(via Economist) Q-Cells, based in Wolfen, just north of Leipzig, Germany, is the world's largest manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) cells used in solar panels + according to the environment ministry's latest report on the state of the industry, renewables now account for 6.7% of energy consumption, up from 5.5% in 2006 and 3.5% in 2003 + I think renewable-energy equipment (s) will become a big part of Germany's manufacturing industry, alongside cars and machine tools + the renewable-energy law, now known as the EEG, adopted in 1991, which encourages investment by cross-subsidising renewable electricity fed into the grid may speed up the rapid expansion of new clean technology in Germany + with 160 or more institutions doing research on solar technology, Germany may become the clean-tech industry giant of the world.
Useful links:
www.qcells.de
www.bmu.de
www.worldfuturecouncil.org
www.iset.uni-kassel.de
www.ersol.de
Sunday, April 06, 2008
How To Steal A Million
(via Wikipedia) How to Steal a Million (1966) is an art-heist movie, directed by William Wyler, starring Peter O'Toole as a suave art investigator and Audrey Hepburn as Nicole Bonnet, the daughter of genius art fraud Charles Bonnet (Hugh Griffith). The central theme of the movie is the recovery from a Parisian museum of a forged Cellini committed by Bonnet's grandfather, before its discovery and exposure as such, and is enlivened by the romantic angle between the characters played by O'Toole and Hepburn.
Useful link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060522
It's an elegant movie and I liked it.
Useful link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060522
It's an elegant movie and I liked it.
Beads, Briolettes And Rondelles
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Beads, Briolettes and Rondellas have two features in common: a body covered all over with tiny facets, and the absence of a girdle by which gems are normally held in their settings (a few Girdled Briolletes do exist, but these are exceptions). The facets are usually triangular or squarish or, less frequently, long and narrow. Since they have no girdle, these diamonds are either drilled through from side to side or, in th case of Briolettes, downwards through the point. They are then threaded on wire or on a ring to hang on a chain. The type of piercing is dictated by the shape of the diamond and determines the use to which the stone will be put in a piece of jewelry.
The fashioning of diamond Beads, Briolettes and Rondellas was obviously inspired by the endless variety of such forms already in use thousands of years before Christ: ‘Perhaps the most convenient and welcome of all substitutes for currency was beads. Beads are the Adam and Eve of jewelry family and their countless progeny have spread over all the inhabited lands of the earth from the darkest jungles of Africa to the icebound countries of the far north. Beads were cherished in the magnificent courts of the Pharaohs, and they flourish today in the ‘five-and-tens’ of the New World. The jeweler of ancient times seems to have delighted in seeing how many different kinds of beads he could make. There were minute carved beads, balls of amethyst, and melon-shaped beads of limpid rock crystal, pale red carnelian beads shaped like an hour glass, and cynlindrical beads of green felspar....’
Beads, Briolettes and Rondellas have two features in common: a body covered all over with tiny facets, and the absence of a girdle by which gems are normally held in their settings (a few Girdled Briolletes do exist, but these are exceptions). The facets are usually triangular or squarish or, less frequently, long and narrow. Since they have no girdle, these diamonds are either drilled through from side to side or, in th case of Briolettes, downwards through the point. They are then threaded on wire or on a ring to hang on a chain. The type of piercing is dictated by the shape of the diamond and determines the use to which the stone will be put in a piece of jewelry.
The fashioning of diamond Beads, Briolettes and Rondellas was obviously inspired by the endless variety of such forms already in use thousands of years before Christ: ‘Perhaps the most convenient and welcome of all substitutes for currency was beads. Beads are the Adam and Eve of jewelry family and their countless progeny have spread over all the inhabited lands of the earth from the darkest jungles of Africa to the icebound countries of the far north. Beads were cherished in the magnificent courts of the Pharaohs, and they flourish today in the ‘five-and-tens’ of the New World. The jeweler of ancient times seems to have delighted in seeing how many different kinds of beads he could make. There were minute carved beads, balls of amethyst, and melon-shaped beads of limpid rock crystal, pale red carnelian beads shaped like an hour glass, and cynlindrical beads of green felspar....’
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
These poetic paintings of night represent the extreme point of originality to which Whistler went. Particularities of scene and landscape exist in these nocturnes only as accessories; the real subject is the limpidity of the atmosphere, water illumined by the pale rays of the moon, mysterious shadows, the great silhouettes of dark nights, the darkness intensified sometimes by a splash of fireworks against the sky. Today, though Cremorne is no more, we can recognize the truth as well as the beauty in ‘Cremorne Lights’, for Whistler has now taught us to use our own experience in looking at these pictures of moonlight and lights reflected in the water. But at the time of their first appearance these nocturnes were incomprehensible to most people, who looked in them for topographical details which the veil of night would naturally conceal. In an eloquent and moving passage in his lecture, known as the ‘Ten o’Clock,’ Whistler afterwards explained what he saw and painted by the Thames at eventide:
When the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairyland is before us—then the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to understand as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone, her son and her master, her son in that he loves her, her master in that he knows her.
But in 1877 Whistler’s views on the poetry of night were unknown, and the magic of his brush could not immediately convert the public to appreciation of pictures the like of which had never before been seen in Europe. Something approaching them had been seen in Japan, as we may see by comparing Hokusai’s bridge pictures with those of Whistler, but Hokusai and Hiroshige were not known then as they are today. Whistler’s nocturnes were regarded by the majority as a smear of uniform color in which no distinct forms could be considered. The painter was looked upon as a charlatan and buffoon, and among those who attacked him, sad to relate, was the stout defender of Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites. John Ruskin, no wiser in this respect than the others, permitted himself to write the following in Fors Clavigera on July 2, 1877:
For Mr Whistler’s own sake, no less than for the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay ought not to have admitted works into the gallery in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the aspect of wilful imposture. I have seen, and heard, much of cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in thte public’s face.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
These poetic paintings of night represent the extreme point of originality to which Whistler went. Particularities of scene and landscape exist in these nocturnes only as accessories; the real subject is the limpidity of the atmosphere, water illumined by the pale rays of the moon, mysterious shadows, the great silhouettes of dark nights, the darkness intensified sometimes by a splash of fireworks against the sky. Today, though Cremorne is no more, we can recognize the truth as well as the beauty in ‘Cremorne Lights’, for Whistler has now taught us to use our own experience in looking at these pictures of moonlight and lights reflected in the water. But at the time of their first appearance these nocturnes were incomprehensible to most people, who looked in them for topographical details which the veil of night would naturally conceal. In an eloquent and moving passage in his lecture, known as the ‘Ten o’Clock,’ Whistler afterwards explained what he saw and painted by the Thames at eventide:
When the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairyland is before us—then the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to understand as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone, her son and her master, her son in that he loves her, her master in that he knows her.
But in 1877 Whistler’s views on the poetry of night were unknown, and the magic of his brush could not immediately convert the public to appreciation of pictures the like of which had never before been seen in Europe. Something approaching them had been seen in Japan, as we may see by comparing Hokusai’s bridge pictures with those of Whistler, but Hokusai and Hiroshige were not known then as they are today. Whistler’s nocturnes were regarded by the majority as a smear of uniform color in which no distinct forms could be considered. The painter was looked upon as a charlatan and buffoon, and among those who attacked him, sad to relate, was the stout defender of Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites. John Ruskin, no wiser in this respect than the others, permitted himself to write the following in Fors Clavigera on July 2, 1877:
For Mr Whistler’s own sake, no less than for the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay ought not to have admitted works into the gallery in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the aspect of wilful imposture. I have seen, and heard, much of cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in thte public’s face.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Heard On The Street
The best way to learn about market (s) is to be in a financial crisis like today's + the simplest answer to why market (s) went up yesterday is... they went up......and went down today is......they went down + markets are efficient, but not all the time, and we are living in such a time.
Interesting Facts
I found the information via Earthtrends very interesting:
- The most densely populated country in the world: Singapore, with 6,699 people per square kilometer (the global average is 51!).
- Country with lowest life expectancy: In Swaziland, the average person lives only 31.2 years.
- Country producing the most coal: China produces over one billion toe (tonnes of oil equivalent) of coal each year, nearly twice that of the second largest producer, the United States.
Useful link:
www.wri.org
- The most densely populated country in the world: Singapore, with 6,699 people per square kilometer (the global average is 51!).
- Country with lowest life expectancy: In Swaziland, the average person lives only 31.2 years.
- Country producing the most coal: China produces over one billion toe (tonnes of oil equivalent) of coal each year, nearly twice that of the second largest producer, the United States.
Useful link:
www.wri.org
Kevin Roberts
Kevin Roberts works with one of the best and famous advertising agency in the world, Saatchi & Saatchi + he is highly-regarded for his deep insight and creative mind + I have always liked his attraction-concept about people and marketing in business + connecting consumers through emotion--I think they are brilliant.
Useful links:
www.saatchikevin.com
www.saatchi.com
www.krconnect.blogspot.com
www.sisomo.com
www.lovemarks.com
Useful links:
www.saatchikevin.com
www.saatchi.com
www.krconnect.blogspot.com
www.sisomo.com
www.lovemarks.com
Middle Of The Market
I found the article @ http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5898.html interesting because there is a lot of useful info + lessons for the gem and jewelry industry.
Useful link:
Marketing Know: How
Useful link:
Marketing Know: How
Loans For Art Buyers
(via BBC) I was intrigued by the French government's measures to boost its flagging art market by providing interest-free loans to modest buyers to purchase works + according to the French Culture Minister Christine Albanel, the idea was to bring private individuals closer to this act of buying a work of art adding that the loan was the price, for example, of a flat-screen television.
Brilliant idea!
Useful links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7328012.stm
www.artprice.com
Brilliant idea!
Useful links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7328012.stm
www.artprice.com
Ileana Sonnabend Collections
Carol Vogel writes about the largest private sale of art collections belonging to Ileana Sonnabend, known to the art world as the world's most powerful dealer (s) in the 1960s and '70s + other viewpoints @ http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/04/arts/04vogel.php
Useful links:
www.gagosian.com
www.acquavellagalleries.com
www.lmgallery.com
www.gpspartners.com
Useful links:
www.gagosian.com
www.acquavellagalleries.com
www.lmgallery.com
www.gpspartners.com
Modern Spread Cuts
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The old Spread Cut Brilliants were the successors of the early Mirror Cuts and, like these, were inspired by the demands of fashion. If good proportions were possible, then of course the diamond would not be spread. But otherwise, depending on the irregularity of the rough, the final result might by anything from an overspread Brilliant to a mere trinket. Today most Brilliant Cut diamonds are Spread Cut, emphasizing brilliance at the expense of fire. Since they are produced commercially, the saving of weight is of major importance, even though this means that the light effects are considerably reduced, and despite the fact that a well-proportioned stone can be worth far more than a Spread Cut one, not to mention Fish-Eye.
Basil Watermeyer gives a splendid example of a Spread Cut. He states that such a diamond ‘will produce an equal flow of reflected light through table and crown facets.’ This total balance of light reflection can fool the eye into believing that the stone has life. When these proportions are used it is stressed that the stone is very sensitive to any change in the base angle of 41°. A 40¾° base angle will immediately produce a Fish-Eye and a 41¼° angle will produce a dull ‘inner circle.’
Another equally Spread Brilliant Cut was proposed by Parker in 1951. These figures conform with a crown angle of 25.5° and a pavilion angle of 40.9°. Oldendorff believed that Paker Cut might be quite attractive but ‘somewhat lax.’
Parker’s Spread Cut
Table size: 66.1%
Crown height: 8.1% - Angles: 25.5°
Pavilion depth: 43.35% - 40.9°
Watermeyer’s Spread Cut
Table size: 66.66%
Crown height: 11.5% - Angles: 33 - 34°
Pavilion depth: 43.5% - 41°
The old Spread Cut Brilliants were the successors of the early Mirror Cuts and, like these, were inspired by the demands of fashion. If good proportions were possible, then of course the diamond would not be spread. But otherwise, depending on the irregularity of the rough, the final result might by anything from an overspread Brilliant to a mere trinket. Today most Brilliant Cut diamonds are Spread Cut, emphasizing brilliance at the expense of fire. Since they are produced commercially, the saving of weight is of major importance, even though this means that the light effects are considerably reduced, and despite the fact that a well-proportioned stone can be worth far more than a Spread Cut one, not to mention Fish-Eye.
Basil Watermeyer gives a splendid example of a Spread Cut. He states that such a diamond ‘will produce an equal flow of reflected light through table and crown facets.’ This total balance of light reflection can fool the eye into believing that the stone has life. When these proportions are used it is stressed that the stone is very sensitive to any change in the base angle of 41°. A 40¾° base angle will immediately produce a Fish-Eye and a 41¼° angle will produce a dull ‘inner circle.’
Another equally Spread Brilliant Cut was proposed by Parker in 1951. These figures conform with a crown angle of 25.5° and a pavilion angle of 40.9°. Oldendorff believed that Paker Cut might be quite attractive but ‘somewhat lax.’
Parker’s Spread Cut
Table size: 66.1%
Crown height: 8.1% - Angles: 25.5°
Pavilion depth: 43.35% - 40.9°
Watermeyer’s Spread Cut
Table size: 66.66%
Crown height: 11.5% - Angles: 33 - 34°
Pavilion depth: 43.5% - 41°
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Whistler also painted a ‘Symphony in White No.III’; in this two girls, one in cream, one in white, recline on a white sofa, while a fan on the floor and the flowers of an azalea in a corner repeat the dominant whites. The motive of the artist in choosing these color schemes and calling the pictures ‘symphonies’ was at this time beyond the comprehension of even professional art critics, and one of them wrote of this picture in the Saturday Review:
In the ‘Symphony in White No.III’ by Mr Whistler there are many dainty varieties of tint, but it is not precisely a symphony in white. One lady has a yellowish dress and brown hair and a bit of blue ribbon, the other has a red fan, and there are flowers and green leaves. There is a girl in white on white sofa, but even this girl has reddish hair; and of course there is the flesh color of the complexions.
To this Whistler promply retorted:
Bon Dieu! Did this wise person expect white hair and chalked faces? And does he then, in his astounding consequence, believe that a symphony in F contains no other note, but shall be a continued repetition of F,F,F?....Fool!
This was one of the earliest of Whistler’s critical encounters, taking place when the picture was exhibited at the Academy in 1867, and the critics were soon to learn that here was a painter who could hit back with interest.
As the successive exhibition of Whistler’s pictures enabled the tendencies and peculiarities of his work to be more clearly seen, the public, the critics, and the Royal Academy itself became more and more hostile to him, and finally took up an attitude of undisguised ill-will. In 1872 his painting of his mother, now universally recognized to be one of the great portraits of the century, was narrowly rejected by the Academy, and its final acceptance was only due to the staunch championship of the veteran Sir William Boxall, R.A., who threatened to resign from the Council if the pictures were not hung. Doubtless Whistler’s habit of giving his works titles borrowed from musical terms prejudiced the public agianst them. An extremist far more in his titles than in his actual manner of painting, Whistler went so far as to call his picture of mother, ‘Arrangement in Grey and Black.’ He defended this title by saying:
That is what it is. To me it is interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the portrait?
In his desire to emphasize the importance of decorative design adn color in painting, Whistler became a little inhuman. As one of his younger critics pertinently observed, we can find an ‘arrangement of grey and black’ in a coal-scuttle; we find far more in Whistler’s ‘Mother’, we find reverence for age, character, tenderness, and affection. It has become one of the great pictures of the world, not only because it is a pleasing pattern of colors, but because it is a true work of deep emotion tenderly expressed.
No longer welcome at the Royal Academy, Whistler was fortunate in soon securing a new exhibition center. Sir Coutts Lindsay, a rich banker and amateur painter who patronized the arts, had the Grosvenor Gallery built in Bond Street, and at the first exhibition opened there in May 1877 Whistler was represented by seven pictures. These included the portrait of Carlyle, now at Glasgow, a painting similar in style to the artist’s ‘Mother’, described as ‘An Arrangement in Brown,’ a full-length of Irving as Philip II of Spain, described as ‘Arrangement in Black No.III,’ and four nocturnes, two in blue and silver, one in blue and gold, and one in black and gold. Whistler had not confined his studies of the Thames in mid-London to his etched work; he had used these subjects for paintings in the sixties, among them being ‘Old Battersea Bridge’ and ‘Chelsea in Ice,’ but in this new series of evening effects by the riverside he shocked the conventions of the day more than he had yet done by his ‘symphonies.’
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Whistler also painted a ‘Symphony in White No.III’; in this two girls, one in cream, one in white, recline on a white sofa, while a fan on the floor and the flowers of an azalea in a corner repeat the dominant whites. The motive of the artist in choosing these color schemes and calling the pictures ‘symphonies’ was at this time beyond the comprehension of even professional art critics, and one of them wrote of this picture in the Saturday Review:
In the ‘Symphony in White No.III’ by Mr Whistler there are many dainty varieties of tint, but it is not precisely a symphony in white. One lady has a yellowish dress and brown hair and a bit of blue ribbon, the other has a red fan, and there are flowers and green leaves. There is a girl in white on white sofa, but even this girl has reddish hair; and of course there is the flesh color of the complexions.
To this Whistler promply retorted:
Bon Dieu! Did this wise person expect white hair and chalked faces? And does he then, in his astounding consequence, believe that a symphony in F contains no other note, but shall be a continued repetition of F,F,F?....Fool!
This was one of the earliest of Whistler’s critical encounters, taking place when the picture was exhibited at the Academy in 1867, and the critics were soon to learn that here was a painter who could hit back with interest.
As the successive exhibition of Whistler’s pictures enabled the tendencies and peculiarities of his work to be more clearly seen, the public, the critics, and the Royal Academy itself became more and more hostile to him, and finally took up an attitude of undisguised ill-will. In 1872 his painting of his mother, now universally recognized to be one of the great portraits of the century, was narrowly rejected by the Academy, and its final acceptance was only due to the staunch championship of the veteran Sir William Boxall, R.A., who threatened to resign from the Council if the pictures were not hung. Doubtless Whistler’s habit of giving his works titles borrowed from musical terms prejudiced the public agianst them. An extremist far more in his titles than in his actual manner of painting, Whistler went so far as to call his picture of mother, ‘Arrangement in Grey and Black.’ He defended this title by saying:
That is what it is. To me it is interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the portrait?
In his desire to emphasize the importance of decorative design adn color in painting, Whistler became a little inhuman. As one of his younger critics pertinently observed, we can find an ‘arrangement of grey and black’ in a coal-scuttle; we find far more in Whistler’s ‘Mother’, we find reverence for age, character, tenderness, and affection. It has become one of the great pictures of the world, not only because it is a pleasing pattern of colors, but because it is a true work of deep emotion tenderly expressed.
No longer welcome at the Royal Academy, Whistler was fortunate in soon securing a new exhibition center. Sir Coutts Lindsay, a rich banker and amateur painter who patronized the arts, had the Grosvenor Gallery built in Bond Street, and at the first exhibition opened there in May 1877 Whistler was represented by seven pictures. These included the portrait of Carlyle, now at Glasgow, a painting similar in style to the artist’s ‘Mother’, described as ‘An Arrangement in Brown,’ a full-length of Irving as Philip II of Spain, described as ‘Arrangement in Black No.III,’ and four nocturnes, two in blue and silver, one in blue and gold, and one in black and gold. Whistler had not confined his studies of the Thames in mid-London to his etched work; he had used these subjects for paintings in the sixties, among them being ‘Old Battersea Bridge’ and ‘Chelsea in Ice,’ but in this new series of evening effects by the riverside he shocked the conventions of the day more than he had yet done by his ‘symphonies.’
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Friday, April 04, 2008
Made In France Label For Fine Jewelry
I think it was a brilliant move by the French jewelry sector to initiate Joaillerie de France certification (a government-supported label and hallmark) because this guarantees quality and recognition + consumer confidence.
Other countries should follow the French to promote and guarantee high standards in fine jewelry.
Useful link:
www.joailleriedefrance.net
Other countries should follow the French to promote and guarantee high standards in fine jewelry.
Useful link:
www.joailleriedefrance.net
Takashi Murakami
Takashi Murakami is well-known for pairing fine art with cartoons + his artistic style, called Superflat, is characterized by flat planes of color and graphic images involving a character style derived from anime and manga + he is also known as the Andy Warhol of Japan.
Useful links:
www.takashimurakami.com
http://english.kaikaikiki.co.jp
Useful links:
www.takashimurakami.com
http://english.kaikaikiki.co.jp
NBD Pearl Museum
If you are interested in learning more about the colorful history of pearl divers and merchants of Arabia, visit NBD Pearl Museum, Dubai + it's an educational experience.
Useful link:
www.nbd.com
Useful link:
www.nbd.com
Basel Show
BaselWorld, the world's largest watch and jewelry trade show will be held in Switzerland from April 3 - 10, 2008 + I think there will be new watch products + innovative old and new jewelry brands to accommodate different tastes.
Useful links:
www.messe.ch
www.baselworld.com
Useful links:
www.messe.ch
www.baselworld.com
Music Update
For music lovers, web is becoming a mecca, with lots of innovative services. Listen. Enjoy.
Useful links:
www.freemusiczilla.com
http://soundpedia.com
http://songza.com
www.last.fm
Useful links:
www.freemusiczilla.com
http://soundpedia.com
http://songza.com
www.last.fm
Fighting For Their Rights
Konstantin Akinsha and Grigorij Kozlov writes about the masterpieces of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov, now on view at London’s Royal Academy + the heirs’ efforts for compensation from the Russian state + the legal and political issues + other viewpoints @ http://www.artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2474
Lumpy Diamonds
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The term ‘lumpy’ describes diamonds which are too high or too thick compared to the proportions standard in any particular period. Up to the beginning of this century the two sets of main facets were supposed to meet at right angles at the girdle—that is, with both crown and pavilion angles of 45°. The crown height had to be half the pavilion depth, and the culet just large enough to act as reflector of the incident light. These proportions, developed in te sixteenth century, varying slightly according to the shape dictated by the rough, resulted in spectacular light effects, and diamonds with these classic proportions remained much in demand for nearly three centuries.
However, only one gem could be extracted from each crystal, and fashioning involved the long and arduous process of hand bruting, so it was not surprising that many cutters decided to save labor and leave the stones lumpy. They sacrificed a great deal of brilliance but saved weight, and were able to find a perfectly satisfactory market for these diamonds, at a slightly lower rate per carat, among a clientele lacking any appreciation of true quality.
Mawe’s ‘blunder’ was a further factor responsible for the belief that the overall height of a diamond should be equal to its width. As late as the 1930s I came across people with this conviction. At that time large quantities of old-fashioned lumpy diamonds were still on the second-hand market. These have all been recut by now but, alas, so have most of the beautiful 45° cuts.
The introduction of modern mechanical sawing has resulted in the possibility of substantial weight retention since it enables two gems to be cut from one crystal and eliminates the temptation, through sheer lack of judgement, to produce lumpy gems. This innovation, and the introduction of electricity to supercede candlelight, have brought new desired proportions to the Brilliant Cut. The overall height has been reduced from the classic optimum of 70 per cent to the new height of only 60 per cent.
The term ‘lumpy’ describes diamonds which are too high or too thick compared to the proportions standard in any particular period. Up to the beginning of this century the two sets of main facets were supposed to meet at right angles at the girdle—that is, with both crown and pavilion angles of 45°. The crown height had to be half the pavilion depth, and the culet just large enough to act as reflector of the incident light. These proportions, developed in te sixteenth century, varying slightly according to the shape dictated by the rough, resulted in spectacular light effects, and diamonds with these classic proportions remained much in demand for nearly three centuries.
However, only one gem could be extracted from each crystal, and fashioning involved the long and arduous process of hand bruting, so it was not surprising that many cutters decided to save labor and leave the stones lumpy. They sacrificed a great deal of brilliance but saved weight, and were able to find a perfectly satisfactory market for these diamonds, at a slightly lower rate per carat, among a clientele lacking any appreciation of true quality.
Mawe’s ‘blunder’ was a further factor responsible for the belief that the overall height of a diamond should be equal to its width. As late as the 1930s I came across people with this conviction. At that time large quantities of old-fashioned lumpy diamonds were still on the second-hand market. These have all been recut by now but, alas, so have most of the beautiful 45° cuts.
The introduction of modern mechanical sawing has resulted in the possibility of substantial weight retention since it enables two gems to be cut from one crystal and eliminates the temptation, through sheer lack of judgement, to produce lumpy gems. This innovation, and the introduction of electricity to supercede candlelight, have brought new desired proportions to the Brilliant Cut. The overall height has been reduced from the classic optimum of 70 per cent to the new height of only 60 per cent.
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Whistler settled down in Chelsea, and became friendly with his neighbor Rossetti, who shared his taste for blue-and-white Chinese porcelain and for Japanese color-prints, and during his first years in London the artistic influence of the Far East became more pronounced in Whistler’s art. He surrounded himself with Oriental objects adn introduced them constantly into his pictures. In 1864 he painted ‘The Gold Screen’, against which sat a young woman in Japanese costume, surrounded by other variously colored objects from the Far East. About the same time he painted ‘La Princesse du Pays de la Porcelaine’, in which brilliant colors are again afforded by a Japanese dress. The original of this portrait was Miss Christina Spartali, daughter of the Greek Consul-General in London. Her sister Marie Spartali, afterwards Mrs Stillman, had been a pupil of Rossetti and sat to him for ‘Fiametta’ and other paintings. Owing to the family likeness common to the two sisters, it has been said that at this time Whistler was subject to Rossetti’s influence, but the resemblance between their works is a superficial one due only to the likeness of their respective models. There is no evidence that Whistler borrowed any of Rossetti’s methods, and the chief influences during the years in which Whistler formed his style of painting were Courbet and Manet, Velazquez and the masters of Japan. In etching he was principally influenced by Rembrandt and Méryon.
‘The Princess of the Porcelain Country,’ accepted by the Salon in 1865, was the first work by Whistler to be shown in any official exhibition in Paris. Other pictures of this Japanese period were ‘The Lange Leizen,’ in the Academy of 1864, ‘The Balcony,’ in the Academy of 1870, and most beautiful of all, ‘The Little White Girl’, also known as ‘Symphony in White No.II,’ shown at the Academy in the same year. The Japanese fan in the girl’s hand is the only direct confession of Oriental influence in this picture, which otherwise unites the Spanish gravity and realism of ‘At the Piano’ with the gay-colored decorativeness of a Hokusai or Hiroshige. After having seen this picture in Whistler’s studio, Swinburne wrote the poem afterwards included in Poems and Ballads:
Before The Mirror
Come snow, come wind or thunder,
High up in air,
I watch my face and wonder
At my bright hair,
Nought else exists or grieves
The rose at heart, that heaves
With love of her own leaves, and lips that pair.
I cannot tell what pleasures
Or what pains were,
What pale new loves and treasures
New years will bear;
What beam will fall, what shower
With grief or joy for dower,
But one thing knows the flower, the flower is fair.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Whistler settled down in Chelsea, and became friendly with his neighbor Rossetti, who shared his taste for blue-and-white Chinese porcelain and for Japanese color-prints, and during his first years in London the artistic influence of the Far East became more pronounced in Whistler’s art. He surrounded himself with Oriental objects adn introduced them constantly into his pictures. In 1864 he painted ‘The Gold Screen’, against which sat a young woman in Japanese costume, surrounded by other variously colored objects from the Far East. About the same time he painted ‘La Princesse du Pays de la Porcelaine’, in which brilliant colors are again afforded by a Japanese dress. The original of this portrait was Miss Christina Spartali, daughter of the Greek Consul-General in London. Her sister Marie Spartali, afterwards Mrs Stillman, had been a pupil of Rossetti and sat to him for ‘Fiametta’ and other paintings. Owing to the family likeness common to the two sisters, it has been said that at this time Whistler was subject to Rossetti’s influence, but the resemblance between their works is a superficial one due only to the likeness of their respective models. There is no evidence that Whistler borrowed any of Rossetti’s methods, and the chief influences during the years in which Whistler formed his style of painting were Courbet and Manet, Velazquez and the masters of Japan. In etching he was principally influenced by Rembrandt and Méryon.
‘The Princess of the Porcelain Country,’ accepted by the Salon in 1865, was the first work by Whistler to be shown in any official exhibition in Paris. Other pictures of this Japanese period were ‘The Lange Leizen,’ in the Academy of 1864, ‘The Balcony,’ in the Academy of 1870, and most beautiful of all, ‘The Little White Girl’, also known as ‘Symphony in White No.II,’ shown at the Academy in the same year. The Japanese fan in the girl’s hand is the only direct confession of Oriental influence in this picture, which otherwise unites the Spanish gravity and realism of ‘At the Piano’ with the gay-colored decorativeness of a Hokusai or Hiroshige. After having seen this picture in Whistler’s studio, Swinburne wrote the poem afterwards included in Poems and Ballads:
Before The Mirror
Come snow, come wind or thunder,
High up in air,
I watch my face and wonder
At my bright hair,
Nought else exists or grieves
The rose at heart, that heaves
With love of her own leaves, and lips that pair.
I cannot tell what pleasures
Or what pains were,
What pale new loves and treasures
New years will bear;
What beam will fall, what shower
With grief or joy for dower,
But one thing knows the flower, the flower is fair.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
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