It has been reported that Bonham's, the London-based fine art auctioneers and valuers, will auction a personal dagger (khanjar) of Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, from the Jacques Desenfans collection + the elegant and understated personal dagger, with its fine gold inscriptions and decoration, dated to1629-30, is expected to attract bids of around £300,000 – 500,000.
Expect the unexpected + the auction will be full of surprises.
Useful link:
www.bonhams.com
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Authentic Paraiba Tourmaline
I was a bit surprised with David Sherman's (CEO, Paraiba.com) move to sue the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) and others—including the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Brazil Imports Inc., and several individuals, including AGTA board members—for US$120 million in the name of authenticity, i.e., there is only one stone that can be legitimately called Paraíba and it is exclusively mined in the province of Brazil that it is named for + I was wondering what would happen to Padparadscha sapphires, John Saul rubies, Mogok rubies/ spinels, Mong Hsu rubies/spinel, Kashmir sapphires, Muzo/Chivor emeralds etc., + I don't know if it's a publicity stunt, but I am sure it will get messy in the coming days + as they say we are living in interesting times.
Algae Farm
(via Wired) I was intrigued by the energy company PetroSun Biofuels 's commercial algae-to-biofuels farm concept because via high-tech applications if the company could extract algal oil on-site at the farms and transport it to company refineries via barge, rail or truck for future enviromental jet biofuel production efficiently, it's exciting + I think with appropriate technology and bit of luck, the company may have hit a jackpot with algae.
Useful link:
www.petrosuninc.com
Useful link:
www.petrosuninc.com
Random Thoughts
'The Devil Is In The Details.'
According to Steve Leslie, if one wants to get a healthy dose of attention to detail, watch a pit crew at a Formula One race. It is true poetry in motion. They can fuel a car and change tires in less than eight seconds.
Useful link:
www.formula1.com
According to Steve Leslie, if one wants to get a healthy dose of attention to detail, watch a pit crew at a Formula One race. It is true poetry in motion. They can fuel a car and change tires in less than eight seconds.
Useful link:
www.formula1.com
Briolettes
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The Crown Jewels of Iran in the Bank Markazy of Iran are exceptionally rich in Briolettes. The pièce de résistance is an exquisite platinum-and-diamond necklace made for Her Imperial Majesty in 1938. Most of the diamonds are modern but the nine large Briolettes suspended from it are old. They have an estimated total weight of 200 ct (10 – 45 ct each). ‘The platinum work and the baguette diamonds are modern, but the briolette diamonds...showed wear. After we closely examined the necklace we realized that the briolettes were quite old and that they had probably acquired the wear-marks by being transported in camel bags with inadequate packing.’
Lawrence S Krashes gives us new, more detailed information about an exceptional diamond in his book on Harry Winston. He discloses that the stone was fashioned in France, from South African rough, in 1908-9, and he provides a number of further details, though unfortunately not the dimensions. The fashioning apparently follows the traditional lines of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but the gem is so vast (90.35 ct) that the number of facets runs into hundreds.
It is well known that most of the eighteen diamonds in the collection bequeathed to the French Crown by Cardinal Mazarin were Table Cuts, subsequently recut into Brilliants. But in addition to the Great Sancy and the two flat-bottomed Sancy cuts, two other stones listed in the Crown inventory of 1691 were cut as Briolettes. Numbers 5 and 6 are described as being faceted both sides, of almond shape and pierced downwards through the point so that they could serve as ear pendants, evidence that in the seventeenth century diamonds were drilled if the cutters intended them to be used as hanging gems. These two diamonds were actually set in a pair of earrings of a very ornamental type known as girandoles. They each take an eyewire pin of 2-3 mm in length.
It seems certain that in 1722 Mazarin numbers 5 and 6 were set into Louis XV’s crown, which contained in all eight large diamonds similar to the Sancy, each weighing between 16 and 22 ct. If one compares the outlines and faceting of these two Mazarin diamonds as portrayed by Cletscher in his album with the replicas now in the crown of Louis XV, one finds so close a similarity that one is forced to believe that these were originally the same stones, given that his reproduction was made from memory. It is almost certain that the smaller of these two Mazarin diamonds, number 6, was sold in 1796, while Number 5 survived both the robbery of 1792 and the sale and was finally sold by auction to Tiffany’s in 1887, when most of the French Crown Jewels were disposed of.
The Crown Jewels of Iran in the Bank Markazy of Iran are exceptionally rich in Briolettes. The pièce de résistance is an exquisite platinum-and-diamond necklace made for Her Imperial Majesty in 1938. Most of the diamonds are modern but the nine large Briolettes suspended from it are old. They have an estimated total weight of 200 ct (10 – 45 ct each). ‘The platinum work and the baguette diamonds are modern, but the briolette diamonds...showed wear. After we closely examined the necklace we realized that the briolettes were quite old and that they had probably acquired the wear-marks by being transported in camel bags with inadequate packing.’
Lawrence S Krashes gives us new, more detailed information about an exceptional diamond in his book on Harry Winston. He discloses that the stone was fashioned in France, from South African rough, in 1908-9, and he provides a number of further details, though unfortunately not the dimensions. The fashioning apparently follows the traditional lines of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but the gem is so vast (90.35 ct) that the number of facets runs into hundreds.
It is well known that most of the eighteen diamonds in the collection bequeathed to the French Crown by Cardinal Mazarin were Table Cuts, subsequently recut into Brilliants. But in addition to the Great Sancy and the two flat-bottomed Sancy cuts, two other stones listed in the Crown inventory of 1691 were cut as Briolettes. Numbers 5 and 6 are described as being faceted both sides, of almond shape and pierced downwards through the point so that they could serve as ear pendants, evidence that in the seventeenth century diamonds were drilled if the cutters intended them to be used as hanging gems. These two diamonds were actually set in a pair of earrings of a very ornamental type known as girandoles. They each take an eyewire pin of 2-3 mm in length.
It seems certain that in 1722 Mazarin numbers 5 and 6 were set into Louis XV’s crown, which contained in all eight large diamonds similar to the Sancy, each weighing between 16 and 22 ct. If one compares the outlines and faceting of these two Mazarin diamonds as portrayed by Cletscher in his album with the replicas now in the crown of Louis XV, one finds so close a similarity that one is forced to believe that these were originally the same stones, given that his reproduction was made from memory. It is almost certain that the smaller of these two Mazarin diamonds, number 6, was sold in 1796, while Number 5 survived both the robbery of 1792 and the sale and was finally sold by auction to Tiffany’s in 1887, when most of the French Crown Jewels were disposed of.
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
The year after Whistler met with his rebuff in Lodon, he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, which showed the esteem in which he was now held in France, and in 1892 he took a house at Paris in the Rue de Bac. He can hardly be said to have settled there, however, for he returned several times to London. In 1890 he had published a collection of letters and various controversial matter, including a report, with his own marginal comments, of the Ruskin trial, under the title of The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, and this publication not only increased his reputation as wit but showed that he possessed a distinct literary style of his own. This was followed some years later by The Baronet and the Butterfly, a pamphlet giving the artist’s version of a quarrel and lawsuit with Sir William Eden over a portrait of Lady Eden. Whistler had early adopted the device of a butterfly as his sign-manual and signature, but he was a butterfly with a sting, as he confessed himself to be in the little drawings with which he decorated his publications.
All the quarrels and encounters of his stormy life cannot be recounted here, but in the end he was victorious in London as in Paris. The purchase of his ‘Mother’ by the French Government helped to turn the scale in England. A new generation of artists gave Whislter a banquet in Lodon to celebrate the event, and in the same year (1892) the most important one-man show of his pictures yet held anywhere was opened in the old Goupil Gallery in Bond Street. This included nearly all his most famous works, among them the disgraced nocturnes, but now only a minority objected to his pictures or his titles, and the success of the exhibition revealed the change which the course of years had brought about in London opinion. The Royal Academy was no longer the power it had been in his earlier days; its prestige had declined, and there was now a powerful body of outside artists who admired Whistler. In 1898 the most eminent of these formed the ‘International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers,’ and invited Whistler to become its first President, a position he held till his death on July 17, 1903. The exhibition of this new Society proved that Whistler was not only respected by artists, but had become fashionable with all persons of taste.
To sum up, it may be said that after forty years of incessant battling, Whistler enjoyed a decade of tranquil success, but his last years were saddened by private trouble. In 1888 he had marrired the widow of E W Godwin, an architect, and his wife’s death in 1896 was a great blow to the artist. With his loneliness he grew restless, and though his continued devotion to his work saved him from melancholy, he traveled about a good deal. He was visiting Holland in the summer of 1902 when he was seized with a heart attack, and though he gained enough strength to return to London, and even to begin working again in the winter, a relapse in the following June prostrated him, and on Friday, July 17, after conversing good-humouredly during lunch, he was seized wtih syncope at 3 p.m and died without suffering. France, Italy, Bavaria, and Dresden had all conferred distinctions on him; but in America, his birthplace, and in England, where he lived and worked for the greater part of his life, Whistler received no official recognition.
The Influence Of The Far East (continue)
The year after Whistler met with his rebuff in Lodon, he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, which showed the esteem in which he was now held in France, and in 1892 he took a house at Paris in the Rue de Bac. He can hardly be said to have settled there, however, for he returned several times to London. In 1890 he had published a collection of letters and various controversial matter, including a report, with his own marginal comments, of the Ruskin trial, under the title of The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, and this publication not only increased his reputation as wit but showed that he possessed a distinct literary style of his own. This was followed some years later by The Baronet and the Butterfly, a pamphlet giving the artist’s version of a quarrel and lawsuit with Sir William Eden over a portrait of Lady Eden. Whistler had early adopted the device of a butterfly as his sign-manual and signature, but he was a butterfly with a sting, as he confessed himself to be in the little drawings with which he decorated his publications.
All the quarrels and encounters of his stormy life cannot be recounted here, but in the end he was victorious in London as in Paris. The purchase of his ‘Mother’ by the French Government helped to turn the scale in England. A new generation of artists gave Whislter a banquet in Lodon to celebrate the event, and in the same year (1892) the most important one-man show of his pictures yet held anywhere was opened in the old Goupil Gallery in Bond Street. This included nearly all his most famous works, among them the disgraced nocturnes, but now only a minority objected to his pictures or his titles, and the success of the exhibition revealed the change which the course of years had brought about in London opinion. The Royal Academy was no longer the power it had been in his earlier days; its prestige had declined, and there was now a powerful body of outside artists who admired Whistler. In 1898 the most eminent of these formed the ‘International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers,’ and invited Whistler to become its first President, a position he held till his death on July 17, 1903. The exhibition of this new Society proved that Whistler was not only respected by artists, but had become fashionable with all persons of taste.
To sum up, it may be said that after forty years of incessant battling, Whistler enjoyed a decade of tranquil success, but his last years were saddened by private trouble. In 1888 he had marrired the widow of E W Godwin, an architect, and his wife’s death in 1896 was a great blow to the artist. With his loneliness he grew restless, and though his continued devotion to his work saved him from melancholy, he traveled about a good deal. He was visiting Holland in the summer of 1902 when he was seized with a heart attack, and though he gained enough strength to return to London, and even to begin working again in the winter, a relapse in the following June prostrated him, and on Friday, July 17, after conversing good-humouredly during lunch, he was seized wtih syncope at 3 p.m and died without suffering. France, Italy, Bavaria, and Dresden had all conferred distinctions on him; but in America, his birthplace, and in England, where he lived and worked for the greater part of his life, Whistler received no official recognition.
The Influence Of The Far East (continue)
Creating A World Without Poverty
The book Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism by Muhammad Yunus was informative and useful + it recommends a new kind of enterprise: social business, a noble vision + since Mohammed Yunus has accomplished so much by creating a variety of other businesses under the Grameen family of companies, pairing with technology, providing meaning and opportunity, I guess his new business model should work.
Useful links:
www.grameen-info.org
www.thetech.org
Useful links:
www.grameen-info.org
www.thetech.org
New Zealand Wine
Wine is now New Zealand's 12th most valuable export + I think the spectacular success could be due to the country's unique climate + hard work + clever marketing + branding + timing + quality = New Zealand wine. I liked it. It's an experience.
Useful links:
www.nzwine.com
www.nzwinegrower.co.nz
Useful links:
www.nzwine.com
www.nzwinegrower.co.nz
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
An Interesting Scientific Study
A scientific study published in the March issue of NeuroReport concludes that viewing erotic pictures increased financial risk taking ..........
It would be interesting to apply magnetic resonance imaging technique (s) on gem/diamond dealers/jewelers/art dealers when doing trading and analyze the neuropsychological mechanism. Just curious.
Useful link:
www.neuroreport.com
It would be interesting to apply magnetic resonance imaging technique (s) on gem/diamond dealers/jewelers/art dealers when doing trading and analyze the neuropsychological mechanism. Just curious.
Useful link:
www.neuroreport.com
How To Map Carbon Footprint
(via Wired) I think the The Vulcan Project/ Hestia Project (NASA+DOE) are brilliant concepts + the results should become a valuable tool for policymakers, demographers and social scientists in developed and developing countries + if the experts are able to create functional models to quantify fossil fuel CO2 emissions at the scale of individual factories, powerplants, roadways and neighborhoods in the U.S, other countries could do the same with similar (modified) technologies at affordable costs and do the right thing. check out the video
Useful links:
The Vulcan Project
Hestia Project
http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov
Useful links:
The Vulcan Project
Hestia Project
http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov
International Colored Gemstone Association Congress
It has been reported that the International Colored Gemstone Association Congress will be held in Panyu, China, May 5-9, 2009.
Useful links:
www.gemstone.org
http://english.ccpit.org
Useful links:
www.gemstone.org
http://english.ccpit.org
A Special Lesson
I found the article on companies that conquered America @ http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5907.html interesting and insightful.
Useful link:
Marketing Know: How
Useful link:
Marketing Know: How
A Small Art Fair In Tokyo
Tokyo's new international art fair--101Tokyo--named after the postal code of the venue, an elementary school turned art school, is a new concept by Agatha Wara + Julia Barnes in the city's fragmented art scene + I think with time 101Tokyo could become a must-visit art show in the coming years.
Useful link:
www.101tokyo.com
Useful link:
www.101tokyo.com
Briolettes
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
A Bead pointed at one end and blunt at the other is known as a Briolette. One also comes across the term brillolette, which may well have been derived from the French briller, to sparkle. The name Briolette is relatively new; old inventories refer to diamonds of this shape only as pendants, so they are not always easy to identify. It is only when we find drawings like those by Tavernier and Clestscher that we can be sure that a gem is Briolette. Some writers have claimed that Briolettes, like Mughal Cuts, are a variety of the Baroque Rose Cut. However, very few Briolettes have the necessary hexagonal grouping of six triangular facets, and even if you occasionally come across one with a rounded bottom which, seen from below, looks like a full Rose Cut, a Rose Cut has a girdle and a flat bottom and a Briolette has neither. In most cases Briolettes are described as briolets or pendeloques, but I have come across a great variety of terms such as demi-briolet, briolette irregulière, carré, rouleau, pointue, amande pointue, olive and even navette (which means boat-shaped, but on this occasion was used to describe a drop!)
Tavernier sold two Briolettes to Louis XIV. Howevever, he does not use any special term for these diamonds; it is possible to determine what they were only from his drawings. A systematic and very detailed catalogue of Henry Philip Hope’s famous collection of pearls and precious stones was compiled by Bram Hertz and published in 1839, the year of Hope’s death. It contains excellent descriptions, as well as sketches, of the diamonds. The uncommonly fine quality of the Hope Briolettes suggests that the collector had many gems of this type to choose from. The following quotations are all from Hertz’s catalogue:
- ‘A very fine diamond from the mines of Golconda, of the purest crystalline water, and cut as a briolet. It differs, however, from the general form of briolets, which are usually of the shape of a pear or drop; but this specimen has a cylindrical form, with a conical termination at both ends; the facets are likewise different from those of the briolets in general, as these latter always present on their surface a number facets which cross each other in an oblique direction: the surface of the present, however, is cut in narrow facets, joining each other, and running in a perpendicular direction. This beautiful and rare gem formerly belonged to the crown jewels of Portugal: it is mounted with a gold enamelled cap, and hangs in a black enamelled ring, set with seven table diamonds, evidently the work of some clever artist of the Cinquecento. Weight 44 grains (appr.11.3 ct).’ This description suggests that it was a Briolette dating from te sixteenth century and therefore an early historical cut.
- ‘A briolet diamond, of a pear shape, it differs in cutting from the brilliant, particularly in its round form and the numerous small facets on it. The Indian diamond-cutters alone are able to cut the briolet. The present specimen is of fine water and beautiful workmanship and deserves well its place in the collection. Weight 26 3/32 (appr. 6.7ct)’.
- ‘A fine briolet diamond, of a pear shape and straw color, and is most beautifully cut: it has a little flaw.....Weight 46 7/8 (appr. 12ct).’
- ‘A very fine briolet drop, of the purest crystalline water, cut all round with elongated lozenge facets, having intermediate acute triangular facets above and below.... Weight 10 ¾ grains (appr. 2.75ct)’.
The Duke of Brunswick had an even larger collection of Briolettes, but they were not of such high quality. He assembled the collection between the years 1843 and 1859; it contains a total of fifty-one Briolettes, each weighing between 8 and 54 ¼ carats. One pair is said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, but I have not found any evidence to support this assertion. A little later, in 1669, we have Tavernier’s drawing of two Briolettes which he brought to France from India. However, I can find no mention of thtem in the French inventories. Were they, perhaps, sold abroad?
Briolettes (continued)
A Bead pointed at one end and blunt at the other is known as a Briolette. One also comes across the term brillolette, which may well have been derived from the French briller, to sparkle. The name Briolette is relatively new; old inventories refer to diamonds of this shape only as pendants, so they are not always easy to identify. It is only when we find drawings like those by Tavernier and Clestscher that we can be sure that a gem is Briolette. Some writers have claimed that Briolettes, like Mughal Cuts, are a variety of the Baroque Rose Cut. However, very few Briolettes have the necessary hexagonal grouping of six triangular facets, and even if you occasionally come across one with a rounded bottom which, seen from below, looks like a full Rose Cut, a Rose Cut has a girdle and a flat bottom and a Briolette has neither. In most cases Briolettes are described as briolets or pendeloques, but I have come across a great variety of terms such as demi-briolet, briolette irregulière, carré, rouleau, pointue, amande pointue, olive and even navette (which means boat-shaped, but on this occasion was used to describe a drop!)
Tavernier sold two Briolettes to Louis XIV. Howevever, he does not use any special term for these diamonds; it is possible to determine what they were only from his drawings. A systematic and very detailed catalogue of Henry Philip Hope’s famous collection of pearls and precious stones was compiled by Bram Hertz and published in 1839, the year of Hope’s death. It contains excellent descriptions, as well as sketches, of the diamonds. The uncommonly fine quality of the Hope Briolettes suggests that the collector had many gems of this type to choose from. The following quotations are all from Hertz’s catalogue:
- ‘A very fine diamond from the mines of Golconda, of the purest crystalline water, and cut as a briolet. It differs, however, from the general form of briolets, which are usually of the shape of a pear or drop; but this specimen has a cylindrical form, with a conical termination at both ends; the facets are likewise different from those of the briolets in general, as these latter always present on their surface a number facets which cross each other in an oblique direction: the surface of the present, however, is cut in narrow facets, joining each other, and running in a perpendicular direction. This beautiful and rare gem formerly belonged to the crown jewels of Portugal: it is mounted with a gold enamelled cap, and hangs in a black enamelled ring, set with seven table diamonds, evidently the work of some clever artist of the Cinquecento. Weight 44 grains (appr.11.3 ct).’ This description suggests that it was a Briolette dating from te sixteenth century and therefore an early historical cut.
- ‘A briolet diamond, of a pear shape, it differs in cutting from the brilliant, particularly in its round form and the numerous small facets on it. The Indian diamond-cutters alone are able to cut the briolet. The present specimen is of fine water and beautiful workmanship and deserves well its place in the collection. Weight 26 3/32 (appr. 6.7ct)’.
- ‘A fine briolet diamond, of a pear shape and straw color, and is most beautifully cut: it has a little flaw.....Weight 46 7/8 (appr. 12ct).’
- ‘A very fine briolet drop, of the purest crystalline water, cut all round with elongated lozenge facets, having intermediate acute triangular facets above and below.... Weight 10 ¾ grains (appr. 2.75ct)’.
The Duke of Brunswick had an even larger collection of Briolettes, but they were not of such high quality. He assembled the collection between the years 1843 and 1859; it contains a total of fifty-one Briolettes, each weighing between 8 and 54 ¼ carats. One pair is said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, but I have not found any evidence to support this assertion. A little later, in 1669, we have Tavernier’s drawing of two Briolettes which he brought to France from India. However, I can find no mention of thtem in the French inventories. Were they, perhaps, sold abroad?
Briolettes (continued)
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Another man might have been crushed by the misfortunes which now crowded on him, but fortunately Whistler was an etcher as well as a painter, and at this moment, when his pictures were unsaleable, he again turned to etching. He came to an arrangement with a firm, which advanced him a sum of money on etchings he engaged to execute, and with this he went in 1879 to Venice, where he developed a new and beautiful style in etching. In comparison with his earlier work, these Venice etchings were lighter in handling and more simplified in line; but they palpitated with light and air and were fairylike in their delicacy of decoration. ‘San Giorgio’ shows how spacious and satisfying an effect Whistler was now able to secure with a minimum of means.
These new etchings were not at first popular with the public and the critics any more than the nocturnes, but they were appreciated and purchased by many discriminating print collectors, and when Whistler returned to Chelsea towards the end of 1880 his position gradually improved. In 1883 he held a second and larger exhibition of his Venetian pieces at the Fine Art Society, and prepared an extraordinary catalogue, in which under each numbered exhibit appeared quotations taken from influential journals and well-known writers, all hostile, and beginning with this extract from Truth: ‘Another crop of Mr Whistler’s little jokes.’ The exhibition, which was beautifully arranged and staged, together with this quaint catalogue, caused an immense sensation. Never before had an artist made fun of his critics to this extent. Visitors could not fail to recognize the refinement in works like ‘San Giorgio,’ and when they read a sentence like ‘Whistler’s is eminently vulgar’ the criticism recoiled on the writer, not the artist. The tide began to turn, and a considerable opinion now became definitely favorable to Whistler. He began to paint again, people like Mrs Meux, the wife of the brewer, and Lady Archibald Campbell came to him for portraits, and his position was immensely strengthened when his ‘Portrait of the Artist’s Mother’ obtained a medal and a brilliant success in the Paris Salon of 1883. Later this work was bought by the French Government for the Luxembourg.
For the next few years Whistler made Paris his principal exhibition center. At the Grosvenor Gallery in 1881 his ‘Portrait of Miss Cicely Alexander’ had been dreadfully abused by English critics; in the Paris Salon of 1884 it was singled out for general approbation. For a brief season Whistler exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, of which he was elected President in June 1886, and under his presidency this Society held the most brilliant exhibitions in its history. But in 1888 there was a cabal against him by members discontented with his rule; Whistler was compelled to resign, and was followed by a number of talented artists whom he had persuaded to join the Society. When asked to explain what had happened, the ex-President replied, ‘It is quite simple; the artists have left and the British remain.’
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Another man might have been crushed by the misfortunes which now crowded on him, but fortunately Whistler was an etcher as well as a painter, and at this moment, when his pictures were unsaleable, he again turned to etching. He came to an arrangement with a firm, which advanced him a sum of money on etchings he engaged to execute, and with this he went in 1879 to Venice, where he developed a new and beautiful style in etching. In comparison with his earlier work, these Venice etchings were lighter in handling and more simplified in line; but they palpitated with light and air and were fairylike in their delicacy of decoration. ‘San Giorgio’ shows how spacious and satisfying an effect Whistler was now able to secure with a minimum of means.
These new etchings were not at first popular with the public and the critics any more than the nocturnes, but they were appreciated and purchased by many discriminating print collectors, and when Whistler returned to Chelsea towards the end of 1880 his position gradually improved. In 1883 he held a second and larger exhibition of his Venetian pieces at the Fine Art Society, and prepared an extraordinary catalogue, in which under each numbered exhibit appeared quotations taken from influential journals and well-known writers, all hostile, and beginning with this extract from Truth: ‘Another crop of Mr Whistler’s little jokes.’ The exhibition, which was beautifully arranged and staged, together with this quaint catalogue, caused an immense sensation. Never before had an artist made fun of his critics to this extent. Visitors could not fail to recognize the refinement in works like ‘San Giorgio,’ and when they read a sentence like ‘Whistler’s is eminently vulgar’ the criticism recoiled on the writer, not the artist. The tide began to turn, and a considerable opinion now became definitely favorable to Whistler. He began to paint again, people like Mrs Meux, the wife of the brewer, and Lady Archibald Campbell came to him for portraits, and his position was immensely strengthened when his ‘Portrait of the Artist’s Mother’ obtained a medal and a brilliant success in the Paris Salon of 1883. Later this work was bought by the French Government for the Luxembourg.
For the next few years Whistler made Paris his principal exhibition center. At the Grosvenor Gallery in 1881 his ‘Portrait of Miss Cicely Alexander’ had been dreadfully abused by English critics; in the Paris Salon of 1884 it was singled out for general approbation. For a brief season Whistler exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, of which he was elected President in June 1886, and under his presidency this Society held the most brilliant exhibitions in its history. But in 1888 there was a cabal against him by members discontented with his rule; Whistler was compelled to resign, and was followed by a number of talented artists whom he had persuaded to join the Society. When asked to explain what had happened, the ex-President replied, ‘It is quite simple; the artists have left and the British remain.’
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Luc Yen Precious Stone Market, Vietnam
I found the article on Luc Yen Precious Stone Market, Vietnam @
http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=37443 interesting because I think the market’s golden years have long gone but valuable colored gemstones can still be found, with more synthetic/imitation stones awaiting first-time buyers, especially foreigners.
A good place to test your gem identification + buying skills.
http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=37443 interesting because I think the market’s golden years have long gone but valuable colored gemstones can still be found, with more synthetic/imitation stones awaiting first-time buyers, especially foreigners.
A good place to test your gem identification + buying skills.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston, an American Academy Award-winning film actor, passed away in Los Angeles, US + I think he was god-like, and his presence in film (s) brought beauty, rarity, phosphorescence, guts, dispersion and that otherness + he will be remembered forever.
Useful link:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000032
Useful link:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000032
Commodities Update
The article on food crisis and market panic @ http://www.newsweek.com/id/130641 was interesting + insightful because as Robert Zeigler, head of the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute, rightly put it, we're paying the price of complacency + global markets are behaving as if a food shock is imminent.
Useful links:
www.wfp.org
www.worldbank.org
www.irri.org
www.earth-policy.org
www.fao.org
Useful links:
www.wfp.org
www.worldbank.org
www.irri.org
www.earth-policy.org
www.fao.org
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is a gallery of Asian art located in Washington, DC, United States, part of the Smithsonian Institution + the Sackler is one of two galleries of the National Museum of Asian Art, the other being the Freer Gallery.
Current exhibitions:
Patterned Feathers, Piercing Eyes: Edo Masters From the Price Collection
November 10, 2007–April 13, 2008
Tales of the Brush Continued: Chinese Paintings With Literary Themes
February 9–July 27, 2008
Perspectives: Y.Z. Kami
March 15–Oct. 13, 2008
Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia
April 1, 2007 through 2010
Useful links:
www.asia.si.edu
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/04/arts/melik5.php
Don't miss it!
Current exhibitions:
Patterned Feathers, Piercing Eyes: Edo Masters From the Price Collection
November 10, 2007–April 13, 2008
Tales of the Brush Continued: Chinese Paintings With Literary Themes
February 9–July 27, 2008
Perspectives: Y.Z. Kami
March 15–Oct. 13, 2008
Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia
April 1, 2007 through 2010
Useful links:
www.asia.si.edu
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/04/arts/melik5.php
Don't miss it!
The New Paradigm For Financial Markets
As Economist rightly put it, crisis breeds opportunties, and now George Soros in his latest book, 'The New Paradigm for Financial Markets' offers a different sort of reflection on the present financial crisis: fracture-filled financial institutions + synthetic-structured financial products = super financial cleavage cracks + bubble (s).
Useful link:
www.georgesoros.com
I think the gem/jewelry/art industry should read the book for reflexivity because the economic impact for many countries in the world will be hard due to vulnerable dollar and the spectre of inflation + god knows what else. We are living in interesting times.
Useful link:
www.georgesoros.com
I think the gem/jewelry/art industry should read the book for reflexivity because the economic impact for many countries in the world will be hard due to vulnerable dollar and the spectre of inflation + god knows what else. We are living in interesting times.
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