(via Seeking alpha, Fashion Industry: Move Over Money Men, The Biz Men Are Back, March 28, 2008) Lauren Goldstein Crowe writes:
I think that fashion schools really owe it to their students to start offering basic classes in business. The designers who land big corporate jobs seem to lack understanding of how those structures work to enable them such freedom. Life without the corporate suits system may seem ideal -- and if you can finance your own business, it probably is. But if you've got to go hat in hand to others for money, you might be surprised what a cold hard place the world of business is. No matter how big your name recognition, no matter how great your talent, no one worth getting money from is going to give a designer money without asking for control. I mean, would you?
Brilliant! She was spot on.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
China's Growing Luxury Market
I found the article on China’s growing luxury market @ http://www.investorideas.com/articles/032608a.asp intriguing because understanding China’s consumer needs require special skills, unlimited patience and excellent local network support + long-term commitment to stay put + the reality is only a very few outsiders succeed in China + it's shocking, but that's the truth!
Useful link:
www.investorideas.com
Useful link:
www.investorideas.com
The Theory Of The Leisure Class
The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen + Robert Lekachman is considered one of the great works of economics + Veblen argues that economic life is driven not by notions of utility, but by social vestiges from pre-historic times (true!) + what's amazing to me is this book although written over 100 years ago is still valid + being brought up in a consumercentric society I see a heavily included portrait of myself in this book--a unique total internal reflection + it's a must-read book.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
A Famous Opal
The extraordinary opal dubbed, 'Flame Queen' (263.18 carats), was discovered in 1914 at the Bald Hill Workings in Lightning Ridge, Australia by three partners: Jack Phillips, Walter Bradley and Joe Hegarty + and now International fine arts auctioneers Bonhams & Butterfields will offer in its June 22, 2008 sale the most famous and recognizable opal in the world.
Useful link:
www.bonhams.com
Useful link:
www.bonhams.com
Run Fatboy Run
Run Fatboy Run is one-of-a-kind gentle comedy movie with its own message + I liked it.
I think you'll enjoy the movie.
Useful links:
www.runfatboyrunmovie.com
www.runfatboyrunmovie.co.uk
I think you'll enjoy the movie.
Useful links:
www.runfatboyrunmovie.com
www.runfatboyrunmovie.co.uk
U.S. Government Views On Laundering In The Diamond Industry
Chaim Even Zohar writes about the just-released report on money laundering and financial crimes by the U.S Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) + the country profile (s) + other viewpoints @
http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp
http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp
The Tiffany
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The golden-yellow Tiffany is not only a typical Stellar Cut Brilliant with a star-like arrangement of small facets round the culet, but the crown is stepped, which consequently involves splitting the main facets. This was a standard procedure. The pavilion, however, received three steps: between the regular two steps a third shallow step was applied, which was probably unique. This involved the splitting of the lower main facets into two triangular and one flat keystone-shaped facet. Consequently the Tiffany diamond received forty actual facets on the crown and forty eight facets on the pavilion, plus the compulsory table and culet—in all, ninety facets compared with the fifty-six plus two facets of the standard Brilliant Cut.
No one has ever explained why such a bulky step cut was applied to this diamond. It seems that priority was given to weight retention, since the prestige of a diamond dependend at that time primarily on its weight. Dr Kunz stated ‘that this unprecedented number of facets was given the stone not to make it more brilliant, but less brilliant. The stone was of yellow color, and it was thought better to give it the effect of a smothered. Smouldering fire than one of flashing radiance.’ The stone has the unusual feature, in a yellow diamond, of retaining its color by artificial light. The designers decided to ignore the modern rules of proportioning (such as those introduced to America by Morse) since these would have produced a Brilliant of well below the magic figure of 100ct, which entitles a diamond to the name ‘Paragon’. Here, even the classic proportions would not have done—a Brilliant with the width and length of this stone (27mm and 28.25mm) with 45° angles would have barely weighed 100ct.
In the end, a number of solutions were found. Obviously, the diameter of the finished gem was weighed against a symmetrical outline. But the height of the crown, the thickness of the girdle and the depth of the pavilion could all be substantially increased. In fact they managed to retain a vertical measurement of 81.5 per cent (22.2mm) as compared with Jeffries 68 per cent and the modern 60 per cent.
The convex silhouette shows not only the weight saved through stepping but also an exceptionally high crown and deep pavilion. Other measures were taken in order to produce desired light effects. An exact calculation was made of the angles of reflection and refraction of light and the culet was given a size which made it act as a reflector. Until the Tiffany diamond is professionally examined two queries remain unsolved: the four extra facets on the pavilion, adjacent to the girdle, and the often mentioned seventeen polished spots on the girdle which, according to a check-up at the premises of Tiffany in 1945, are ‘no true facets’.
We know that the rough, a fine octahedron weighing 287.42 ct, was found in about 1878 in what appears to have been the French-owned part of the De Beers mines. It was shipped to Paris where it was shown to the Tiffany representatives. The firm’s eminent gemologist, George F Kunz, was commissioned to help plan the fashioning of it into the most magnificent gem possible. The result was extraordinary, as we have seen. The finished gem has the amazing weight of 128.51ct. It was, until recently, the largest golden-yellow diamond in the world. According to the official invoice from a Paris office, the Tiffany diamond was shipped to New York on the City of Chester on 15 June 1880, and was listed with a number of other gems ‘on consignment’ at 100,000 French francs.
The golden-yellow Tiffany is not only a typical Stellar Cut Brilliant with a star-like arrangement of small facets round the culet, but the crown is stepped, which consequently involves splitting the main facets. This was a standard procedure. The pavilion, however, received three steps: between the regular two steps a third shallow step was applied, which was probably unique. This involved the splitting of the lower main facets into two triangular and one flat keystone-shaped facet. Consequently the Tiffany diamond received forty actual facets on the crown and forty eight facets on the pavilion, plus the compulsory table and culet—in all, ninety facets compared with the fifty-six plus two facets of the standard Brilliant Cut.
No one has ever explained why such a bulky step cut was applied to this diamond. It seems that priority was given to weight retention, since the prestige of a diamond dependend at that time primarily on its weight. Dr Kunz stated ‘that this unprecedented number of facets was given the stone not to make it more brilliant, but less brilliant. The stone was of yellow color, and it was thought better to give it the effect of a smothered. Smouldering fire than one of flashing radiance.’ The stone has the unusual feature, in a yellow diamond, of retaining its color by artificial light. The designers decided to ignore the modern rules of proportioning (such as those introduced to America by Morse) since these would have produced a Brilliant of well below the magic figure of 100ct, which entitles a diamond to the name ‘Paragon’. Here, even the classic proportions would not have done—a Brilliant with the width and length of this stone (27mm and 28.25mm) with 45° angles would have barely weighed 100ct.
In the end, a number of solutions were found. Obviously, the diameter of the finished gem was weighed against a symmetrical outline. But the height of the crown, the thickness of the girdle and the depth of the pavilion could all be substantially increased. In fact they managed to retain a vertical measurement of 81.5 per cent (22.2mm) as compared with Jeffries 68 per cent and the modern 60 per cent.
The convex silhouette shows not only the weight saved through stepping but also an exceptionally high crown and deep pavilion. Other measures were taken in order to produce desired light effects. An exact calculation was made of the angles of reflection and refraction of light and the culet was given a size which made it act as a reflector. Until the Tiffany diamond is professionally examined two queries remain unsolved: the four extra facets on the pavilion, adjacent to the girdle, and the often mentioned seventeen polished spots on the girdle which, according to a check-up at the premises of Tiffany in 1945, are ‘no true facets’.
We know that the rough, a fine octahedron weighing 287.42 ct, was found in about 1878 in what appears to have been the French-owned part of the De Beers mines. It was shipped to Paris where it was shown to the Tiffany representatives. The firm’s eminent gemologist, George F Kunz, was commissioned to help plan the fashioning of it into the most magnificent gem possible. The result was extraordinary, as we have seen. The finished gem has the amazing weight of 128.51ct. It was, until recently, the largest golden-yellow diamond in the world. According to the official invoice from a Paris office, the Tiffany diamond was shipped to New York on the City of Chester on 15 June 1880, and was listed with a number of other gems ‘on consignment’ at 100,000 French francs.
The Modern Dutch School
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
It was not till he was nearing thirty that James Maris changed his manner of painting and acquired the style which eventually brought him fame. In 1865 he went to Paris, where he remained for six years, and there, under the influence of the Barbizon masters, he gradually broadened his style, abandoning his former intimacy of detail and now aiming at a more general effect of grandeur. Henceforward he devoted himself almost exclusively to landscape, and though the change of his style was brought about by French painting, his mature work is akin to that of Ruysdael in the nobility and majesty of its outlook. We can hardly escape thinking of Ruysdael’s ‘Mill’ when we see ‘The Stone Mill’ by James Maris in the Mesdag Museum; a picturesque stone mill, with an open gallery round it, makes a stately figure against a sky with white drifting clouds. In the foreground are sandhills, in the distance the red roofs of a village, but though the accessories taken together make up a scene quite distinct from that shown in Ruysdael’s famous picture, both pictures have a touch of sublimity in the dignity of their design. Equally characteristic of the way in which this artist subordinates particular objects to the general effect is his painting of ‘Dordrecht’. All details are merged in these masses of light and shade, yet everyone who has seen this town at eventide will agree that the painter has given us the essential characteristic of the ‘Venice of the North’, its Groote Kerke, its shipping, its wide canals, and the rolling grey sky overhead, and has presented these with incomparable dignity and grandeur.
William Maris is more limited in his range than either of his brothers, and though in their early days the work of all three showed a certain similarity of style, William’s work altered least in style and in subject. He is nearer to Roelofs than either of his brothers, and his favorite subjects were landscapes with cattle, which he painted, as a rule, in full daylight, so that his pictures are rather brighter and gayer in color than those of his brothers. A meadow extending along the border of the sandhills, in which are seen a few stunted trees and some cows, a pond perhaps in the immediate foreground, and a cloudy sky overhead, this is a typical William Maris subject. Less poetic than Mauve, less grand than his brother James, and less romantic than his brother Matthew, William Maris was a happy realist whose rich colored pictures are full of sunshine and mirror the luxuriant greens of Holland’s pasturelands.
Matthew Maris stands apart from his brothers and from all the Dutch artists of his generation. He was different in his temperament, different in his life, and different in his art. Tracing it to his foreign extraction, to his Austrian, or, as we should now say, to his Czecho-Slovak blood, Professor Muther says there broke out in Matthew Maris a ‘Teutonic medieval mysticism’ from which his brothers were free. Matthew no doubt possessed that he was influenced by the romantic mediavalism of Rossetti. It was in England that Matthew Maris painted his most charcteristic pictures, and in England, where he lived for forty five years, he drifted apart from his brethren in his art as in his life.
The beginnings of Matthew were almost parallel with those of James. The two brothers studied, as we have seen, at The Hague and Antwerp, and they were together in Paris. One incident must be chronicled which appears to have had far more influence on Matthew than on James. In 1858 the two brothers were back from Antwerp at The Hague, and three years later, having made some money by copying pictures, the two set out together on a tour through the Black Forest to Switzerland, returning through France by Dijon to the Puy-de-Dôme. Matthew was tremendously impressed by the romantic castles and buildings he saw in Central France; to his poetic imagination they were enchanted palaces. The recollection of this tour never faded from his mind, and in pictures painted years afterwards we catch echoes of the turrets and battlements which remained fixed in his memory. We may see evidence of this in the background of ‘Feeding Chickens’, painted in 1872.
The Modern Dutch School (continued)
It was not till he was nearing thirty that James Maris changed his manner of painting and acquired the style which eventually brought him fame. In 1865 he went to Paris, where he remained for six years, and there, under the influence of the Barbizon masters, he gradually broadened his style, abandoning his former intimacy of detail and now aiming at a more general effect of grandeur. Henceforward he devoted himself almost exclusively to landscape, and though the change of his style was brought about by French painting, his mature work is akin to that of Ruysdael in the nobility and majesty of its outlook. We can hardly escape thinking of Ruysdael’s ‘Mill’ when we see ‘The Stone Mill’ by James Maris in the Mesdag Museum; a picturesque stone mill, with an open gallery round it, makes a stately figure against a sky with white drifting clouds. In the foreground are sandhills, in the distance the red roofs of a village, but though the accessories taken together make up a scene quite distinct from that shown in Ruysdael’s famous picture, both pictures have a touch of sublimity in the dignity of their design. Equally characteristic of the way in which this artist subordinates particular objects to the general effect is his painting of ‘Dordrecht’. All details are merged in these masses of light and shade, yet everyone who has seen this town at eventide will agree that the painter has given us the essential characteristic of the ‘Venice of the North’, its Groote Kerke, its shipping, its wide canals, and the rolling grey sky overhead, and has presented these with incomparable dignity and grandeur.
William Maris is more limited in his range than either of his brothers, and though in their early days the work of all three showed a certain similarity of style, William’s work altered least in style and in subject. He is nearer to Roelofs than either of his brothers, and his favorite subjects were landscapes with cattle, which he painted, as a rule, in full daylight, so that his pictures are rather brighter and gayer in color than those of his brothers. A meadow extending along the border of the sandhills, in which are seen a few stunted trees and some cows, a pond perhaps in the immediate foreground, and a cloudy sky overhead, this is a typical William Maris subject. Less poetic than Mauve, less grand than his brother James, and less romantic than his brother Matthew, William Maris was a happy realist whose rich colored pictures are full of sunshine and mirror the luxuriant greens of Holland’s pasturelands.
Matthew Maris stands apart from his brothers and from all the Dutch artists of his generation. He was different in his temperament, different in his life, and different in his art. Tracing it to his foreign extraction, to his Austrian, or, as we should now say, to his Czecho-Slovak blood, Professor Muther says there broke out in Matthew Maris a ‘Teutonic medieval mysticism’ from which his brothers were free. Matthew no doubt possessed that he was influenced by the romantic mediavalism of Rossetti. It was in England that Matthew Maris painted his most charcteristic pictures, and in England, where he lived for forty five years, he drifted apart from his brethren in his art as in his life.
The beginnings of Matthew were almost parallel with those of James. The two brothers studied, as we have seen, at The Hague and Antwerp, and they were together in Paris. One incident must be chronicled which appears to have had far more influence on Matthew than on James. In 1858 the two brothers were back from Antwerp at The Hague, and three years later, having made some money by copying pictures, the two set out together on a tour through the Black Forest to Switzerland, returning through France by Dijon to the Puy-de-Dôme. Matthew was tremendously impressed by the romantic castles and buildings he saw in Central France; to his poetic imagination they were enchanted palaces. The recollection of this tour never faded from his mind, and in pictures painted years afterwards we catch echoes of the turrets and battlements which remained fixed in his memory. We may see evidence of this in the background of ‘Feeding Chickens’, painted in 1872.
The Modern Dutch School (continued)
Friday, March 28, 2008
The Highest Altitude Vineyard On The Planet
Swiss entrepreneur Donald Hess's Colomé ranch/winery/luxury resort in Argentina is emerging as the next must-visit destination for wine-loving adventurers + the grapevines at 9,849 feet above sea level is believed to be the highest altitude vineyard on the planet.
Useful link:
www.bodegacolome.com
Useful link:
www.bodegacolome.com
Martin Scorsese’s Concert Movie
Shine a Light is a 2008 documentary film directed by Martin Scorsese that chronicles two 2006 performances from rock and roll band The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour + the film takes its title from the song of the same name, featured on the band's 1972 album Exile on Main St.
Useful links:
www.shinealightmovie.com
www.scorsesefilms.com
Useful links:
www.shinealightmovie.com
www.scorsesefilms.com
Entrepreneurship Update
The artilce on innovation + entrepreneurship @ http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1926.cfm was brilliant + very useful.
Rob Glaser: innovation + timing + good idea + luck = success
Glenn A. Britt: consumer orientation + technology + viable financial model + branding + creative thinking = success
Rob Glaser: innovation + timing + good idea + luck = success
Glenn A. Britt: consumer orientation + technology + viable financial model + branding + creative thinking = success
Azalea
Azaleas are called the royalty of the garden + they always remind me of the colors in tourmaline + in my view flowers are like colored gemstones and they are delightful to watch.
Useful link:
www.azaleas.org
Useful link:
www.azaleas.org
Gemstone Enhancement Disclosure Update
A discussion featuring Robin Spector of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Cecilia Gardner of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC) and Christopher Smith of American Gemological Laboratories Inc (AGL) is now available on video @ Aglgemlab.com
In my view disclosure of gemstone treatments should be mandatory at all levels but the point is many colored stone + diamond dealers and jewelers don't know how to disclose without losing a sale + I have seen endless presentations by experts of all hues saying the same thing, yet it's getting more difficult to enforce.
Useful links:
www.ftc.gov
www.jvclegal.org
www.aglgemlab.com
In my view disclosure of gemstone treatments should be mandatory at all levels but the point is many colored stone + diamond dealers and jewelers don't know how to disclose without losing a sale + I have seen endless presentations by experts of all hues saying the same thing, yet it's getting more difficult to enforce.
Useful links:
www.ftc.gov
www.jvclegal.org
www.aglgemlab.com
Art Gambler's Market
Seth Mydans article on the peculiar state of the Indonesian art market titled, Buyers jump on Indonesia as next Asian art tiger @ http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/26/arts/indoart.php?page=2 was intriguing because in the world of paintings-to-order/I-don't-know-what-I-want, investors are looking in all directions to make money while at the same time immature artists are busy painting for the market to meet the high demand, losing character and soul + in my view, it looks like an art stampede, killing themselves + I hope the speculators/artists will learn their lessons quickly before it's too late.
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
To celebrate the tercentenary of Benjamin Franklin's birth, Paris (Musée des Arts et Métiers + Musée Carnavalet) is hosting two exhibitions exploring his life and his connection with France.
Useful links:
Musée Carnavalet
www.paris.fr
Musée des Arts at Metiers
www.arts-et-metiers.net
Benjamin Franklin tercentenary
www.benfranklin300.org
Useful links:
Musée Carnavalet
www.paris.fr
Musée des Arts at Metiers
www.arts-et-metiers.net
Benjamin Franklin tercentenary
www.benfranklin300.org
Stepped And Split Brilliants
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
In diamond literature we often come across illustrations of a split-facet Brilliant, sometimes entitled the Lisbon Cut. The term has perhaps come from a Portuguese publication which has used it, like the term Brazilian Cut, to describe those fancy cuts so often applied when the cutter was aiming at retaining the greatest possible weight. Other terms are used as well: Max Bauer described it as ‘a Brilliant Cut with elongated facets’. Sperison (1961), and Hertz (1839) simply said ‘with a great number of facets’. Dr Kunz (1890) gave no description at all of this type of cut, not even with reference to the golden yellow Tiffany diamond.
As far as I can ascertain, no author seems to have realized that splitting facets lengthwise necessarily involves stepping. A facet edge can obviously not be applied to a flat surface, and the two sections of a bisected facet must always meet at an angle, no matter how blunt that angle may be. Watermeyer interprets this as ‘probably an attempt to flatten the very steep angles of these facets in an attempt to produce more light reflection from inside. This could be proof that certain cutters might have been aware of the prismatic effect of the cut diamond.
In diamond literature we often come across illustrations of a split-facet Brilliant, sometimes entitled the Lisbon Cut. The term has perhaps come from a Portuguese publication which has used it, like the term Brazilian Cut, to describe those fancy cuts so often applied when the cutter was aiming at retaining the greatest possible weight. Other terms are used as well: Max Bauer described it as ‘a Brilliant Cut with elongated facets’. Sperison (1961), and Hertz (1839) simply said ‘with a great number of facets’. Dr Kunz (1890) gave no description at all of this type of cut, not even with reference to the golden yellow Tiffany diamond.
As far as I can ascertain, no author seems to have realized that splitting facets lengthwise necessarily involves stepping. A facet edge can obviously not be applied to a flat surface, and the two sections of a bisected facet must always meet at an angle, no matter how blunt that angle may be. Watermeyer interprets this as ‘probably an attempt to flatten the very steep angles of these facets in an attempt to produce more light reflection from inside. This could be proof that certain cutters might have been aware of the prismatic effect of the cut diamond.
The Modern Dutch School
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
4
Three of the most famous and most interesting of the modern Dutch painters were members of one family, all born at The Hague and the sons of a struggling printer. This printer, Maris by name, was of foreign extraction, being the son of a Bohemian soldier of fortune who left his native city of Prague, married a Dutch wife, and settled in the political capital of Holland. The printer also had some experience of fighting, for in 1830 he was called up as a conscript to fight on the side of Netherlands in the war which resulted in the independence of Belgium. After this war the printer returned to a life of unbroken toil, married, and had three sons. Of these the eldest was Jacob (or James) Maris, born in 1837, next came Matthys (or Matthew), born in 1839, while the youngest, Willem, was born in 1844. In speaking of these brothers we shall here use the English equivalents of their names by which they are usually known in Great Britain and the United States.
All three sons showed at an early age remarkable talents for drawing, and notwithstanding his poverty their father appears to have realized the wisdom of allowing each to follow his artistic bent. In their early years James and Matthew were closely associated. In 1855 the talent of the latter came to the notice of Queen Sophie of Holland, who made him an allowance, and the thrifty father considering that this allowance was enough for two, both James and Matthew were able to spend a year studying and painting at the Antwerp Academy. At Antwerp the two brothers lived in the same house as Alma-Tadema, and through him they got to know his relative Mesdag, the banker-painter, Josef Israels, and other Dutch artists. But in these early days neither brother was much affected by the art of immediate contemporaries. They labored strenuously to master the technicalities of their art, and James was guided in his first efforts by a master named Van Hove. This artist, though of mediocre ability, was a very conscientious draughtsman, and under his influence James Maris produced pictures remarkable for the minuteness of the details. One of his early pictures, ‘Interior of a Dutch House,’ painted when the artist was twenty-three, is in the Mesdag Museum, and is quite in the style of Pieter de Hoogh. In the middle distance, on the left, is a sunny nook; in the foreground is the figure of a servant-girl standing in the entrance hall, holding in her right hand a basket and in her left a pewter can. All these details are painted with scrupulous exactness, and the same characteristics may be found in other domestic scenes and interiors which he painted in these early years.
The Modern Dutch School (continued)
4
Three of the most famous and most interesting of the modern Dutch painters were members of one family, all born at The Hague and the sons of a struggling printer. This printer, Maris by name, was of foreign extraction, being the son of a Bohemian soldier of fortune who left his native city of Prague, married a Dutch wife, and settled in the political capital of Holland. The printer also had some experience of fighting, for in 1830 he was called up as a conscript to fight on the side of Netherlands in the war which resulted in the independence of Belgium. After this war the printer returned to a life of unbroken toil, married, and had three sons. Of these the eldest was Jacob (or James) Maris, born in 1837, next came Matthys (or Matthew), born in 1839, while the youngest, Willem, was born in 1844. In speaking of these brothers we shall here use the English equivalents of their names by which they are usually known in Great Britain and the United States.
All three sons showed at an early age remarkable talents for drawing, and notwithstanding his poverty their father appears to have realized the wisdom of allowing each to follow his artistic bent. In their early years James and Matthew were closely associated. In 1855 the talent of the latter came to the notice of Queen Sophie of Holland, who made him an allowance, and the thrifty father considering that this allowance was enough for two, both James and Matthew were able to spend a year studying and painting at the Antwerp Academy. At Antwerp the two brothers lived in the same house as Alma-Tadema, and through him they got to know his relative Mesdag, the banker-painter, Josef Israels, and other Dutch artists. But in these early days neither brother was much affected by the art of immediate contemporaries. They labored strenuously to master the technicalities of their art, and James was guided in his first efforts by a master named Van Hove. This artist, though of mediocre ability, was a very conscientious draughtsman, and under his influence James Maris produced pictures remarkable for the minuteness of the details. One of his early pictures, ‘Interior of a Dutch House,’ painted when the artist was twenty-three, is in the Mesdag Museum, and is quite in the style of Pieter de Hoogh. In the middle distance, on the left, is a sunny nook; in the foreground is the figure of a servant-girl standing in the entrance hall, holding in her right hand a basket and in her left a pewter can. All these details are painted with scrupulous exactness, and the same characteristics may be found in other domestic scenes and interiors which he painted in these early years.
The Modern Dutch School (continued)
Gold Bullion Story
I found the article How to Buy Gold Bullion at a 41% Discount by Tom Dyson @ http://www.dailywealth.com interesting because if everyone's rushing to sell their jewelry for cash + the pawnshops have the resources to stay put, then investing in a pawnshop may not be a bad idea + I guess, the pawnshops in Asia must be making tons of money.
Useful links:
www.cashamerica.com
www.ezcorp.com
Useful links:
www.cashamerica.com
www.ezcorp.com
Natural Fashion
Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa by Hans Silvester is an interesting book about the young and beautiful inhabitants of Ethiopia's Omo valley + the stunning images reminded me of the attributes of gemstones: beauty + rarity + durability + portability + fashion, I mean the concept. As always beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
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