The Story of Psychology by Morton Hunt is a great book + gem dealers, jewelers + art dealers should read not only to bring people alive from the depth of ignorance but also to analyze their own behavior.
Here is what the description of The Story of Psychology says (via Amazon):
Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Mesmer, William James, Pavlov, Freud, Piaget, Erikson, and Skinner. Each of these thinkers recognized that human beings could examine, comprehend, and eventually guide or influence their own thought processes, emotions, and resulting behavior. The lives and accomplishments of these pillars of psychology, expertly assembled by Morton Hunt, are set against the times in which the subjects lived. Hunt skillfully presents dramatic and lucid accounts of the techniques and validity of centuries of psychological research, and of the methods and effectiveness of major forms of psychotherapy. Fully revised, and incorporating the dramatic developments of the last fifteen years, The Story of Psychology is a graceful and absorbing chronicle of one of the great human inquiries—the search for the true causes of our behavior.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Fabulous Model Of Market Crashes
(via Commodityonline) Here is an interesting observation by MIT Professor Charles Kindleberger + it's amazing to see the patterns repeat endlessly and yet we forget to learn the lessons.
Anatomy Of A Market Crisis
- Displacement
Displacement happens when the economic outlook is altered by changing profit opportunities. (currently: China and India’ emergence is propelling commodities markets)
- A boom ensues
Bank credit and personal credit expands significantly. This results in Adam Smith’s 'overtrading': pure speculation, overestimation of profits and excessive gearing step forward. (currently: sub prime lending, ETFs based on air). Bubbles occur. Economists define bubbles as 'deviations from fundamentals'. Back to my Economic Clock: the only big market that has such a deviation from fundamentals is clearly the USA and Japan. However, the current mania (Greenspan’s irrational exuberance) will keep feeding on itself. We are in this boom phase now and, excluding America, there is no bubble – markets are in line with fundamentals, with the Economic Time.
- Distress sets in
The smart money starts selling. One event is the tripwire. Currently, I thought that the sub prime mortgage matter might be such a tripwire to crisis, but I was wrong, alas! 'Revulsion' rears its ugly head: revulsion against commodities or securities leads banks to stop lending on the collateral of such assets.
- Panic sets in
Everyone bolts for the exits. Then, one of three things happens. Either prices fall so lowly that people load back up (currently: that is what February was about), market 'circuit breakers' are established, i.e. trading is stopped if certain price limits are reached, or a lender of last resort stabilizes confidence.
Useful links:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/kindleberger.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_P._Kindleberger
Anatomy Of A Market Crisis
- Displacement
Displacement happens when the economic outlook is altered by changing profit opportunities. (currently: China and India’ emergence is propelling commodities markets)
- A boom ensues
Bank credit and personal credit expands significantly. This results in Adam Smith’s 'overtrading': pure speculation, overestimation of profits and excessive gearing step forward. (currently: sub prime lending, ETFs based on air). Bubbles occur. Economists define bubbles as 'deviations from fundamentals'. Back to my Economic Clock: the only big market that has such a deviation from fundamentals is clearly the USA and Japan. However, the current mania (Greenspan’s irrational exuberance) will keep feeding on itself. We are in this boom phase now and, excluding America, there is no bubble – markets are in line with fundamentals, with the Economic Time.
- Distress sets in
The smart money starts selling. One event is the tripwire. Currently, I thought that the sub prime mortgage matter might be such a tripwire to crisis, but I was wrong, alas! 'Revulsion' rears its ugly head: revulsion against commodities or securities leads banks to stop lending on the collateral of such assets.
- Panic sets in
Everyone bolts for the exits. Then, one of three things happens. Either prices fall so lowly that people load back up (currently: that is what February was about), market 'circuit breakers' are established, i.e. trading is stopped if certain price limits are reached, or a lender of last resort stabilizes confidence.
Useful links:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/kindleberger.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_P._Kindleberger
Revival Sale
Economist writes about Bonhams Egyptian Revival sale + other viewpoints @ http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/artview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10552924
Georges Delerue
Georges Delerue was a renowned French film composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television + he won numerous important awards including Rome Prize (1949) + Emmy Award (1968 - Our World) + Genie Award (1986 - Sword Of Gideon) + ACE Award (1991 - The Josephine Baker Story) + Academy Award in 1979 for A Little Romance + 4 other Academy Nominations (1969 - Anne of the Thousand Days, 1973 - The Day of the Dolphin, 1977 - Julia and 1985 - Agnes of God) + Le Figaro Magazine (France, 1981) addressed him as 'Mozart of Cinema' + that otherness in his music encapsulated the spirit of the movies for which he collaborated + I always enjoyed his music.
Useful links:
www.georges-delerue.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Delerue
Useful links:
www.georges-delerue.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Delerue
GemeWizard Update
It has been reported that GemeWizard, the developer of a system for describing and communicating color in gems, has announced that it will be supplying an online version of its color communication application free of charge on its website @ www.gemewizard.com
Rio Tinto’s Argyle Diamond Mine And The Origin Of Champagne Diamonds
Rio Tinto Diamonds writes:
In Australia’s isolated outback, the world’s largest diamond producer excavates millions of tons of rock in search of its exquisite jewels. In a land of rugged mountain ranges, deep gorges and arid savannah, lies the Argyle Diamond Mine—where the red earth yields enough diamonds to pave set an entire tennis court—and among them are the world’s largest supply of natural champagne and cognac color diamonds.
The Argyle Diamond Mine, 100% owned by Rio Tinto, is located in the isolated East Kimberley region of Western Australia, 2500 km (app.1550 mi.) from Perth, the capital of Western Australia. AT 2 km long (app. 1.2 mi.), 1 km wide (app.0.6 mi.) and almost 1 km deep, the open pit Argyle mine redefines the word ‘big’. It has been worked continuously, around the clock, 365 days a year, since 1983, and its ancient volcanic pipe has yielded more than 670 carats of diamond, including the beautiful champagne and cognac gems.
The Australian Aborigines, who are the traditional owners of the land on which the Argyle mine has been built, believe the Argyle mine was formed when a barramundi fish escaped through a spinifix net. The colors of the Argyle diamonds are believed to have come from the different parts of the barramundi.
The scientific explanation for the origin of color in brown diamonds has to do with trace elements in the lattice structure. Tremendous pressure exerted on a diamond deep in the earth can abnormally compress and distort its structure, thus creating a red, pink, purple, or brown stone. Evidence of graining, which scientists attribute to extreme pressure under the earth, can be seen at 10x magnification in many Argyle natural color diamonds.
The formation of natural color diamonds is a process that requires the presence of not only the original magical formula for all diamond creation of unimaginable heat and pressure place on carbon crystals, but the presence of additional trace elements as well. If nitrogen, boron, hydrogen, or other elements interacts with carbon atoms during a diamond’s creation, the diamond’s color can change. Radiation during the creation process also can impact a diamond’s color.
The physical conditions necessary to color a diamond naturally occur very scarcely, making natural color diamonds extremely rare. How rare? For every natural color diamond, there are 10000 colorless diamonds that have made the arduous journey to the earth’s surface. It is this entirely natural process of geographical formation which ensures that each natural color diamond is one-of-a-kind.
Approximately $5 billion of champagne and cognac diamond jewelry is sold annually throughout the world—easily making these stones the most accessible of all natural color diamonds.
From collectors to royalty to Hollywood celebrities, champagne diamonds have always been in vogue. The popularity of these ‘new classics’ can be traced all the way back to the 17th century, when Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the chief minister of France, was an avid collector.
Today, some of the world’s most important diamonds are natural color champagnes. Case in point: The world’s largest cut natural diamond is a dark rich champagne stone, the Golden Jubilee, which possesses a magnificence and mystery all its own. The Golden Jubilee, at 545 carats, was offered to the King of Thailand in 1997 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his ascension to the throne. Polishing the stone took no less than three years.
Useful links:
www.riotintodiamonds.com
www.ncdia.com
I was really fortunate to view + analyze The Golden Jubilee diamond in Bangkok, Thailand + it was an experience.
In Australia’s isolated outback, the world’s largest diamond producer excavates millions of tons of rock in search of its exquisite jewels. In a land of rugged mountain ranges, deep gorges and arid savannah, lies the Argyle Diamond Mine—where the red earth yields enough diamonds to pave set an entire tennis court—and among them are the world’s largest supply of natural champagne and cognac color diamonds.
The Argyle Diamond Mine, 100% owned by Rio Tinto, is located in the isolated East Kimberley region of Western Australia, 2500 km (app.1550 mi.) from Perth, the capital of Western Australia. AT 2 km long (app. 1.2 mi.), 1 km wide (app.0.6 mi.) and almost 1 km deep, the open pit Argyle mine redefines the word ‘big’. It has been worked continuously, around the clock, 365 days a year, since 1983, and its ancient volcanic pipe has yielded more than 670 carats of diamond, including the beautiful champagne and cognac gems.
The Australian Aborigines, who are the traditional owners of the land on which the Argyle mine has been built, believe the Argyle mine was formed when a barramundi fish escaped through a spinifix net. The colors of the Argyle diamonds are believed to have come from the different parts of the barramundi.
The scientific explanation for the origin of color in brown diamonds has to do with trace elements in the lattice structure. Tremendous pressure exerted on a diamond deep in the earth can abnormally compress and distort its structure, thus creating a red, pink, purple, or brown stone. Evidence of graining, which scientists attribute to extreme pressure under the earth, can be seen at 10x magnification in many Argyle natural color diamonds.
The formation of natural color diamonds is a process that requires the presence of not only the original magical formula for all diamond creation of unimaginable heat and pressure place on carbon crystals, but the presence of additional trace elements as well. If nitrogen, boron, hydrogen, or other elements interacts with carbon atoms during a diamond’s creation, the diamond’s color can change. Radiation during the creation process also can impact a diamond’s color.
The physical conditions necessary to color a diamond naturally occur very scarcely, making natural color diamonds extremely rare. How rare? For every natural color diamond, there are 10000 colorless diamonds that have made the arduous journey to the earth’s surface. It is this entirely natural process of geographical formation which ensures that each natural color diamond is one-of-a-kind.
Approximately $5 billion of champagne and cognac diamond jewelry is sold annually throughout the world—easily making these stones the most accessible of all natural color diamonds.
From collectors to royalty to Hollywood celebrities, champagne diamonds have always been in vogue. The popularity of these ‘new classics’ can be traced all the way back to the 17th century, when Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the chief minister of France, was an avid collector.
Today, some of the world’s most important diamonds are natural color champagnes. Case in point: The world’s largest cut natural diamond is a dark rich champagne stone, the Golden Jubilee, which possesses a magnificence and mystery all its own. The Golden Jubilee, at 545 carats, was offered to the King of Thailand in 1997 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his ascension to the throne. Polishing the stone took no less than three years.
Useful links:
www.riotintodiamonds.com
www.ncdia.com
I was really fortunate to view + analyze The Golden Jubilee diamond in Bangkok, Thailand + it was an experience.
The Significance Of An Adequate Culet
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
When the imperfections of historical diamonds are commented on, the point of criticism is usually not that the proportions are wrong but that the culet is thought to be too large. In open settings the culet looks like a hole, and in closed settings like a black spot against the corroded foiling.
The late E F Eppler is the only person to have made a scientific study of the significance of a large culet. He writes of Brilliants with 45° angles, but everything he says applies equally well to Full Table Cuts: ‘For this particular cut the output of light is surprisingly high....and depends mostly on the large culet which therefore has a great importance.’ He calculates the output of light to be 18.9 percent of the incident light, and adds: ‘With an increase in the angle of incidence, the output rises at first until, at approximately 30°, a drastically sharp drop occurs. This first part of the curve, representing the output of light for the angles of incidence between 0° and 30°, is caused simply by the culet. Increased angles again cause a peak in output at 45°, which is followed by further reduction until zero is reached at 90°.’ Later in the same article Eppler comments: ‘It is astonishing that the diamond cutter of former time found an improvement in the brilliance by applying a culet not by calculation but by practice only. In reducing the angles in crown and pavilion the culet has less importance and in the modern fine cut...the absence of the culet is an absolute necessity, if it is not applied to minimize damage.’
When the imperfections of historical diamonds are commented on, the point of criticism is usually not that the proportions are wrong but that the culet is thought to be too large. In open settings the culet looks like a hole, and in closed settings like a black spot against the corroded foiling.
The late E F Eppler is the only person to have made a scientific study of the significance of a large culet. He writes of Brilliants with 45° angles, but everything he says applies equally well to Full Table Cuts: ‘For this particular cut the output of light is surprisingly high....and depends mostly on the large culet which therefore has a great importance.’ He calculates the output of light to be 18.9 percent of the incident light, and adds: ‘With an increase in the angle of incidence, the output rises at first until, at approximately 30°, a drastically sharp drop occurs. This first part of the curve, representing the output of light for the angles of incidence between 0° and 30°, is caused simply by the culet. Increased angles again cause a peak in output at 45°, which is followed by further reduction until zero is reached at 90°.’ Later in the same article Eppler comments: ‘It is astonishing that the diamond cutter of former time found an improvement in the brilliance by applying a culet not by calculation but by practice only. In reducing the angles in crown and pavilion the culet has less importance and in the modern fine cut...the absence of the culet is an absolute necessity, if it is not applied to minimize damage.’
Jewelers Of Italy
(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:
6. Ornaments And Artists
The Roman lady of fashion wore her hair most elaborately dressed. She was much addicted to fillets and diadems, as may be observed from various statues and pictures. Hairpins, in ancient Rome, were no inconsequent trifle bought by the package; each pin was the work of te jeweler. Often they were of solid gold and long enough to suggest a rather formidable weapon, should the lady be in need of one. There is one such hairpin in the British Museum. It is eight inches long and made of gold in the form of shaft topped with a Corinthian capital.
Bracelets were popular article of jewelry, for the upper arm as well as the wrist. Wrist bracelets, in general, were of two kinds, either in the same form as necklaces (without pendants) or made in two rounded halves connected by a hinge. Imperial gold coins were frequently introduced into almost any kind of jewelry, even into rings.
For their designs, gem engravers borrowed freely from the work of painters and sculptors. They would copy a figure from a painting or a whole statue, pedestal and all, translating picture or statue into a miniature design cut on the hard surface of red jasper. Many works of art, the originals of which were destroyed long since, have been preserved to us in the tiny form of engraved gems.
Sometimes a painter turnred the tables and chose for his subject the shop of the jeweler. A case in point still exists in the form of a mural decoration. But the artist was not minded to give a literal representation of the scene. In his painting he has visualized the craft of the goldsmith as a calling lifted to some fantastic level outside the confines of our workaday world. He painted the shop itself true to life with the usual furnishings and implements of furnace, anvil, blowpipes, hammers, scales, etc. But when it came to the workers he would have us believe that the shop is entirely taken over by a flock of chubby cupids with the traditional curly locks and little wings. Each cupid is busily engaged in one of the various tasks of the master goldsmith and his apprentices. Conspicuous among these infantile workers is the customer, a lady evidently about to purchase some precious stones which the small jeweler, standing before her, is weighing in the scales. Unlike the other characters, the lady is full grown, but like them she is blessed with a pair of decorative, though quite inadequate, wings.
In spite of the playful spirit of its representations this picture (barring the cupids) may be taken as a faithful portrait of the industry of jewelry making. The mural decoration was found in one of the rooms of the house of the Vetii at Pompeii.
On that fateful day in the year 79 A.D. when disaster came to Pompeii, the majority of its inhabitants fled in time. Among evidences of failure to escape have been found the little hoards of jewels which were so hurriedly snatched up and carried until death overtook their owners. Our old friend, Pliny, who might so well have written a graphic account of the calamity, leaves us no record of it; for in his effort to get near enough to give an eye witness report, he himself was suffocated by the poisonous fumes of Vesuvius.
Jewelers Of Italy (continued)
6. Ornaments And Artists
The Roman lady of fashion wore her hair most elaborately dressed. She was much addicted to fillets and diadems, as may be observed from various statues and pictures. Hairpins, in ancient Rome, were no inconsequent trifle bought by the package; each pin was the work of te jeweler. Often they were of solid gold and long enough to suggest a rather formidable weapon, should the lady be in need of one. There is one such hairpin in the British Museum. It is eight inches long and made of gold in the form of shaft topped with a Corinthian capital.
Bracelets were popular article of jewelry, for the upper arm as well as the wrist. Wrist bracelets, in general, were of two kinds, either in the same form as necklaces (without pendants) or made in two rounded halves connected by a hinge. Imperial gold coins were frequently introduced into almost any kind of jewelry, even into rings.
For their designs, gem engravers borrowed freely from the work of painters and sculptors. They would copy a figure from a painting or a whole statue, pedestal and all, translating picture or statue into a miniature design cut on the hard surface of red jasper. Many works of art, the originals of which were destroyed long since, have been preserved to us in the tiny form of engraved gems.
Sometimes a painter turnred the tables and chose for his subject the shop of the jeweler. A case in point still exists in the form of a mural decoration. But the artist was not minded to give a literal representation of the scene. In his painting he has visualized the craft of the goldsmith as a calling lifted to some fantastic level outside the confines of our workaday world. He painted the shop itself true to life with the usual furnishings and implements of furnace, anvil, blowpipes, hammers, scales, etc. But when it came to the workers he would have us believe that the shop is entirely taken over by a flock of chubby cupids with the traditional curly locks and little wings. Each cupid is busily engaged in one of the various tasks of the master goldsmith and his apprentices. Conspicuous among these infantile workers is the customer, a lady evidently about to purchase some precious stones which the small jeweler, standing before her, is weighing in the scales. Unlike the other characters, the lady is full grown, but like them she is blessed with a pair of decorative, though quite inadequate, wings.
In spite of the playful spirit of its representations this picture (barring the cupids) may be taken as a faithful portrait of the industry of jewelry making. The mural decoration was found in one of the rooms of the house of the Vetii at Pompeii.
On that fateful day in the year 79 A.D. when disaster came to Pompeii, the majority of its inhabitants fled in time. Among evidences of failure to escape have been found the little hoards of jewels which were so hurriedly snatched up and carried until death overtook their owners. Our old friend, Pliny, who might so well have written a graphic account of the calamity, leaves us no record of it; for in his effort to get near enough to give an eye witness report, he himself was suffocated by the poisonous fumes of Vesuvius.
Jewelers Of Italy (continued)
English Masters Of The Eighteenth Century
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Scene IV. The Countess’s Dressing Room
The gradations of ridiculous affectation in the Music Scene are finely imagined and preserved. The preposterous, overstrained admiration of the Lady of Quality, the sentimental, insipid, impatient delight of the Man, with his hair in paper, and sipping his tea, the pert, smirking, conceited, half-distorted approbation of the figure next to him, the transition to the total insensibility of the round face in profile, and then to the wonder of the negro boy at the rapture of his mistress, form a perfect whole. The sanguine complexion and flame-colored hair of the female virtuoso throw an additional light on the character....The gross, bloated appearance of the Italian Singer is well relieved by the hard features of the instrumental performer behind him, which might be carved of wood. The negro boy holding the chocolate, both in expression, color, and execution, is a masterpiece. The gay, lively, contrast to the profound amazement of the first.
Scene V. The Duel And Death Of The Earl
‘Silvertongue,’ the young lawyer whom in the last scene we saw passing a masquerade ticket to the Countess, has now been found out. The Earl, who surprised him with his wife, has fought a duel and is dying as the result, while the young lawyer escapes through a window as the Watch enters.
Scene VI. The Death Of The Countess
A bottle of poison on the floor shows that the Countess’s death is self-sought, while the paper near it, with the words, ‘Counsellor Silver-tongue’s Last Dying Speech,’ reveals the end of another leading character in the drama. While the father absentmindedly draws the rings from the fingers of his dying daughter, the half-starved dog ravenously snatching the meat from the table suggests with subtlety the straitened resources of the household as a result of previous prodigal expenditure.
While the merited success of his prints and subject pictures made Hogarth a very prosperous man, he served his simple character to the last, and on one occasion he walked home in the rain, completely forgetting that now he had his own coach, which was waiting for him. He had a town house at 30 Leicester Square (now rebuilt) and a country house at Chiswick, now a Hogarth Museum, and when he died in 1764 he was buried in Chiswick Churchyard.
English Masters Of The Eighteenth Century (continued)
Scene IV. The Countess’s Dressing Room
The gradations of ridiculous affectation in the Music Scene are finely imagined and preserved. The preposterous, overstrained admiration of the Lady of Quality, the sentimental, insipid, impatient delight of the Man, with his hair in paper, and sipping his tea, the pert, smirking, conceited, half-distorted approbation of the figure next to him, the transition to the total insensibility of the round face in profile, and then to the wonder of the negro boy at the rapture of his mistress, form a perfect whole. The sanguine complexion and flame-colored hair of the female virtuoso throw an additional light on the character....The gross, bloated appearance of the Italian Singer is well relieved by the hard features of the instrumental performer behind him, which might be carved of wood. The negro boy holding the chocolate, both in expression, color, and execution, is a masterpiece. The gay, lively, contrast to the profound amazement of the first.
Scene V. The Duel And Death Of The Earl
‘Silvertongue,’ the young lawyer whom in the last scene we saw passing a masquerade ticket to the Countess, has now been found out. The Earl, who surprised him with his wife, has fought a duel and is dying as the result, while the young lawyer escapes through a window as the Watch enters.
Scene VI. The Death Of The Countess
A bottle of poison on the floor shows that the Countess’s death is self-sought, while the paper near it, with the words, ‘Counsellor Silver-tongue’s Last Dying Speech,’ reveals the end of another leading character in the drama. While the father absentmindedly draws the rings from the fingers of his dying daughter, the half-starved dog ravenously snatching the meat from the table suggests with subtlety the straitened resources of the household as a result of previous prodigal expenditure.
While the merited success of his prints and subject pictures made Hogarth a very prosperous man, he served his simple character to the last, and on one occasion he walked home in the rain, completely forgetting that now he had his own coach, which was waiting for him. He had a town house at 30 Leicester Square (now rebuilt) and a country house at Chiswick, now a Hogarth Museum, and when he died in 1764 he was buried in Chiswick Churchyard.
English Masters Of The Eighteenth Century (continued)
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)
Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is a powerful but very sensitive method + is useful for trace metal analysis, especially at very low levels of concentration + it’s used in forensic analysis for criminal investigations + biology + environmental scienecs + material sciences + geosciences + mineralogy + recently in gemology to determine the origin of a gemstone based on unusual elements or the pattern of elements in its chemical makeup + treated and untreated gem materials + new and rare gemstones (pezzottaite from Madagascar/Burma, tourmalines from Paraiba (Brazil), Nigeria, Mozambique), musgravite, taaffeite, etc) + pearls + each LA-ICP-MS analysis produces a large quantity of raw data, which has to be processed to have quantitative chemical analyses of gemstones + it’s expensive with high operation/maintenance costs + requires specialists for its operation.
Useful links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductively_coupled_plasma_mass_spectrometry
http://www.si.edu/mci/downloads/reports/ICP-Dussubieux.pdf
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/gem-identification.htm
Useful links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductively_coupled_plasma_mass_spectrometry
http://www.si.edu/mci/downloads/reports/ICP-Dussubieux.pdf
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/gem-identification.htm
Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior
I think Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior by Oskar Morgenstern + John Von Neumann is a great book + the discussion of poker and the role of bluffing + the area of bargaining and cooperative game theory is very interesting.
Here is what the description of Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior says (via Amazon):
This is the classic work upon which modern-day game theory is based. What began more than sixty years ago as a modest proposal that a mathematician and an economist write a short paper together blossomed, in 1944, when Princeton University Press published Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. In it, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern conceived a ground breaking mathematical theory of economic and social organization, based on a theory of games of strategy. Not only would this revolutionize economics, but the entirely new field of scientific inquiry it yielded--game theory--has since been widely used to analyze a host of real-world phenomena from arms races to optimal policy choices of presidential candidates, from vaccination policy to major league baseball salary negotiations. And it is today established throughout both the social sciences and a wide range of other sciences.
Here is what the description of Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior says (via Amazon):
This is the classic work upon which modern-day game theory is based. What began more than sixty years ago as a modest proposal that a mathematician and an economist write a short paper together blossomed, in 1944, when Princeton University Press published Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. In it, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern conceived a ground breaking mathematical theory of economic and social organization, based on a theory of games of strategy. Not only would this revolutionize economics, but the entirely new field of scientific inquiry it yielded--game theory--has since been widely used to analyze a host of real-world phenomena from arms races to optimal policy choices of presidential candidates, from vaccination policy to major league baseball salary negotiations. And it is today established throughout both the social sciences and a wide range of other sciences.
The Pearl Commission Report
CIBJO's Pearl Commission headed by Martin Coeroli (president) from French Polynesia + Shigeru Akamatsu (vice president) from Japan has released its 2008 Pearl Commission Report toward the CIBJO 2008 Congress that will take place April 14-16 at the Grossvenor House hotel in Dubai, UEA + it's all about treatments and disclosure + the durability of pearls cultured in seawater.
Useful links:
www.cibjo.com
www.cibjonews.com
Useful links:
www.cibjo.com
www.cibjonews.com
The Art Of Losing Money Gracefully
Total internal reflection of James Arnold on art + art markets + other viewpoints @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3116985.stm
Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein was an Academy and two-time Golden Globe award winning American film score composer + he wrote the theme songs or other music for more than 200 films and TV shows, including The Magnificent Seven + The Great Escape + The Ten Commandments + The Man with the Golden Arm + To Kill a Mockingbird + Robot Monster + Ghostbusters + the fanfare used in the National Geographic television specials + Bernstein's music has some stylistic similarities to Copland's music but I love his music.
Useful links:
www.elmerbernstein.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Bernstein
Useful links:
www.elmerbernstein.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Bernstein
The Masdar Initiative
The Masdar Initiative is an interesting concept by the government of Abu Dhabi + the magic mix and match of international joint ventures will develop 'The Masdar Sustainable City' that will produce no greenhouse gases and contain no cars + components will also include the world's largest hydrogen power plant + all energy will come from renewable resources, principally solar panels to generate electricity + buildings will be constructed to allow air in but keep the Sun's heat out + wind towers will ventilate homes and offices using natural convection.
Useful links:
www.masdaruae.com
www.fosterandpartners.com
I think it's a brilliant idea + I hope other emerging economies will follow Abu Dhabi's concept and develop sustainable cities.
Useful links:
www.masdaruae.com
www.fosterandpartners.com
I think it's a brilliant idea + I hope other emerging economies will follow Abu Dhabi's concept and develop sustainable cities.
Tips For Selling Champagne Diamonds
Rio Tinto Diamonds writes:
Market research shows that consumers are fascinated by natural color diamonds because of their rarity, uniqueness, elegance, sophistication, fashion appeal and affordability compared to white diamonds. This is particularly true of natural color champagne and cognac diamonds, which are a stunning alternative to ‘white’ or ‘colorless’ diamonds. These beautiful brown gems are ideal for the experienced diamond consumer wishing to try something new—something that will let her stand out and express her individual style and personality.
Research also demonstrates that retailers with well-educated salespeople behind the jewelry counter can dramatically increase sales of champagne diamonds.
One of the most important things your salespeople should know about champagne diamonds is that they are graded in the same way as colorless diamonds, with the exception of color. You will hear a range of colors used to describe brown diamonds. ‘Champagne’ should be used as the generic description for brown diamonds, following Argyle Diamonds’ official color categories (C1 to C7) that are now used throughout the world:
C1 – C2 : Light Champagne
C3 – C4 : Medium Champagne
C5 – C6 : Dark Champagne
C7 - Fancy Cognac
In addition, The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and International Gemological Laboratory (IGL), two respected and renowned international diamond grading laboratories, use three parameters to describe color in natural diamonds:
Hue: refers to the diamond’s dominant color.
Tone: refers to how much lightness or darkness a diamond retains.
Saturation: describes the strength and intensity of the diamond’s hue.
According to the Natural Color Diamond Association (NCDIA), some of the key elements to focus on to help you develop a successful champagne diamond business in your store include:
Education
Make sure you and your salespeople are well educated about the unique properties and merits of champagne diamonds and able to position them in a context that will appeal to both female and male shoppers.
Presentation
With champagne diamonds, understanding and explaining the unique story behind these beautiful gems to consumers is critical. Your salespeople also should emphasize that each champagne diamond is distinct. This is part of the category’s tremendous appeal. In addition, your salespeople need to ‘personalize the purchase’ for customers by stressing that they should focus on selecting a champagne diamond in a shade that reflects their personal style.
Availability
Always carry an assortment of champagne diamond jewelry. This sets you apart from your competition; it is considered an ‘upgrade’ to any diamond assortment and should be featured in windows and cases. It also establishes you as an expert in the category, grabs your customer’s attention and sparks conversations that will lead to sales.
Versatility
Stress to your customers that champagne diamonds come in a wide range of shades and price points. Making consumers aware that these stunning stones can be unique, fashionable and affordable can be a powerful selling point.
Design
Carrying champagne diamonds in a variety of jewelry designs is a perfect way to differentiate your store, show customers how stylish they are, and build interest and repeat business in the category.
Celebrities
Celebrities dictate style and fashion—and they can create a powerful ‘buzz’ for your champagne diamonds. Use fashion magazines, photos, and other materials in your store to show customers how Hollywood’s trendsetters have embraced champagne diamonds.
Marketing
Providing in-store brochures and other countertop materials on champagne diamonds will build credibility for you and your business, peak consumer awareness and interest in the category, and increase consumer confidence in the product. Use both in-store and online marketing tools to promote your champagne diamonds.
Useful links:
www.riotintodiamonds.com
www.ncdia.com
I think it's brilliant + Follow the rules + You will sell more diamonds.
Market research shows that consumers are fascinated by natural color diamonds because of their rarity, uniqueness, elegance, sophistication, fashion appeal and affordability compared to white diamonds. This is particularly true of natural color champagne and cognac diamonds, which are a stunning alternative to ‘white’ or ‘colorless’ diamonds. These beautiful brown gems are ideal for the experienced diamond consumer wishing to try something new—something that will let her stand out and express her individual style and personality.
Research also demonstrates that retailers with well-educated salespeople behind the jewelry counter can dramatically increase sales of champagne diamonds.
One of the most important things your salespeople should know about champagne diamonds is that they are graded in the same way as colorless diamonds, with the exception of color. You will hear a range of colors used to describe brown diamonds. ‘Champagne’ should be used as the generic description for brown diamonds, following Argyle Diamonds’ official color categories (C1 to C7) that are now used throughout the world:
C1 – C2 : Light Champagne
C3 – C4 : Medium Champagne
C5 – C6 : Dark Champagne
C7 - Fancy Cognac
In addition, The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and International Gemological Laboratory (IGL), two respected and renowned international diamond grading laboratories, use three parameters to describe color in natural diamonds:
Hue: refers to the diamond’s dominant color.
Tone: refers to how much lightness or darkness a diamond retains.
Saturation: describes the strength and intensity of the diamond’s hue.
According to the Natural Color Diamond Association (NCDIA), some of the key elements to focus on to help you develop a successful champagne diamond business in your store include:
Education
Make sure you and your salespeople are well educated about the unique properties and merits of champagne diamonds and able to position them in a context that will appeal to both female and male shoppers.
Presentation
With champagne diamonds, understanding and explaining the unique story behind these beautiful gems to consumers is critical. Your salespeople also should emphasize that each champagne diamond is distinct. This is part of the category’s tremendous appeal. In addition, your salespeople need to ‘personalize the purchase’ for customers by stressing that they should focus on selecting a champagne diamond in a shade that reflects their personal style.
Availability
Always carry an assortment of champagne diamond jewelry. This sets you apart from your competition; it is considered an ‘upgrade’ to any diamond assortment and should be featured in windows and cases. It also establishes you as an expert in the category, grabs your customer’s attention and sparks conversations that will lead to sales.
Versatility
Stress to your customers that champagne diamonds come in a wide range of shades and price points. Making consumers aware that these stunning stones can be unique, fashionable and affordable can be a powerful selling point.
Design
Carrying champagne diamonds in a variety of jewelry designs is a perfect way to differentiate your store, show customers how stylish they are, and build interest and repeat business in the category.
Celebrities
Celebrities dictate style and fashion—and they can create a powerful ‘buzz’ for your champagne diamonds. Use fashion magazines, photos, and other materials in your store to show customers how Hollywood’s trendsetters have embraced champagne diamonds.
Marketing
Providing in-store brochures and other countertop materials on champagne diamonds will build credibility for you and your business, peak consumer awareness and interest in the category, and increase consumer confidence in the product. Use both in-store and online marketing tools to promote your champagne diamonds.
Useful links:
www.riotintodiamonds.com
www.ncdia.com
I think it's brilliant + Follow the rules + You will sell more diamonds.
The Full, Or High, Table Cut
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The Full, or High, Table Cut was the predecessor of two modern cuts, the Emerald Cut and the Square Cut. It was square or rectangular in shape and not, as a rule, stepped. The crown was high with a relatively small table facet, and the pavilion deep with a culet of just the right size to act as a reflector. In keeping with the quandrangular outline, the Full Cut had four main facets above and four main facets below the girdle. There were sometimes additional facets, but these were insignificant. The cut of a diamond was of little importance until, in the sixteenth century, intrinsic beauty gradually replaced actual weight and apparent size. Once beauty became a factor in balancing the merits of one diamond against another, it became obvious that universal standards of some sort were needed.
Juan de Arphe y Villafane, a Spaniard of German descent (his grandfather came from the town of Harff in the Rhineland), was the first to produce written rules for the proportioning of Table Cuts in 1572, but he must have either been misinformed or had some reason for describing the proportions of a spread type with very poor light effects. Perhaps he was stressing the price factor and found proportions that could be applied to comparatively inexpensive rough. The light effects could then be improved by foiling, an art which both Cellini and de Boot declared, quite rightly, to be the cure for all unsatisfactory proportions. By the sixteenth century this art had already been perfected, but it dates back to the first century.
Anselme de Boot followed de Arphe, laying down the first rules for the proportions of a perfect Full Table Cut. De Boot, who called himself Boethius, was a native of Antwerp who became physician to the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. His De Gemmis et Lapidibus was first published in Latin in 1608, reprinted in 1636, and in 1647 appeared in a French translation with notes and comments by Adrianus Tollius. The French edition was renamed Le Parfaict Joaillier, ou L’Histoire des Pierreries. It included a chapter by Theophrastus and a short treatise by A de Laet entitled De Gemmis.
C W King, writing in 1865, described de Boot’s work as ‘a treatise on mineralogy still retaining practical value.’ King confirmed that the old proportions for the Table Cut were still valid, at least for Brilliants, in the second half of the nineteenth century. These proportions were modified only in the early part of this century, when the circular saw revolutionized the early stages of fashioning.
The London merchant Lewes Roberts, whose Map of Commerce was first published in 1638 with a revised edition in 1678, was a contemporary of de Boot. Robets’ rules for the ‘full ground’ Table Cut indicate proportions basically the same as those propounded by de Boot. Roberts clearly lays down a table size of 50 percent and a culet size of one third of the table. The second paragraph contains what is probably the earliest comparison of Full Table Cuts and ‘overspread’ diamonds. His words ‘as you can easily perceive by the reflection of the Collet’ indicate 45° angles of inclination for his ‘full ground’ cut. In place of ‘full ground’, other authors use such terms as ‘high’, ‘a plein fond’, and ‘Dickstein’.
The next person of importance to consider this question was the London jeweler David Jeffries. His book A Treatise on Diamonds and Pearls was first published in 1750, reprinted the following year and again in 1871, and translated into French and German. The invariables laid down for a Table Cut with perfect symmetry were the angles of 45° and the proportions of 1:2 for crown height and pavilion depth measured from the center of the imaginary girdle plane. No absolute rules could be laid down for the thickness of the girdle. It had to be just thick enough to resist chipping in normal handling, but an unnecessary thick girdle would have an adverse effect on light effects. The task of the cutter was, and still is, to balance beauty with size and weight.
The finest and most highly valued diamonds fashioned during the period when the Table Cut was at its height were fashioned with proportions practically identical to Jeffries’ rule. He worked out proportions for a Standard Cut for all pavilion-based diamonds with a view to displaying the maximum luster and brilliance. This had already been done with outstanding success in the case of the Table Cut, and even more successfully with the Brilliant.
For years I have advocated this 45° cut, and I still believe that if a cut of this type is found in an old diamond it should never be altered. Certainly diamond cutters of the first half of the eighteenth century found that 45° cut had superior light effects, and that Table Cuts were best set à jour and only poorly proportioned gems had to be set in foiled box settings.
In neither case will the poorly developed tip of a crystal affect the ultimate size of the fashioned gem. Cutters will almost always be able to find a direction which circumvents the lack of symmetry in the crystal.
The Full, or High, Table Cut was the predecessor of two modern cuts, the Emerald Cut and the Square Cut. It was square or rectangular in shape and not, as a rule, stepped. The crown was high with a relatively small table facet, and the pavilion deep with a culet of just the right size to act as a reflector. In keeping with the quandrangular outline, the Full Cut had four main facets above and four main facets below the girdle. There were sometimes additional facets, but these were insignificant. The cut of a diamond was of little importance until, in the sixteenth century, intrinsic beauty gradually replaced actual weight and apparent size. Once beauty became a factor in balancing the merits of one diamond against another, it became obvious that universal standards of some sort were needed.
Juan de Arphe y Villafane, a Spaniard of German descent (his grandfather came from the town of Harff in the Rhineland), was the first to produce written rules for the proportioning of Table Cuts in 1572, but he must have either been misinformed or had some reason for describing the proportions of a spread type with very poor light effects. Perhaps he was stressing the price factor and found proportions that could be applied to comparatively inexpensive rough. The light effects could then be improved by foiling, an art which both Cellini and de Boot declared, quite rightly, to be the cure for all unsatisfactory proportions. By the sixteenth century this art had already been perfected, but it dates back to the first century.
Anselme de Boot followed de Arphe, laying down the first rules for the proportions of a perfect Full Table Cut. De Boot, who called himself Boethius, was a native of Antwerp who became physician to the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. His De Gemmis et Lapidibus was first published in Latin in 1608, reprinted in 1636, and in 1647 appeared in a French translation with notes and comments by Adrianus Tollius. The French edition was renamed Le Parfaict Joaillier, ou L’Histoire des Pierreries. It included a chapter by Theophrastus and a short treatise by A de Laet entitled De Gemmis.
C W King, writing in 1865, described de Boot’s work as ‘a treatise on mineralogy still retaining practical value.’ King confirmed that the old proportions for the Table Cut were still valid, at least for Brilliants, in the second half of the nineteenth century. These proportions were modified only in the early part of this century, when the circular saw revolutionized the early stages of fashioning.
The London merchant Lewes Roberts, whose Map of Commerce was first published in 1638 with a revised edition in 1678, was a contemporary of de Boot. Robets’ rules for the ‘full ground’ Table Cut indicate proportions basically the same as those propounded by de Boot. Roberts clearly lays down a table size of 50 percent and a culet size of one third of the table. The second paragraph contains what is probably the earliest comparison of Full Table Cuts and ‘overspread’ diamonds. His words ‘as you can easily perceive by the reflection of the Collet’ indicate 45° angles of inclination for his ‘full ground’ cut. In place of ‘full ground’, other authors use such terms as ‘high’, ‘a plein fond’, and ‘Dickstein’.
The next person of importance to consider this question was the London jeweler David Jeffries. His book A Treatise on Diamonds and Pearls was first published in 1750, reprinted the following year and again in 1871, and translated into French and German. The invariables laid down for a Table Cut with perfect symmetry were the angles of 45° and the proportions of 1:2 for crown height and pavilion depth measured from the center of the imaginary girdle plane. No absolute rules could be laid down for the thickness of the girdle. It had to be just thick enough to resist chipping in normal handling, but an unnecessary thick girdle would have an adverse effect on light effects. The task of the cutter was, and still is, to balance beauty with size and weight.
The finest and most highly valued diamonds fashioned during the period when the Table Cut was at its height were fashioned with proportions practically identical to Jeffries’ rule. He worked out proportions for a Standard Cut for all pavilion-based diamonds with a view to displaying the maximum luster and brilliance. This had already been done with outstanding success in the case of the Table Cut, and even more successfully with the Brilliant.
For years I have advocated this 45° cut, and I still believe that if a cut of this type is found in an old diamond it should never be altered. Certainly diamond cutters of the first half of the eighteenth century found that 45° cut had superior light effects, and that Table Cuts were best set à jour and only poorly proportioned gems had to be set in foiled box settings.
In neither case will the poorly developed tip of a crystal affect the ultimate size of the fashioned gem. Cutters will almost always be able to find a direction which circumvents the lack of symmetry in the crystal.
Jewelers Of Italy
(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:
5. Cameo Cutting
Another form of pendant was the cameo, cherished for its beauty rather than its luck-bringing qualities. Every since the time of Alexander the little cameo had been growing in popularity, and during the reign of Augustus cameo portraits were all the rage. Many portraits of the Emperor were cut one a stone imported from Arabia, an agate with strongly market layers or parallel bands of black and white known as onyx. If, instead of with black, the white layer of agate is contrasted with bands of red (carnelian) or chestnut brown (sard), the stone is known as sardonyx.
When cutting a picture on banded agate the lapidary took full advantage of the different layers of color, and the subtle variations of tone resulting from the degree of thinness to which he cut the light, translucent layer. With repeated strokes of a fine chisel the craftsman would chip away the dark stratum of the stone, leaving the design to stand in relief—a light silhouette against a dark field. This process left a more or less uneven surface, and the work was carried further by aid of a drill, a wheel, and an engraving tool. Finally the stone was carefully polished.
So skilled were the engravers that by utilizing as many as five layers, or zones of color, they could carve elaborate groups of figures with drapery, flesh, hair and ornaments each in its own appropriate shade of color. One cameo masterpiece shows Augustus and Roma enthroned. Before them stands a victorious prince and in a lower zone of color are groups of captives and Roman soldiers.
Sometimes the dark, bluish gray upper layer of an onyx was cut intaglio, the figure or design appearing in the underlying white layer. It was a two colored intaglio, and a gem engraved in this manner was known as a nicolo.
Glass too was often used by the Roman cameo cutter, but unlike agate, the glass background of the design could not be removed with a chisel. All cutting of the brittle substance had to be done by grinding with an abrasive. For this, a small wheel reinforced with emery powder was used.
The most famous came work in glass is the Portland vase, that ancient urn found about the middle of the sixteenth century in a sarcophagus near Rome. The figures that encircle its maple sides are cut in the outer layer of milk-white glass, their background being the rich blue stratum of the vase. In some portions of the design the white glass is ground down to such a degree of thinness that the underlying blue glass shows through, causing the white to appear the color of pale cobalt.
Many of the old cameos in sardonyx have a small hole drilled through them and this has led to the surmise that the hole was intended to admit thread so the cameo could be sewed, as an ornament, onto clothing. According to Pliny, however, the hole only went to prove that the engraved stone had first been used as a bead in its native land, India. When it fell into the hands of the Roman lapidary he changed the banded bead into cameo.
Jewelers Of Italy (continued)
5. Cameo Cutting
Another form of pendant was the cameo, cherished for its beauty rather than its luck-bringing qualities. Every since the time of Alexander the little cameo had been growing in popularity, and during the reign of Augustus cameo portraits were all the rage. Many portraits of the Emperor were cut one a stone imported from Arabia, an agate with strongly market layers or parallel bands of black and white known as onyx. If, instead of with black, the white layer of agate is contrasted with bands of red (carnelian) or chestnut brown (sard), the stone is known as sardonyx.
When cutting a picture on banded agate the lapidary took full advantage of the different layers of color, and the subtle variations of tone resulting from the degree of thinness to which he cut the light, translucent layer. With repeated strokes of a fine chisel the craftsman would chip away the dark stratum of the stone, leaving the design to stand in relief—a light silhouette against a dark field. This process left a more or less uneven surface, and the work was carried further by aid of a drill, a wheel, and an engraving tool. Finally the stone was carefully polished.
So skilled were the engravers that by utilizing as many as five layers, or zones of color, they could carve elaborate groups of figures with drapery, flesh, hair and ornaments each in its own appropriate shade of color. One cameo masterpiece shows Augustus and Roma enthroned. Before them stands a victorious prince and in a lower zone of color are groups of captives and Roman soldiers.
Sometimes the dark, bluish gray upper layer of an onyx was cut intaglio, the figure or design appearing in the underlying white layer. It was a two colored intaglio, and a gem engraved in this manner was known as a nicolo.
Glass too was often used by the Roman cameo cutter, but unlike agate, the glass background of the design could not be removed with a chisel. All cutting of the brittle substance had to be done by grinding with an abrasive. For this, a small wheel reinforced with emery powder was used.
The most famous came work in glass is the Portland vase, that ancient urn found about the middle of the sixteenth century in a sarcophagus near Rome. The figures that encircle its maple sides are cut in the outer layer of milk-white glass, their background being the rich blue stratum of the vase. In some portions of the design the white glass is ground down to such a degree of thinness that the underlying blue glass shows through, causing the white to appear the color of pale cobalt.
Many of the old cameos in sardonyx have a small hole drilled through them and this has led to the surmise that the hole was intended to admit thread so the cameo could be sewed, as an ornament, onto clothing. According to Pliny, however, the hole only went to prove that the engraved stone had first been used as a bead in its native land, India. When it fell into the hands of the Roman lapidary he changed the banded bead into cameo.
Jewelers Of Italy (continued)
English Masters Of The Eighteenth Century
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Still more amazing as an example of Hogarth’s vivid characterisation and vivacity of expression is ‘The Shrimp Girl’. It is only a sketch, mostly in greys with a few touches of other colors, but there is no work in the National Gallery more abounding with life. These portraits, painted with joy for the painter’s satisfaction, never produced an income. He made his living by other pictures, and especially by his engravings, which had a wide sale and made his name a household word. The series of pictorial dramas which he invented brought him both fame and fortune, and after ‘The Rake’s Progress’ and other sets had firmly established Hogarth in popular favor, Sir James Thornhill became reconciled to his son-in-law, whom he now saw to be capable of earning a good living.
Narrative pictures were not a new thing in the history of art; the reliefs of Trajan’s Column at Rome tell the story of the Emperor’s Dacian campaigns, and we saw in the first chapter how Giotto and other early Italian painters recounted Bible stories and the lives of the saints in a series of pictures. But no painter before Hogarth had invented the story as well as illustrating it. Without any text familiar to the public, Hogarth by paint and engraving told new and original stories of his own time, and told them so clearly that they were universally understood. Sometimes these stores were almost wholly humorous, as in ‘The Election’ series, but more often they had a serious intention and amusing incidents were introduced only by way of light relief.
To regard Hogarth as a satirist first is wrong: he was more than that: he was a great moralist. For though no man more severely scourged the folly of his time, Hogarth taught his lessons not only by exposing the ridiculous, but also by revealing the tragedy of wrong and the beauty of goodness. Among his many inventions none more beautifully display his method than the ‘Marriage á la Mode’; and though each one of these pictures tells its own story clearly, it may be helpful to summarize the action of each scene, and add the illuminating comments made by the great critic Hazlitt:
Scene I. The Marriage Contract
In a splendid apartment the father of the bridegroom points to his pedigree, while the rich alderman, father of the bride, studies the marriage settlement. ‘The three figures of the young nobleman, his intended bride, and her inamorato, the lawyer, show how much Hogarth excelled in the power of giving soft and effeminate expression......Nothing,’ writes Hazlitt, ‘can be more finely managed than the differences of character in these delicate personages.’
Scene II. Shortly After Marriage
Note the delicious touch of satire in the four pictures of saints which adorn the walls of a wordily interior. An old steward, shocked at the way things are going, is leaving with a bundle of bills and one receipt. The wife sits yawning at breakfast, while the card tables and the candles, still burning, in the room seen beyond, show how the husband, lazing in his chair, had spent the night. ‘The figure, face, and attitude of the husband are inimitable,’ says Hazlitt. ‘Hogarth has with great skill contrasted the pale countenance of the husband with the yellow-whitish color of the marble mantelpiece behind him, in such a manner as to preserve the fleshy tone of the former. The airy splendor of the view of the room in this picture is probably not exceeded in any of the productions of the Flemish school.’
Scene III. The Visit To The Quack Doctor
The peer, with a cane in one hand and a box of pills in the other, rallies the sardonically smiling quack for having deceived him. ‘The young girl,’ says Hazlitt, ‘who is represented as the victim of fashionable profligacy, is unquestionably one of the artist’s chefs-ďœuvre.The exquisite delicacy of the painting is only surpassed by the felicity and subtlety of the conception. Nothing can be more striking than the contrast between the extreme softness of her person and the hardened indifference of her character.’
English Masters Of The Eighteenth Century (continued)
Still more amazing as an example of Hogarth’s vivid characterisation and vivacity of expression is ‘The Shrimp Girl’. It is only a sketch, mostly in greys with a few touches of other colors, but there is no work in the National Gallery more abounding with life. These portraits, painted with joy for the painter’s satisfaction, never produced an income. He made his living by other pictures, and especially by his engravings, which had a wide sale and made his name a household word. The series of pictorial dramas which he invented brought him both fame and fortune, and after ‘The Rake’s Progress’ and other sets had firmly established Hogarth in popular favor, Sir James Thornhill became reconciled to his son-in-law, whom he now saw to be capable of earning a good living.
Narrative pictures were not a new thing in the history of art; the reliefs of Trajan’s Column at Rome tell the story of the Emperor’s Dacian campaigns, and we saw in the first chapter how Giotto and other early Italian painters recounted Bible stories and the lives of the saints in a series of pictures. But no painter before Hogarth had invented the story as well as illustrating it. Without any text familiar to the public, Hogarth by paint and engraving told new and original stories of his own time, and told them so clearly that they were universally understood. Sometimes these stores were almost wholly humorous, as in ‘The Election’ series, but more often they had a serious intention and amusing incidents were introduced only by way of light relief.
To regard Hogarth as a satirist first is wrong: he was more than that: he was a great moralist. For though no man more severely scourged the folly of his time, Hogarth taught his lessons not only by exposing the ridiculous, but also by revealing the tragedy of wrong and the beauty of goodness. Among his many inventions none more beautifully display his method than the ‘Marriage á la Mode’; and though each one of these pictures tells its own story clearly, it may be helpful to summarize the action of each scene, and add the illuminating comments made by the great critic Hazlitt:
Scene I. The Marriage Contract
In a splendid apartment the father of the bridegroom points to his pedigree, while the rich alderman, father of the bride, studies the marriage settlement. ‘The three figures of the young nobleman, his intended bride, and her inamorato, the lawyer, show how much Hogarth excelled in the power of giving soft and effeminate expression......Nothing,’ writes Hazlitt, ‘can be more finely managed than the differences of character in these delicate personages.’
Scene II. Shortly After Marriage
Note the delicious touch of satire in the four pictures of saints which adorn the walls of a wordily interior. An old steward, shocked at the way things are going, is leaving with a bundle of bills and one receipt. The wife sits yawning at breakfast, while the card tables and the candles, still burning, in the room seen beyond, show how the husband, lazing in his chair, had spent the night. ‘The figure, face, and attitude of the husband are inimitable,’ says Hazlitt. ‘Hogarth has with great skill contrasted the pale countenance of the husband with the yellow-whitish color of the marble mantelpiece behind him, in such a manner as to preserve the fleshy tone of the former. The airy splendor of the view of the room in this picture is probably not exceeded in any of the productions of the Flemish school.’
Scene III. The Visit To The Quack Doctor
The peer, with a cane in one hand and a box of pills in the other, rallies the sardonically smiling quack for having deceived him. ‘The young girl,’ says Hazlitt, ‘who is represented as the victim of fashionable profligacy, is unquestionably one of the artist’s chefs-ďœuvre.The exquisite delicacy of the painting is only surpassed by the felicity and subtlety of the conception. Nothing can be more striking than the contrast between the extreme softness of her person and the hardened indifference of her character.’
English Masters Of The Eighteenth Century (continued)
Gemstones + Light
There are three requirements for seeing color: an object + an observer + a light source. If any of these is missing, no color will be seen + if any is changed, the color will change. When light strikes a colored gemstone, some wavelengths are absorbed and some are transmitted.
Light Sources
Sunlight = light coming directly from the sun.
Skylight = light that comes from the sky.
Daylight = combination of sunlight + skylight
Artificial Light
In dealing with colored gemstones light plays an important role. Daylight with its shifting intensity and color balance may not be ideal for grading + buying + selling gemstones. Standardized artificial lighting with a steady, known intensity and color balance should bring consistency in grading + universal communication for color values.
Types Of Artificial Light Sources
Incandescent light = incandescent lights should not be used because their color temperatures tend to be too low + they emit greater amounts of yellow, orange and red wavelengths.
Fluorescent light = the cool white fluorescent lights found in most offices should be avoided because their color temperatures tend to be too high + they emit large amounts of blue + violet wavelengths.
Daylight fluorescent light = they are designed to simulate daylight + some of them may meet the required standards.
LED = it’s the newest technology on the market + they are generally of low wattage + you may need many bulbs to illuminate a particular display more effectively + they use very little power + last longer + could simulate daylight.
At present a number of different light sources are marketed for a wide range of industries + some are suitable for viewing colored gemstones. For now, there is no internationally accepted standard grading lamp among gem dealers.
Useful links:
www.gelighting,com
www.intl-lighttech.com
www.darksky.org
www.lightingdesignlab.com
www.elec-toolbox.com
www.tir.com
www.lampsplus.com
Light Sources
Sunlight = light coming directly from the sun.
Skylight = light that comes from the sky.
Daylight = combination of sunlight + skylight
Artificial Light
In dealing with colored gemstones light plays an important role. Daylight with its shifting intensity and color balance may not be ideal for grading + buying + selling gemstones. Standardized artificial lighting with a steady, known intensity and color balance should bring consistency in grading + universal communication for color values.
Types Of Artificial Light Sources
Incandescent light = incandescent lights should not be used because their color temperatures tend to be too low + they emit greater amounts of yellow, orange and red wavelengths.
Fluorescent light = the cool white fluorescent lights found in most offices should be avoided because their color temperatures tend to be too high + they emit large amounts of blue + violet wavelengths.
Daylight fluorescent light = they are designed to simulate daylight + some of them may meet the required standards.
LED = it’s the newest technology on the market + they are generally of low wattage + you may need many bulbs to illuminate a particular display more effectively + they use very little power + last longer + could simulate daylight.
At present a number of different light sources are marketed for a wide range of industries + some are suitable for viewing colored gemstones. For now, there is no internationally accepted standard grading lamp among gem dealers.
Useful links:
www.gelighting,com
www.intl-lighttech.com
www.darksky.org
www.lightingdesignlab.com
www.elec-toolbox.com
www.tir.com
www.lampsplus.com
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