The Definition Of A Gem Mine

The owner of a gem mine in Southeast Asia told me the definition of a gem mine: 'It's a hole in the ground with a bunch of liars standing around the hole looking down into it.'

De Beers Must Enforce Its Best Practice Principles – Or Irreparably Damage Its Brand Equity

Chaim Even-Zohar writes about De Beers management’s Best Practice Principles + reputational issues + sightholder concerns + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp

The Golf Doctor

(via Dailyspeculations) Alan Millhone writes:

There are some things in life that you can't think about while you do them, and golf is one. Golf isn't played the way it's learned. It's learned by conscious competence on the driving range and played by unconscious competence on the golf course.

There was never a champion who just wandered up to the ball and hit it. So approach the ball as if you mean it. The average player plays with no commitment to the shot. The good player plays with partial commitment to the shot, but the champion plays with total commitment to the shot.

Relax! The time you have to swing the club is not a second and a half but 30 to 45 seconds. It runs from the beginning of your shot routine until the ball is in the air.

The late and great checker world champion Tommie Wiswell admonished, "Move in haste, repent in leisure". With golf, chess, checkers, tennis, stock trading (I think I should add diamond and colored stone trading), take your time. Survey the situation. Do your homework. Keep a manuscript full of your notes on whatever you are doing.

"Knowledge is power" in anything!

I think it was brilliant. A real gem. I enjoyed it.

Chocolate That's 'Healthier' Than 2 Kilos Of Apples Hits The Shelves

(via ANI) Manufacturers Prestat, chocolatiers to the Queen, claim that just two squares of dark or milk chocolate Choxi will provide all the antioxidants the human body needs for a whole day + the new sweet naturally contains more flavonol antioxidants than any other food + other viewpoints @ http://in.news.yahoo.com/071105/139/6mui9.html

That's what I need. What about you?

Not A Picture But An Event

Barbara A. MacAdam writes about Harold Rosenberg + the concept of 'Action Painting' + other viewpoints @ http://www.artnews.com/anniversary/top3.asp

Taking The Local

Blake Eskin writes about photographs by Thomas Roma + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1132

Blood Diamonds On Amazon? Without Certification, It's Hard To Tell

Dylan Tweney writes about Amazon's dilema tagging conflict-free status for diamonds + the pros and cons of certifiying every single diamond online + other viewpoints @ http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/11/blood-diamonds-.html

Two Unique, Trihedrally Faceted Point Cuts

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

There is also a historical diamond ring in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, similar to the Dresden ring. The diamond is almost as high, but the pavilion is deeper and the crown is trihedrally faceted. It is also much larger than the Dresden diamond, weighing well over 9 ct and measuring 11.5 x 11.5 mm.

On top of the crown of the pendant known as the Palatine Lion (in the Schatzkammer der Residenz, Munich) is the only surviving pyramidal diamond with trihedral faceting applied on eight, initially bruted, basic faces. Time and again we find such examples of early cutters’ incredible skill and imagination. In this case we can count twenty-four regularly formed and arranged facets on a space of 5 x 5 mm. The diamond is on the top of the lion’s crown.

Treated And False Stones

(via Roman Book On Precious Stones: 1950) Sydney H Ball writes:

In Pliny’s time, stones were treated to improve their appearance and the art of making paste imitations of gems advanced.

To paraphrase him: All precious stones are improved in brilliancy by being boiled in honey, Corsican honey in particular; acrid substances, however, are injurious to them. (If by ‘boiled’ Pliny means heated, he had the secret of artificially coloring agate; if not, his informants were holding out an essential step in the process). Such treated stones, to which man has imparted new colors, are called physis (‘nature’ or ‘works of nature’), a bit of deception, since dealers recognize that products of nature are more sought after than those of man.

The above free rendering may be a rather obscure reference to an art, which the Hindus even then doubtless practiced, of improving the color of varieties of the cryptocrystalline quartz species by exposure to the sun or to fire, after permitting the more porous layers to absorb honey or other liquids. It is, therefore, believed that the Romans knew something of agate staining. Barbosa (1517 A.D) describes the art and it doubtless long antedated his time. Could the line in Propertius (flourished 30 to 15 B.C) regarding murrha (agate in part) ‘And murrhine vessels baked in Partian hearths’ refer to this process?

The ceraunia, on the other hand, is temporarily improved by being treated for some time in a mixture of vinegar and nitre, and the brilliancy of poor garnets is heightened by steeping for fourteen days in vinegar, the improvement lasting an equal number of months.

Pliny states that books exist which tell how to counterfeit precious stones, but he ‘refuses to name’ the authors, evidently to protect the owners of real gems. This reminds one of David Jeffries’ lament (1750 A.D) when the brilliant cut was supplanting the rose cut diamond, that, provided the ‘fad’ continued, the nobility of England, being large possessors of rose cut diamonds, could be ruined. An earlier analogue is that of the Chinese ambassador, Kan Ying, who reached Antioch, the capital of Rome Syria, in 97 A.D. ‘The articles made of rare precious stones produced in this country are sham curiosities and mostly not genuine, whence they are not (here) mentioned’. Regarding gem counterfeiting, Pliny adds that there is no deceit practiced, which is more profitable. He recognizes that the best method of testing a false stone is to break off a fragment and test its hardness, but the Roman jeweler would not permit this nor the use of the file. In other words, Pliny recognized that hardness is one of the best gemological tests.

As happens today, less valuable stones were palmed off for the more valuable species, and Pliny states, as is the case today, this is a particularly difficult deception for the layman to detect. Sardonyx was imitated by a triplet of a black, a white, and a red stone, each of excellent quality, cemented together. Martian (40-104 A.D), in describing a fine jewelry shop of his day, mentions ‘real sardonyx, indicating that false exists. In Pliny’s time, crystal was stained to imitate emerald and other transparent stones, and other frauds were perpetrated. The people of India, by coloring crystal, imitated various precious stones, particularly beryls. Perhaps the process by which Democritus imitated emerald resembled that of Indian crystal imposition. He discovered, Seneca says, how a pebble can be transformed into an emerald by boiling it. By a similar process artificial gems are stained today. From the Hindu poem Hitopedesa (dating from about the time of Christ), we quote the following lines, more or less detached, to be sure:

‘Silly glass in splendid settings, something of the gold may gain;
And in company of wise ones, fools to wisdom may attain.’
‘Glass will glitter like the ruby, drilled with dust—are they the same?’

An ancient Hindu play Mrichchhakatika or Little Clay Cart (6th century A.D?), as to Hindu makers of false stones, says ‘they readily fabricate imitations of ornaments they have once seen, in such a manner that the difference shall scarcely be discernible’.

Returning to Pliny, he says that any color can be imparted to amber that may be desired, it being sometimes stained with kid suet and root of orchanet; indeed, in his day, amber was even dyed purple. Much amber was used, he says, to counterfeit gems, especially amethyst. We may add that today pressed amber is successfully colored.

The artisans of Pliny’s time imitated many stones in glass and some of these false gems which have come down to us would test the skill of an expert of today. Certain Italian jewelers still, after recutting, sell as real gems the pastes dug up in Rome. Obsidian, murrha, crystal, and other stones were imitated. Pliny states that glass imitations of jasper are easily detected and as to opal, it is the most perfectly imitated, although the opalescence is partly or largely lacking. The callaina (turquoise) is also successfully counterfeited. Genuine capnias is much colder than the glass imitations. Carbunculus (garnet and other red gems) is well counterfeited, but the glass imitation is softer, comparatively brittle and lighter in weight. Further, the inclusions differ. The Egyptian cyanos is undoubtedly a blue frit, an imitation of turquoise.

The Egyptians and the citizens of Ur made glass imitations of gems some 5000 years ago. Later (1600-1400 B.C) the Myceneans were adept at the trade. On the other hand, while there are a few Greek paste intaglios of the 4th century B.C, such were rare before the 3rd century B.C. Pastes were much used in Rome until some years after Pliny’s time, when they became less common, probably because genuine precious stones were in large supply. Glass in Pliny’s time furnished the poor, who could afford gems, not only with the ‘costume’ jewelry of that day, but with a necessary signet. Paste in those days was, from its decorative value, ranked nearer to precious stones than it is today, for the faceting of stones, which brings out the full beauty of the transparent gems, was then in its infancy. Further, in those days, glass was a much more scarce and precious substance than it is today, so that its use in jewelry was less culpable than today. Alexander Severus, in attempting to stamp out the luxury of Heliogabalus’ reign, placed heavy taxes on the glassmakers. Diocletian (Emperor, 284-305 A.D) decreed that all books describing the synthesis of gold and silver and the fabrication of artificial precious stones should be burned.

There is a thought-provoking statement in Horace, namely, crystal vases ‘had been spoiled by an admixture of glass’. The Romans, in the writer’s opinion, could scarcely have melted rock crystal and glass together.

I think we can all smile with Emperor Gallienus, who reigned from 260 to 268 A.D. A jeweler had sold Gallienus’s wife, the Empress Salonina, false gems for true. She called the matter to the attention of the emperor and he immediately ordered the jeweler to be thrown to the wild beasts in the circus. Naked, the poor wretch stood in the arena awaiting his doom. The door of the wild beasts’ den was thrown open; out strutted a rooster! The emperor’s comment, ‘he who had cheated others should be cheated himself.’ More militant punishment is recommended in the Hindu Agastimata (16th century), as follows: ‘The vile man who fabricates false diamonds will sink into an awful hell, charged with a crime equal to murder.’

One of the last parts of Book XXXVII is an excellent and, to all intents and purposes, a modern summary of the methods of testing gems. This has already been quoted in the section on Pliny as a mineralogist. In short, glass imitations are lighter, better conductors of heat, contain more gas inclusions, and are softer than gemstones.

How To Become An Expert In Any Business

To quote Niels Bohr, 'An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.'

A different perspective: Akira Kurosawa, one of the giants in the movie business, who, when accepting an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement at the age of 80 said that he would not accept the award for lifetime achievement, but rather for future work, because he felt he was only just beginning to master his craft.

That's humility.

The Fresh-Roasted Smell Of Success

Matthew Rees writes about Starbucks + its hallowed place in the American landscape + other viewpoints @ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119440173104784754.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Capturing The Artist In Action

Ann Landi writes about Jackson Pollock (America's first art star) + painter and critic Robert Goodnough + other viewpoints @ http://www.artnews.com/anniversary/top2.asp

Peter Gabriel

I am a huge fan of Peter Garbiel + he has been the driving force behind the WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) movement + Real World Studios + one of the founders of On Demand Distribution (OD2) + human right activist.

Useful link:
http://petergabriel.com

Our Land, Our Life

(via YouTube): Our Land, Our Life (Oxfam America)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffYNzUDR-6k

I liked it.

Better With Their Clothes On

(via The Guardian) Julian Barnes writes about Swiss artist Félix Vallotton + other viewpoints @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2204113,00.html

Gorgeous Gorges

Deidre Stein Greben writes about the fortunes in the marketplace of the Hudson River painters (such artists as Thomas Cole, Sanford Robinson Gifford, Fitz Hugh Lane, Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, Martin Johnson Heade, Francis Augustus Silva, Worthington Whittredge, and Jasper Francis Cropsey) + new collectors (emerging on the West Coast from the computer industry) + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1131

A Pyramidal Cut, Fashioned From Triangular Rough

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

No trace of the origin or history of the Dresden Renaissance ring has ever been found. Its main feature is the pointed diamond weighing about 2 ct. This has always been accepted as being fairly normal Point Cut, but if it were so its disproportionate height would have involved an unrealistic reduction in the width.

The exceptionally large internal reflections also suggested to me that the stone merited further investigation. Experiments with rock crystal finally revealed that the gem could only have been produced from a triangular macle or ‘was’. The proportions of the actual diamond are quite remarkable, with its high 60º crown and very shallow 11º pavilion.

A Historical Summary Of The Ancient Commerce In Precious Stones

(via Roman Book On Precious Stones: 1950) Sydney H Ball writes:

While all of the then known world was ransacked by Rome for precious stones, India was considered the source of par excellence of fine gems. The Indians, having neither copper nor lead mines, ‘ are content to part with their pearls and precious stones unto merchants by way of counterchange of metals.’ Indeed, metals have always moved east in exchange for gems, spices, and silk from the Orient. Rome paid for its luxuries, not only with base and precious metals (for even then India was the sink of gold and silver), but to a much lesser extent with textiles, amber, emeralds, peridot, coral, glassware, and wine. Roman gold coins of Tiberius and Nero (42 B.C – 68 A.D) are commonly found on the Malabar coast. Pliny states that yearly precious metals worth the equivalent of $4,250,000 were exported from Rome to India. The debasement of coinage under Nero was, in part at least, due to India’s favorable trade balance.

The Indian origin of sardonyx, of many classical engraved gems, and even of sapphire ornaments is attested by the fact that such gems are pierced for suspension as beads.

Ceylon and India were in commercial contact, at least by 543 B.C, and the name of the island was known to the officers of Alexander the Great. Megasthenes (about 300 B.C) mentions the pearls of Ceylon but not its precious stones. In the time of the Emperor Claudius (reign began 41 A.D), Annius Plocamus had farmed the revenues of the Red Sea. One of his freedmen sailing around Arabia was carried by adverse winds to landfall on Ceylon. He stayed there six months and, as a result, the king of Ceylon, seeking an alliance with Rome, sent Rachias and three others on embassy to Rome. These Singhalese informed the Emperor Claudius that in their country they valued greatly their pearls and precious stones. The precious stones of Ceylon in Pliny’s time, however, were still received indirectly through India, for direct commerce between Rome and Ceylon did not start until about 150 A.D. We may, however, add that the author of the Periplus, a contemporary of Pliny, mentions that Ceylon produces transparent stones. Ptolemy, an Alexandrian living about 150 A.D, mentions beryl and sapphire as products of Ceylon. In his time Graeco-Egyptian traders apparently knew the island well. Cosmas Indicopleustes probably gained his knowledge of Ceylon’s wealth in gems from Sopatrus, a Romanized Greek who visited Ceylon about 519 A.D although Cosmas himself may have visited India. At Sigiriya and other ancient Ceylonese cities, Roman coins of the 2nd and 5th centuries are frequently found.

Roman coins of the 2nd century A.D have recently been found among the ruins of Indo-Chinese towns. India and China seem to have had commercial relations as early as the 4th century B.C. Alexander the Great’s admiral, Nearchus, knew of ‘Seriancloths which reached India from the north.’ In 140 B.C. Chinese ships with cargo of gold and silks sailed for Conjevaram, a port near Madras. This cargo they expected to exchange for pearls, crystal, and precious stones. An embassy from China was received by Mithridates II of Parthia (124-88 B.C). Of course, Rome and Parthia were in commercial contact in the 1st century B.C. Horace (65-8 B.C) mentions the Seres. Virgil in the Georgics, published in 31 B.C, knew of Chinese silk and how the ‘Seres comb the slender fleeces from the leaves’. In the time of the Emperor Augustus, overland trade continued between China and Parthia, the Chinese traders going westward as far as the Stone Tower, approximately were Balkh now stands. Silk was the great trade incentive between China and the West, and this trade expanded markedly toward the second half of the 2nd century B.C. The historian Florus mentions Chinese among the foreigners who came to the court of Augustus. He says: ‘Nay the Seres came likewise and the Indians who dwelt beneath the vertical sun, bringing the presents of precious stones and pearls and elephants.’ But even in Pliny’s time, Rome and China were not yet in direct commercial contact, although the products of the two countries were known to one another. Amber from Rome reached China probably through Syria, while jade was used to a small extent by the Romans. It may be added that Roman coins have been found in the Chinese province of Shansi dating from the time of Tiberius (14-37 A.D) to that of Aurelian (212-275 A.D). Pliny mentions the iron and furs of Seres. So, for a considerable time, India served as the link between the two great empires of the time, China and Rome. Marinus of Tyre, in the 2nd century A.D, says that in his time Rome exported amber to China and a Chinese work of 350 A.D. mentions amber as an export of Rome to China. In 97 A.D. Pan Ch’ao, the famous Chinese general, dispatched his aide westward as an ambassador, and he at least reached Babylonia. He speaks of the tenfold profits enjoyed by the Roman merchants trading in India, and of the riches in precious stones of what must have been modern Antoich. Marcus Aurelius is said to have sent ambassadors to China in 166 A.D, but instead of an official embassy, it may have been but a party of Syrian merchants.

The Egyptians apparently first instituted tariffs on precious stones and a century before Pliny’s time we know what duties were paid on gems upon entering Egypt and again at Alexandria when re-exported. Tiberius Gracchus, about 133 B.C, established duties on various luxuries entering Rome. Cicero (106-43 B.C) in Pro lege Manilia mentions three Roman import duties, the first being the Portoria, or that paid at a Roman port of entry. Later, precious stones, like other luxuries, paid a high duty on entering the Roman empire; for example, under the Emperor Augustus (31 B.C – 14 A.D), articles of luxury paid from two and one half of twelve and one half percent ad valorem, precious stones being in the higher brackets. Customs duties also existed between various Roman provinces. Other tariff laws were enacted under the Emperors Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, and Alexander Severus. Under the law of Severus (222-235 A.D), the diamond and the emerald paid a duty of twelve and one half per cent.

How To Sell Natural Color Diamonds

Log onto The Natural Color Diamond Association's website @ www.ncdia.com + you learn a lot more about color, grading and origin + good source of info for retailers and consumers.

The Wisdom Of Napoleon Hill

(via YouTube): The Wisdom of Napoleon Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz4Wl3jsHMc

Napoleon Hill talks about his meeting with Andrew Carnegie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GCaEZscfvA

A great inspiration.