The Levity Effect: Why it Pays to Lighten Up by Adrian Gostick + Scott Christopher is an interesting book about humor in the workplace because in the changing workforce/workplace environment fun is a serious business.
I liked the book + I think a fun workplace improves communication and morale + you can achieve anything you want while enjoying what you do by changing you.
Useful links:
www.levityeffect.com
www.greatplacetowork.com
www.ipsos.com
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
The Mazarin Diamond Number 4
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
One more diamond belonging to the French crown was the Mazarin number 4. It originally weighed 24¼ ct. It was Sancy Cut above, but as it was said to have been ‘very thick’ it will have had a pavilion of some sort, possibly very primitively faceted. The Mazarin was refashioned, some time between 1786 and 1788, into a roundish oval Brilliant weighing 13 5/8 ct.
One more diamond belonging to the French crown was the Mazarin number 4. It originally weighed 24¼ ct. It was Sancy Cut above, but as it was said to have been ‘very thick’ it will have had a pavilion of some sort, possibly very primitively faceted. The Mazarin was refashioned, some time between 1786 and 1788, into a roundish oval Brilliant weighing 13 5/8 ct.
Realism And Impressionism In France
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
The nineteenth was a scientific century during which great additions were made to our knowledge of optics. The French scientist Chevreuil wrote a learned book on color, which was studied with avidity by the younger painters. It became clear to them that color was not a simple but a very complex matter. For example, we say that grass is green, and the green is the local color of grass, that is to say, the color of grass at close range, when we look down on it at our feet. But grass-covered hills seen at a great distance do not appear green, but blue. The green of their local color is affected by the veil of atmosphere through which we view it in the distance, and the blue we see is an example of atmospheric color. Again, the local color of snow is white, but everybody who has been to Switzerland is familiar with the ‘Alpine glow’ when the snow-clad peaks of the mountains appear a bright copper color owing to the rays of the setting sun. This ‘Alpine glow’ is an example of illumination color, and since the color of sunlight is changing throughout the day, everything in Nature is affected by the color of the light which falls upon it.
The landscape painter, then, who, wishes to reproduce the actual hues of Nature, has to consider not only ‘local color’ but also ‘atmospheric color’ and ‘illumination color’, and further take into consideration ‘complementary colors.’ One of the most important discoveries made by the later Impressionist painters was that in the shadows there always appears the complementary color of the light. We should ponder on all these things if we wish to realize the full significance of Manet’s saying, ‘The principal person in a picture is the light.’
This new intensive study of color brought about a new palette and a new technique. For centuries all painting had been based on three primary colors, red, blue, and yellow; but science now taught the painters that though these might be primary colors in pigment, they were not primary colors in light. The spectroscope and the new science of spectrum-analysis made them familiar with the fact that white light is composed of all colors of the rainbow, which is the spectrum of sunlight. They learnt that the primary colors of light were green, orange-red, and blue-violet, and that yellow—though a primary in paint—was a secondary in light, because a yellow light can be produced by blending a green light with an orange-red light. On the other hand green, a secondary in paint because it can be produced by mixing yellow with blue pigment, is a primary in light. These discoveries revolutionized their ideas about color, and the Impressionist painters concluded they could only hope to paint the true color of sunlight by employing pigments which matched the colors of which sunlight was composed, that is to say, the tints of the rainbow. They discarded black altogether, for, modified by atmosphere and light, they held that a true black did not exist in Nature: the darkest color was indigo, dark green, or a deep violet. They would not use a brown, but set their palettes with indigo, blue green, yellow, orange, red, and violet, the nearest colors they could obtain to the seven of the solar spectrum.
Further, they used these colors with as little mixing as possible. Every amateur in watercolor knows that the more he mixes his paints, the more they lose in brilliancy. The same is true of oil paints. The Impressionists refrained, therefore, as much as possible from mixing colors on their palettes, and applied them pure in minute touches to the canvas. If they wanted to render secondary or tertiary colors, instead of mixing two or three pigments on the palette, they would secure the desired effect by juxtaposed touches of pure colors which, at a certain distance, fused in the eye of the beholder and produced the effect of the tint desired. This device is known as optical mixture, because the mixing is done in the spectator’s eye. Thus, whereas red and green pigment mixed on a palette will give a dull grey, the Impressionists produced a brilliant luminous grey by speckling a sky, say, with little points of yellow and mauve which at a distance gave the effect of a pearly grey. Similarly the effect of a brilliant brown was given by the juxtaposition of a series of minute touches of green, red and yellow; and this association of minute touches of three pure colors set up a quivering vibration which had greater luminosity than any streak of brown pigment. It was an endeavor to use paints as if they were colored lights.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
The nineteenth was a scientific century during which great additions were made to our knowledge of optics. The French scientist Chevreuil wrote a learned book on color, which was studied with avidity by the younger painters. It became clear to them that color was not a simple but a very complex matter. For example, we say that grass is green, and the green is the local color of grass, that is to say, the color of grass at close range, when we look down on it at our feet. But grass-covered hills seen at a great distance do not appear green, but blue. The green of their local color is affected by the veil of atmosphere through which we view it in the distance, and the blue we see is an example of atmospheric color. Again, the local color of snow is white, but everybody who has been to Switzerland is familiar with the ‘Alpine glow’ when the snow-clad peaks of the mountains appear a bright copper color owing to the rays of the setting sun. This ‘Alpine glow’ is an example of illumination color, and since the color of sunlight is changing throughout the day, everything in Nature is affected by the color of the light which falls upon it.
The landscape painter, then, who, wishes to reproduce the actual hues of Nature, has to consider not only ‘local color’ but also ‘atmospheric color’ and ‘illumination color’, and further take into consideration ‘complementary colors.’ One of the most important discoveries made by the later Impressionist painters was that in the shadows there always appears the complementary color of the light. We should ponder on all these things if we wish to realize the full significance of Manet’s saying, ‘The principal person in a picture is the light.’
This new intensive study of color brought about a new palette and a new technique. For centuries all painting had been based on three primary colors, red, blue, and yellow; but science now taught the painters that though these might be primary colors in pigment, they were not primary colors in light. The spectroscope and the new science of spectrum-analysis made them familiar with the fact that white light is composed of all colors of the rainbow, which is the spectrum of sunlight. They learnt that the primary colors of light were green, orange-red, and blue-violet, and that yellow—though a primary in paint—was a secondary in light, because a yellow light can be produced by blending a green light with an orange-red light. On the other hand green, a secondary in paint because it can be produced by mixing yellow with blue pigment, is a primary in light. These discoveries revolutionized their ideas about color, and the Impressionist painters concluded they could only hope to paint the true color of sunlight by employing pigments which matched the colors of which sunlight was composed, that is to say, the tints of the rainbow. They discarded black altogether, for, modified by atmosphere and light, they held that a true black did not exist in Nature: the darkest color was indigo, dark green, or a deep violet. They would not use a brown, but set their palettes with indigo, blue green, yellow, orange, red, and violet, the nearest colors they could obtain to the seven of the solar spectrum.
Further, they used these colors with as little mixing as possible. Every amateur in watercolor knows that the more he mixes his paints, the more they lose in brilliancy. The same is true of oil paints. The Impressionists refrained, therefore, as much as possible from mixing colors on their palettes, and applied them pure in minute touches to the canvas. If they wanted to render secondary or tertiary colors, instead of mixing two or three pigments on the palette, they would secure the desired effect by juxtaposed touches of pure colors which, at a certain distance, fused in the eye of the beholder and produced the effect of the tint desired. This device is known as optical mixture, because the mixing is done in the spectator’s eye. Thus, whereas red and green pigment mixed on a palette will give a dull grey, the Impressionists produced a brilliant luminous grey by speckling a sky, say, with little points of yellow and mauve which at a distance gave the effect of a pearly grey. Similarly the effect of a brilliant brown was given by the juxtaposition of a series of minute touches of green, red and yellow; and this association of minute touches of three pure colors set up a quivering vibration which had greater luminosity than any streak of brown pigment. It was an endeavor to use paints as if they were colored lights.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
Gem + Jewelry Update
According to the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council, India's total gem and jewelry exports provisionally stood at $20.9 billion in the year to March 2008.
Useful link:
www.gjepc.org
Useful link:
www.gjepc.org
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Bernard Magrez
The story of Bernard Magrez, the business-oriented winemaker, with an estimated 30 plus vineyards in seven countries @ http://nz.entertainment.yahoo.com/080413/8/4vl3.html is unique because as an outsider, in terms of the Bordeaux establishment, he is different/self-made + more importantly he knows how to cut down a tree!
I think he is one-of-a-kind person in the wine business + there is something to learn.
Useful link:
www.bernard-magrez.com
I think he is one-of-a-kind person in the wine business + there is something to learn.
Useful link:
www.bernard-magrez.com
Jewelry Collection Of Christina Onassis
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The Sun Halo
The Sun Halo in Ethiopia, which is the ring of light caused by sunlight refracted by ice crystals hung in the sky @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7346133.stm was beautiful + the photograph reminded me of inclusions in Corundum (rubies + sapphires).
A Win-Win Business Model
The article on Specialisterne@ http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5869.html
was interesting because I haven't heard of autism spectrum disorder + the after-effects, but what's intriguing is that someone had found an industry niche, along with a commitment to raising the profile of hidden talents of individuals with ASD.
Brilliant!
Useful link:
www.specialisterne.com
was interesting because I haven't heard of autism spectrum disorder + the after-effects, but what's intriguing is that someone had found an industry niche, along with a commitment to raising the profile of hidden talents of individuals with ASD.
Brilliant!
Useful link:
www.specialisterne.com
Glasgow's Art Festival
Glasgow International (founded in 2004) is now set to become a regular biennial + it has the most developed arts scene outside London + the city supports a number of commercial galleries + the event will run until April 27, 2008.
A must-visit. You will always learn something new.
Useful links:
www.glasgowinternational.org
www.glasgowmuseums.com
www.themoderninstitute.com
www.sorchadallas.com
www.marymarygallery.co.uk
A must-visit. You will always learn something new.
Useful links:
www.glasgowinternational.org
www.glasgowmuseums.com
www.themoderninstitute.com
www.sorchadallas.com
www.marymarygallery.co.uk
Confessions Of A Shopaholic
The book Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella is funny + refreshing because at times you realize that we all have spending habits, a lot of us do + I think that most males / females will find themselves in Rebecca Bloomwood.
Useful links:
www.sophiekinsella.co.uk
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1093908
Useful links:
www.sophiekinsella.co.uk
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1093908
Two Flat-Bottomed Sancy Cut Diamonds
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Two diamonds from Mazarin’s collection, numbers 17 and 18, are of similar shape and faceting, but differ radically from ordinary Sancy Cuts in being flatbacks. If the two halves were rejoined on their flat sides, they would form a single Sancy Cut diamond. The original crystal, which must have been either a macle or a dodecahedroid stone, was probably cleaved into two halves before being given the same faceting as the Grand Sancy. A close inspection of the gems in their settings revealed that not only were the two stones identical in outline, but also in their slightly brownish tint. There is no question of their not being originally the same stone.
In the 1691 inventory the two diamonds were described as being ‘faceted and heart-shaped’, but in 1791, following contemporary nomenclature, they were called ‘Rose Cuts’, and were said to weigh 21 3/19 ct. At one time they were dress buttons, first for Louis XIV and then for Louis XV. Louis XVIII had them set in a broadsword, later worn by Bapst in 1885 for the Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon I, and are in the Galerie d’Apollon, Musée du Louvre. Between the twin Mazarins, Bapst place two very old lozenge-shaped diamonds, and below them an equally old pentagonal one. All three are trihedrally faceted. The large drop in the center, which is almost a Sancy Cut, could, in fact, be Tavernier’s number 10, very slightly symmetrized. It is larger than the stone depicted in Tavernier’s book but is very similarly fashioned. Under this is an unusual long hexagon with very narrow facets. I believe this to be the cut called, in old French inventories, Tombstone (en façon de tombeau).
Two diamonds from Mazarin’s collection, numbers 17 and 18, are of similar shape and faceting, but differ radically from ordinary Sancy Cuts in being flatbacks. If the two halves were rejoined on their flat sides, they would form a single Sancy Cut diamond. The original crystal, which must have been either a macle or a dodecahedroid stone, was probably cleaved into two halves before being given the same faceting as the Grand Sancy. A close inspection of the gems in their settings revealed that not only were the two stones identical in outline, but also in their slightly brownish tint. There is no question of their not being originally the same stone.
In the 1691 inventory the two diamonds were described as being ‘faceted and heart-shaped’, but in 1791, following contemporary nomenclature, they were called ‘Rose Cuts’, and were said to weigh 21 3/19 ct. At one time they were dress buttons, first for Louis XIV and then for Louis XV. Louis XVIII had them set in a broadsword, later worn by Bapst in 1885 for the Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon I, and are in the Galerie d’Apollon, Musée du Louvre. Between the twin Mazarins, Bapst place two very old lozenge-shaped diamonds, and below them an equally old pentagonal one. All three are trihedrally faceted. The large drop in the center, which is almost a Sancy Cut, could, in fact, be Tavernier’s number 10, very slightly symmetrized. It is larger than the stone depicted in Tavernier’s book but is very similarly fashioned. Under this is an unusual long hexagon with very narrow facets. I believe this to be the cut called, in old French inventories, Tombstone (en façon de tombeau).
Realism And Impressionism In France
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
3
If we look at all the bottles in ‘A Bar at the Folies—Bergère’ we shall notice that the treatment of detail here is totally different from the treatment of detail, say, in Millais’s ‘Ophelia’. In his picture Millais looked at each leaf, flower, and branch separately, and set them down separately on his canvas like a sum in addition. But all the bottles in Manet’s picture are seen simulataneously in relation to each other: it is a synthesis, not an addition. Impressionism, then, in the first place, is the result of simultaenous vision that sees a scene as a whole as opposed to consecutive vision that sees Nature piece by piece. Let us suppose, for a moment, that we are staying at a house on the banks of the Seine opposite the church at Vernon. Let us suppose that, having arrived there in darkness the previous evening, we jump out of bed in the morning, open the window, and put out our head to see the view. Monet’s picture ‘The Church at Vernon’ shows us what we should see at the first glance; the glance, that is to say, when we see the scene as a whole, before any detail in it has riveted our attention and caused us unconsciously to alter the focus of our eye in order to see that detail more sharply. Another way of putting the matter is to say that in an Impressionist picture there is only one focus throughout, while in a Pre-Raphaelite picture there is a different focus for every detail. These two methods of painting represent different ways of looking at the world, and neither way is wrong, only whereas the Pre-Raphaelite looks particularly at a series of objects, the Impressionist looks generally at the whole.
This way of viewing a scene broadly, however, is only a part of Impressionism. It was not a new invention, for Velazquez saw and painted figures and groups in a similar way, therefore Impressionists like Whistler and Manet (in his earlier works), who adopted this broad style, were in this respect developing an existing tradition rather than inventing a new one. But a later development of Impressionism which was a complete innovation, was the new palette they adopted. From the time of Daubigny, who said, ‘We never paint light enough,’ the more progressive painters had striven to make the colors in their pictures closer to the actual hues of Nature. Delacroix was one of the pioneers in the analysis of color. When he was in Morocco he wrote in his Journal about the shadows he had seen on the faces of two peasant boys, remarking that while a sallow, yellow-faced boy had violet shadows, a red-faced boy had green shadows. Again, in the streets of Paris, Delacroix noticed a black and yellow cab, and observed that, beside the greenish-yellow, the black took on a tinge of the complementary color, violet. An advertisement issued by a well-known soap firm will have made many readers familiar with the phenomenon of complementary color. The name of the soap was printed in bright red letters on a white paper, and we were asked, after gazing at this steadfastly for a few moments, to look up at a white ceiling, when we should see the name of the soap in green letters. Every color has its complementary, that is to say, an opposing color is evoked by the action of the human eye after we have been gazing at the said color; consequently all colors act and react on one another. Delacroix discovered that to obtain the full brilliance of any given hue it should be flanked and supported by its complementary color. He did not attain to full knowledge; it was left for a later generation to make nicer complementary for a greenish-yellow, an orange-yellow requires a turquoise blue, and so on.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
3
If we look at all the bottles in ‘A Bar at the Folies—Bergère’ we shall notice that the treatment of detail here is totally different from the treatment of detail, say, in Millais’s ‘Ophelia’. In his picture Millais looked at each leaf, flower, and branch separately, and set them down separately on his canvas like a sum in addition. But all the bottles in Manet’s picture are seen simulataneously in relation to each other: it is a synthesis, not an addition. Impressionism, then, in the first place, is the result of simultaenous vision that sees a scene as a whole as opposed to consecutive vision that sees Nature piece by piece. Let us suppose, for a moment, that we are staying at a house on the banks of the Seine opposite the church at Vernon. Let us suppose that, having arrived there in darkness the previous evening, we jump out of bed in the morning, open the window, and put out our head to see the view. Monet’s picture ‘The Church at Vernon’ shows us what we should see at the first glance; the glance, that is to say, when we see the scene as a whole, before any detail in it has riveted our attention and caused us unconsciously to alter the focus of our eye in order to see that detail more sharply. Another way of putting the matter is to say that in an Impressionist picture there is only one focus throughout, while in a Pre-Raphaelite picture there is a different focus for every detail. These two methods of painting represent different ways of looking at the world, and neither way is wrong, only whereas the Pre-Raphaelite looks particularly at a series of objects, the Impressionist looks generally at the whole.
This way of viewing a scene broadly, however, is only a part of Impressionism. It was not a new invention, for Velazquez saw and painted figures and groups in a similar way, therefore Impressionists like Whistler and Manet (in his earlier works), who adopted this broad style, were in this respect developing an existing tradition rather than inventing a new one. But a later development of Impressionism which was a complete innovation, was the new palette they adopted. From the time of Daubigny, who said, ‘We never paint light enough,’ the more progressive painters had striven to make the colors in their pictures closer to the actual hues of Nature. Delacroix was one of the pioneers in the analysis of color. When he was in Morocco he wrote in his Journal about the shadows he had seen on the faces of two peasant boys, remarking that while a sallow, yellow-faced boy had violet shadows, a red-faced boy had green shadows. Again, in the streets of Paris, Delacroix noticed a black and yellow cab, and observed that, beside the greenish-yellow, the black took on a tinge of the complementary color, violet. An advertisement issued by a well-known soap firm will have made many readers familiar with the phenomenon of complementary color. The name of the soap was printed in bright red letters on a white paper, and we were asked, after gazing at this steadfastly for a few moments, to look up at a white ceiling, when we should see the name of the soap in green letters. Every color has its complementary, that is to say, an opposing color is evoked by the action of the human eye after we have been gazing at the said color; consequently all colors act and react on one another. Delacroix discovered that to obtain the full brilliance of any given hue it should be flanked and supported by its complementary color. He did not attain to full knowledge; it was left for a later generation to make nicer complementary for a greenish-yellow, an orange-yellow requires a turquoise blue, and so on.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
Jewelry Update
According to the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council, India's total gem and jewelry exports provisionally stood at $20.9 billion in the year to March 2008
Random Thoughts
'The bright new financial system for all its talented participants, for all its rich rewards, has failed the test of the marketplace.'
- Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman
I think he was spot on.
- Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman
I think he was spot on.
Delphine Boël
Delphine Boël is a Belgian artist who specializes in papier maché sculpture + I liked her works because the colors and objects relate to unique concepts that are so subjective yet natural in its own way. That's her otherness.
Useful link:
www.delphineboel.com
Useful link:
www.delphineboel.com
Monday, April 14, 2008
Mona Hauser + XVA Gallery
I found the article about Mona Hauser and her XVA gallery @ http://www.newsweek.com/id/131729 interesting + insightful because to me it's amazing to see the rapid emergence and openness of Dubai (land of surprises + opportunities) becoming the contemporary art center of the Middle East.
Useful link:
www.xvagallery.com
www.cultures.ae
Useful link:
www.xvagallery.com
www.cultures.ae
Michael McDonough
Bamboo + Creativity: I really liked environmentalist-architect Michael McDonough's sustainable housing concepts: e-House + ArcHouse + the designs are beautiful and natural.
Useful link:
www.michaelmcdonough.com
Useful link:
www.michaelmcdonough.com
T Boone Pickens
T Boone Pickens, an American businessman, who made his fortune in oil has turned his attention to wind power + over the next four years he intends to erect 2,700 turbines across 200,000 acres of the Texan panhandle (five times bigger than the world's current record-holding wind farm), a perfect location for wind-generated energy + studies proved him right -- people call it the Wind West.
He is thinking big + going to make a lot of money.
Useful links:
www.boonepickens.com
www.bpcap.net
He is thinking big + going to make a lot of money.
Useful links:
www.boonepickens.com
www.bpcap.net
Vipassana
It wouldn't be a bad idea to encourage members of the gem/jewelry + art sector, gemologists, and CEOs to mirror their inner conscience (total internal reflection) by taking a vow of silence for few days or weeks every year because I think Vipassana could be an excellent + natural vehicle for cleansing one's inclusions and blemishes quietly, though difficult in the beginning, with some practice you will emerge as a more clear-headed person.
Useful links:
www.dhamma.org
www.globalpagoda.org
Useful links:
www.dhamma.org
www.globalpagoda.org
Cibjo Update
The World Jewelry Confederation (CIBJO) has launched an upgraded version of its website to coincide with the 2008 CIBJO Congress, opening in Dubai on April 14-16, 2008.
Useful link:
www.cibjo.org
Useful link:
www.cibjo.org
Brain Scanner + Real-Life Decisions
(via Wired) I was intrigued by a study published in Nature Neuroscience about researchers using brain scanners to predict people's decisions seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them--though I have my doubts, but it was an interesting study + I would love to see researchers do similars tests on diamond and colored stone graders, and artists to study their sensory integration/shifting neural patterns so that we could learn something new and analyze the impact.
Useful links:
www.nature.com/neuro
www.mpg.de
www.nih.gov
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/mind_decision
Useful links:
www.nature.com/neuro
www.mpg.de
www.nih.gov
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/mind_decision
The Beau Sancy
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The dominating feature of the Beau Sancy (documented 31 January 1589) is a central star composed of eight pentagonal facets round a very small octagonal table. Between the points of the stars are eight squares or lozenges, each divided into two triangles. Together, these twenty four facets form two large interlacing squares. The remaining thirty facets (eight lozenges and twenty-two triangles) all touch the girdle. The reverse side of the gem is almost an exact replica, as far as one can judge from an examination of the diamond in its setting. That means that there are 108 faces plus the table and culet. What an incredible masterpiece of precision and artistic inventiveness! The few small irregularities and inclusions do not in the least detract from its beauty.
The light effects of the Beau Sancy itself are wonderful. The facets on the reverse reflect brilliant rays of light through the front. It was given the name ‘Beau’ Sancy to distinguish it from the Grand Sancy, and it truly deserves its title. The measurements are:
Height: 22.4mm
Width: 19.5mm
Thickness: 11.5mm
It weight has been estimated at 33-34 ct, but I suggest that 35-36 ct would be nearer the truth.
It is documented that Queen Maria de’ Medici bought the Beau Sancy from Sancy himself. The transaction is dated 1604, and she is said to have paid ‘XXVm escus’ for it. For her coronation in 1610, the diamond was set at the top of the crown which she wears in her portrait. Maria died poverty-stricken and in exile, and her creditors disposed of any jewels she still possessed. The Beau Sancy was bought by Frederick Henry of Orange, and then passed to his descendants; it has never again been put up for sale. William III of Orange gave it to his bride, Mary, and after her death it went to Frederick, the future King of Prussia.
In the late 1960s, I knew that the Grand Sancy was in England, still at that time in the possession of the Astors. I also knew that the Beau Sancy had once formed part of te Prussian Crown Jewels. Through a series of chance meetings, I learned that Viscount Astor had deposited the head of the Hohenzollern family, Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, grandson of William II, the last German Emperor. Having discovered the whereabouts of the two diamonds, I decided to try to reunite them—in Finland! There was already a Finnish connection: Paul Demidoff, who inherited the Grand Sancy in 1836, gave it as a wedding present to his bride Aurora Karamzin, a Finnish-born lady-in-waiting at the Russian court.
Years of preparatory work, correspondence and persuasions of the relevant authorities followed, until finally, in October 1972, Prince Louis Ferdinand himself came to Helsinki to open the exhibition ‘Two Historic Diamonds’. The two brothers, the Grand Sancy and the Beau Sancy, were reunited after a separation of some 370 years.
The dominating feature of the Beau Sancy (documented 31 January 1589) is a central star composed of eight pentagonal facets round a very small octagonal table. Between the points of the stars are eight squares or lozenges, each divided into two triangles. Together, these twenty four facets form two large interlacing squares. The remaining thirty facets (eight lozenges and twenty-two triangles) all touch the girdle. The reverse side of the gem is almost an exact replica, as far as one can judge from an examination of the diamond in its setting. That means that there are 108 faces plus the table and culet. What an incredible masterpiece of precision and artistic inventiveness! The few small irregularities and inclusions do not in the least detract from its beauty.
The light effects of the Beau Sancy itself are wonderful. The facets on the reverse reflect brilliant rays of light through the front. It was given the name ‘Beau’ Sancy to distinguish it from the Grand Sancy, and it truly deserves its title. The measurements are:
Height: 22.4mm
Width: 19.5mm
Thickness: 11.5mm
It weight has been estimated at 33-34 ct, but I suggest that 35-36 ct would be nearer the truth.
It is documented that Queen Maria de’ Medici bought the Beau Sancy from Sancy himself. The transaction is dated 1604, and she is said to have paid ‘XXVm escus’ for it. For her coronation in 1610, the diamond was set at the top of the crown which she wears in her portrait. Maria died poverty-stricken and in exile, and her creditors disposed of any jewels she still possessed. The Beau Sancy was bought by Frederick Henry of Orange, and then passed to his descendants; it has never again been put up for sale. William III of Orange gave it to his bride, Mary, and after her death it went to Frederick, the future King of Prussia.
In the late 1960s, I knew that the Grand Sancy was in England, still at that time in the possession of the Astors. I also knew that the Beau Sancy had once formed part of te Prussian Crown Jewels. Through a series of chance meetings, I learned that Viscount Astor had deposited the head of the Hohenzollern family, Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, grandson of William II, the last German Emperor. Having discovered the whereabouts of the two diamonds, I decided to try to reunite them—in Finland! There was already a Finnish connection: Paul Demidoff, who inherited the Grand Sancy in 1836, gave it as a wedding present to his bride Aurora Karamzin, a Finnish-born lady-in-waiting at the Russian court.
Years of preparatory work, correspondence and persuasions of the relevant authorities followed, until finally, in October 1972, Prince Louis Ferdinand himself came to Helsinki to open the exhibition ‘Two Historic Diamonds’. The two brothers, the Grand Sancy and the Beau Sancy, were reunited after a separation of some 370 years.
Realism And Impressionism In France
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Prior to the Salon des Rufusés Edouard Manet had little or no knowledge of Claude Monet, who was seven years his junior, but now the similarity between their names and the abuse showered upon both drew the two men together. Through Monet, Manet came to know Renoir and Sisley, who had been fellow-students with Monet in the studio of Gleyre, Whistler’s master, and this group was joined, among others, by two older artists, Camille Pissaro and Degas. As in the case of the Pre-Raphaelites, it was friendship and unjust derision which created the solidarity of the Impressionists, though the individual painters had by no means identical aims. Manet, we now realize, was far more a Realist than an Impressionist, and it is important to remember that he passed as an innovator years before Impressionism existed or was even thought of. Itr was more then ten years after the Salon des Refusés before Manet became influenced by the new ideas of color evolved by Pissaro, Monet, and Renoir. In his fine portrait ‘Le Bon Bock’, painted in 1873, Manet still reveals himself as the heir, not only of Courbet, but of Velazquez, Hals, and Goya. Nothing could be further from the once popular notion of an ‘Impressionist’ picture as a daub hastily put together, than this careful, if unconventional, portrait of his friend the engraver Belot enjoying a glass of beer. M Belot gave Manet no less than eighty sittings before this portrait was finished. It is freer than Courbet, with a greater simplifying of planes and values, but it is no revolution, it is a continuation and development of Courbet’s realism.
Quite different in style is ‘A Bar at the Folies—Bergère’, painted in 1882. We may say at once that the chief difference between the two pictures is in the color, for—to borrow a term from the wine-list—the color in ‘Le Bon Bock’ is ‘still’, while that in the ‘Bar’ picture is ‘sparkling’, sparkling especially in the wonderful painting of the bottles and glasses as we may see even in a photograph. Both pictures are magnificent, both are marvelously lifelike, but in the second there is a more searching pursuit of color, in shadow as well as in light, and a more vivacious statement of its actuality. In a word, it is a typical ‘Impressionist’ picture: and here we may well pause to inquire what is meant by ‘Impressionism’.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continue)
Prior to the Salon des Rufusés Edouard Manet had little or no knowledge of Claude Monet, who was seven years his junior, but now the similarity between their names and the abuse showered upon both drew the two men together. Through Monet, Manet came to know Renoir and Sisley, who had been fellow-students with Monet in the studio of Gleyre, Whistler’s master, and this group was joined, among others, by two older artists, Camille Pissaro and Degas. As in the case of the Pre-Raphaelites, it was friendship and unjust derision which created the solidarity of the Impressionists, though the individual painters had by no means identical aims. Manet, we now realize, was far more a Realist than an Impressionist, and it is important to remember that he passed as an innovator years before Impressionism existed or was even thought of. Itr was more then ten years after the Salon des Refusés before Manet became influenced by the new ideas of color evolved by Pissaro, Monet, and Renoir. In his fine portrait ‘Le Bon Bock’, painted in 1873, Manet still reveals himself as the heir, not only of Courbet, but of Velazquez, Hals, and Goya. Nothing could be further from the once popular notion of an ‘Impressionist’ picture as a daub hastily put together, than this careful, if unconventional, portrait of his friend the engraver Belot enjoying a glass of beer. M Belot gave Manet no less than eighty sittings before this portrait was finished. It is freer than Courbet, with a greater simplifying of planes and values, but it is no revolution, it is a continuation and development of Courbet’s realism.
Quite different in style is ‘A Bar at the Folies—Bergère’, painted in 1882. We may say at once that the chief difference between the two pictures is in the color, for—to borrow a term from the wine-list—the color in ‘Le Bon Bock’ is ‘still’, while that in the ‘Bar’ picture is ‘sparkling’, sparkling especially in the wonderful painting of the bottles and glasses as we may see even in a photograph. Both pictures are magnificent, both are marvelously lifelike, but in the second there is a more searching pursuit of color, in shadow as well as in light, and a more vivacious statement of its actuality. In a word, it is a typical ‘Impressionist’ picture: and here we may well pause to inquire what is meant by ‘Impressionism’.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continue)
The Battle For The Soul Of Capitalism
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism by John C. Bogle is an essential book for all + he gives an interesting perspective on moral capitalism and community ownership + the book also has a lot of ideas and solutions for the corporate/financial institutions + I think it will take a lot of effort on our part to change the inert system (s) that's simulated worldwide due to globalization.
Useful links:
http://johncbogle.com
www.vanguard.com
Useful links:
http://johncbogle.com
www.vanguard.com
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Pendants + Charms
I really liked the simple + innovative designs @ www.bittyblock.com They looked great!
Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman is an English composer of minimalist music + pianist + librettist + musicologist + best known for the many scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway + the score to Jane Campion's award-winning 1993 film The Piano became a classical music best-seller, which I love so much, is beauty in motion.
Useful links:
www.michaelnyman.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dPS-EHl-FE
Useful links:
www.michaelnyman.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dPS-EHl-FE
Babylon: Myth + True Facts
A must-visit: Two worlds, one exhibition + jointly with the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London, the National Museums in Berlin venture to explore the backgrounds behind the myth of Babel and the true facts surrounding the ancient city of Babylon + discover what lies at the bottom of the legend - the legend which accounts for today’s fascination with Babylon.
Useful links:
www.britishmuseum.org
www.smb.spk-berlin.de
www.louvre.fr
http://mini-site.louvre.fr/trois-empires/index_en.htm
Useful links:
www.britishmuseum.org
www.smb.spk-berlin.de
www.louvre.fr
http://mini-site.louvre.fr/trois-empires/index_en.htm
Natalia Goncharova
The article about Natalia Goncharova @ http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/artview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11037482 and her beautiful paintings were interesting + what really intrigued me is the business angle (Rothenstein family chose to sell the painting through Bonhams instead of Christie's/Sothebys): We try harder (Avis slogan)
For the Rothenstein family it must be an interesting bet.
Useful link:
www.bonhams.com
For the Rothenstein family it must be an interesting bet.
Useful link:
www.bonhams.com
Golf, An Economic Indicator
I found the Fast Money/CNBC interview with Greg Norman @ http://www.cnbc.com/id/24068220?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS intriguing because he gave an interesting perspective about his company (caters primarily to the high-end market) and how it relates to the global economy.
Useful link:
www.shark.com
Useful link:
www.shark.com
The Grand Sancy
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The Grand Sancy (sometimes known simply as the Sancy and documented in June 1586) was bought by the Banque de France and the Musées de France from the 4th Viscount Astor in 1977 and is now on display in the Galerie d’Apollon of the Musée du Louvre, Paris. According to Cletscher, the rough Grand Sancy was acquired in Constantinople and fashioned in Paris. In its lifetime it has been part first of the English and then of the French Crown Jewels.
The outline and faceting of the stone: At its pointed end it looks very like a Rose Cut, which probably explains why it has so often wrongly been described as a Double Rose. But between the table and the blunt end the faceting is of a totally different design.
The central facet, the table, has always been thought to be pentagonal, but under a magnifying glass one can see that the narrow end does not, in fact, terminate in a point but has three edges, and that three of the five triangular facets which appear to meet at the point have had their apexes removed and join the table at these upper edges. This means that instead of being a pentagonal kite, as it appears to the naked eye, the table is actually eight-sided. The pavilion is faceted in more or less the same design as the crown, except that the culet, which is the same size as the table, is genuinely pentagonal. The gem is ‘convexo-convex’ (i.e the two sides are rounded) and the two convex surfaces meet at the girdle. It was not possible to study the girdle itself as this was hidden in the setting when I had it in my hands. The dimensions are:
Height: 25.7mm
Width: 20.6mm
Thickness: 14.3mm
Weight: 55.23 ct (according to Sancy himself, 60 ct including te setting of about 1.3 grams)
Through the pointed end, a distinct flaw and several abraded facet edges are visible, even in photographs.
The Grand Sancy (sometimes known simply as the Sancy and documented in June 1586) was bought by the Banque de France and the Musées de France from the 4th Viscount Astor in 1977 and is now on display in the Galerie d’Apollon of the Musée du Louvre, Paris. According to Cletscher, the rough Grand Sancy was acquired in Constantinople and fashioned in Paris. In its lifetime it has been part first of the English and then of the French Crown Jewels.
The outline and faceting of the stone: At its pointed end it looks very like a Rose Cut, which probably explains why it has so often wrongly been described as a Double Rose. But between the table and the blunt end the faceting is of a totally different design.
The central facet, the table, has always been thought to be pentagonal, but under a magnifying glass one can see that the narrow end does not, in fact, terminate in a point but has three edges, and that three of the five triangular facets which appear to meet at the point have had their apexes removed and join the table at these upper edges. This means that instead of being a pentagonal kite, as it appears to the naked eye, the table is actually eight-sided. The pavilion is faceted in more or less the same design as the crown, except that the culet, which is the same size as the table, is genuinely pentagonal. The gem is ‘convexo-convex’ (i.e the two sides are rounded) and the two convex surfaces meet at the girdle. It was not possible to study the girdle itself as this was hidden in the setting when I had it in my hands. The dimensions are:
Height: 25.7mm
Width: 20.6mm
Thickness: 14.3mm
Weight: 55.23 ct (according to Sancy himself, 60 ct including te setting of about 1.3 grams)
Through the pointed end, a distinct flaw and several abraded facet edges are visible, even in photographs.
Realism And Impressionism In France
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
2
Manet was the heir of Courbet with this difference, that the temper of his art was more aristrocratic. He also built up his pictures by the direct application of planes of color rather than by working up an underpainting based on linear design and light-and-shade; he also used the blonde palette of Velazquez and Hals, and he also chose his subjects from the life around him; but he painted the people and life of the middle-classes, while Courbet had concentrated on the proletariat.
Edouard Manet was born at Paris in 1833. His father was a magistrate and, like Manet was originally destined for the bar, but he eventually overcame family opposition, and when he was about eighteen he was permitted to enter the studio of Couture (1815-79). Thomas Couture was an accomplished artist whose rich colored paintings were a discreet compromise between Romanticism and Classicism, but his orthodox instruction appealed little to Manet, who from the beginning desired to observe Nature closely and reproduce it according to his own feeling. After traveling in Germany, Austria, and Italy to study the Old Masters, Manet finally found in the paintings by Velazquez and Goya at the Louvre the answer to all his questionings and aspirations for light and truth. Influenced by these masters and by the example of Courbet, he gradually evolved a new technique which presented modern aspects by modern methods. Observing how one color melted into another in nature, he declared ‘There are no lines in Nature,’ and in his pictures he abandoned the convention of the outline and shaped his forms by a modelling obtained by subtle gradations of tints which fused into one another. The problem of just illumination was to Manet a matter of primary importance. Once when he was asked to point out the principal figure in a group he had painted, he made a reply that has become historic. ‘The principal person in a picture,’ said Manet, ‘is the light.’
Manet made his first appearance at the Salon in 1861 with a portrait of himself and his young wife and another paiting, ‘The Spanish Guitar-player.’ Over both the cry of ‘Realism’ was raised, and Realism was unpopular at the moment, nevertheless the Jury, inspired by Delacroix, gave Manet an Honorable Mention. But during the next two years the partisans of the classical tradition obtained the upper hand agian, and Manet was excluded from the Salon of 1863. So many artists of admitted talent, however unpopular, had their works rejected en bloc by the Salon jury this year, that the Emperor, Napoleon III, inspired by a praiseworthy liberal thought, insisted that these innovators should at least have the right to exhibit together in a special room. Thus there came into being what was known as the Salon des Refusés: among the exhibitors there, in addition to Manet and Whistler, were Alphonse Legros, Fantin Latour (1836-1904), celebrated both as a portraitist and as a painter of flowers, Harpignies, Renoir, Claude Monet, and many others who have since become famous. One of the paintings in this exhibition, a sunset by Claude Monet, entitled ‘Impressions’, excited much laughter among the crowd that came to jeer at the ‘rejected’, and henceforward the custom arose of alluding to the new school of painters as ‘Impressionists’. Originating as a term of derision, the word remained in use, and the painters to whom it was applied adopted it as an official label which would serve, as well as any other, to cover their varied aims.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
2
Manet was the heir of Courbet with this difference, that the temper of his art was more aristrocratic. He also built up his pictures by the direct application of planes of color rather than by working up an underpainting based on linear design and light-and-shade; he also used the blonde palette of Velazquez and Hals, and he also chose his subjects from the life around him; but he painted the people and life of the middle-classes, while Courbet had concentrated on the proletariat.
Edouard Manet was born at Paris in 1833. His father was a magistrate and, like Manet was originally destined for the bar, but he eventually overcame family opposition, and when he was about eighteen he was permitted to enter the studio of Couture (1815-79). Thomas Couture was an accomplished artist whose rich colored paintings were a discreet compromise between Romanticism and Classicism, but his orthodox instruction appealed little to Manet, who from the beginning desired to observe Nature closely and reproduce it according to his own feeling. After traveling in Germany, Austria, and Italy to study the Old Masters, Manet finally found in the paintings by Velazquez and Goya at the Louvre the answer to all his questionings and aspirations for light and truth. Influenced by these masters and by the example of Courbet, he gradually evolved a new technique which presented modern aspects by modern methods. Observing how one color melted into another in nature, he declared ‘There are no lines in Nature,’ and in his pictures he abandoned the convention of the outline and shaped his forms by a modelling obtained by subtle gradations of tints which fused into one another. The problem of just illumination was to Manet a matter of primary importance. Once when he was asked to point out the principal figure in a group he had painted, he made a reply that has become historic. ‘The principal person in a picture,’ said Manet, ‘is the light.’
Manet made his first appearance at the Salon in 1861 with a portrait of himself and his young wife and another paiting, ‘The Spanish Guitar-player.’ Over both the cry of ‘Realism’ was raised, and Realism was unpopular at the moment, nevertheless the Jury, inspired by Delacroix, gave Manet an Honorable Mention. But during the next two years the partisans of the classical tradition obtained the upper hand agian, and Manet was excluded from the Salon of 1863. So many artists of admitted talent, however unpopular, had their works rejected en bloc by the Salon jury this year, that the Emperor, Napoleon III, inspired by a praiseworthy liberal thought, insisted that these innovators should at least have the right to exhibit together in a special room. Thus there came into being what was known as the Salon des Refusés: among the exhibitors there, in addition to Manet and Whistler, were Alphonse Legros, Fantin Latour (1836-1904), celebrated both as a portraitist and as a painter of flowers, Harpignies, Renoir, Claude Monet, and many others who have since become famous. One of the paintings in this exhibition, a sunset by Claude Monet, entitled ‘Impressions’, excited much laughter among the crowd that came to jeer at the ‘rejected’, and henceforward the custom arose of alluding to the new school of painters as ‘Impressionists’. Originating as a term of derision, the word remained in use, and the painters to whom it was applied adopted it as an official label which would serve, as well as any other, to cover their varied aims.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
Random Thoughts
Superman (Christopher Reeve): Don't worry, I've got you.
Lois Lane (Margot Kidder): But who's got you?
A great line from the Superman movie.......
Lois Lane (Margot Kidder): But who's got you?
A great line from the Superman movie.......
A Rare Rock Crystal Clock
It has been reported that the famous 'The Royal Skeleton Clock', a true work of art, crafted entirely of rare rock crystal + 18 karat gold, including the movement + a myriad of precious diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires that adorn every inch of the timepiece, created by Asprey, commissioned by the Sultan of Brunei, has been listed for sale.
It's an amazing piece of art (http://www.rauantiques.com/29-1865.html) that's finding its way to the market.
Useful links:
www.thewdn.com
www.rauantiques.com
It's an amazing piece of art (http://www.rauantiques.com/29-1865.html) that's finding its way to the market.
Useful links:
www.thewdn.com
www.rauantiques.com
Price Shock
After years of years of strong global economic growth, prices of oil, grains, and some metals have risen sharply + speculative investors have also added fuel to that fire by buying up hard assets like commodities, which are viewed as a hedge against inflation, and the impact is stunning --suddenly we are all sucked into this powerful magnetic field called inflation, and slowly getting weaker together + I am seeing strange behavioral patterns of businesses and consumers worldwide.
Useful links:
www.globalinsight.com
www.mbginfosvcs.com
www.imf.org
www.federalreserve.gov
Useful links:
www.globalinsight.com
www.mbginfosvcs.com
www.imf.org
www.federalreserve.gov
Saturday, April 12, 2008
The Tiny Overlooked Universes That Surround Us
Just look at the beauty and rarity of the photos @ http://www.wired.com/culture/art/news/2008/04/submissions_macro and the phenomenal effects -- they are so natural, it's just brilliant! The images reminded me of the spectacular inclusions in gemstones.
Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud by William Feaver is an excellent edition of Freud's work.
Lucian Freud is internationally acknowledged as one of the most important British painter working today, and now a life-size painting, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, never been seen publicly, which features a Jobcentre worker fondly known as 'Big Sue', the subject of several masterpieces by Freud, painted in 1995, sold privately at the time, will be auctioned by Christie's next month in New York, which is expected to sell for up to £18m, one of the most expensive work by a living artist at auction.
Useful link:
www.christies.com
Lucian Freud is internationally acknowledged as one of the most important British painter working today, and now a life-size painting, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, never been seen publicly, which features a Jobcentre worker fondly known as 'Big Sue', the subject of several masterpieces by Freud, painted in 1995, sold privately at the time, will be auctioned by Christie's next month in New York, which is expected to sell for up to £18m, one of the most expensive work by a living artist at auction.
Useful link:
www.christies.com
Arbitration Justice In Absentia
Chaim Even Zohar writes about procedural flaws in commercial disputes involving members of the diamond bourse (s) + bourse member’s unfamiliarity with the rules of sister bourses in cross-boundary arbitrations, and the impact + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp
The Sancy Cut
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The name Sancy Cut has so far only occasionally been given to diamonds that are halfway between Brilliants and Briolettes. They are pear-shaped gems with both the front and the back convex. A girdle divides the two halves, each of which has a small table. The gems must have been fasioned from macles, dodecahedroid crystals, or elongated, domed irregulars, all of which could have been fashioned into Sancy shapes without too much loss of weight.
There are, however, only two actual Sancys, once owned by the Seigneur de Sancy, but the name also applies to several pendeloques which were once in the crown of Louis XV; four stones in the Iranian Imperial sword and two in the Jiqa plum among the Iranian Crown Jewels, and Mazarin numbers 17 and 18 (two flatbacks which were clearly originally one stone). In the French Crown inventory of 1791 fifteen Sancys are mentioned, weighing between 1 and 3¾ ct. These are only a few of the best-known examples.
According to Jacques Babinet of the Institut de France, ‘all the diamonds which pretend to this name.......are cut in the form of a flattened pear, almost round, a shape called the ‘Pendeloque’, having facets above and below, with a small flat surface on the top.....This kind of cutting, which I venture to call the Sancy, merits as much attention as those known by the name of the rose or the brilliant.’
In the seventeenth century the standard description for the Sancy Cut was ‘taillé à facettes des deux côtés, en forme d’amande’. The French Crown inventory of 1691 gives the following descriptions:
C.I. : fort épais, taillé à facettes des deux côtés de forme pendeloque 53¾ (Le Grand Sancy)
59: à facettes, double, long, pointu, carré
1: un grand diamant en pendeloque, taillé à grande facettes des deux côtés. 15¼ ct
8: en pendeloque, taillé à grande facettes des deux côtés 14½ ct
Though some of the diamonds listed may have been girdled pendeloques, I believe that many of them were, in fact, Sancy Cuts.
Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, Sancy Cuts have frequently been called Double Roses. This term evidently originated from French inventories of the previous century, when the cut was described as ‘un diamant brilliant formé en poire, taillé en rose des deux côtés, percé d’un bout’. Once Rose Cuts were established, the words taillé en rose were added, and the earlier term ‘almond-shaped’ was replaced by ‘pear-shaped’. According to Morel (1988), the fleur-de-lis on top of Louis XV’s crown (1722) was composed of four Double Roses each formed by two circular Rose Cut diamonds glued base to base.
Of specific interest is the fact that Sancy Cuts disclose a circlet of facets quite similar to the crown facets of a Brilliant, both of the standard type and the Split and Step Cut. With a large table facet replacing the apex they would have been as good as any Fancy Brilliant.
The name Sancy Cut has so far only occasionally been given to diamonds that are halfway between Brilliants and Briolettes. They are pear-shaped gems with both the front and the back convex. A girdle divides the two halves, each of which has a small table. The gems must have been fasioned from macles, dodecahedroid crystals, or elongated, domed irregulars, all of which could have been fashioned into Sancy shapes without too much loss of weight.
There are, however, only two actual Sancys, once owned by the Seigneur de Sancy, but the name also applies to several pendeloques which were once in the crown of Louis XV; four stones in the Iranian Imperial sword and two in the Jiqa plum among the Iranian Crown Jewels, and Mazarin numbers 17 and 18 (two flatbacks which were clearly originally one stone). In the French Crown inventory of 1791 fifteen Sancys are mentioned, weighing between 1 and 3¾ ct. These are only a few of the best-known examples.
According to Jacques Babinet of the Institut de France, ‘all the diamonds which pretend to this name.......are cut in the form of a flattened pear, almost round, a shape called the ‘Pendeloque’, having facets above and below, with a small flat surface on the top.....This kind of cutting, which I venture to call the Sancy, merits as much attention as those known by the name of the rose or the brilliant.’
In the seventeenth century the standard description for the Sancy Cut was ‘taillé à facettes des deux côtés, en forme d’amande’. The French Crown inventory of 1691 gives the following descriptions:
C.I. : fort épais, taillé à facettes des deux côtés de forme pendeloque 53¾ (Le Grand Sancy)
59: à facettes, double, long, pointu, carré
1: un grand diamant en pendeloque, taillé à grande facettes des deux côtés. 15¼ ct
8: en pendeloque, taillé à grande facettes des deux côtés 14½ ct
Though some of the diamonds listed may have been girdled pendeloques, I believe that many of them were, in fact, Sancy Cuts.
Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, Sancy Cuts have frequently been called Double Roses. This term evidently originated from French inventories of the previous century, when the cut was described as ‘un diamant brilliant formé en poire, taillé en rose des deux côtés, percé d’un bout’. Once Rose Cuts were established, the words taillé en rose were added, and the earlier term ‘almond-shaped’ was replaced by ‘pear-shaped’. According to Morel (1988), the fleur-de-lis on top of Louis XV’s crown (1722) was composed of four Double Roses each formed by two circular Rose Cut diamonds glued base to base.
Of specific interest is the fact that Sancy Cuts disclose a circlet of facets quite similar to the crown facets of a Brilliant, both of the standard type and the Split and Step Cut. With a large table facet replacing the apex they would have been as good as any Fancy Brilliant.
Realism And Impressionism In France
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
In 1855 Courbet painted a picture which summed up his life of the past seven years. He called it ‘The Studio of the Painter: a Real Allegory.’ On the right of this large canvass were the types he had been painting, the beggar, the laborer, the tradesman, the priest, the poacher, the gravedigger; on the left was a group of his personal friends, among them Baudelaire and Proudhon; between the groups was Courbet himself painting a landscape of Ornans.
In an introduction to the catalogue of a private exhibition of his works held in the same year, Courbet explained his endeavor to replace the cult of the ideal by a sentiment of the real:
To translate the manners, the ideas and the aspect of my own times according to my perception, to be not only a painter but still more a man, in a word, to create a living art, that is my aim.
During the reign of Napoleon III Courbet became more and more incensed against all authorities, political or artistic. The former thought him revolutionary because of his subjects, the latter because his style was based on Dutch and Spanish painting instead of on the accepted Italian masters. Nevertheless, his position as leader of the Realist school was such that in 1870 he was nominated Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Courbet wrote a violet letter to the Ministry refusing to accept this decoration, and when the Commune broke out in 1871 he took a prominent part in the Revolution and became President of the Commission of Fine Arts. Courbet has been much blamed down the Column commemorating Napoleon I in the Place Vendôme. This was part of a scheme to efface from Paris all traces of the Empire, whether First or Third, and though the Column was a historic monument it had no great artistic interest. On the other hand it was Courbet who, during the fury of the Commune, not only preserved intact the art treasures of the Louvre, but with difficulty secured the safety of the Arc de Triomphe. He was full of concern for this monument because of its great artistic qualities, notably the sculpture by Rude with which it was decorated, and he managed to persuade those who urged its demolition that the Arc de Triomphe ought to be spared because it stood not so much for the glory of Napoleon as for the heroism of the revolutionary armies of France.
Still, when the Commune had been suppressed with an iron hand, the good deeds of Courbet during the insurrection were forgotten; the unfortunate artist was arrested in connection with the demolition of the Vendôme Column, condemned to six months’ imprisonment and to defray the whole cost—some 400,000 francs—of the reconstruction of the Column. This utterly ruined him, and though Courbet eventually succeeded in crossing the frontier he was broken in health and spirits. He died in exile in 1877.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
In 1855 Courbet painted a picture which summed up his life of the past seven years. He called it ‘The Studio of the Painter: a Real Allegory.’ On the right of this large canvass were the types he had been painting, the beggar, the laborer, the tradesman, the priest, the poacher, the gravedigger; on the left was a group of his personal friends, among them Baudelaire and Proudhon; between the groups was Courbet himself painting a landscape of Ornans.
In an introduction to the catalogue of a private exhibition of his works held in the same year, Courbet explained his endeavor to replace the cult of the ideal by a sentiment of the real:
To translate the manners, the ideas and the aspect of my own times according to my perception, to be not only a painter but still more a man, in a word, to create a living art, that is my aim.
During the reign of Napoleon III Courbet became more and more incensed against all authorities, political or artistic. The former thought him revolutionary because of his subjects, the latter because his style was based on Dutch and Spanish painting instead of on the accepted Italian masters. Nevertheless, his position as leader of the Realist school was such that in 1870 he was nominated Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Courbet wrote a violet letter to the Ministry refusing to accept this decoration, and when the Commune broke out in 1871 he took a prominent part in the Revolution and became President of the Commission of Fine Arts. Courbet has been much blamed down the Column commemorating Napoleon I in the Place Vendôme. This was part of a scheme to efface from Paris all traces of the Empire, whether First or Third, and though the Column was a historic monument it had no great artistic interest. On the other hand it was Courbet who, during the fury of the Commune, not only preserved intact the art treasures of the Louvre, but with difficulty secured the safety of the Arc de Triomphe. He was full of concern for this monument because of its great artistic qualities, notably the sculpture by Rude with which it was decorated, and he managed to persuade those who urged its demolition that the Arc de Triomphe ought to be spared because it stood not so much for the glory of Napoleon as for the heroism of the revolutionary armies of France.
Still, when the Commune had been suppressed with an iron hand, the good deeds of Courbet during the insurrection were forgotten; the unfortunate artist was arrested in connection with the demolition of the Vendôme Column, condemned to six months’ imprisonment and to defray the whole cost—some 400,000 francs—of the reconstruction of the Column. This utterly ruined him, and though Courbet eventually succeeded in crossing the frontier he was broken in health and spirits. He died in exile in 1877.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
Travel Update
(via budgettravel) I liked http://travel.alltop.com because the site brings together most recent posts from leading travel blogs.
Great idea!
Great idea!
Satyagraha
(via Wiki) Philip Glass is a three-time Academy Award-nominated American composer + he is considered one of the most influential composers of the late-20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public + Satyagraha, is his landmark 1980 work, is a moving account of Mahatma Gandhi’s formative experiences in South Africa, which transformed him into a great leader (@ Metropolitan Opera, April 28, 2008).
Useful links:
www.philipglass.com
www.metoperafamily.org
Useful links:
www.philipglass.com
www.metoperafamily.org
Friday, April 11, 2008
Synchrotron
I found the article Seeing the Light @ http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11014512 intriguing because new research tools, from X-rays to computerised tomography to synchrotrons, and their applications researching fossil remains in amber are interesting new developments + we are learning more + hopefully the techniques could become useful in other gemological research applications.
Useful link:
www.esrf.eu
Useful link:
www.esrf.eu
Selexyz Dominicanen
Selexyz Dominicanen in Maastricht, Netherlands, is one-of-a-kind bookstore created from a merger between the town's Bergman's bookshop, the Academische Boekhandel + the Dutch Selexyz bookshop chain + it's housed in the thrilling setting of a 13th-century Dominican church.
An extraordinary venture of a very different style + a must-visit bookstore in Holland.
Useful links:
www.selexyz.nl
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Selexyz%20Dominicanen&w=all
An extraordinary venture of a very different style + a must-visit bookstore in Holland.
Useful links:
www.selexyz.nl
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Selexyz%20Dominicanen&w=all
Tutta la Vita Davanti
The movie Tutta la Vita Davanti has a universal theme + it's a moving story of ordinary people exposed to wide spectrum of real life situations + I think you will like it.
Useful links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QSN9fG0xRo
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1075114
Useful links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QSN9fG0xRo
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1075114
Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together
Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together by William Isaacs is a fascinating book because it has very good application in business and life + I think there are valuable lessons for everyone.
Useful links:
www.dialogos.com
www.dialogueproject.net
Useful links:
www.dialogos.com
www.dialogueproject.net
Rondelles
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Rondelles are fashioned from small pieces of flat rough and can be described as small discs drilled through the center and faceted only round the edge. They are used as spacers between beads of colored gems in high-quality chokers.
Rondelles are fashioned from small pieces of flat rough and can be described as small discs drilled through the center and faceted only round the edge. They are used as spacers between beads of colored gems in high-quality chokers.
Realism And Impressionism In France
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
The Art of Courbet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Monet, and Rodin
1
The French Impressionists were the offspring of the Realists, and to trace their artistic pedigree we must return to painting in France in the middle of the nineteenth century. It was shown how the Romantics had rebelled against a false Classicism, but only the barest hint was given of how the struggle for liberty and truth in art reached a further stage in the forties by the development of a new group of artists known as the Realists. The leader of this movement and the man who perhaps did more than any other to change the whole modern outlook on art was Gustave Courbet (1819-77).
Courbet was the son of a wealthy farmer of Ornans in the Doubs. His father intended him for the law, and with this object sent him to Paris. Arrived there, Courbet threw law to the winds and set about learning the one thing that interested him, painting. A rigid republican, both by education and inclination, Courbet was penetrated by a passionate sympathy for the working classes, and he found the subjects for his pictures in the ordinary life of the people. Further, holding tenaciously that painting, ‘an art of sight,’ ought to concern itself with things seen, he was opposed to Romanticism as the Romantics had been, in their day, to Classicism. Intensely earnest and serious by nature, Courbet regarded it as mere frivolity to make pictures out of imaginary incidents in poems and romances when all the pageant and pathos of real life waited to be painted. His point of view is made clear by a reply he once made to a patron who desired that he should execute a painting with angels in it for a church. ‘Angels!’ said Courbet, ‘but I have never seen angels. What I have not seen I cannot paint.’
After the Revolution of 1848 Courbet’s new style of democratic painting had a temporary success. In 1849, before the political reaction had begun, he was awarded a medal at the Salon for his picture, ‘After Dinner at Ornans.’ This medal placed him hors concours, that is to say, it gave him the right of showing pictures in future Salons without his works have to obtain the approval of the Selecting Jury. Courbet took full advantage of this privilege in the following year, and to the Salon of 1850, in addition two landscapes and four portraits, he sent two large pictures entitled ‘The Stone-breakers’ and ‘A Funeral at Ornans’. The political reaction was in full tide, and the two last pictures raised a storm of fury, because their subjects were supposed to be ‘dangerously Socialistic.’ It will be remembered that it was in the Salon of the same year that J F Millet showed his first great democratic painting, ‘The Sower’.
‘A Funeral at Ornans’ became one of the milestones in the progress of modern painting, for, notwithstanding the abuse showered on Courbet, the sincerity of his work appealed to a younger generation of artists. Here was a man who saw life steadily as a whole, and painted life just as he saw it. Each figure in it from the clergy to the mourners, from the gravedigger to the dog, is painted simply but with a truth and power that make it a living thing. Courbet was the first of modern painters to rbeak the open-air realism of Velazquez and Frans Hals. He not only had much direct influence on Whistler and on Manet, but pointed out to them the road along which they should travel.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
The Art of Courbet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Monet, and Rodin
1
The French Impressionists were the offspring of the Realists, and to trace their artistic pedigree we must return to painting in France in the middle of the nineteenth century. It was shown how the Romantics had rebelled against a false Classicism, but only the barest hint was given of how the struggle for liberty and truth in art reached a further stage in the forties by the development of a new group of artists known as the Realists. The leader of this movement and the man who perhaps did more than any other to change the whole modern outlook on art was Gustave Courbet (1819-77).
Courbet was the son of a wealthy farmer of Ornans in the Doubs. His father intended him for the law, and with this object sent him to Paris. Arrived there, Courbet threw law to the winds and set about learning the one thing that interested him, painting. A rigid republican, both by education and inclination, Courbet was penetrated by a passionate sympathy for the working classes, and he found the subjects for his pictures in the ordinary life of the people. Further, holding tenaciously that painting, ‘an art of sight,’ ought to concern itself with things seen, he was opposed to Romanticism as the Romantics had been, in their day, to Classicism. Intensely earnest and serious by nature, Courbet regarded it as mere frivolity to make pictures out of imaginary incidents in poems and romances when all the pageant and pathos of real life waited to be painted. His point of view is made clear by a reply he once made to a patron who desired that he should execute a painting with angels in it for a church. ‘Angels!’ said Courbet, ‘but I have never seen angels. What I have not seen I cannot paint.’
After the Revolution of 1848 Courbet’s new style of democratic painting had a temporary success. In 1849, before the political reaction had begun, he was awarded a medal at the Salon for his picture, ‘After Dinner at Ornans.’ This medal placed him hors concours, that is to say, it gave him the right of showing pictures in future Salons without his works have to obtain the approval of the Selecting Jury. Courbet took full advantage of this privilege in the following year, and to the Salon of 1850, in addition two landscapes and four portraits, he sent two large pictures entitled ‘The Stone-breakers’ and ‘A Funeral at Ornans’. The political reaction was in full tide, and the two last pictures raised a storm of fury, because their subjects were supposed to be ‘dangerously Socialistic.’ It will be remembered that it was in the Salon of the same year that J F Millet showed his first great democratic painting, ‘The Sower’.
‘A Funeral at Ornans’ became one of the milestones in the progress of modern painting, for, notwithstanding the abuse showered on Courbet, the sincerity of his work appealed to a younger generation of artists. Here was a man who saw life steadily as a whole, and painted life just as he saw it. Each figure in it from the clergy to the mourners, from the gravedigger to the dog, is painted simply but with a truth and power that make it a living thing. Courbet was the first of modern painters to rbeak the open-air realism of Velazquez and Frans Hals. He not only had much direct influence on Whistler and on Manet, but pointed out to them the road along which they should travel.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
Price Discovery
I found the article Price Ploys via http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080331/BIZ01/803310325/1010/rss23 interesting because many consumers don't understand the psychology related to prices + it's amazing how these pricing tricks work + there are valuable lessons for everyone.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Sustainable Energy Zone
I think the Sustainable Energy Zone project in Dundalk, Ireland is interesting because if the energy-conscious initiative by the local town goes well according to the plan, Ireland could become (http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/09/europe/ireland.php) a good business model for the the rest of the world + an exporter of green electrons.
Useful links:
www.sei.ie
www.irish-energy.ie
Useful links:
www.sei.ie
www.irish-energy.ie
Chopard + Madonna
Chopard has created special jewelry for Madonna, the Queen of Pop, for the much-anticipated new album: Hard Candy by Madonna which is scheduled for release on April 28, 2008.
The personalized design for the artist must be stunning.
Useful links:
www.chopard.com
www.madonna.com
The personalized design for the artist must be stunning.
Useful links:
www.chopard.com
www.madonna.com
African, Asian And Latin American Film Festival
The 18th African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival will be held in Milan from 7th to 13th April 2008.
Don't miss it!
Useful links:
www.festivalcinemaafricano.org
www.eni.it
Don't miss it!
Useful links:
www.festivalcinemaafricano.org
www.eni.it
Brain Enhancement
(via Wired) I found the Nature online survey intriguing because 20 percent of respondents, largely drawn from the scientific community, have admitted to using brain-enhancing drugs like Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Provigil (modafinil) + the widespread neuroenhancer use by the scientific community is stunning + I wonder if the diamond/colored stone graders + lab gemologists worldwide are on the same wavelength.
Have you used cognitive enhancers? Did they work for you?
Useful link:
www.nature.com
Have you used cognitive enhancers? Did they work for you?
Useful link:
www.nature.com
John Kao
John Kao is known as the innovation guru + serial innovator (Economist) + he has worked with a wide range of companies, startups and government agencies getting innovation done + his book Innovation Nation was named by Business Week to be one of the top business books of 2007.
Useful links:
www.johnkao.com
www.innovationation.org
Useful links:
www.johnkao.com
www.innovationation.org
Girdled Briolettes
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Girdled (or encircled) Briolettes are comparatively rare. They resemble ordinary Briolettes except that their overall faceting is separated into two equal parts by a girdle. They have sometimes been erroneously called Double Rose Cuts, even though the distribution of their triangular facets is quite different from that of the real Rose Cut. The purpose of the girdle is to allow the gem to be hung by a gold ring or band instead of having to be drilled at the pointed end. In fact, these two methods of suspending a stone are often combined, probably for extra security.
First identified in a portrait of Queen Maria Josepha of Saxony dated 1750, the diamond in her hairpin may well be the one which the court jeweler, Dinglinger, is reported to have sent to Warsaw for Augustus the Strong in 1713. The diamond was originally suspended from an enamelled eagle, then mounted on a flowered twig decorated with flowered gems. Now once again it hangs from the eagle’s beak.
When I examined this unique Briolette, I could not help marvelling at its beauty. It has frequently been described as being ‘very brilliant’, referring to its light effects. It is, in fact, a drop, but divided by a girdle so that it belongs to the Sancy Cut category, even though it is pendeloque-shaped, tapering to a point. Its forty facets are distributed much like those of a Rose Cut. The degree of precision of the whole cut is amazing, though I did detect a minor lack of symmetry characteristic of the Baroque, of the kind which gave diamonds of the period their special charm—a charm which has been lost with modern precision cutting. Unfortunately, the diamond has been damaged by careless handling (its abraded girdle alone would downgrade it today to Loupe Clean or Internally Flawless), unforgivable in view of its historical and intrinsic value. It displays a vivid fire, sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow.
Girdled (or encircled) Briolettes are comparatively rare. They resemble ordinary Briolettes except that their overall faceting is separated into two equal parts by a girdle. They have sometimes been erroneously called Double Rose Cuts, even though the distribution of their triangular facets is quite different from that of the real Rose Cut. The purpose of the girdle is to allow the gem to be hung by a gold ring or band instead of having to be drilled at the pointed end. In fact, these two methods of suspending a stone are often combined, probably for extra security.
First identified in a portrait of Queen Maria Josepha of Saxony dated 1750, the diamond in her hairpin may well be the one which the court jeweler, Dinglinger, is reported to have sent to Warsaw for Augustus the Strong in 1713. The diamond was originally suspended from an enamelled eagle, then mounted on a flowered twig decorated with flowered gems. Now once again it hangs from the eagle’s beak.
When I examined this unique Briolette, I could not help marvelling at its beauty. It has frequently been described as being ‘very brilliant’, referring to its light effects. It is, in fact, a drop, but divided by a girdle so that it belongs to the Sancy Cut category, even though it is pendeloque-shaped, tapering to a point. Its forty facets are distributed much like those of a Rose Cut. The degree of precision of the whole cut is amazing, though I did detect a minor lack of symmetry characteristic of the Baroque, of the kind which gave diamonds of the period their special charm—a charm which has been lost with modern precision cutting. Unfortunately, the diamond has been damaged by careless handling (its abraded girdle alone would downgrade it today to Loupe Clean or Internally Flawless), unforgivable in view of its historical and intrinsic value. It displays a vivid fire, sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow.
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
3
In his treatment of buildings, particularly in his earlier etchings, Whistler was undoubtedly influenced by the work of Charles Méryon, one of the earliest and greatest etchers of architectural subjects. The life of this artist is one of the saddest stories in modern art. Charles Méryon, was born in 1821; he was the son of a French dancer, and his father is said to have been an Englishman of good family, but during his early life he had little assistance from either of his parents, and from his boyhood he had to struggle to make his own way in the Bohemian underworld of Paris.
During Méryon’s lifetime, unfortunately, etchings were not so popular as they are today. For a century and a half after Rembrandt, etching, as a pure and separate art, lay comparatively unnoticed, but undeterred by want of patrons, poverty, and ill-health, Méryon devoted himself to the revival of this almost forgotten art, and became one of its greatest masters that the world has yet seen. To record on copper the beauty and interest of the architecture of Paris became the passion of Méryon’s life, and his etchings are unique for the imagination and emotional force they display combined with scrupulously exact drawing of the architectural features which form his theme. His famous etching ‘Le Stryge’, showing us a view of Paris from Notre Dame, with one of the quaint gargoyles of the Cathedral occupying a prominent place in the foreground, reveals not only the perfection of his technique, with its fine, nervous line and rich velvety blacks, but also the blend of realism and imagination which characterises this artist’s work.
These masterly views of Paris were offered for sale by the artist at the price of one franc (then worth about ten pence in English money), but even at this ridiculous figure they did not find enough purchasers to enable him to keep body and soul together. Privation, hardship, and want of proper nourishment inevitably told on his health, and eventually his nerves gave way and he was put away as insane in the hospital of Charenton. But though of a nervous temperament, his brain was not diseased, and after some months of good feeding in the hospital Méryon became normal, and it was seen that his breakdown was wholly due to starvation. He was allowed to leave Charenton and began to work again, drawing and etching in Paris, but the unhappy genius had no better fortune and seemed unable to secure the minimum amount of food that a human body requires. Again he starved, with the same result, his mind became unhinged and he was taken back to Charenton, where he died in 1868.
By a cruel irony of fate the etchings began to be appreciated almost immediately after the etcher’s death. Never before or since has the art world seen so rapid and sensational an increase in value. The explanation is that the interest excited by the plates of Whistler and Seymour Haden led to a feverish hunt after other etchers, and so the fame of Méryon was established. Within a few years of his death the etchings he had vainly tried to sell for ten pence apiece were changing hands at five pounds; the prices of them rose rapidly and steadily from tens to hundreds of pounds, and within recent years rich collectors have paid more than a thousand pounds to secure a fine impression of an etching by Méryon.
3
In his treatment of buildings, particularly in his earlier etchings, Whistler was undoubtedly influenced by the work of Charles Méryon, one of the earliest and greatest etchers of architectural subjects. The life of this artist is one of the saddest stories in modern art. Charles Méryon, was born in 1821; he was the son of a French dancer, and his father is said to have been an Englishman of good family, but during his early life he had little assistance from either of his parents, and from his boyhood he had to struggle to make his own way in the Bohemian underworld of Paris.
During Méryon’s lifetime, unfortunately, etchings were not so popular as they are today. For a century and a half after Rembrandt, etching, as a pure and separate art, lay comparatively unnoticed, but undeterred by want of patrons, poverty, and ill-health, Méryon devoted himself to the revival of this almost forgotten art, and became one of its greatest masters that the world has yet seen. To record on copper the beauty and interest of the architecture of Paris became the passion of Méryon’s life, and his etchings are unique for the imagination and emotional force they display combined with scrupulously exact drawing of the architectural features which form his theme. His famous etching ‘Le Stryge’, showing us a view of Paris from Notre Dame, with one of the quaint gargoyles of the Cathedral occupying a prominent place in the foreground, reveals not only the perfection of his technique, with its fine, nervous line and rich velvety blacks, but also the blend of realism and imagination which characterises this artist’s work.
These masterly views of Paris were offered for sale by the artist at the price of one franc (then worth about ten pence in English money), but even at this ridiculous figure they did not find enough purchasers to enable him to keep body and soul together. Privation, hardship, and want of proper nourishment inevitably told on his health, and eventually his nerves gave way and he was put away as insane in the hospital of Charenton. But though of a nervous temperament, his brain was not diseased, and after some months of good feeding in the hospital Méryon became normal, and it was seen that his breakdown was wholly due to starvation. He was allowed to leave Charenton and began to work again, drawing and etching in Paris, but the unhappy genius had no better fortune and seemed unable to secure the minimum amount of food that a human body requires. Again he starved, with the same result, his mind became unhinged and he was taken back to Charenton, where he died in 1868.
By a cruel irony of fate the etchings began to be appreciated almost immediately after the etcher’s death. Never before or since has the art world seen so rapid and sensational an increase in value. The explanation is that the interest excited by the plates of Whistler and Seymour Haden led to a feverish hunt after other etchers, and so the fame of Méryon was established. Within a few years of his death the etchings he had vainly tried to sell for ten pence apiece were changing hands at five pounds; the prices of them rose rapidly and steadily from tens to hundreds of pounds, and within recent years rich collectors have paid more than a thousand pounds to secure a fine impression of an etching by Méryon.
Heard On The Street
The market efficiency theory is a myth + anyone who trades for a living understands it and makes money through the inefficiencies in markets.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Wertz Gallery: Gems + Jewelry
A must-visit: The Carnegie Museum of Natural History recently unveiled the dazzling Wertz Gallery: Gems and Jewelry + a new 2,000-square-foot addition to the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems + the gallery is dedicated to gems, the crystals they come from, and jewelry made using these precious stones + approximately 500 gems, crystals, pieces of jewelry, and other pieces of gem art can be seen in this permanent display. Enjoy.
Useful links:
http://wertzcontemporary.com
www.carnegiemnh.org
Useful links:
http://wertzcontemporary.com
www.carnegiemnh.org
The Dagger Of Shah Jahan
It has been reported that Bonham's, the London-based fine art auctioneers and valuers, will auction a personal dagger (khanjar) of Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, from the Jacques Desenfans collection + the elegant and understated personal dagger, with its fine gold inscriptions and decoration, dated to1629-30, is expected to attract bids of around £300,000 – 500,000.
Expect the unexpected + the auction will be full of surprises.
Useful link:
www.bonhams.com
Expect the unexpected + the auction will be full of surprises.
Useful link:
www.bonhams.com
Authentic Paraiba Tourmaline
I was a bit surprised with David Sherman's (CEO, Paraiba.com) move to sue the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) and others—including the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Brazil Imports Inc., and several individuals, including AGTA board members—for US$120 million in the name of authenticity, i.e., there is only one stone that can be legitimately called Paraíba and it is exclusively mined in the province of Brazil that it is named for + I was wondering what would happen to Padparadscha sapphires, John Saul rubies, Mogok rubies/ spinels, Mong Hsu rubies/spinel, Kashmir sapphires, Muzo/Chivor emeralds etc., + I don't know if it's a publicity stunt, but I am sure it will get messy in the coming days + as they say we are living in interesting times.
Algae Farm
(via Wired) I was intrigued by the energy company PetroSun Biofuels 's commercial algae-to-biofuels farm concept because via high-tech applications if the company could extract algal oil on-site at the farms and transport it to company refineries via barge, rail or truck for future enviromental jet biofuel production efficiently, it's exciting + I think with appropriate technology and bit of luck, the company may have hit a jackpot with algae.
Useful link:
www.petrosuninc.com
Useful link:
www.petrosuninc.com
Random Thoughts
'The Devil Is In The Details.'
According to Steve Leslie, if one wants to get a healthy dose of attention to detail, watch a pit crew at a Formula One race. It is true poetry in motion. They can fuel a car and change tires in less than eight seconds.
Useful link:
www.formula1.com
According to Steve Leslie, if one wants to get a healthy dose of attention to detail, watch a pit crew at a Formula One race. It is true poetry in motion. They can fuel a car and change tires in less than eight seconds.
Useful link:
www.formula1.com
Briolettes
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The Crown Jewels of Iran in the Bank Markazy of Iran are exceptionally rich in Briolettes. The pièce de résistance is an exquisite platinum-and-diamond necklace made for Her Imperial Majesty in 1938. Most of the diamonds are modern but the nine large Briolettes suspended from it are old. They have an estimated total weight of 200 ct (10 – 45 ct each). ‘The platinum work and the baguette diamonds are modern, but the briolette diamonds...showed wear. After we closely examined the necklace we realized that the briolettes were quite old and that they had probably acquired the wear-marks by being transported in camel bags with inadequate packing.’
Lawrence S Krashes gives us new, more detailed information about an exceptional diamond in his book on Harry Winston. He discloses that the stone was fashioned in France, from South African rough, in 1908-9, and he provides a number of further details, though unfortunately not the dimensions. The fashioning apparently follows the traditional lines of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but the gem is so vast (90.35 ct) that the number of facets runs into hundreds.
It is well known that most of the eighteen diamonds in the collection bequeathed to the French Crown by Cardinal Mazarin were Table Cuts, subsequently recut into Brilliants. But in addition to the Great Sancy and the two flat-bottomed Sancy cuts, two other stones listed in the Crown inventory of 1691 were cut as Briolettes. Numbers 5 and 6 are described as being faceted both sides, of almond shape and pierced downwards through the point so that they could serve as ear pendants, evidence that in the seventeenth century diamonds were drilled if the cutters intended them to be used as hanging gems. These two diamonds were actually set in a pair of earrings of a very ornamental type known as girandoles. They each take an eyewire pin of 2-3 mm in length.
It seems certain that in 1722 Mazarin numbers 5 and 6 were set into Louis XV’s crown, which contained in all eight large diamonds similar to the Sancy, each weighing between 16 and 22 ct. If one compares the outlines and faceting of these two Mazarin diamonds as portrayed by Cletscher in his album with the replicas now in the crown of Louis XV, one finds so close a similarity that one is forced to believe that these were originally the same stones, given that his reproduction was made from memory. It is almost certain that the smaller of these two Mazarin diamonds, number 6, was sold in 1796, while Number 5 survived both the robbery of 1792 and the sale and was finally sold by auction to Tiffany’s in 1887, when most of the French Crown Jewels were disposed of.
The Crown Jewels of Iran in the Bank Markazy of Iran are exceptionally rich in Briolettes. The pièce de résistance is an exquisite platinum-and-diamond necklace made for Her Imperial Majesty in 1938. Most of the diamonds are modern but the nine large Briolettes suspended from it are old. They have an estimated total weight of 200 ct (10 – 45 ct each). ‘The platinum work and the baguette diamonds are modern, but the briolette diamonds...showed wear. After we closely examined the necklace we realized that the briolettes were quite old and that they had probably acquired the wear-marks by being transported in camel bags with inadequate packing.’
Lawrence S Krashes gives us new, more detailed information about an exceptional diamond in his book on Harry Winston. He discloses that the stone was fashioned in France, from South African rough, in 1908-9, and he provides a number of further details, though unfortunately not the dimensions. The fashioning apparently follows the traditional lines of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but the gem is so vast (90.35 ct) that the number of facets runs into hundreds.
It is well known that most of the eighteen diamonds in the collection bequeathed to the French Crown by Cardinal Mazarin were Table Cuts, subsequently recut into Brilliants. But in addition to the Great Sancy and the two flat-bottomed Sancy cuts, two other stones listed in the Crown inventory of 1691 were cut as Briolettes. Numbers 5 and 6 are described as being faceted both sides, of almond shape and pierced downwards through the point so that they could serve as ear pendants, evidence that in the seventeenth century diamonds were drilled if the cutters intended them to be used as hanging gems. These two diamonds were actually set in a pair of earrings of a very ornamental type known as girandoles. They each take an eyewire pin of 2-3 mm in length.
It seems certain that in 1722 Mazarin numbers 5 and 6 were set into Louis XV’s crown, which contained in all eight large diamonds similar to the Sancy, each weighing between 16 and 22 ct. If one compares the outlines and faceting of these two Mazarin diamonds as portrayed by Cletscher in his album with the replicas now in the crown of Louis XV, one finds so close a similarity that one is forced to believe that these were originally the same stones, given that his reproduction was made from memory. It is almost certain that the smaller of these two Mazarin diamonds, number 6, was sold in 1796, while Number 5 survived both the robbery of 1792 and the sale and was finally sold by auction to Tiffany’s in 1887, when most of the French Crown Jewels were disposed of.
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
The year after Whistler met with his rebuff in Lodon, he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, which showed the esteem in which he was now held in France, and in 1892 he took a house at Paris in the Rue de Bac. He can hardly be said to have settled there, however, for he returned several times to London. In 1890 he had published a collection of letters and various controversial matter, including a report, with his own marginal comments, of the Ruskin trial, under the title of The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, and this publication not only increased his reputation as wit but showed that he possessed a distinct literary style of his own. This was followed some years later by The Baronet and the Butterfly, a pamphlet giving the artist’s version of a quarrel and lawsuit with Sir William Eden over a portrait of Lady Eden. Whistler had early adopted the device of a butterfly as his sign-manual and signature, but he was a butterfly with a sting, as he confessed himself to be in the little drawings with which he decorated his publications.
All the quarrels and encounters of his stormy life cannot be recounted here, but in the end he was victorious in London as in Paris. The purchase of his ‘Mother’ by the French Government helped to turn the scale in England. A new generation of artists gave Whislter a banquet in Lodon to celebrate the event, and in the same year (1892) the most important one-man show of his pictures yet held anywhere was opened in the old Goupil Gallery in Bond Street. This included nearly all his most famous works, among them the disgraced nocturnes, but now only a minority objected to his pictures or his titles, and the success of the exhibition revealed the change which the course of years had brought about in London opinion. The Royal Academy was no longer the power it had been in his earlier days; its prestige had declined, and there was now a powerful body of outside artists who admired Whistler. In 1898 the most eminent of these formed the ‘International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers,’ and invited Whistler to become its first President, a position he held till his death on July 17, 1903. The exhibition of this new Society proved that Whistler was not only respected by artists, but had become fashionable with all persons of taste.
To sum up, it may be said that after forty years of incessant battling, Whistler enjoyed a decade of tranquil success, but his last years were saddened by private trouble. In 1888 he had marrired the widow of E W Godwin, an architect, and his wife’s death in 1896 was a great blow to the artist. With his loneliness he grew restless, and though his continued devotion to his work saved him from melancholy, he traveled about a good deal. He was visiting Holland in the summer of 1902 when he was seized with a heart attack, and though he gained enough strength to return to London, and even to begin working again in the winter, a relapse in the following June prostrated him, and on Friday, July 17, after conversing good-humouredly during lunch, he was seized wtih syncope at 3 p.m and died without suffering. France, Italy, Bavaria, and Dresden had all conferred distinctions on him; but in America, his birthplace, and in England, where he lived and worked for the greater part of his life, Whistler received no official recognition.
The Influence Of The Far East (continue)
The year after Whistler met with his rebuff in Lodon, he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, which showed the esteem in which he was now held in France, and in 1892 he took a house at Paris in the Rue de Bac. He can hardly be said to have settled there, however, for he returned several times to London. In 1890 he had published a collection of letters and various controversial matter, including a report, with his own marginal comments, of the Ruskin trial, under the title of The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, and this publication not only increased his reputation as wit but showed that he possessed a distinct literary style of his own. This was followed some years later by The Baronet and the Butterfly, a pamphlet giving the artist’s version of a quarrel and lawsuit with Sir William Eden over a portrait of Lady Eden. Whistler had early adopted the device of a butterfly as his sign-manual and signature, but he was a butterfly with a sting, as he confessed himself to be in the little drawings with which he decorated his publications.
All the quarrels and encounters of his stormy life cannot be recounted here, but in the end he was victorious in London as in Paris. The purchase of his ‘Mother’ by the French Government helped to turn the scale in England. A new generation of artists gave Whislter a banquet in Lodon to celebrate the event, and in the same year (1892) the most important one-man show of his pictures yet held anywhere was opened in the old Goupil Gallery in Bond Street. This included nearly all his most famous works, among them the disgraced nocturnes, but now only a minority objected to his pictures or his titles, and the success of the exhibition revealed the change which the course of years had brought about in London opinion. The Royal Academy was no longer the power it had been in his earlier days; its prestige had declined, and there was now a powerful body of outside artists who admired Whistler. In 1898 the most eminent of these formed the ‘International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers,’ and invited Whistler to become its first President, a position he held till his death on July 17, 1903. The exhibition of this new Society proved that Whistler was not only respected by artists, but had become fashionable with all persons of taste.
To sum up, it may be said that after forty years of incessant battling, Whistler enjoyed a decade of tranquil success, but his last years were saddened by private trouble. In 1888 he had marrired the widow of E W Godwin, an architect, and his wife’s death in 1896 was a great blow to the artist. With his loneliness he grew restless, and though his continued devotion to his work saved him from melancholy, he traveled about a good deal. He was visiting Holland in the summer of 1902 when he was seized with a heart attack, and though he gained enough strength to return to London, and even to begin working again in the winter, a relapse in the following June prostrated him, and on Friday, July 17, after conversing good-humouredly during lunch, he was seized wtih syncope at 3 p.m and died without suffering. France, Italy, Bavaria, and Dresden had all conferred distinctions on him; but in America, his birthplace, and in England, where he lived and worked for the greater part of his life, Whistler received no official recognition.
The Influence Of The Far East (continue)
Creating A World Without Poverty
The book Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism by Muhammad Yunus was informative and useful + it recommends a new kind of enterprise: social business, a noble vision + since Mohammed Yunus has accomplished so much by creating a variety of other businesses under the Grameen family of companies, pairing with technology, providing meaning and opportunity, I guess his new business model should work.
Useful links:
www.grameen-info.org
www.thetech.org
Useful links:
www.grameen-info.org
www.thetech.org
New Zealand Wine
Wine is now New Zealand's 12th most valuable export + I think the spectacular success could be due to the country's unique climate + hard work + clever marketing + branding + timing + quality = New Zealand wine. I liked it. It's an experience.
Useful links:
www.nzwine.com
www.nzwinegrower.co.nz
Useful links:
www.nzwine.com
www.nzwinegrower.co.nz
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
An Interesting Scientific Study
A scientific study published in the March issue of NeuroReport concludes that viewing erotic pictures increased financial risk taking ..........
It would be interesting to apply magnetic resonance imaging technique (s) on gem/diamond dealers/jewelers/art dealers when doing trading and analyze the neuropsychological mechanism. Just curious.
Useful link:
www.neuroreport.com
It would be interesting to apply magnetic resonance imaging technique (s) on gem/diamond dealers/jewelers/art dealers when doing trading and analyze the neuropsychological mechanism. Just curious.
Useful link:
www.neuroreport.com
How To Map Carbon Footprint
(via Wired) I think the The Vulcan Project/ Hestia Project (NASA+DOE) are brilliant concepts + the results should become a valuable tool for policymakers, demographers and social scientists in developed and developing countries + if the experts are able to create functional models to quantify fossil fuel CO2 emissions at the scale of individual factories, powerplants, roadways and neighborhoods in the U.S, other countries could do the same with similar (modified) technologies at affordable costs and do the right thing. check out the video
Useful links:
The Vulcan Project
Hestia Project
http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov
Useful links:
The Vulcan Project
Hestia Project
http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov
International Colored Gemstone Association Congress
It has been reported that the International Colored Gemstone Association Congress will be held in Panyu, China, May 5-9, 2009.
Useful links:
www.gemstone.org
http://english.ccpit.org
Useful links:
www.gemstone.org
http://english.ccpit.org
A Special Lesson
I found the article on companies that conquered America @ http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5907.html interesting and insightful.
Useful link:
Marketing Know: How
Useful link:
Marketing Know: How
A Small Art Fair In Tokyo
Tokyo's new international art fair--101Tokyo--named after the postal code of the venue, an elementary school turned art school, is a new concept by Agatha Wara + Julia Barnes in the city's fragmented art scene + I think with time 101Tokyo could become a must-visit art show in the coming years.
Useful link:
www.101tokyo.com
Useful link:
www.101tokyo.com
Briolettes
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
A Bead pointed at one end and blunt at the other is known as a Briolette. One also comes across the term brillolette, which may well have been derived from the French briller, to sparkle. The name Briolette is relatively new; old inventories refer to diamonds of this shape only as pendants, so they are not always easy to identify. It is only when we find drawings like those by Tavernier and Clestscher that we can be sure that a gem is Briolette. Some writers have claimed that Briolettes, like Mughal Cuts, are a variety of the Baroque Rose Cut. However, very few Briolettes have the necessary hexagonal grouping of six triangular facets, and even if you occasionally come across one with a rounded bottom which, seen from below, looks like a full Rose Cut, a Rose Cut has a girdle and a flat bottom and a Briolette has neither. In most cases Briolettes are described as briolets or pendeloques, but I have come across a great variety of terms such as demi-briolet, briolette irregulière, carré, rouleau, pointue, amande pointue, olive and even navette (which means boat-shaped, but on this occasion was used to describe a drop!)
Tavernier sold two Briolettes to Louis XIV. Howevever, he does not use any special term for these diamonds; it is possible to determine what they were only from his drawings. A systematic and very detailed catalogue of Henry Philip Hope’s famous collection of pearls and precious stones was compiled by Bram Hertz and published in 1839, the year of Hope’s death. It contains excellent descriptions, as well as sketches, of the diamonds. The uncommonly fine quality of the Hope Briolettes suggests that the collector had many gems of this type to choose from. The following quotations are all from Hertz’s catalogue:
- ‘A very fine diamond from the mines of Golconda, of the purest crystalline water, and cut as a briolet. It differs, however, from the general form of briolets, which are usually of the shape of a pear or drop; but this specimen has a cylindrical form, with a conical termination at both ends; the facets are likewise different from those of the briolets in general, as these latter always present on their surface a number facets which cross each other in an oblique direction: the surface of the present, however, is cut in narrow facets, joining each other, and running in a perpendicular direction. This beautiful and rare gem formerly belonged to the crown jewels of Portugal: it is mounted with a gold enamelled cap, and hangs in a black enamelled ring, set with seven table diamonds, evidently the work of some clever artist of the Cinquecento. Weight 44 grains (appr.11.3 ct).’ This description suggests that it was a Briolette dating from te sixteenth century and therefore an early historical cut.
- ‘A briolet diamond, of a pear shape, it differs in cutting from the brilliant, particularly in its round form and the numerous small facets on it. The Indian diamond-cutters alone are able to cut the briolet. The present specimen is of fine water and beautiful workmanship and deserves well its place in the collection. Weight 26 3/32 (appr. 6.7ct)’.
- ‘A fine briolet diamond, of a pear shape and straw color, and is most beautifully cut: it has a little flaw.....Weight 46 7/8 (appr. 12ct).’
- ‘A very fine briolet drop, of the purest crystalline water, cut all round with elongated lozenge facets, having intermediate acute triangular facets above and below.... Weight 10 ¾ grains (appr. 2.75ct)’.
The Duke of Brunswick had an even larger collection of Briolettes, but they were not of such high quality. He assembled the collection between the years 1843 and 1859; it contains a total of fifty-one Briolettes, each weighing between 8 and 54 ¼ carats. One pair is said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, but I have not found any evidence to support this assertion. A little later, in 1669, we have Tavernier’s drawing of two Briolettes which he brought to France from India. However, I can find no mention of thtem in the French inventories. Were they, perhaps, sold abroad?
Briolettes (continued)
A Bead pointed at one end and blunt at the other is known as a Briolette. One also comes across the term brillolette, which may well have been derived from the French briller, to sparkle. The name Briolette is relatively new; old inventories refer to diamonds of this shape only as pendants, so they are not always easy to identify. It is only when we find drawings like those by Tavernier and Clestscher that we can be sure that a gem is Briolette. Some writers have claimed that Briolettes, like Mughal Cuts, are a variety of the Baroque Rose Cut. However, very few Briolettes have the necessary hexagonal grouping of six triangular facets, and even if you occasionally come across one with a rounded bottom which, seen from below, looks like a full Rose Cut, a Rose Cut has a girdle and a flat bottom and a Briolette has neither. In most cases Briolettes are described as briolets or pendeloques, but I have come across a great variety of terms such as demi-briolet, briolette irregulière, carré, rouleau, pointue, amande pointue, olive and even navette (which means boat-shaped, but on this occasion was used to describe a drop!)
Tavernier sold two Briolettes to Louis XIV. Howevever, he does not use any special term for these diamonds; it is possible to determine what they were only from his drawings. A systematic and very detailed catalogue of Henry Philip Hope’s famous collection of pearls and precious stones was compiled by Bram Hertz and published in 1839, the year of Hope’s death. It contains excellent descriptions, as well as sketches, of the diamonds. The uncommonly fine quality of the Hope Briolettes suggests that the collector had many gems of this type to choose from. The following quotations are all from Hertz’s catalogue:
- ‘A very fine diamond from the mines of Golconda, of the purest crystalline water, and cut as a briolet. It differs, however, from the general form of briolets, which are usually of the shape of a pear or drop; but this specimen has a cylindrical form, with a conical termination at both ends; the facets are likewise different from those of the briolets in general, as these latter always present on their surface a number facets which cross each other in an oblique direction: the surface of the present, however, is cut in narrow facets, joining each other, and running in a perpendicular direction. This beautiful and rare gem formerly belonged to the crown jewels of Portugal: it is mounted with a gold enamelled cap, and hangs in a black enamelled ring, set with seven table diamonds, evidently the work of some clever artist of the Cinquecento. Weight 44 grains (appr.11.3 ct).’ This description suggests that it was a Briolette dating from te sixteenth century and therefore an early historical cut.
- ‘A briolet diamond, of a pear shape, it differs in cutting from the brilliant, particularly in its round form and the numerous small facets on it. The Indian diamond-cutters alone are able to cut the briolet. The present specimen is of fine water and beautiful workmanship and deserves well its place in the collection. Weight 26 3/32 (appr. 6.7ct)’.
- ‘A fine briolet diamond, of a pear shape and straw color, and is most beautifully cut: it has a little flaw.....Weight 46 7/8 (appr. 12ct).’
- ‘A very fine briolet drop, of the purest crystalline water, cut all round with elongated lozenge facets, having intermediate acute triangular facets above and below.... Weight 10 ¾ grains (appr. 2.75ct)’.
The Duke of Brunswick had an even larger collection of Briolettes, but they were not of such high quality. He assembled the collection between the years 1843 and 1859; it contains a total of fifty-one Briolettes, each weighing between 8 and 54 ¼ carats. One pair is said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, but I have not found any evidence to support this assertion. A little later, in 1669, we have Tavernier’s drawing of two Briolettes which he brought to France from India. However, I can find no mention of thtem in the French inventories. Were they, perhaps, sold abroad?
Briolettes (continued)
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Another man might have been crushed by the misfortunes which now crowded on him, but fortunately Whistler was an etcher as well as a painter, and at this moment, when his pictures were unsaleable, he again turned to etching. He came to an arrangement with a firm, which advanced him a sum of money on etchings he engaged to execute, and with this he went in 1879 to Venice, where he developed a new and beautiful style in etching. In comparison with his earlier work, these Venice etchings were lighter in handling and more simplified in line; but they palpitated with light and air and were fairylike in their delicacy of decoration. ‘San Giorgio’ shows how spacious and satisfying an effect Whistler was now able to secure with a minimum of means.
These new etchings were not at first popular with the public and the critics any more than the nocturnes, but they were appreciated and purchased by many discriminating print collectors, and when Whistler returned to Chelsea towards the end of 1880 his position gradually improved. In 1883 he held a second and larger exhibition of his Venetian pieces at the Fine Art Society, and prepared an extraordinary catalogue, in which under each numbered exhibit appeared quotations taken from influential journals and well-known writers, all hostile, and beginning with this extract from Truth: ‘Another crop of Mr Whistler’s little jokes.’ The exhibition, which was beautifully arranged and staged, together with this quaint catalogue, caused an immense sensation. Never before had an artist made fun of his critics to this extent. Visitors could not fail to recognize the refinement in works like ‘San Giorgio,’ and when they read a sentence like ‘Whistler’s is eminently vulgar’ the criticism recoiled on the writer, not the artist. The tide began to turn, and a considerable opinion now became definitely favorable to Whistler. He began to paint again, people like Mrs Meux, the wife of the brewer, and Lady Archibald Campbell came to him for portraits, and his position was immensely strengthened when his ‘Portrait of the Artist’s Mother’ obtained a medal and a brilliant success in the Paris Salon of 1883. Later this work was bought by the French Government for the Luxembourg.
For the next few years Whistler made Paris his principal exhibition center. At the Grosvenor Gallery in 1881 his ‘Portrait of Miss Cicely Alexander’ had been dreadfully abused by English critics; in the Paris Salon of 1884 it was singled out for general approbation. For a brief season Whistler exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, of which he was elected President in June 1886, and under his presidency this Society held the most brilliant exhibitions in its history. But in 1888 there was a cabal against him by members discontented with his rule; Whistler was compelled to resign, and was followed by a number of talented artists whom he had persuaded to join the Society. When asked to explain what had happened, the ex-President replied, ‘It is quite simple; the artists have left and the British remain.’
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Another man might have been crushed by the misfortunes which now crowded on him, but fortunately Whistler was an etcher as well as a painter, and at this moment, when his pictures were unsaleable, he again turned to etching. He came to an arrangement with a firm, which advanced him a sum of money on etchings he engaged to execute, and with this he went in 1879 to Venice, where he developed a new and beautiful style in etching. In comparison with his earlier work, these Venice etchings were lighter in handling and more simplified in line; but they palpitated with light and air and were fairylike in their delicacy of decoration. ‘San Giorgio’ shows how spacious and satisfying an effect Whistler was now able to secure with a minimum of means.
These new etchings were not at first popular with the public and the critics any more than the nocturnes, but they were appreciated and purchased by many discriminating print collectors, and when Whistler returned to Chelsea towards the end of 1880 his position gradually improved. In 1883 he held a second and larger exhibition of his Venetian pieces at the Fine Art Society, and prepared an extraordinary catalogue, in which under each numbered exhibit appeared quotations taken from influential journals and well-known writers, all hostile, and beginning with this extract from Truth: ‘Another crop of Mr Whistler’s little jokes.’ The exhibition, which was beautifully arranged and staged, together with this quaint catalogue, caused an immense sensation. Never before had an artist made fun of his critics to this extent. Visitors could not fail to recognize the refinement in works like ‘San Giorgio,’ and when they read a sentence like ‘Whistler’s is eminently vulgar’ the criticism recoiled on the writer, not the artist. The tide began to turn, and a considerable opinion now became definitely favorable to Whistler. He began to paint again, people like Mrs Meux, the wife of the brewer, and Lady Archibald Campbell came to him for portraits, and his position was immensely strengthened when his ‘Portrait of the Artist’s Mother’ obtained a medal and a brilliant success in the Paris Salon of 1883. Later this work was bought by the French Government for the Luxembourg.
For the next few years Whistler made Paris his principal exhibition center. At the Grosvenor Gallery in 1881 his ‘Portrait of Miss Cicely Alexander’ had been dreadfully abused by English critics; in the Paris Salon of 1884 it was singled out for general approbation. For a brief season Whistler exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, of which he was elected President in June 1886, and under his presidency this Society held the most brilliant exhibitions in its history. But in 1888 there was a cabal against him by members discontented with his rule; Whistler was compelled to resign, and was followed by a number of talented artists whom he had persuaded to join the Society. When asked to explain what had happened, the ex-President replied, ‘It is quite simple; the artists have left and the British remain.’
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Luc Yen Precious Stone Market, Vietnam
I found the article on Luc Yen Precious Stone Market, Vietnam @
http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=37443 interesting because I think the market’s golden years have long gone but valuable colored gemstones can still be found, with more synthetic/imitation stones awaiting first-time buyers, especially foreigners.
A good place to test your gem identification + buying skills.
http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=37443 interesting because I think the market’s golden years have long gone but valuable colored gemstones can still be found, with more synthetic/imitation stones awaiting first-time buyers, especially foreigners.
A good place to test your gem identification + buying skills.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston, an American Academy Award-winning film actor, passed away in Los Angeles, US + I think he was god-like, and his presence in film (s) brought beauty, rarity, phosphorescence, guts, dispersion and that otherness + he will be remembered forever.
Useful link:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000032
Useful link:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000032
Commodities Update
The article on food crisis and market panic @ http://www.newsweek.com/id/130641 was interesting + insightful because as Robert Zeigler, head of the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute, rightly put it, we're paying the price of complacency + global markets are behaving as if a food shock is imminent.
Useful links:
www.wfp.org
www.worldbank.org
www.irri.org
www.earth-policy.org
www.fao.org
Useful links:
www.wfp.org
www.worldbank.org
www.irri.org
www.earth-policy.org
www.fao.org
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is a gallery of Asian art located in Washington, DC, United States, part of the Smithsonian Institution + the Sackler is one of two galleries of the National Museum of Asian Art, the other being the Freer Gallery.
Current exhibitions:
Patterned Feathers, Piercing Eyes: Edo Masters From the Price Collection
November 10, 2007–April 13, 2008
Tales of the Brush Continued: Chinese Paintings With Literary Themes
February 9–July 27, 2008
Perspectives: Y.Z. Kami
March 15–Oct. 13, 2008
Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia
April 1, 2007 through 2010
Useful links:
www.asia.si.edu
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/04/arts/melik5.php
Don't miss it!
Current exhibitions:
Patterned Feathers, Piercing Eyes: Edo Masters From the Price Collection
November 10, 2007–April 13, 2008
Tales of the Brush Continued: Chinese Paintings With Literary Themes
February 9–July 27, 2008
Perspectives: Y.Z. Kami
March 15–Oct. 13, 2008
Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia
April 1, 2007 through 2010
Useful links:
www.asia.si.edu
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/04/arts/melik5.php
Don't miss it!
The New Paradigm For Financial Markets
As Economist rightly put it, crisis breeds opportunties, and now George Soros in his latest book, 'The New Paradigm for Financial Markets' offers a different sort of reflection on the present financial crisis: fracture-filled financial institutions + synthetic-structured financial products = super financial cleavage cracks + bubble (s).
Useful link:
www.georgesoros.com
I think the gem/jewelry/art industry should read the book for reflexivity because the economic impact for many countries in the world will be hard due to vulnerable dollar and the spectre of inflation + god knows what else. We are living in interesting times.
Useful link:
www.georgesoros.com
I think the gem/jewelry/art industry should read the book for reflexivity because the economic impact for many countries in the world will be hard due to vulnerable dollar and the spectre of inflation + god knows what else. We are living in interesting times.
Ambilight
(via Wikipedia) Ambilight, which is short for Ambient Lighting Technology, is a feature invented by Philips Electronics, generating light effects around the TV that correspond to the video content. The effect, the company claims, is a larger virtual screen and a more immersive viewing experience. In addition, Philips claims that it reduces viewer eye strain.
Useful link:
www.research.philips.com
I wonder if Ambilight technology could be modified for colored stones and jewelry for an immersive viewing experience.
Useful link:
www.research.philips.com
I wonder if Ambilight technology could be modified for colored stones and jewelry for an immersive viewing experience.
Art Sources
I found Mark Hardens artchive + Nicolas Pioch's Webmuseum interesting. I liked it.
Useful links:
www.artchive.com
WebMuseum
Useful links:
www.artchive.com
WebMuseum
Beads
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Diamond beads, unlike those made from other gems, are seldom completely spherical, but may have any shape from a sphere to a disc, such as a barrel, spindle, cylinder or ellipse. They are covered with small facets on all sides, often in steps. They have no girdle, table or culet. They were apparently always produced from dodecahedroid rough of an intermediate, near-spherical shape. A pair of exceptionally large diamond Beads from the late eighteenth century is in the possession of the Swedish Royal Family as part of the Bernadotte Foundation. They are set in a pair of earrings known as the Wasa Earrings. Fancy Cuts with all-round faceting are usually described as ‘rare’, so it is surprising to find so many of them in the inventories of the Hope and Brunswick Collections and in the Iranian Treasury.
Diamond beads, unlike those made from other gems, are seldom completely spherical, but may have any shape from a sphere to a disc, such as a barrel, spindle, cylinder or ellipse. They are covered with small facets on all sides, often in steps. They have no girdle, table or culet. They were apparently always produced from dodecahedroid rough of an intermediate, near-spherical shape. A pair of exceptionally large diamond Beads from the late eighteenth century is in the possession of the Swedish Royal Family as part of the Bernadotte Foundation. They are set in a pair of earrings known as the Wasa Earrings. Fancy Cuts with all-round faceting are usually described as ‘rare’, so it is surprising to find so many of them in the inventories of the Hope and Brunswick Collections and in the Iranian Treasury.
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Strange that Ruskin did not remember that the selfsame phrase about ‘flinging a pot of paint’ had been used a generation earlier by a critic of one of Turner’s sunsets. Then Ruskin had been on the side of the artist, now he did not understand and stood with the Philistines. Time has avenged the insult to genius uncomprehended, and the ‘Nocturne—Blue and Gold—Old Battersea Bridge,’ which Ruskin in 1877 thought not worth two hundred guineas, was in 1905 eagerly purchased for two thousand guineas and presented to the nation.
Whistler’s exhibits brought him all the publicity any artist could desire—all London was taking of his nocturnes—but the hostility of the critics, and particularly the savage onslaught of Ruskin, scared away purchasers. When he exhibited for the second time at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1878, Whistler found that Ruskin’s denunciation was stopping the sale of his pictures and, after some hesitation, he decided to bring a libel action against him.
The case was heard on the 25th and 26th of November 1878 before Mr Justice Huddlestone and a special jury. It created a great sensation, but Whistler was ill advised to bring the action, because artistic questions can never be satisfactorily settled in a court of law. Popular sympathy was with the critic, who had so often been right in the past, and Whistler’s brilliant repartees in the witness-box did him no good, for they only tended to confirm the opinion that he was an amusing jester who was not to be taken seriously. In cross-examination the opposing counsel elicited the fact the the ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold’ had been painted in two days, and then said, ‘The labor of two days, then, is that for which you ask two hundred guineas?’ ‘No,’ replied Whistler with dignity; ‘I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime.’
The point at issue really was whether the nocturnes were or were not works of art, and this was a matter obviously over the heads of the jury. Albert Moore, giving evidence for Whistler, praised his pictures highly and declared that they showed not ‘eccentricity’ but ‘originality’. William Rossetti also pronounced the nocturnes to be true works of art, but on the other side Frith declared they were not, and Burne-Jones agreed with him because, though he admitted that the nocturnes had ‘fine color and atmosphere,’ he considered that they lacked ‘complete finish’. Tom Taylor, the art critic of The Times, giving evidence for Ruskin, attempted to explain what Burne-Jones mean by finish, and for this purpose produced a picture of Titian. But when this was handed to the jury, one of them, mistaking it for a picture by Whistler, exclaimed, ‘Oh, come! We’ve had enough of these Whistlers,’ and they all refused to look at it!
In the end Whistler was awarded te contemptuous sum of one farthing damages. This meant that he had to pay his own law costs, and since nobody would buy his pictures now he was soon in money difficulties. He revenged himself by issuing a pamphlet, Art and Art Critics, in which his enemies were neatly and wittily put in their places, but this did not help him to live. To put an end to an untenable situation, early in 1879 he had to abandon his residence, ‘The White House,’ in Chelsea. He became a bankrupt and all his belongings were sold to satisfy his creditors.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Strange that Ruskin did not remember that the selfsame phrase about ‘flinging a pot of paint’ had been used a generation earlier by a critic of one of Turner’s sunsets. Then Ruskin had been on the side of the artist, now he did not understand and stood with the Philistines. Time has avenged the insult to genius uncomprehended, and the ‘Nocturne—Blue and Gold—Old Battersea Bridge,’ which Ruskin in 1877 thought not worth two hundred guineas, was in 1905 eagerly purchased for two thousand guineas and presented to the nation.
Whistler’s exhibits brought him all the publicity any artist could desire—all London was taking of his nocturnes—but the hostility of the critics, and particularly the savage onslaught of Ruskin, scared away purchasers. When he exhibited for the second time at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1878, Whistler found that Ruskin’s denunciation was stopping the sale of his pictures and, after some hesitation, he decided to bring a libel action against him.
The case was heard on the 25th and 26th of November 1878 before Mr Justice Huddlestone and a special jury. It created a great sensation, but Whistler was ill advised to bring the action, because artistic questions can never be satisfactorily settled in a court of law. Popular sympathy was with the critic, who had so often been right in the past, and Whistler’s brilliant repartees in the witness-box did him no good, for they only tended to confirm the opinion that he was an amusing jester who was not to be taken seriously. In cross-examination the opposing counsel elicited the fact the the ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold’ had been painted in two days, and then said, ‘The labor of two days, then, is that for which you ask two hundred guineas?’ ‘No,’ replied Whistler with dignity; ‘I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime.’
The point at issue really was whether the nocturnes were or were not works of art, and this was a matter obviously over the heads of the jury. Albert Moore, giving evidence for Whistler, praised his pictures highly and declared that they showed not ‘eccentricity’ but ‘originality’. William Rossetti also pronounced the nocturnes to be true works of art, but on the other side Frith declared they were not, and Burne-Jones agreed with him because, though he admitted that the nocturnes had ‘fine color and atmosphere,’ he considered that they lacked ‘complete finish’. Tom Taylor, the art critic of The Times, giving evidence for Ruskin, attempted to explain what Burne-Jones mean by finish, and for this purpose produced a picture of Titian. But when this was handed to the jury, one of them, mistaking it for a picture by Whistler, exclaimed, ‘Oh, come! We’ve had enough of these Whistlers,’ and they all refused to look at it!
In the end Whistler was awarded te contemptuous sum of one farthing damages. This meant that he had to pay his own law costs, and since nobody would buy his pictures now he was soon in money difficulties. He revenged himself by issuing a pamphlet, Art and Art Critics, in which his enemies were neatly and wittily put in their places, but this did not help him to live. To put an end to an untenable situation, early in 1879 he had to abandon his residence, ‘The White House,’ in Chelsea. He became a bankrupt and all his belongings were sold to satisfy his creditors.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Eco-Conscious Jewelry
By reusing precious gems, metal scraps, and recycled packaging in production, designer Elizabeth Moore, has introduced something new from old for the jewelry industry and eco-conscious consumers. I think they look different and eye-catching + beautiful.
Useful link:
www.frootejewelry.com
Useful link:
www.frootejewelry.com
Sunday, April 06, 2008
The First $20 Million Is Always The Hardest
The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest by Po Bronson is an interesting book + it highlights the asymmetrical business landscape and characters when entrepreneurs risk everything to start a company, and take it public + the impact.
I liked it.
Useful links:
www.pobronson.com
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280674
I liked it.
Useful links:
www.pobronson.com
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280674
Expanding Circular Table
I found the William IV Jupe expanding circular mahogany dining table @ http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/artview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10989634 intriguing because they are beautiful and rare + the table looked very similar to the shape and patterns of fixed trapiche stars in emerald (Colombia) and rubies and sapphires (Burma)-- a collector's delight.
Useful links:
www.oscardelarenta.com
www.theodorealexander.com
www.dbfletcher.com
www.christies.com
Useful links:
www.oscardelarenta.com
www.theodorealexander.com
www.dbfletcher.com
www.christies.com
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