The Road To Venice

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

The Art of Mantegna, Francia, Correggio, Bellini, And Giorgione

It takes nine tailors to make a man. So runs the familiar sayings, but one tailor of Padua in the fifteenth century sufficed to found a school of painting which has won immortal fame. In all the history of art no stranger figure exists than than of Franceso Squarcione, tailor and embroiderer of Padua. He had little to do with painting or painters till he was past forty, and yet this man was the master of 137 pupils and the the ‘Father’ of the glorious schools of Venice, Parma, Bologna, Lombardy, and Ferrara.

Here let us pause to explain tht while the succession of painters known as the Florentine School were perfecting their art, as related in the last chapter, groups of artists had already begun to collect in other Italian cities. So far back at 1375, twelve years before the birth of Fra Angelico, a Florentine painter named Justus had settled in Padua; and when Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452, Padua was already famous as an art center.

But to return to our tailor. To the University of Padua came, at one time or another, all the learned men of Italy. Nothing was heard in the streets but talk of ancient lore and the beauty of ancient art. The astute tailor soon found that a fragment of sculpture or a stone with a Greek inscription brought him more and better customers than the display of the latest fashions. Gradually the tailoring and embroidering became a side-line in his complicated business, and the shop of Squarcione gained much fame as a store house of antique treasures of art. Artists came to him asking to be allowed to draw his fine old statues.

Squarcione had a keen eye to the main chance, and the power to discover and use the talents of others. Whether he himself ever painted is doubtful, but in 1441, when he was a man of forty-seven, he managed to qualify himself for admission to the Guild of Painters at Padua. His business instinct would not allow him to let slip a ready-made opportunity. When students sought to study his unrivalled collection of antique models, they found themselves bound as apprentices to Squarcione; and hence forward—on the strength of their work—Squarcione blossomed into the proprietor of a flourishing art business.

In 1443 he was given the contract to decorate with paintings the Chapel of the Eremitani at Padua, and this contract he fulfilled for the most part by the hand of a boy of twelve, whom two years earlier Squarcione had adopted as his son and pupil. This boy was a nameless orphan, who acquired undying fame as Andrea Mantegna. He was only ten years old when, as the ‘son of Squarcione,’ he was admitted a member of the Padua Guild of Painters, and from this fact alone we can guess his extraordinary precocity. At the age of twelve Mantegna was employed on important paintings for the Chapel of the Eremitani, and it was the reputation of the pupil, rather than that of the master, which brought students in shoals to Padua.

Another great piece of good luck which befell Squarcione was the arrival in Padua of the Venetian painter Jacopo Bellini (c. 1400-71), whom the wily contractor inveigled into his business, and there is little room for doubt that Bellini was for many years the actual teacher of painting in the school of the Paduan contractor. Mantegna got his drawing from observing the Greek statues among Squarcione’s antiques, but he learnt coloring from Bellini, who was his true master. But so precocious was the genius of Mantegna that at seventeen he had already formed his style and brought his natural talents to mature perfection. At this age he painted an altar piece for St. Sophia at Padua, a picture which, as the sixteenth century critic Vasari wrote, ‘might well be the production of a skilled veteran and not of a mere boy.’

Success begets success, and at an early age Mantegna was able to set up for himself. Squarcione became still more furious when Mantegna married the daughter of Jacopo Bellini, who had now broken away from the firm and become a rival. Henceforward the old contractor blamed Mantegna’s works as much as he had previously praised them, ‘saying they were bad, because he had imitated marble, a thing impossible in painting, since stones always possess a certain harshness and never have that softness peculiar to flesh and natural objects.’

It is true that Mantegna’s sense of form was severe and his figures often remind us of marble statues, but the envious carping of his old master in no wise injured his reputation. His fame spread throughout Italy, and Pope Innocent VIII invited him to Rome, where he was employed on painting the walls of the Belvedere. The payments for this work were not so regular as the painter thought they should have been, and one day he ventured to drop a hint to the Pope, who had come to look at Mantegna’s paintings of the Virtues.
‘What is that figure?’ asked the Pontiff.
‘One much honored here, your Holiness,’ said the artist pointedly. ‘It is Prudence.’
‘You should associate patience with her,’ replied the Pope, who understood the allusion, and later when the work was completed we are told Mantegna was ‘richly rewarded.’

After painting in various Italian cities, Mantegna returned to Mantua, where he built himself a handsome house, and there in 1506, he died at the age of seventy five. The peculiar qualities of his art, his austere draughtsmanship and compact design may be seen in many works in England, notably in ‘The Triumph of Julius Caesar’ at Hampton Court, and in his ‘Madonna and Child’ and ‘Triumph of Scipio’ in the National Gallery; but the most perfect example of Mantegna’s art is his great picture ‘Parnassus’ in the Louvre at Paris. Here, Mantegna is able to express all his love of Greek art in picturing the home of the Nine Muses, who dance in homage round Venus and Apollo, while Mercury, the Messenger of the Gods, awaits with Pegasus, the winged horse, to bear inspiration from this mythological heaven to the artists and poets of the earth.

The Road To Venice (continued)

Diamonds Of Fate

Louis Kornitzer's book, Gem Trader, is partly autobiographical and partly woven round the lore of pearls. It's educational + explains the distribution chain of gems, as they pass from hand to hand, from miner to cutter, from merchant to millionaire, from courtesan to receiver of stolen goods, shaping human lives as they go + the unique characters in the industry.

(via Gem Trader) Louis Kornitzer writes:

There is another ‘Regent’ called the ‘Regent of Portugal’ to distinguish it from the Pitt. This again was a Brazilian diamond. It was found in 1775 in Brazil by a poor negro slave to whom it brought more luck than usually accrues to him humble discoverers of great gems. For he was given his freedom and a pension of £50 a year. This round stone, whose original weight is not on record, turned the scale when faceted at 215 carats. I have seen its value given by an ‘authority’ as 396800 guineas, supposedly an expert assessment. He must have been a great authority on diamonds indeed who could with such precision put a value on a gem for which there could at no time exist an open market. Great diamonds have no price. They are, like any gem of the first class, worth what they can bring.

From a stone which bears the name of ‘Sea or River of Light’ we can expect no less than that it should be of the finest water, matchless in luster and of a size comparable with the largest of its kind. Certainly the ‘Darya-i-nur,’ possessing all these qualities, is truly well name. One hundred and eighty six carats of flashing fire, reflected by facets cut rose shape, make this diamond one of the mineral wonders of the world. But it is only one of two, for it is one of a pair of marvelous gems of Hindustan origin which are set in two matchless bracelets owned by the Shah of Persia (or should I say Iran?).

The other stone, the celebrated ‘Taj-e-mah,’ is even finer than its mate, for it is undoubtedly the greatest gem in the Persian collection. It also is rose cut and weighs 146 carats, so that the two stones together in the one pair of bracelets weigh 332 carats. Their value, as near as can be given by anyone (bearing in mind my remark about values above) for two such exceptional values, cannot be short of one million pounds sterling.

The Taj-e-mah was brought away from Hindustan by the Perso-Tartar conqueror Nadir Shah in 1739 amongst other looted treasure, his total bag having been estimated as worth between thirty and sixty million pounds. Nadir Shah’s successor, Shah Rokh, was a spineless ruler who had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the resolute Aga Mohammed. Determined not to give up his treasure, which he had had the forethought to hide, Shah Rokh defied the tortures of his implacable enemy and clung tenaciously for a long time to his secret. Hunger, thirst, cold, heat and other intelligent and refined methods of persuasion did Aga Mohammed try upon his luckless victim. Finally he deprived him of his eyesight, and Shah Rokh was persuaded to give up what was left of his inheritance, the great diamond Taj-e-mah amongst the rest. But to Aga Mohammed the stone brought no luck, for he was assassinated.

A stone which is famous for having belonged to Shah Jehan, the builder of the Taj Mahal, to whom it came from Akbar Shah, is called the ‘Akbar Shah’. It is noteworthy for having engraved upon both sides an inscription by which two Moguls hoped to have their names commemorated for ever. The fact that the art of engraving thus appears to have been known at the time might seem to invalidate my argument, in an earlier chapter, against the ‘diamond’ in the High Priest’s breastplate. But the method by which these names were written on the stone was not perhaps true engraving in the technical sense, but done with worms—the juice of certain worms have a unique action upon the incorruptible diamond, or so it was claimed.

Akbar Shah himself had the first writing put upon the diamond:
‘Shah Akbar, The Shah of the World, 1028 A.H’

When it came into the possession of Shah Jahan, he had set upon it these words:
‘To the Lord of Two Worlds, 1039 A.H, Shah Jehan’

But their hopes of immortality were mocked by later events in a world that knows the dead are powerless. The great stone was recut. In Shah Jehan’s time it had weighed 116 carats, but when the two Arabic inscriptions on either side of it had been destroyed, its weight was reduced to seventy two carats. In this state it was purchased by the Gaekwar of Baroda for £35000.

Another great diamond also in the treasury of Baroda is one less well known, but flawless. It is called ‘English Dresden’ after the merchant who sold it and who claimed for it, as another did for the Porter-Rhodes, that it was the most perfect stone for its size in the world. He also claimed that for color it excelled even the Kohinoor. In the rough the English Dresden weighed 119½ carats, but cutting and polishing brought it down to seventy six and a half carats. The Gaekwar of Baroda paid £40000 for it, so it is said.

Diamonds Of Fate (continued)

The Jewels Of Paris

Kate Betts writes about the growing luxury market via emerging markets like China, India, Russia and others + Paris's Place Vendome connection + other viewpoints @ http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1640285,00.html

25 Most Powerful Businesspeople

(via Fortune) Here is a list of the most powerful businesspeople in the world + more.

Companies That Could Change the World

(via The World Economic Forum): Here is a list of startup 'energy' companies that could change business and society:
www.gridpoint.com
www.ls9.com
www.skysails.info
www.nanostellar.com

City Lights

City Lights (1931)
Directed by: Charles Chaplin
Screenplay: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill

(via YouTube): City Lights - S17 Boxing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgAxWIbTqCs

City Lights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpeiPbjDlDs

City Lights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q68ieR7p-p0

Charlie Chaplin City lights scene never added to the film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcLce2QEcmw

A Charlie Chaplin masterpiece + the funny side + his total internal reflections. I enjoyed it.

Feminism's New Look

Barbara Pollack writes about women artists from countries far from major art centers who have received serious international attention + new geographical open-mindedness + finding the right balance between the traditions and cultures of their birthplaces and the esthetics and politics of the mainstream contemporary art world + other viewpoints @ http://www.artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=971

The Wonder Of The Renaissance

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

4

Happy the painter who has no history! Life, so cruel to Michael Angelo, had nothing but kindness for his young contemporary, Raphael Sanzio. Born at Urbino in 1483, his way was smoothed for him from the moment (1504) that he left the workshop of his master Perugino to begin an independent career. Beautiful as an angel in person, sweet in disposition, charming in manner and conversation, Raphael was a favorite everywhere. After perfecting his art by study in Florence, he was invited to Rome in 1508 to undertake the decoration of the Stanze in the Vatican. These paintings at once established his reputation, and in 1511 he was appointed Chief Architect of St. Peter’s, Surveyor and Guardian of the Ancient Monuments of Rome, and overwhelmed with commissions for mighty projects of painting which his gentle courtesy had not the determination to refuse.

He walked through Rome, in those years of his glory, amid a throng of assistants and admirers. Thus meeting him once, grim old Michael Angelo growled out, ‘You look like a General at the head of an army.’

Laughing and quite unspoilt, Raphael wittily retorted: ‘And you, sir, like an executioner on the way to the scaffold.’

As a portrait-painter his ‘Balthasar Castiglione’ at the Louvre, as a painter of altar-pieces his ‘Sistine Madonna’ at Dresden and the ‘Ansidei Madonna’ in the National Gallery have made Raphael familiar to all and love by all. In 1520, he was working on his great ‘Transfiguration’ in the Vatican, when a fever struck him down. On March 27 he laid down the brush that he was never to hold again, and on Good Friday, April 6, his birthday, he died as the sun went down, amid the tears of those who mourned not only the artist but the man. He had lived only thirty seven years, but from that day to this not for one moment has the luster of his name been dimmed.

Diamonds Of Fate

Louis Kornitzer's book, Gem Trader, is partly autobiographical and partly woven round the lore of pearls. It's educational + explains the distribution chain of gems, as they pass from hand to hand, from miner to cutter, from merchant to millionaire, from courtesan to receiver of stolen goods, shaping human lives as they go + the unique characters in the industry.

(via Gem Trader) Louis Kornitzer writes:

One of the greatest gems of the world was the ‘Great Mogul’. Only a particularly magnificent piece is worthy of such a title, and in every way it was worthy of its name.

It was called after Shah Jehan, the fifth in succession to Baber, founder of the so-called Mogul Dynasty in Hindustan. We have a description of the stone from the pen of one who was singularly well qualified to speak, for not only was he an intrepid traveler, one of the world’s foremost dealers in precious stones in his generation, but also he was gifted with a flair for the uncommon, the rare, the exquisite. This was the Frenchman Tavernier, supplier of gems to the ‘Roi Soleil’, Louis XIV. Tavernier gives the weight of the Great Mogul as 319½ carats, which corresponds to 280 European carats, because the rati or Indian carat was only seven-eighths of our own carat weight. In shape it is said to have been round, rather high on one side and of the cut called rose cut, which I have already described.

We know from the records that have come down to us that a certain Hortensio Berghis, a diamond cutter, was commissioned to facet the stone, but that he bungled the work in such a manner that instead of receiving a wage for his labors he was fined 10000 rupees. Shortly after Tavernier saw the gem, in the middle of the seventeenth century, it apparently disappeared from history like so many of the big diamonds of the old days. And yet perhaps its whole tale is not told. According to at least one expert, the ‘Orloff’ diamond, part of the present Russian State treasure, is none other than the Great Mogul.

The story of the so-called Orloff diamond—from the European point of view—begins only in the eighteenth century with one of those thefts which are still so popular as the background for thrillers. It was part of the temple treasure, the eye of a Buddha (not quite the green eye of the little yellow god, but near enough), and a French soldier, dressing himself up a worshipper, managed to steal it. He sold it to an English sea captain at Madras for two thousand pounds, and the sailor sold it in London for three times as much as he gave for it. Finally it reached Amsterdam and was bought by the Russian Prince Orloff for the then stupendous sum of a million and a half florins, almost a hundred thousand pounds. Orloff, who was in disfavor with his queen, Catherine II, bought the gem in order to present it to the Russian Throne, and it now adorns the Imperial sceptre of an Empire which has no use for Emperors. In its present cut state it weighs 193 carats, whereas the Great Mogul’s weight was given as 319½, but this discrepancy might be accounted for by the wastage in the cutting process.

More convincing is the identification of the Kohinoor with the Great Mogul. Except for the fact that the Kohinoor has a history which goes back to the remotest times, a history of blood, rapacity, cruelty, during which period the gem changed hands many times, but never for gold, there might be some color in such a tale. It too is linked with Baber, the great Mogul, who owned it, and when it came to England (to be presented to Queen Victoria on June 3rd, 1850) its weight was then either 186 or 193 carats. The weights are variously given by the authorities I have consulted. That did not prove it had no connection with the other stone, for it is suggested that it might be only a portion of the lost diamond. We are here confronted with a great mystery, however, to which I can add nothing.

The weight of the Kohinoor was reduced by recutting to a mere 106½ carats. Voorsanger was the cutter’s name, a Dutch master of craft who was employed by a Mr Costers. The work was done at the rooms set apart for the restoration of Crown Jewels in London, and the supervisor was Mr Sebastian Garrard, the cost of recutting being £8000. An amusing story is told by an acquaintance of Mr Robert Garrard, another member of the superintending firm.
‘When I met him (Robert Garrard), I said to him: ‘What would you do if the Kohinoor burst?’
‘I would take off my name-plate and bolt,’ he replied.

In the year 1853 a negress was at work at a mine in the province of Minas Gerais, in Brazil, when she dug out of the soil a diamond weighing 254½ carats in the rough. To this gem the name ‘Star of the South’ was attached. The black woman was probably none of the richer for her discovery, but the stone was acquired by a syndicate and subsequently founds its way into the treasure chamber of the Gaekwar of Baroda, who paid £80000 for it. In its cut state, being of oval shape, it turned the scale at 125 carats.

This Indian potentate eventually lost his throne through diamonds. He was rather too fond of prescribing powdered diamonds for those of his subjects who could not see eye to eye with him, and had indeed tried his panacea on the then British resident, Colonel Phayre. A specially commissioned tribunal appointed by the British Government sat on the matter, and having found him guilty, deposed him.

Another brilliant from Brazil, the ‘Pitt’ or ‘Regent’, has an interesting history. It was found as far back as 1701 in the Parteal mines on the Kistna. In the rough state it weighed 410 carats, but cut only 136¾ carats.

The story goes that the slave who found it made a wound in his calf in which to conceal the stone, but another version has it that he merely pretended to be hurt and concealed the stone beneath a bandage. He made his bid for liberty and jumped an outgoing ship, but unfortunately for him he told his story to the captain, who is said to have thrown the fellow overboard after making sure of the gem. Subsequently he sold it for £20000 to Thomas Pitt, Governor of Fort St.George, dissipated the proceeds and hanged himself in a fit of delirium tremens. The stone was offered to the Duke of Orleans in 1717 at a time when Louis XV was still a minor and the Duke his Regent. The price was £135000.

A modern stone without a long and bloody history is the ‘Porter-Rhodes,’ a blue-white diamond from Kimberly, which was found in 1880 and weighed in the uncut state 150 carats. Its original owner proudly claimed that for quality this stone had no rival in the world. Porter-Rhodes, when he visited England, had an audience with Queen Victoria for the purpose of showing her this splendid gem. When she saw it she was surprised, for she confessed she had been under the impression that South Africa produced only yellow diamonds.

The Luxury Index 2007

(via Time Magazine): The Time magazine's The Luxury Index 2007 on styles/designs/colored stones/diamond jewelry was interesting and educational. I liked it.

Useful links:
The Luxury Index 2007
www.time.com/time/specials

Online Jewelry Auctioneer Draws Stock Bidders Too

Paulette Miniter writes about Bidz.com + the CEO David Zinberg (an immigrant from Moldova) + the way they do business online + other viewpoints @ http://www.smartmoney.com/undertheradar/index.cfm?story=20071121&hpadref=1

The Perforated Palace

(via The Guardian) Steve Rose writes about Cologne's new Kolumba art museum + the architect's perception of art + other viewpoints @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/architecture/story/0,,2213249,00.html

Closely Watched Trains

Closely Watched Trains (1966)
Directed by: Jirí Menzel
Screenplay: Bohumil Hrabal (also novel), Jirí Menzel
Cast: Václav Neckár, Josef Somr

(via YouTube): Closely Watched Trains – Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igc0Jp62kEg

Closely watched trains
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp-u2HCyZac

A unique Czech film + it's sweetly funny + a moving masterpiece. I enjoyed it.

The ARTnews 200 Top Collectors

Milton Esterow writes about the world's most active collectors + collectors passion for paying good money for quality/rarity + other viewpoints @ http://www.artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=953

The Wonder Of The Renaissance

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

Most artists who had received a papal commission of this magnitude began their work with an army of assistants. Bramante, with a show of giving his enemy every assistance, brought some experienced fresco-painters from Florence and erected a scaffolding whereby they might get at the ceiling. Furious and suspicious of everything and everybody, Michael Angelo began by declaring Bramante’s scaffolding to be useless and by raising another. Next he got rid of his assistants. One morning he got there early, destroyed everything they had done, locked himself in, and refused to admit the Florentines.

During the next four years, working feverishly and in secret, the sculptor accomplished the mightiest series of paintings in the world. He had endless troubles and difficulties. The work was new to him, and he had to learn its technique as he went along. Hardly had he finished painting one panel, ‘The Deluge,’ when the surface became mouldy and had to do it all over again. All this time his relatives badgered him for money; the Pope, irritated at his secrecy and seeming slowness, threatened to have him thrown from the top of his scaffolding, and at last, worn out, but still not content with his creations, Michael Angelo, after lying for four years on his back to paint this ceiling, once more stood erect and allowed the scaffolding to be taken down on All Saints Day 1512.

His worst enemies were amazed at the greatness and magnitude of his achievement. Raphael, great enough himself to fear no rival, was the first to praise it, thanking God aloud that he had been born in the same century. No photographs can do justice to what Raphael and his contemporaries then saw. In default of the original, we can but show a single figure, and let the imagination do the rest.

Michael Angelo divided the great ablong space of the ceiling into nine principal sections, or rather three groups of three scenes each. The first group, illustrating ‘The Creation of the World,’ consisted of (1) ‘God Dividing Light from Darkness,’ (2) ‘God Creating the Luminaries,’ and (3) ‘God Blessing the Earth’. The second group, illustrating ‘The Fall of Man’, showed (4) ‘The Creation of Adam’, (5) “The Creation of Eve,’ and (6) ‘The Temptation and Fall.’ The last three, illustrating the uselessness of sacrifice under the old dispensation, represented (7) ‘The Sacrifice of Noah,’ (8) ‘The Deluge,’ and ‘The Drunkenness of Noah.’ These nine panels were knit together by a connecting framework in which were placed single figures of Prophets, Sibyls, and other decorative figures, lunettes and triangles, so that the whole appeared as an elaborate architectural roof ornamented with reliefs and sculptured figures among which nine great pictures had been inserted.

The work was completed, but Michael Angelo at thirty-seven was an old man. His health was shattered. Working for months on end with his head thrown back had strained his neck and brought on painful swellings on the glands; his sight was injured to such an extent that for long afterwards he could not read a book or letter unless he held it above his head. Then, when the old Pope, satisfied at last, might have rewarded the heroic artist Julius died and was succeeded by Leo X, who had work for Raphael, but none for Michael Angelo.

The harassed sculptor went back to Florence, where he set to work on another masterpiece of sculpture, the ‘Tomb of Lorenzo de Medici,’ with its beautiful recumbent figures of ‘Night’ and ‘Morning,’ ‘Dawn’ and ‘Twilight.’ Worse troubles were in store for him. Disgusted with all things, including himself, he threw himself into the revolution which convulsed Florence in 1527. Though no engineer like Leonardo, the republican revolutionaries put him in charge of the fortification of the city. Distrustful of everybody, Michael Angelo feared that Malatesta Baglione, the general of the Florentine troops, might betray the city to the troops of the new Pope (Clement VII); his warning unheeded by the authorities, he feared the hostility of the powerful commander, and giving way to attack of nerves he fled to Venice for his life. There he was safe and might have gone to France, but an appeal to his honor brought him back to Florence. Once more he took his place in the fighting line, and six months later Malatesta Baglione, as he foresaw, betrayed the city to the Emperor.

Irony of fate! The life of the wretched sculptor was spared in order that he might work again for the glory of those tyrants, the Medici, against whom he had fought. In 1534, another Pope, Paul III, called him to Rome to enter on a new project. Again the sculptor was asked to paint, to cover the immense wall at the entrance to the Sistine Chapel with a fresco representing ‘The Last Judgment’. He began the work when he was sixty one, and again shutting himself up, accomplished the task in a little over five years. It was no work for an old man of nearly seventy, and the following year the sculptor had to turn from painting to architecture; by command of the Pope he designed the mighty Dome which to all the world today is the sign and symbol of the Eternal City.

Vasari, who visited the old man when he was eighty eight, gives a wonderful picture of Michael Angelo’s last years. He lived like a poor man, ate hardly anything but a little bread and drank but a little wine. Unable to sleep, he would get up at night to work with his chisel, and made himself a paper helmet in which a candle was fixed, so that he might have light to work without embarrassing his hands.

On February 12, 1564, the old man spent the whole day on his feet working at a ‘Pieta’. Two days afterwards he was seized with fever, but with his usual obstinacy refused to see a doctor or to go to bed. On the 17th he consented to be put to bed, and fully conscious, dictated his will, bequeathing ‘his soul to God and his body to the earth’. About five o’ clock on the following afternoon, surrounded by his faithful servant and a few friends, the worn-out genius breathed his last and found that rest which had never been granted him in life.

More About Diamonds. Some Famous Stones

Louis Kornitzer's book, Gem Trader, is partly autobiographical and partly woven round the lore of pearls. It's educational + explains the distribution chain of gems, as they pass from hand to hand, from miner to cutter, from merchant to millionaire, from courtesan to receiver of stolen goods, shaping human lives as they go + the unique characters in the industry.

(via Gem Trader) Louis Kornitzer writes:

There are stories, strange, tragic, humorous or romantic, about all the great stones. Diamonds above all others have attracted to themselves innumerable histories beyond the dreams of mere imagination.

Consider the ‘Braganza,’ the size of a goose’s egg and said to have weighed 1680 carats in the rough. The full story is to be found in Mawe’s Travels in Brazil, but here are the main facts. Three men, whose names were Antonio de Sousa, Jose Felix Gomez and Thomas de Sousa, having been found guilty of various crimes, were banished into the interior of Brazil and forbidden to approach the capital towns or remain in civilized society on pain of perpetual imprisonment. Brazil is very vast and much of its territory is even yet not fully explored. Driven into the unfrequented wilds, the banished men determined to discover and exploit new mines, in the hope that if they were able to make valuable discoveries it would lead to a reversal of their hard sentences. They wandered about for some six years, until at last, coming in a dry season to the exposed river bed of the Abaite, a few leagues to the north of the Rio Plata, they there washed for gold and discovered the big diamond.

They forthwith consulted a priest about the course they should take, who advised them to trust to the mercy of the State, and himself accompanied them to Villa Rica, where the Governor, on hearing the story and seeing the evidence of their good fortune, suspended their sentences.

The gem was then sent to Rio de Janeiro, whence a frigate took it to Lisbon. The priest who had originally advised the surrender of the gem went with it to Portugal, presumably hoping for preferment, and the Portuguese King was sufficiently impressed with his new possession to pardon the exiles, confirming the Governor’s action, and advance the pertinacious cleric. The stone, is however, said to have been allowed to remain in its uncut state, and Rome Delisle gave its value at 300 millions sterling, an astronomically large and almost incredible sum. In his memoir on this diamond Murray says that Don John VI had a hole drilled in the stone and wore it suspended round his neck on gala days. Of its recent history there is none to say. Presumably it is still in the Portuguese treasury, for all the information to the contrary, but no outsider knows for certain. Enquiries are not appreciated by those in authority, possibly because, as some suggest, the gem is not a diamond at all, but a white topaz. If that were indeed true, successive Portuguese Governments may have thought it politic to preserve the legend of the great Braganza by saying nothing to dispel the illusion surrounding their great national possession. Certainly Barbot, who saw the stone, describes it as being of a dark yellow color, which possibly suggests a topaz. The date of its discovery by the three outcasts is variously given as 1741, 1764, and 1797.

A diamond that has always remained in the possession of a native prince is the ‘Matan’, so called because it belongs to the Rajah of Matan, in Dutch Borneo. It was found in 1787 in the Landak mines N.E of Pontianak, among the oldest known and, before the opening of the Rand mines, probably also the most productive in the world. As far back as 1738 the Dutch exported from this district some 300,000 dollars worth of diamonds. Sir Stamford Raffles wrote of that time: ‘Few courts of Europe could boast of a more brilliant display of diamonds than did the Dutch ladies of Batavia in the prosperous days.’ All these diamonds came from Borneo. For over a century the Chinese worked those mines, but they were so cruel and tyrannous in their treatment of the Dyaks, natives of the country, that in the end the latter rebelled and massacred the Chinese almost to a man.

When found, the Matan diamond weighed 367 carats. It is described as being the size of an average walnut (favorite description of very large diamonds, for some reason) and of a bluish metallic luster. It has never been cut. The Dutch Government were very anxious to buy it, and the Governor of Batavia is said to have offered 150000 dollars plus two large war brigs, with full complement of guns and other war material, but the native prince refused the offer. It is still in the Sultan’s treasury, but for fear of arousing the cupidity of scheming despoilers it is not now shown. Occasionally, to gratify the curiosity of exalted visitors, the Rajah displays a crystal replica. When it was still being shown, the Matan was variously valued at anything between £270000 and 350000 sterling.

To its owners the Matan had, like many another great gem, the added virtue of possessing miraculous powers. The water in which it is dipped when the medicine chest of the Rajah’s household requires replenishing is reputed to be a sure cure for life’s ills.

Another great diamond remaining in the hands of a native prince, also still uncut is the ‘Nizam’, property of the Nizam of Hydrerabad, in whose territory were the great mines of Golconda, famous source of the diamonds of the ancients and of medieval men. The Nizam’s ancestors were styled ‘Kings of Golconda’. The Nizam diamond weighs 340 carats and its value was many years ago stated to be £200000, but large as the stone is, it is only part of a bigger stone which before fracturing weighed 440 carats.

A modern gem was the ‘Stewart’ diamond. It was found in 1872 by a man named Spalding in an outside claim (diggings), before the South African Rand had become an El Dorado for diamond miners. Spalding was so overcome by his find that he could neither eat or drink for three full days. Or so it was said. This stone weighed 288 3/8 carats in the rough, was consigned to an important London firm, and since no more transpires, was presumably sold by them to someone who preferred to remain the anonymous owner of a two-ounce diamond.

Beryl Triplets Imitating Natural Emeralds

It's amazing to see beryl triplets in the gem + jewelry market despite information about the imitation (s) via trade journals/ gemological books/ seminars/ workshops by experts from around the world. The victims include jewelers, gemologists, gem traders + the public.

A beryl triplet is a deception. It has no value. It consists of a crown of colorless beryl (goshenite) or any clean, very light colored beryl (pale aquamarine), and a pavilion of the same material cemented together with a green chromium-based cement. The purpose of the goshenite material is to have the refractive index and specific gravity values in the range of beryl. The green layer of cement is reflected throughout the stone by the facets so that the face-up color of these imitations show good emerald-green color.

Immersion in a suitable liquid will easily show the three parts of the triplet. With some practice + proper magnification (loupe + microscope) one should be able to see the separation plane.

Pearl Production In The South Pacific Region

Here is an interesting website on commercial pearl production in the South Pacific region + other viewpoints @ http://www.spc.int/coastfish/News/POIB/17/POIB17.pdf

The Desertec Concept

Desertec concept = bringing technology and deserts into service for energy, water and climate security. http://www.trecers.net/concept.html

Useful link:
www.trecers.net

How Africa's Desert Sun Can Bring Europe Power
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/dec/02/renewableenergy.solarpower

City Of God

City Of God (2002)
Directed by: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
Screenplay: Paulo Lins (novel); Bráulio Mantovani (screenplay)
Cast: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino

(via YouTube): City of God Original Brazilian Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iISAiUwY9eM

City of God - chase the chicken
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoNATPsOsZk

A unique mixture of realism and surrealism + one-of-a-kind film. I enjoyed it.