first published in Latin in 1608, reprinted in 1636, and in 1647 appeared in a French translation with notes and comments by Adrianus Tollius. The French edition was renamed Le Parfaict Joaillier, ou L’Histoire des Pierreries. It included a chapter by Theophrastus and a short treatise by A de Laet entitled De Gemmis.

C W King, writing in 1865, described de Boot’s work as ‘a treatise on mineralogy still retaining practical value.’ King confirmed that the old proportions for the Table Cut were still valid, at least for Brilliants, in the second half of the nineteenth century. These proportions were modified only in the early part of this century, when the circular saw revolutionized the early stages of fashioning.

The London merchant Lewes Roberts, whose Map of Commerce was first published in 1638 with a revised edition in 1678, was a contemporary of de Boot. Robets’ rules for the ‘full ground’ Table Cut indicate proportions basically the same as those propounded by de Boot. Roberts clearly lays down a table size of 50 percent and a culet size of one third of the table. The second paragraph contains what is probably the earliest comparison of Full Table Cuts and ‘overspread’ diamonds. His words ‘as you can easily perceive by the reflection of the Collet’ indicate 45° angles of inclination for his ‘full ground’ cut. In place of ‘full ground’, other authors use such terms as ‘high’, ‘a plein fond’, and ‘Dickstein’.

The next person of importance to consider this question was the London jeweler David Jeffries. His book A Treatise on Diamonds and Pearls was first published in 1750, reprinted the following year and again in 1871, and translated into French and German. The invariables laid down for a Table Cut with perfect symmetry were the angles of 45° and the proportions of 1:2 for crown height and pavilion depth measured from the center of the imaginary girdle plane. No absolute rules could be laid down for the thickness of the girdle. It had to be just thick enough to resist chipping in normal handling, but an unnecessary thick girdle would have an adverse effect on light effects. The task of the cutter was, and still is, to balance beauty with size and weight.

The finest and most highly valued diamonds fashioned during the period when the Table Cut was at its height were fashioned with proportions practically identical to Jeffries’ rule. He worked out proportions for a Standard Cut for all pavilion-based diamonds with a view to displaying the maximum luster and brilliance. This had already been done with outstanding success in the case of the Table Cut, and even more successfully with the Brilliant.

For years I have advocated this 45° cut, and I still believe that if a cut of this type is found in an old diamond it should never be altered. Certainly diamond cutters of the first half of the eighteenth century found that 45° cut had superior light effects, and that Table Cuts were best set à jour and only poorly proportioned gems had to be set in foiled box settings.

In neither case will the poorly developed tip of a crystal affect the ultimate size of the fashioned gem. Cutters will almost always be able to find a direction which circumvents the lack of symmetry in the crystal.

Jewelers Of Italy

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

5. Cameo Cutting

Another form of pendant was the cameo, cherished for its beauty rather than its luck-bringing qualities. Every since the time of Alexander the little cameo had been growing in popularity, and during the reign of Augustus cameo portraits were all the rage. Many portraits of the Emperor were cut one a stone imported from Arabia, an agate with strongly market layers or parallel bands of black and white known as onyx. If, instead of with black, the white layer of agate is contrasted with bands of red (carnelian) or chestnut brown (sard), the stone is known as sardonyx.

When cutting a picture on banded agate the lapidary took full advantage of the different layers of color, and the subtle variations of tone resulting from the degree of thinness to which he cut the light, translucent layer. With repeated strokes of a fine chisel the craftsman would chip away the dark stratum of the stone, leaving the design to stand in relief—a light silhouette against a dark field. This process left a more or less uneven surface, and the work was carried further by aid of a drill, a wheel, and an engraving tool. Finally the stone was carefully polished.

So skilled were the engravers that by utilizing as many as five layers, or zones of color, they could carve elaborate groups of figures with drapery, flesh, hair and ornaments each in its own appropriate shade of color. One cameo masterpiece shows Augustus and Roma enthroned. Before them stands a victorious prince and in a lower zone of color are groups of captives and Roman soldiers.

Sometimes the dark, bluish gray upper layer of an onyx was cut intaglio, the figure or design appearing in the underlying white layer. It was a two colored intaglio, and a gem engraved in this manner was known as a nicolo.

Glass too was often used by the Roman cameo cutter, but unlike agate, the glass background of the design could not be removed with a chisel. All cutting of the brittle substance had to be done by grinding with an abrasive. For this, a small wheel reinforced with emery powder was used.

The most famous came work in glass is the Portland vase, that ancient urn found about the middle of the sixteenth century in a sarcophagus near Rome. The figures that encircle its maple sides are cut in the outer layer of milk-white glass, their background being the rich blue stratum of the vase. In some portions of the design the white glass is ground down to such a degree of thinness that the underlying blue glass shows through, causing the white to appear the color of pale cobalt.

Many of the old cameos in sardonyx have a small hole drilled through them and this has led to the surmise that the hole was intended to admit thread so the cameo could be sewed, as an ornament, onto clothing. According to Pliny, however, the hole only went to prove that the engraved stone had first been used as a bead in its native land, India. When it fell into the hands of the Roman lapidary he changed the banded bead into cameo.

Jewelers Of Italy (continued)

English Masters Of The Eighteenth Century

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

Still more amazing as an example of Hogarth’s vivid characterisation and vivacity of expression is ‘The Shrimp Girl’. It is only a sketch, mostly in greys with a few touches of other colors, but there is no work in the National Gallery more abounding with life. These portraits, painted with joy for the painter’s satisfaction, never produced an income. He made his living by other pictures, and especially by his engravings, which had a wide sale and made his name a household word. The series of pictorial dramas which he invented brought him both fame and fortune, and after ‘The Rake’s Progress’ and other sets had firmly established Hogarth in popular favor, Sir James Thornhill became reconciled to his son-in-law, whom he now saw to be capable of earning a good living.

Narrative pictures were not a new thing in the history of art; the reliefs of Trajan’s Column at Rome tell the story of the Emperor’s Dacian campaigns, and we saw in the first chapter how Giotto and other early Italian painters recounted Bible stories and the lives of the saints in a series of pictures. But no painter before Hogarth had invented the story as well as illustrating it. Without any text familiar to the public, Hogarth by paint and engraving told new and original stories of his own time, and told them so clearly that they were universally understood. Sometimes these stores were almost wholly humorous, as in ‘The Election’ series, but more often they had a serious intention and amusing incidents were introduced only by way of light relief.

To regard Hogarth as a satirist first is wrong: he was more than that: he was a great moralist. For though no man more severely scourged the folly of his time, Hogarth taught his lessons not only by exposing the ridiculous, but also by revealing the tragedy of wrong and the beauty of goodness. Among his many inventions none more beautifully display his method than the ‘Marriage á la Mode’; and though each one of these pictures tells its own story clearly, it may be helpful to summarize the action of each scene, and add the illuminating comments made by the great critic Hazlitt:

Scene I. The Marriage Contract
In a splendid apartment the father of the bridegroom points to his pedigree, while the rich alderman, father of the bride, studies the marriage settlement. ‘The three figures of the young nobleman, his intended bride, and her inamorato, the lawyer, show how much Hogarth excelled in the power of giving soft and effeminate expression......Nothing,’ writes Hazlitt, ‘can be more finely managed than the differences of character in these delicate personages.’

Scene II. Shortly After Marriage
Note the delicious touch of satire in the four pictures of saints which adorn the walls of a wordily interior. An old steward, shocked at the way things are going, is leaving with a bundle of bills and one receipt. The wife sits yawning at breakfast, while the card tables and the candles, still burning, in the room seen beyond, show how the husband, lazing in his chair, had spent the night. ‘The figure, face, and attitude of the husband are inimitable,’ says Hazlitt. ‘Hogarth has with great skill contrasted the pale countenance of the husband with the yellow-whitish color of the marble mantelpiece behind him, in such a manner as to preserve the fleshy tone of the former. The airy splendor of the view of the room in this picture is probably not exceeded in any of the productions of the Flemish school.’

Scene III. The Visit To The Quack Doctor
The peer, with a cane in one hand and a box of pills in the other, rallies the sardonically smiling quack for having deceived him. ‘The young girl,’ says Hazlitt, ‘who is represented as the victim of fashionable profligacy, is unquestionably one of the artist’s chefs-ďœuvre.The exquisite delicacy of the painting is only surpassed by the felicity and subtlety of the conception. Nothing can be more striking than the contrast between the extreme softness of her person and the hardened indifference of her character.’

English Masters Of The Eighteenth Century (continued)

Gemstones + Light

There are three requirements for seeing color: an object + an observer + a light source. If any of these is missing, no color will be seen + if any is changed, the color will change. When light strikes a colored gemstone, some wavelengths are absorbed and some are transmitted.

Light Sources
Sunlight = light coming directly from the sun.
Skylight = light that comes from the sky.
Daylight = combination of sunlight + skylight

Artificial Light
In dealing with colored gemstones light plays an important role. Daylight with its shifting intensity and color balance may not be ideal for grading + buying + selling gemstones. Standardized artificial lighting with a steady, known intensity and color balance should bring consistency in grading + universal communication for color values.

Types Of Artificial Light Sources
Incandescent light = incandescent lights should not be used because their color temperatures tend to be too low + they emit greater amounts of yellow, orange and red wavelengths.
Fluorescent light = the cool white fluorescent lights found in most offices should be avoided because their color temperatures tend to be too high + they emit large amounts of blue + violet wavelengths.
Daylight fluorescent light = they are designed to simulate daylight + some of them may meet the required standards.
LED = it’s the newest technology on the market + they are generally of low wattage + you may need many bulbs to illuminate a particular display more effectively + they use very little power + last longer + could simulate daylight.

At present a number of different light sources are marketed for a wide range of industries + some are suitable for viewing colored gemstones. For now, there is no internationally accepted standard grading lamp among gem dealers.

Useful links:
www.gelighting,com
www.intl-lighttech.com
www.darksky.org
www.lightingdesignlab.com
www.elec-toolbox.com
www.tir.com
www.lampsplus.com

Gustav Caesar

Gustav Caesar based in Germany’s gemstone capital of Idar Oberstein works with the best of the best colored gemstones + they have provided exquisite gemstones to top jewelers since 1840.

Useful link:
www.gustav-caesar.com

Coffee Research Labs

(via Commodityonline) Here is what Sunalini N Menon, chief executive, Coffeelab Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, India + Asia's first lady coffee taster or cupper has to say about coffee tasting + the bean of wisdom @ http://www.commodityonline.com/news/topstory/newsdetails.php?id=4977

Coffee Research Labs
1. Cooxupe: Soil Analysis Laboratory
www.cooxupe.com.br

2. Lafise: Physical, Sensorial, and Statistics Laboratory
www.ital.org.br

3. CeniCafe
www.cafedecolombia.com

4. Coffee Analysts
www.coffeeanalysts.com

5. Hawaiian Agriculture Research Center: Coffee Division
http://www.hawaiiag.org/harc/HARCCOF8.htm

6. Indian Coffee Board Coffee Research Institute
www.indiacoffee.org

Labs' Radio Media Tour

I think American Gem Society Laboratories's recently completed 13-stop radio media tour in the U.S is a great idea + other labs in Europe and Asia should learn from the concept because a mixture of live to broadcast and live to tape for later and repeat airing is the way to reach a wider audience + I liked it.

To listen to the radio media tour interviews, visit www.agslab.com/news_radio.html

Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone, sometimes also credited as Dan Savio or Leo Nichols, is an Italian composer especially noted for his film scores + he has composed and arranged scores for more than 500 film and television productions + he is best known for the characteristic sparse and memorable soundtracks of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns A Fistful of Dollars (1964) + For a Few Dollars More (1965) + The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) + Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) which have been frequently cited by many in the film industry as some of the greatest film scores ever composed + I love his music.

Useful links:
www.enniomorricone.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennio_Morricone

Contemporary Craft

(via The Observer) Charlotte Abrahams writes about contemporary crafts + the best way to find a future classic + other viewpoints @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/design/story/0,,2242524,00.html

Useful links:
craftscouncil.org.uk/collect
bonhams.com

Artist Pension Trust

(via BBC) Jorn Madslien writes about a multilingual globetrotting financier's concept in the form of the Artist Pension Trust + a structured financial approach to art + other viewpoints @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7057677.stm

Useful links:
www.aptglobal.org
www.brianusher.com

Jewelers Of Italy

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

4. Rings And Seals

In the palmy days of the Roman Empire jewelry was increasingly burdened with many and varied responsibilities beyond that of personal adornment. Among the rings that were intended to serve a practical purpose was a curious one known as a ‘key ring’. This type is a ring combined with a key whose wards are at right angles to the hoop so that they lie lengthwise along the finger. It has been suggested that such rings were keys to some casket containing valuables belonging to a rich man, but as they were made only of bronze or iron and were ungainly in shape, it does not seem likely that they were actually worn by the owners of jewel caskets, but rather by some trusted servant.

Locks were still unreliable contrivances, all too easily opened by the ‘thievish slaves’ who would help themselves to provisions in the storerooms, or even to gems from their master’s jewel box. So it became the custom to seal up supplies and valuables with one signet and then lock that signet away in a cabinet which, in turn, was sealed by still another signet ring, the latter worn by the master.

Even this seemingly innocent practice did not escape the pointed pen of Pliny, who remarked that to wear but ‘a single ring upon the little finger was no more than an ostentatious advertisement that the owner has property of a more precious nature under seal at home.’ But, nevertheless, he sympathizes with the practice of locking possessions up with sealing wax:

How happy the times—how truly innocent—in which no seal was put to anything. At the present day, on the contrary, our very food even, and our drink, have to be preserved from theft through the agency of the ring; and so far is it from being sufficient to have the very keys sealed, that the signet ring is often taken off the owner’s finger while he is overpowered with sleep, or lying on his death bed....How many of the crimes stimulated by cupidity are committed through the instrumentality of rings!

Indeed, certain of the ring family became in themselves sinister instruments of death. The poison ring, although ornamental in appearance, was constructed for the special purpose of enabling its owner to commit suicide. It was made with a high, bezel, shaped like a pyramid, which was hollow and capable of holding enough poison to bring swift death to the wearer who might find himself trapped in a desperate situation and choose suicide as a way out. With one vigorous bite he could crush the soft gold, suck out the poison, and his quietus make with a mere finger ring. Hannibal made good his exit from this earth by means of a poison ring.

The method sounds quite simple and convenient in case of necessity, but it appears that one might have too much (or too many) of a good thing, as in the case of Heliogabalus, one of the later emperors of Rome. Considering his life, of ‘almost unparalleled debauchery,’ no great powers of prophecy were required to guess that he would come to a bad end, and it was foretold that he would die a violent death. Therefore he decided to choose his own manner of dying and have more than one alternative at that. He wore three rings: one set with rubies, one with sapphires, and one with emeralds. Each ring contained a different kind of poison. But when the crucial moment arrived Heliogabalus apparently became embarrassed by too many choices. Before he had time to decide which poison he would swallow, the soldiers were upon him. They dragged him all over Rome with a hook and finally threw his body into the Tiber. What became of the rings is not on record.

In its character as an amulet, a jewel might make a very wide appeal and serve many purposes. For a talisman denoting valor and zest in bloodshed, the Roman soldier wore a silver ring mounted with an engraved stone showing Mars, equipped with shield and spear. Or if he preferred a more realistic and detailed indication of his calling, he chose the design of a warrior standing on the body of his decapitated enemy and holding aloft in triumph the severed head.

Even many of the doctors still practiced their faith in magic. A string of amber beads was the accepted cure for goiter and the wearing of coral was prescribed for skin trouble by Dioscorides, Greek physician to the Romans. There seems to have been a gem remedy for all the ills of life; the list is endless.

Amulets were frequently enclosed in tiny golden vases or in cylindrical boxes and suspended from the neck. The necklace might be a simple chain, or a chain of beads with many pendants. Amber was particularly prized as a pendant, not only for its beauty but for its powers of protection against witchcraft. Sometimes a bit of amber would be found in which a small insect was enclosed, and this would bring an enormous price.

Jewelers Of Italy (continued)

Table Cuts

(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:

From the very beginning of the fifteenth century, diamond fashioning concentrated on Pyramidal Point Cuts, Table Cuts and French Cuts. Abundant faceting went out of favor and found a restricted market merely as a curiosity. Cutters therefore concentrated on designs with large dominating faces. Even dodecahedrons were thus transformed into Table and French Cuts, simply by removing a large section of the upper part of the crystal. So far no specimen of this type has been documented; only an unprofessional sketch of the Burgundian aigrette known as the ‘Feather’ is known. However, we find Round Table Cuts described in numerous inventories. At the time the term plat stood for an overall height far less than that of pointed cuts. En façon de mirouer, signifying ‘in the shape of a mirror’—in other words, a table facet—also appears frequently and is used for both square and rounded diamonds. During the fifteenth century a wide variety of descriptions was used. Judging by the fanciful entries in inventories and other documents, it is obvious that there was no fixed terminology. The word ‘table’ itself appears to have been used in France from about the year 1000, but only to refer to pieces of furniture. It was only in 1431 that the expression diamond en table was introduced.

The great surge of artistic creativity at the time of the Renaissance was influenced by old beliefs, by new philosophy and by rational scientific thinking. Rigid rules controlled creativity in architecture, painting , sculpture and literature, and were equally important in the fashioning of diamonds. In the illustration by Luigi Pulci, the geometrical figure in the right hand of the mathematician on the left contains perfect proportions and could easily be used as a model for the angles of inclinations between crown and pavilion facets in a Table Cut. The proportions here are exactly the same as those that have been propounded ever since the end of the sixteenth century. Similar c.45° angles can be seen in the geometrical figure in the hand of the mathematician on the right.

One of Mielich’s illustrations in color of the jewels belonging to Anna, Duchess of Bavaria, shows an enseigne of Hercules standing before Eurystheus; the line drawing shows more clearly than a photograph the different cuts used to make up the jewel. It is possible to distinguish two trihedral cuts and a selection of both regular and fancy Tables, all cleverly used to represent classical architecture. Note also the pitcher and lantern carried by Hercules.

Several portraits of James I show him wearing in his hat the ‘Feather’, one of the legendary English jewels. In the schedule (inventory) of the Royal Jewels drawn up in 1606, it was described as ‘one fayre jewell, like a feather of gould, contayning a fayre table-diamond in the middest and fyve-and-twentie diamondes of diverse forms made of sondrous other jewells.’ It is interesting to see how much the Table Cuts varied and how beautifully the gems of the verticals were graduated in size. Even if the stones were taken from old jewels of the Treasury, as the schedule suggests, many of them must have been refashioned in order to fit the design of the ‘Feather’.

English Masters Of The Eighteenth Century

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

The Art Of Hogarth, Richard Wilson, And Sir Joshua Reynolds

1

In all the annals of British Art there is no more illustrious name than that of William Hogarth. Not only was he, as Mr E V Lucas has pointed out, ‘the first great national British painter, the first man to look at the English life around him like an Englishman and paint it without affectation or foreign influence, but he was the first to make pictures popular. Hogarth’s engravings from his own works produced a love of art that has steadily increased ever since. During Hogarth’s day thousands of houses that had had no pictures before acquired that picture habit which many years later Alderman Boydell and his team of engravers were to do so much to foster and establish.’

That is where Hogarth differs from the French democratic painters, from Chardin and Greuze, mentioned in the last chapter; he was an engraver as well as a painter, and so was one of the first artists in Europe to devote talent of the highest order to providing art for the masses as well as the classes. People who could not afford to buy oil paintings could buy engravings, and it was by his engravings that Hogarth first acquired fame.

William Hogarth was born in Bartholomew Close, Smithfield, on November 10, 1697. He was the son of a school master and printer’s reader, who was apparently a man of some education and had the intelligence to recognize his son’s talent for drawing, and to place no obstacle in his path. At an early age young Hogarth was apprenticed to a silversmith near Leicester Fields (now Leicester Square), for whom he chased tankards and salvers, and two years after his father’s death in 1718 he felt sufficiently confident in his powers to set up as an engraver on his own account. Meanwhile he had taken every opportunity of improving his drawing, and had attended classes at the art academy of Sir James Thornhill (1676-1734), a portrait painter and decorative artist much in favor with Queen Anne. He was especially renowned for his ceilings, and the Painted Hall at Greenwich is a famous example of Thornhill’s art.

Hogarth did not get on very well with Thornhill and his method of tuition, which consisted principally of giving his pupils pictures to copy. This did not suit a youth so enamoured of life as Hogarth, who had a habit of making notes on his thumbnail of faces and expressions and enlarging them afterwards on paper. In this way he trained his memory to carry the exact proportions and characteristics of what he had seen, so that his drawings, even done from memory, were extraordinarily vivacious and full of life. ‘Coping,’ Hogarth once said, ‘is like pouring water out of one vessel into another.’ He preferred to draw his own water, and this sturdy determination to see life for himself set him on the road to greatness. Previous English artists had not done this: they had looked at life through another man’s spectacles, and their pictures were more or less good imitations of the manner of Van Dyck, Lely, and Kneller.

Nevertheless he continued for a long time to frequent Thornhill’s academy, the real attraction being not the master’s tuition but his pretty daughter Jane. In the end Hogarth eloped with Miss Thornhill, whom he married without her father’s consent and very much against his will. At the time the match was considered a mésalliance, for Thornhill was a Member of Parliament and a knight, whereas Hogarth has as yet acquired little fame and had rather scandalized society by bringing out in 1724 a set of engravings, ‘The Talk of the Town,’ in which he satirized the tendency of fashionable London to lionise foreign singers.

Four years later, however, the tide was turned in Hogarth’s favor when Mr Gay lashed the same fashionable folly in The Beggar’s Opera, which, produced at the Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre in January 1728, proved to be as great a popular success then as it has been in our own day. Hogarth was naturally attracted to a piece that revealed a spirit so akin to his own, and he painted several pictures of its scenes, one of which is now in the Tate Gallery. His genial, bohemian temperament delighted in the society of actors and writers, and Hogarth’s association with the company of The Beggar’s Opera indirectly led him to take up portrait painting. One of his earliest portraits is ‘Lavinia Fenton as Polly Peachum,’ the gay young actress who created the part and became Duchess of Bolton.

This portrait—as indeed are all of Hogarth’s—is a wonderful achievement. It has nothing of the manner of Lely or Kneller or any of his predecessors; it is fresh, original, unmannered, and sets life itself before us. To some extent, perhaps he was influenced by Dutch painting, which has the same quality of honesty, but in the main he was ‘without a school, and without a precedent.’ Unlike the portrait painters who preceded and those who immediately succeeded him, Hogarth does not show us people or rank and fashion. His portraits are usually of people in his own class or lower, his relatives, actors and actresses, his servants. Hogarth was too truthful in his painting and not obsequious enough in his manner to be a favorite with society, and it was only occasionally that a member of the aristocracy had the courage to sit to him. Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, did, and the magnificent little full length in the National Portrait Gallery shows how vividly Hogarth grasped and expressed his character.

English Masters Of The Eighteenth Century (continued)

The Kahlil Gibran Phenomenon

I think Kahlil Gibran is natural + 'The Prophet', a collection of twenty-six prose poems, delivered as sermons by a fictional wise man in a faraway time and place is a gem + he is perceived by the experts as the best selling poet of all time, after Shakespeare and Lao-tzu + since its publication, in 1923, 'The Prophet' has sold more than nine million copies in its American edition alone + translated into more than 20 languages + I think it's a brilliant man's philosophy on love, marriage, joy and sorrow, time, friendship +++++++

Useful links:
www.kahlil.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prophet_(book)
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/01/07/080107crbo_books_acocella

Energy Update

According to industry analysts today India is the fifth largest consumer of primary energy and the third largest consumer of oil in the Asia-Pacific region, after China and Japan + for all those engaged in the oil & gas business, India presents a tremendous opportunity to create value and wealth.

Useful link:
www.petrotech2009.org

Coffee Update

Sreekumar Raghavan writes about coffee business in India + Brazil + Vietnam + trading and marketing strategies + price behavior + other viewpoints @ http://www.commodityonline.com/news/topstory/newsdetails.php?id=4963

Coffee: The Most Powerful Global Commodity
http://www.commodityonline.com/news/topstory/newsdetails.php?id=4833

Heard On The Street

Many hardworking dealers in gem/jewelry/art become failures as they reach the top of the pyramid because they cannot control their emotions. The password: emotional maturiy. Practice daily.

Bernard Herrmann

Bernard Herrmann was an Academy Award-winning composer + he is particularly known for the scores he created for Alfred Hitchcock's films, most famously Psycho + he also composed notable scores for many other movies including Citizen Kane + Cape Fear + Taxi Driver + he penned the music for the original sensational radio broadcast of Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds + several fantasy films + many TV programs + he is still a prominent figure in the world of film music today + I love his music.

Useful links:
www.bernardherrmann.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Herrmann

Henri Matisse's Dance

(via The Guardian) Jonathan Jones writes about the most beautiful modern painting in the world + its real story + the chromatic miracle of Dance + its color + other viewpoints @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2243201,00.html

Useful link:
royalacademy.org.uk

Indian Art 2008

Udayan Mukherjee interviews (Part 1 + 2) Dinesh Vazirani, Atul Dodiya, Peter Nagy, Mortimer Chatterjee, Sumeet Chopra, Arun Wadehra + their viewpoints on auction markets + collectors market in India @ http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/video/stockmarket/08/40/newsvideo/321865

Jewelers Of Italy

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

3. Jewels Of The Roman Empire

Caesar was dead. Rome was on her way toward a different form of government, and with these changes came a change in ideology, affecting styles and customs. We find no record of just when the Roman dandy first risked the accusation of effeminacy and ventured to adorn his fingers with numbers of rings. We do not know whether the fashion developed slowly or whether it sprang up like wildfire overnight, for the solemn historian is prone to neglect such details. It took Pliny (who doubtless would be a most successful columnist were he living today) to give us the human-interest side of the news. Pliny, however, did not enter the scene until about the middle of the first century A.D., and by then the fashion of wearing an extravagant amount of jewelry had reached such proportions as to make exceedingly good copy for the lively pen of that gossipy old Roman. He gives us some colorful pictures. For instance, he reports on the simple betrothal ceremony of a Roman girl: ‘She was covered from head to foot with pearls and emeralds.’ And he compares at length the current fashion of wearing innumerable rings with the good old custom of confining rings to the fourth finger of one hand:

It was the custom at first to wear rings on a single finger only, the one namely that is next to the little finger, and thus we see the case in the statues of Numa and Servius Tullius. In later times it became the practice to put rings on the finger next to the thumb, even in the case of the statues of the gods; and, more recently again, it has become the fashion to wear them upon the little finger as well. Among the people of Gallia and Britannia, the middle finger, it is said, is used for this purpose. At the present day, however, among us, this is the only finger that is excepted, all others being loaded with rings, smaller rings even being separately adapted for the smaller joints of the finger. Some there are who heap several rings on the little finger alone.

Seneca, too, expressed himself on the extremes of fashion, declaring: ‘We adorn our fingers with rings, and a jewel is displayed on every joint.’

Orators were cautioned against overloading their hands with rings; and Pliny, disgusted by such display of vanity, declared that they piqued themselves upon a thing in which only musicians glory. Such a comparison carried a sharp sting, for in those days musicians were considered no better than jugglers and buffoons—in the lowest class of entertainers.

During all this period, glass-making in Rome was flourishing industry. Besides ornamental bowls, vases, jugs, and so on, the glassmaker turned out countless trinkets such as twisted glass bangles, finger rings, bracelets and beads—innumerable beads of all colors, styles and sizes. The glass factory of that day consisted of only one small furnace run by a master glassman with the help of a slave or two. Certain of the glass makers specialized in the making of paste gems. Not only was the blue of lapis lazuli and the chestnut brown of sard duplicated in glass, but even the onyx, with its bands of light and dark, was expertly imitated.

Now it is quite usual for current books on gems to dismiss the pastes of the Roman glass maker as merely a practical method of providing colorful ring stones for those who could not afford the costly gems of the Orient. But it is well to hold in mind that in those days, and for centuries to follow, gems were largely judged on the basis of color only. To the man who was not an expert in differentiating between stones, a ruby, a garnet and a bit of ruby-colored glass might appear of equal value, and a rich red bit of glass might even seem more desirable than a pale ruby of uneven color. The glass maker of the first century A D was not above devoting his best efforts to the imitation of real stones with an eye to selling them at fabulous prices. Indeed, so prevalent was the custom of counterfeiting gems that Pliny cautioned buyers to beware of the treacherous practise.

By this time most of the precious and semi-precious stones known to us had been discovered and there is reason to believe the list now included the diamond. Greek writers of earlier days speak of the adamas (invincible) and some students point to this as proof that the diamond was known to the Greeks. However, they applied the term equally to hard metals and to emery (corundum) and there is nothing to indicate that any hard stone, such as the colorless sapphire (also corundum) did not have a better claim to the name adamas than did the diamond.

Pliny describes the adamas of his time as a stone found among the river sands of India. Some varieties, he says, resemble in shape two pyramids placed placed base to base. Since the octahedron is a form characteristic of certain diamond crystals, the river stones were probably true diamonds.

The manner of testing a genuine adamas was severe. According to Pliny the stone was placed on an anvil and hammered. If the blow broke the crystal it was proof that the gem was false; but if on the other hand, the crystal broke the anvil then it was a real adamas! Since even a diamond can be shattered into fragments by the moderate blow of a hammer, no precious stone could have survived the drastic test.

Jewelers Of Italy (continued)

Table Cuts

(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:

The first consideration was always size. The cutters soon learned that they could retain display with one or more or even all of a diamond’s corners left blunt. The reason for these blunt corners was not, as some authors have claimed, that sharp corners were too fragile, but that they were part of a technique which left visible the largest possible area of diamond. For the same reason, cutters began to introduce small or narrow facets to take the place of damaged or missing corners, as long as this did not interfere with size. Table Cuts with rounded outlines were fashioned from naturally rounded crystals such as curved octahedrons and rhombic dodecahedrons. But at the same time cutters had to remember that excessive weight, and clumsy angles and height proportions, might seriously reduce the light effects, when a more appropriate cut might give brilliance and in some cases even fire. Such problems could be solved in the planning stage by ‘stepping’ either the crown or the pavilion or both, by raising the girdle in order to spread the cut, or by giving the diamond a fancy outline.

When eventually, by the beginning of the eighteenth century, all well-proportioned Tables had been recut into Brilliants, only those of poor quality remained on the market, and eventually the cut went completely out of fashion. A fresh supply, clumsily cut the sole purpose of retaining maximum weight, arrived from India. It is not surprising, therefore, that for a long time after the middle of the eighteenth century hardly anyone had ever seen a really beautiful Table Cut. A new term was introduced to describe these crude gems—the Indian Cut. However, the well-proportioned old Table Cut has been brought back, not exactly as it was but still beautiful. It is now known as the Square Cut (Carré) for small stones, and as the Emerald Cut for larger stones. These are always step cut, with modern height proportions.

Until the fourteenth century it was normal for at least pointed diamonds to be documented without any mention of shape or faceting. It is possible that the French expression plat (as opposed to pointe) is one of the earliest indications of the existence of Table Cuts. One also comes across the Latin phrase quadratus planus. Plat appears in the inventories of Queen Joan of France (1360), King John the Good of France (1364) and the Duke of Burgundy (1420), among a number of others. Diamonds are described as quarrez, but also as plat, en façon de mirouer and roont. Plat also refers to comparatively flat diamonds regardless of their outline or faceting. But from this time on, quarrez is also often used to indicate Table Cuts, with increasing frequency towards the end of the fifteenth century, and often combined with the word plat.

Table Cuts (continued)

The Rise Of French Painting

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

4

Contemporary with Fragonard was a painter, who, though never the equal of Chardin as a craftsman, nevertheless approached him in the democratic temper of his art. Jean Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805), who was born near Macon and came to Paris in 1746, suddenly acquired fame and popularity when he was thirty by exhibiting at the Salon of 1755 his picture ‘A Father Explaining The Bible to his family.’ This familiar scene, with its everyday details and its personages taken from humble life, made an immediate appeal to the bourgeois, who found in it those new ideas of simplicity and morality which Jean Jacques Rousseau had spread among the middle classes. Lady Dilke, who evidently suspected the moral sincerity of Greuze, pronounced his pictures to be ‘stained by artificiality.’ His pictures were rendered attractive, she argued, by a ‘vein of wanton suggestion which found an echo in the dainty disorder in which his heroines are dressed.’

There are some strange parallels between the life of Greuze and that of Watteau, who died four years before his birth. Greuze’s father was also a carpenter, and he also opposed his son’s determination to become an artist. Greuze also began his career in extreme poverty, but fortunately he had a more robust constitution and withstood hardship better than Watteau. Greuze’s father whipped him when he caught him drawing, and Grueze also ran away to Paris with another painter, and he, too, when he got there found that nobody wanted to give him any employment. Both men were close on thirty before the turning point came, Watteau by his election to the Academy, and Grueze by the exhibition of his picture at the Salon. But there the parallel ends, and the close of Greuze’s life is more like that of Fragonard. For he also outlived his popularity and died in poverty.

It seems extraordinary that Grueze, the most popular of painters at all times, should have fared so badly at the end of his life. We cannot account for it by saying that Greuze could not accommodate himself to the change of taste brought about by the French Revolution, for throughout his career he was distinctly a bourgeois rather than an aristocratic painter. No, we must seek another explanation.

The miserable truth is that the seemingly sweet and innocent little person, who looks out at us continually from those pictures of girl’s heads which have brought the painter his greatest posthumous fame, was the cause of her immortaliser’s wretched end. To look at all the portraits of her which hang in the Wallace Collection, or at the one entitled ‘Girl Looking Up,’ which is in the National Gallery, is to find it difficult to believe that the original was an arrant little baggage. Yet some people, who profess to be judges of character, say that the Greuze girl is not so innocent as she pretends to be.

The historic truth is that she was the daughter of an old bookseller on the Quai des Augustins, Paris, and Greuze is said to have married her to save her reputation. He married Anne Gabriel in haste, and he repented at his leisure. Owing to her husband’s constant exposition of her charms, Madame Greuze became one of the noted beauties of the day, and though her husband was devoted to her and gave her crazily everything he could that she wanted, the ungrateful little hussy repaid him by robbing him not only of his peace of mind but of large sums of money that he had saved.

It is easy to be wise after the event, and Mr John Rivers in his book on Greuze and his Models maintains that every feature of Anne Gabriel ‘announced a hasty, passionate, and rather voluptuous nature’; nevertheless we are inclined, as human beings ourselves liable to error, to give our sympathy to Greuze and praise him for a generous and chivalrous action rather than to condemn him for having made an imprudent marriage. Though he painted other beautiful women, it is by his various fanciful portraits of his erring wife that Greuze has obtained his worldwide popularity, and there is hardly another instance in art of a painter who has achieved so great a fame by his exposition of the physical charms of a single model.

Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson will be erecting four giant waterfalls in New York for three months this summer in a public art project funded by New York's Public Art Fund (estimated cost: US$15 million) + the concept is about seeing water in a different way, which will range in height from 90 to 120 feet -- around the same as the Statue of Liberty from head to toe + the New York City officials are hoping to emulate the success of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's project, 'The Gates,' which drew around 1.5 million visitors to the city in February 2005 to view about 7,500 saffron panels draped through Central Park + the idea could bring an additional $55 million to the city's economy.

Useful link:
www.olafureliasson.net

I liked the idea + the concept is powered by renewable energy sources + the falls will be lit only by low-level lighting at night.

The Science Of Winning

The Science of Winning by Burton P. Fabricand draws some great analogies in market efficiencies + the book is entertaining.

Here is what the description of The Science of Winning says (via Amazon):
This book picks out the very best elements of Burton P. Fabricand's many works on betting and investment. Employing chaos theory, efficient market hypothesis, and the symmetry of free markets to help investors at both codes improve their investment performance, the implications of this astounding work are far-reaching.

Sala Design Pavilion

The 41st edition of the Bangkok Gem and Jewelry Fair, scheduled between Feb 27 and March 2, 2008, will introduce the Sala Design Pavilion + a new but unique concept featuring the color purple, the hue that's long been associated with royalty + the Thai manufacturers have overcome the age-old challenge of making purple gold strong, yet soft enough to withstand being shaped into jewelry as well as less reactive to contaminants + the 41st fair will also provide matchmaking plan that allows visitors to make business-to-business connections and appointments prior to the fair with 1,000 + exhibitors in 16 key categories of goods and services.

Useful links:
www.bangkokgemsfair.com
www.ospgemsjewelry.com

Harold Clayton Lloyd

Harold Clayton Lloyd was an American film actor + producer + he was most famous for his silent comedies + he is best remembered for his 'glasses character' + the thrill sequences + Safety Last! is my favorite.

Useful links:
www.haroldlloyd.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Lloyd

NASA Learning Technologies

NASA is in the early stages of creating a virtual world designed to educate players on rocket science and technology + the goal of this virtual world is to create a synthetic environment that could serve as tools for teaching a range of complex subjects.

Useful link:
http://learn.arc.nasa.gov

I wish the gem/jewelry/art industry had a similar concept.

Cash Flu

A study by Swiss scientists revealed that the flu virus can nestle and survive on banknotes for more than two weeks + if the virus was mixed with human mucus on the banknote, it could survive for two and a half weeks + a flu pandemic could be prolonged due to the millions of bank notes in circulation + the researchers are studying to see how much of a factor banknotes might be in flu transmission + the main risks remain airborne transmission and direct human contact.

What about gemstones and jewelry! Go to the gem and jewelry markets around the world and see for yourself. Are they different from banknotes? I doubt it.

The Genie Is Out Of The Bottle

Chaim Even Zohar writes about the Brenig case + the impact + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp

Table Cuts

(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:

The classical Table Cut may be defined as a pavilion-based gem with a table facet and a culet. The standard form was originally quadrangular with four main facets in the crown and four in the pavilion. Other outlines were imposed if the shape of the rough was favorable. These were described as rounds, shields, hearts, half-moons, calf’s heads, windows, epaulettes, whistles, bullets, etc. They not only had different contours but also different numbers of main facets. Occasionally they also had additional non-standard faceting.

Certain cuts which are extensions of the classical Table Cut but are faceted according to a specific pattern—for instance, the Cuboid Cut, the French Cut, the Scissor Cut and even the Brilliant Cut—are dealt with under their separate headings. The old Table Cuts themselves are subdivided into three groups according to their different height proportions, which produce different light effects. These are the Full Table Cut, the Mirror Cut and the Tablet. Briefly, the first includes the full proportioned type with c.45°angles of inclination in both crown and pavilion; the second, stones with a flat crown and a very spread table facet, but a full pavilion; the third, exceptionally flat stones with both an outsized table facet and an outsized culet.

The first Table Cuts were produced from dodecahedrons (of which there was, more or less accidentally, an ample supply) but the cutters gradually developed satisfactory angles and proportions which were commercially profitable because they could be achieved with a smaller loss of weight than a low Point Cut. Besides retaining size they were more attractive in appearance. The cutters then discovered the proportions that would give the best light effects for each shape. The style of cut which featured one square within another became particularly popular, following the vogue for similar shapes in architecture and fashion.

Table Cuts (continued)

Jewelers Of Italy

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

As Rome grew in military power her ‘illustrious expeditions’ penetrated farther and farther into other countries, converting them into Roman provinces under Roman control; and as plunder from foreign lands piled high, her ruling classes grew fabulously rich. In the new provinces Roman governors performed their duties with utmost thoroughness, leaving no plum unsqueezed. One Italian governor in Spain, however, sought to maintain a reputation for taking nothing from the public treasury. Cicero tells the following story concerning this governor:

He was going through the military exercises when the gold ring which he wore was, by some accident, broken and crushed. Wishing to have another ring made, he ordered a goldsmith to be summoned to the forum at Cardova, in front of his own judgment seat, and weighed out the gold to him in public. He ordered the man to set down his bench on the forum and make the ring for him in the presence of all, to prove that he had not employed the gold of the public treasury, not even half an ounce, but had merely given his old broken ring to be worked anew.

A ring that could be crushed on a man’s finger without involving also the crushing of the finger is accounted for by the type of rings popular in that day. They were large and impressive, but by no means as heavy as they appeared because, like the rings long since known to the Greeks, they were hollow. It was amazing how the goldsmith, by dint of much hammering and some welding together of thin plates could turn a very little ingot of gold into a big and important-looking ring. Of course the hollow ring of soft metal was easily crushed.

During the later days of the republic the gorgeous gems of the Orient were fairly pouring into Rome. There were iridescent opals, moonstones, tawny yellow topazes, sky-blue sapphires, olive-green peridots, the latter brought from an island in the Red Sea. Also from the warm waters of the Red Sea came lustrous pearls. Their round or pear-shaped form made them most desirable as pendants, and these pendant pearls were often of such price that a lady might dangle a fortune from each ear. Emeralds, the most prized of all stones, came from the famous mines of Cleopatra in upper Egypt; and lapis lazuli traveled by caravan from Afghanistan.

By this time gemstones were moving outside their original sphere as charms or articles of personal adornment and becoming items of collections. It is said that Scaurus, son-in-law of Sulla, was the first Roman to become a collector of gems. Once the pace was set, other wealthy men rushed headlong in pursuit of the fascinating new hobby.

Little garnets, aquamarines, topazes and peridots, all exquisitely engraved, would be sufficiently prized by the avid collector to wring from him enormous sums of money. And even, on occasion, something more precious than money.

The story is told of a senator, Nonius by name, who possessed an opal set in a ring. The opal was the size of hazel-nut, and of such surpassing beauty that at sight of it Mark Antony was overwhelmed by so inordinate a desire to own it that no sense of justice could restrain him. His heart was set—the story goes—on giving that gem to Cleopatra. He decreed that Nonius must either hand it over to him, Mark Antony, or suffer banishment from Rome. Now to be exiled from his beloved city was a peculiarly bitter fate for any Roman, but it was a choice of Rome or the opal. Nonius was forced to choose between them and he did. The gem won. Nonius took his opal and left Roman forever.

Imperial Caesar himself was not immune to the prevailing craze for collecting gems. In fact, he outranked the other enthusiasts and founded no less than six different collections of rare gems, which were kept on display in the temple of Venus Genetrix in Caesar’s Forum.

Although a man might with dignity collect gems to his heart’s content it was by now considered effeminate for him to wear any ring except that which bore his signet. On days of mourning, even signet-rings of gold would be laid aside and an iron one substituted as an indication of grief. On the day of Caesar’s funeral the only rings in evidence were bands of dull iron, the Roman equivalent for a band of crêpe on a coat-sleeve.

Jewelers Of Italy (continued)

The Rise Of French Painting

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

3

Side by side with these aristocratic painters whose art reflected the temper of the French Court, we find now and then an artist of genius who expresses the life and feelings of the people. The greatest of these was Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin (1699-1779), who was also born in Paris. Though he worked for a time under the Court painter Van Loo at Fontaineblueau, and was elected a member of the Academy in 1728, Chardin was never a favorite with the nobles of France, nor did he make any effort to pander to their taste. His pictures, like those of his predecessors the brothers Le Nain, were ‘tainted with democracy,’ and the intense humanity of Chardin links him to his great contemporary on the other side of the Channel, William Hogarth.

Though Chardin, as Lady Dilke once said, ‘treated subjects of the humblest and most unpretentious class, he brought to their rendering, not only deep feeling and a penetration which divines the innermost truths of the simplest forms of life, but a perfection of workmanship by which everything he handled was clothed with beauty.’

Like the Persian poet, Chardin could compose a song about a loaf of bread and a glass of red wine—as his beautiful still-life in the National Gallery, London, proved—while ‘The Pancake Maker’ shows what beauty and tenderness he could find in the kitchen.

Amid all the artificiality of the gaudy Court of Versailles, Chardin stands out as the supreme interpreter of the sweetness and sane beauty of domesticity. He was a poet with the unspoilt heart of a child who could reveal to us the loveliness in the common things of life.

How strong a character Chardin must have been to resist the current of the time and adhere unswervingly to his simple democratic ideals we realize when we contemplate the talent and career of Jean Honoré Fragnonard (1732-1806), who was for a time his pupil. We have only to look at Fragonard’s charming domestic scene, ‘The Happy Mother,’ in the National Gallery, London, to see that this artist also might have been a painter of the people. He shows us here the home of a blacksmith, whose forge is seen in the background, while in the center the young mother with her three children sits at a table, and beyond another woman rocks a cradle.

For good or ill Fragonard chose another path, and after he had gained from Chardin a knowledge of sound craftsmanship which he never afterwards lost, he chose a more fashionable master and became the pupil of Boucher. In 1752, at the age of twenty, he won the Prix de Rome, and in 1756 he went for four years to Italy, where he made a particular study of the decorative paintings of ‘The Last of the Venetian,’ namely, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1769). He returned to Paris in 1761 and almost immediately became a favorite with the French nobility.

In Fragonard, wrote Lady Dilke, ‘Boucher found his true heir. The style of Court fashions and customs, highly artificial even in the affectation of nature and simplicity, the temper of society, purely sensual in spite of pretensions to sentiment, gave birth to innumerable fictions which took their place in the commerce of ordinary life. Eternal youth, perpetual pleasure, and all the wanton graces, their insincere airs masked by a voluptuous charm, came into seeming—a bright deceitful vision which cheated and allured all eyes....The hours float by in waves of laughter, and the scent of flowers which breathe of endless summer fills the air. Existence in the gardens of Fragonard is pleasure; its penalties and pains are ignored, just as sickness and sorrow were then ignored in actual life.’

Highly typical of the period and of the manner in which Fragonard catered for the taste of his patrons is his picture ‘The Swing’, painted to order and exhibiting all the characteristics which Lady Dilke has so brilliantly analyzed in the passage quoted. The workmanship is beautiful, the drawing and color are alike charming, but these displays of so-called ‘gallantry’ are detestable to many people, and through it all we are conscious of the insincerity of a clever and highly gifted painter.

Pictures which Fragonard painted purely to please himself, like ‘The Happy Mother’ and the ‘The Lady Carving her Name,’ a tiny canvas which cost Lord Hertford £1400 in 1865, are less typical of Fragonard, but often pleasanter to gaze upon than his commissions and elaborate decorations. But even in these subjects Fragonard is always frolicsome and playful where Chardin was serious and earnest, and it is impossible to escape the conclusion that Fragonard’s was essentially a shallow nature. For all his cleverness he paid the penalty of his insincerity; he outlived his popularity and ultimately died in dire poverty. In 1806 the times had changed; Napoleon and the French Revolution had swept away the frivolities of Versailles.

The Rise Of French Painting (continued)

Play Poker

In Silicon Valley, entrepreneurs may use whatever tools they've got to get ahead, but for Zach Coelius, CEO of Triggit, a new web service that helps bloggers easily add pictures, video and ads, an appetite for risk and fine-tuned poker skills helped him secure funding and get his startup off the ground + there is a good chance that the company might become a role model for other startups.

In a cutthroat gem/jewelry/art business environment, I think poker habit might help aspiring entrepreneurs to think/act differently. You may never know!

The World Database Of Happiness

THE World Database of Happiness, in Rotterdam, collects all the available information about what makes people happy and why @ http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl

Here is an interesting observation by Eric Hoffer, an American social philosopher:
'The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.'

Darren Almond

Adrian Searle writes about Darren Almond's art work + his newest work in Fire Under Snow, opening this week at London's Parasol Unit @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2242109,00.html

Useful links:
http://www.whitecube.com/artists/almond
http://www.artnet.com/artist/1411/darren-almond.html

Indian Gold Market

Commodityonline writes about the overheated Indian gold market + the global currency fluctuations + the rupee swing + other viewpoints @ http://www.commodityonline.com/news/specials/newsdetails.php?id=4914

Gemory

A silicon-valley company claims it can nano-inscribe high-resolution photographs on girdles and tables, on diamonds as small as one pointers + it's forever.

Useful link:
www.gemory.com

The Billionaire That Wasn't

Here is the amazing story of entrepreneur/philanthropist Chuck Feeney + Economist's review + The Billionaire That Wasn't + he was an Andrew Carnegie fan + he created a foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies, based in Bermuda + two years later he signed over his fortune to the foundation, except for sums set aside for his wife and children + his net worth fell below $5m + when he broke the news to his children, he gave them each a copy of Andrew Carnegie's essay on wealth, written in 1889.

Useful link:
http://atlanticphilanthropies.org

Burma Update

It has been reported that 24th Gems and Jade Sales 2008 organized by the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings will be held at Myanmar Gems Emporium Hall, from 15th January - 19th January 2008 + according to New Light of Myanmar the 45th Myanma Gems Emporium 2008 is scheduled to be held in March, 2008.

Useful links:
www.myawaddytrade.com
www.myanmar.com

Sweet Smell Of Success

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
Directed by: Alexander Mackendrick
Screenplay: Ernest Lehman (novelette); Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison

(via YouTube): Sweet Smell of Success - 'In The Bag'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TorT-kVOqP8

Sweet Smell of Success - 'Greedy Murmur of Little Men'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N77uqGZPUPw

It's a great film + the dialogues are superb + the characters are memorable + I enjoyed it.

Jewelers Of Italy

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

2. Greco-Roman Goldsmiths

While the successors of Alexander were disputing among themselves, Rome was growing into a power which ultimately dominated territory as wide as the United States; and Greece was among the nations that succumbed to her rule.

The Romans were more practical than artistic. Their houses and their clothes, in the early days, were simple and austere, lacking ornament and luxury. Nevertheless, it would seem that their simplicity of living was founded on paucity of invention rather than severity of taste. Their conquests gave them power over many countries, and also a golden opportunity for looting; and no Roman army disdained the chance to carry home the luxuries created in other lands. From Macedonia alone they brought more than two hundred wagonloads of paintings and statuary. Mosaics, rich hangings and carpets, horse-trappings set with gems, and golden jewelry sparkling with precious stones from Alexandria were conveyed over land and sea to Rome. Not only did a conquering army seize objects of art but is brought back, among its prisoners of war, artists and craftsmen, thereby insuring a further supply of the fine arts to be created at the demand of the Roman citizen.

Luxuries hitherto unknown to the Roman found a warm welcome. Greek sculptors were set to making statues of Roman gods, with the result that many of the stone deities were but idealized versions of the Greek youths who posed for the sculptors, and many of these statues later appeared in miniature designs engraved on gems. The Greek goldsmith who fashioned jewelry for his Roman patrons did so according to his native designs. The art of a conquered people continued long to dominate the art of its conquerors.

And so the once drab and bare interior of the Roman house became colorful and rich with foreign plunder and erstwhile simplicity of dress gave place to more ostentatious garb. Jewelry and ever more jewelry decked the rich Roman lady of fashion. It is curious to note how the ancient Roman jewelry reflects the spirit of the times and proclaims, like a blast of trumpets, the arrogant pride of riches. The heavy, opulent necklaces, bracelets, and rings fairly wallow in wealth of gold and suggest that the people who wore them were somewhat larger than life.

Those who disapproved of the growing trend toward finery and frivolity arose to plead for a return to the good old fashions of frugal severity in dress and austerity of behavior. They hurled thunders of condemnation at the amount of jewelry worn and especially at the great numbers of rings that loaded the fingers. And as for the frivolous fashion, to mention one, of sending Roman boys to Greek dancing classes......what was the younger generation coming to?

Long before the year 1 A.D. the censor was with us, and at that particular time he was present in the person of Cato. Cato seems to have disapproved quite comprehensively of Roman fashions, and as he had power to shape the law, he dictated law after law prohibiting the things he did not like. Jewelry in particular came under the ban of his displeasure, therefore he rather specialized in laws concerning it. He specified the number of jewels a citizen might wear and what kind of metal a man’s ring should be made of—whether gold, silver or iron—depending on the wearer’s station in life. Even senators might not wear their gold rings in private life. These rings were kept in the treasury and handed out only to those who were sent as embassies to foreign lands, in which case the ring was not merely an ornament but a badge of office.

The signet-ring of iron, being a humble thing of use and not of ostentation, appears to have escaped the censor’s ban. For a time these laws of prohibition checked and held down the love of luxury and display, but only for a while.

Jewelers Of Italy (continued)

The Rise Of French Painting

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

2

While Watteau was laying the foundations for the romantic and impressionist painting of modern France, another group of French figure-painters were evolving a national ‘grand style’ for French portraiture. This new style first made its appearance when Largilliére began painting Louis XIV and his family, and a typical example of it may be found in the Wallace Collection.

Nicholas Largilliére (1656-1746), who was nearly thirty years older than Watteau, was born in Paris, but worked for many years in London, where he was an assistant to Sir Peter Lely and a great favorite with King Charles II. But unlike his master Lely—who rivalled the Vicar of Bray in keeping in with both sides—Largilliére was a Royalist through and through, and like the faller Stuarts he returned to France and made Paris his home during the latter part of his life. His drawing is accurate but rather hard, his color harmonious and lighter in hue than that of his predecessors Mignard and Le Brun, and his great canvas at the Wallace Collection of Louis XIV with the Dauphin, the Duc de Bourgogne, the infant Du ďAnjou (afterwards Louis XV), and Madame de Maintenon, shows how magnificently he could stage and present a royal group.

Among his contemporaries were Hyacinth Rigaud (1659-1743), and his pupil Jean Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755), who won much fame as superintendent of the royal tapestry manufactories of the Gobelins and Beauvais; but his most famous successor was Jean Marc Nattier (1685-1766), a Parisian-born, who became one of the favorite portrait-painters at the Court of Louis XV. Nattier commented his career as a historical painter, and only took up portraiture in 1720 after he had lost all his savings through the speculation of John Law, the Scottish financier and adventurer. His paintings are also little hard, but they are light and gay in color and remarkably stately in their grouping and arrangement.

Another Paris-born artist acquired still wider fame. This was Francois Boucher (1703-70), who gained the first prize at the Academy when he was only twenty years old and afterwards studied in Rome. ‘No one,’ wrote the late Lady Dilke of this artist, ‘ever attacked a greater variety of styles; his drawings—often extremely good—are to be met with in every important collection. Innumerable were his easel pictures, his mural decorations, his designs for tapestries at Beauvais or the Gobelins, his scene paintings for Versailles and the Opera.’

No artist more completely illustrates and represents French taste in the eighteenth century than Francois Boucher, who was indeed the leader of fashion in this direction, and by his creative genius brought a new note into European painting. He introduced a lighter and gayer scheme of color into tapestries and decorative paintings, pale blues and pinks being dominant in his color schemes. He designed many paintings and decorations for the famous Madame de Pompadour, and the sweet color now generally known as rose du Barry was invented by Boucher and was originally called Rose Pompadour.

To do justice to the French portraiture of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, we must remember the ornate gilt furniture of the period with which they were surrounded. Portraits like Nattier’s ‘Mademoiselle de Clermont’ and Boucher’s ‘Marquise de Pompadour’—both of which are in the Wallace Collection—must not be judged as easel paintings, but as items in an elaborate scheme of interior decoration. There is nothing like them in the history of portraiture, just as there never was a Court exactly like that of the ‘Grand Monarch’ or of his immediate successors. These portraits reconvey to us all the splendors of Versailles, its luxury and its heartlessness. They are the quintessence of aristocratic feeling, so full of culture that there is little room for humanity. The pride they express ends by alienating our sympathy, for they are the most pompous pictures the world has ever seen.

The Rise Of French Painting (continued)

Tahitian Pearls

Tahitian cultured pearls, due to their exotic beauty + strong promotion by Perles de Tahiti, have become the best-selling pearls on the Chinese Mainland + Chinese Mainland consumers often cannot differentiate white South Sea pearls from white Chinese freshwater pearls + I think price-competitiveness + color uniqueness could also be a factor for Tahitian pearls' popularity.

Useful link:
www.perlesdetahiti.net

Glittering Gold, Dazzling Diamond

Commodityonline writes about the status of gold and diamond in India + year-over-year growth in value + other viewpoints @ http://www.commodityonline.com/news/topstory/newsdetails.php?id=4892

Heard On The Street

Some food for thought:

- Avoid the so-called inside information.
- Never buy gemstones/jewelry/art on excitement.
- Use your own judgment.
- Don't put too much reliance on advertisements.
- Don't lose confidence.

Diamdel Auctions Rough Diamonds

Diamdel has launched a new website @ www.diamdel.com where registered companies will be able to participate and bid for rough + it's a subsidiary of De Beers that supplies the secondary market.

Rolling Stones

You Can't Always Get What You Want is a song by the Rolling Stones released on their 1969 album Let It Bleed + written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was named as the 100th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone in its 2004 list of '500 Greatest Songs of All Time.'

Useful link:
www.rollingstones.com

White Heat

White Heat (1949)
Directed by: Raoul Walsh
Screenplay: Virginia Kellogg (story); Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts
Cast: James Cagney, Margaret Wycherly, Virginia Mayo

(via YouTube): White Heat Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx8Eq0GbZ2o

A wonderfully vicious movie + breathless gangster genre. I enjoyed it.

Jewelers Of Italy

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

1. Etruscan Craftsmen

The early history of the jewelry-makers of Italy is not unlike the early history of the goldsmiths of Greece.

Something less than three thousand years ago there lived in Italy, north of the Tiber, an olive-skinned people known as Etruscans. They were sea-roving race with a keen taste for plunder-pirates rather than merchants. Raiding, however, was a dangerous method of acquiring goods and not always profitable; so the Phoenician traders with their colorful jewelry and other products of the Orient were welcomed by the Etruscans, who had raw materials and metals to exchange for manufactured articles. One may suppose that if a merchant ship of the East was booked to market her wares at Etruria she carried an extra large stock of bright beads, scarabs, precious stones and metal ornaments, for the people of Etruria seem to have had a very passion for glittering jewelry.

Etruria, like other foreign markets touched by Oriental influence, did in time learn the craft of the goldsmith for herself; and although she always continued to borrow designs, first from the East and then from Greece, she nevertheless carried their execution to a point ‘never since’, says one authority, ‘equaled in the jeweler’s art.’ Cellini, in his Memoirs, tells of an Etruscan necklace of exquisite workmanship which had just been unearthed. Said he, ‘Alas, it is better not to imitate these Etruscans, for we should be nothing but their humble servants. Let us rather strike out a new path which will, at least, have the merit of originality.’

Both men and women of Etruria wore quantities of rings. Many of these rings were set with copies of the little sacred beetle of the Nile elaborately mounted on swivels. Dull red carnelian from their won river beds was the stone most commonly used for the scarabs, but they were also expertly carved with amazing realism in fine sard, sardonyx and even such precious stones as the emerald, imported from Egypt.

The women wore elaborate head ornaments, fillets and diadems, or wreaths of leaves, all made of gold, with long gold hairpins topped with acorns or balls. They loved amber, which was set in silver, gold, or that moonlight-tinted gold called ‘electrum,’ an alloy of gold and silver.

The wearing of amulets was universal, and a conspicuous part of the Etruscan necklace was the hollow pendant in which the magic token was carried. The pendant, or bulla, was often made of two or more gold plates thin enough to take on a pattern when pressed against a stone mold into which the pattern had been cut. Sometimes several pieces of the molded gold were soldered together to form tiny vases, little heads of gods or goddesses, or small apes, or lions.

The Phoenicians method of decorating the surface of gold ornaments with fine grains was developed by the Etruscans to a point never equaled even by the Greeks. The tiny globules of gold were soldered, grain by grain, onto the metal surface, thus producing a rich and intricate design built with individual dots almost too small to distinguish with the naked eye. It is for this marvelous granular work, so frost-like in appearance, that the jewelry of Etruria is particularly famous. But in the course of the next few centuries her craftsmen, no longer conspicuously skillful, were producing work that was both coarse and poor.

Jewelers Of Italy (continued)