Charlotte Higgins writes about an 18th-century continental school, half-length portrait of an aesthete + the bidding war + the painting's quality + the game of authentification + the intrigue + other viewpoints @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2128906,00.html
When I read the story it reminded me of high profile stones like diamond, ruby, blue sapphire, emerald with origin report at auction houses + the endless game of hide and seek with prices by the real players + the knowledgeable, ignorant or just plain lucky buyers and sellers + the real drama. It's a theatrical experience watching the bidders at an auction event: a real movie.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Thy Neighbor's Laundry
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about two countries: Belgium and Netherlands + Utrecht School of Economics report on money laundering + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25323
On Getting Up Early In The Morning
2007: This is a fascinating story about Harry Winston + his personal operating system. You’ve got to keep your eyes and ears open in gem identification + business. There are many lessons one can learn from the real events.
(via The Australian Gemmologist, Vol.11, No.10, Serial No.97, May 1973): A N Wilson’s interview with the famous dealer and gem personality, Harry Winston.
Harry Winston is sitting at his desk, loupe in his fingers. He is musing aloud: ‘You know, there’s always a client for something big or wonderful in the way of diamonds. I told you last year about Ibn Saud but there was something more I didn’t tell you then. I was in Geneva and Ibn Saud was on holiday somewhere in the vicinity. He called at my office and I did some very good business with him—something like $3,000,000 worth of diamond and other jewelry. I delivered all the jewelry to his residence myself and was waiting there for his cheque when one of his aides came to me and said the King had just asked whether I happened to have any diamond bracelets available at my office in Geneva. If so, he’d be interested in having half a dozen. I replied that I thought I could help in this direction. The aide then said the King was flying off at eight o’clock the following morning and the bracelets would have to be delivered to him before then. I telephoned my office and told them what was afoot and asked them to set out whatever they had in the way of diamond bracelets. I motored back to my office. There I found the office staff had dutifully put out five or six diamond bracelets selected from those that were available.
‘I called the staff to my office and said: ‘Have you no imagination?’ I had the whole range of diamond bracelets available set out and then had then carefully parceled and ready for display at the King’s residence. The staff then asked me about delivery. ‘You are surely not going to get up at four or five in the morning to take them out yourself?’ they said. I said to them: ‘Look, boys, I’m going myself with these fifty five bracelets. That’s the way to conduct business.’
‘So I got up that morning and took the bracelets with me to the King’s residence. When I arrived the aide told me the King was getting dressed, but would look at the bracelets over breakfast and make his choice. A little later the aide came down to tell me that the King would buy the lot at a price. The price was arranged. The King went off in his aircraft and I went back to my office. The staff was stunned when, the following day, a message came through from Ibn Saud saying that he now found he was short of 25 bracelets and asking me to send him these. Can you blame me if I read a little homily to my staff about how, be getting up early in the morning, you can convert a sale of six bracelets into eighty? A good lesson for any young person in the diamond business!’
Harry Winston chuckled as he remembered another story. ‘You’ve got to keep your eyes open at this business,’ he said. ‘One day a bank director called me up to say that a very distinguished and important client had a collection of jewels he wanted to sell. Would I do him as well as possible? Well the distinguished bank client duly arrived and he spread his collection of diamonds on the table. I looked at them very briefly and said abruptly. ‘Take them away, please!’ I had seen immediately that most of the diamonds were paste but I was not prepared to tell him so. ‘No, I’m not interested,’ I said, “I can’t give you a valuation. I can’t give you a price. I think you ought to go elsewhere.’ He gathered up his pieces in frustration and anger and said he would, indeed, go elsewhere. He said harshly that I had not even looked at them: that here was an emerald worth at least 150,000 dollars on its own and there was a beautiful pearl necklace. I insisted that I was not interested. He went away. Some time later he came back to see me. ‘I’ve come to apologize,’ he said, ‘because it now turns out that my wife must have had maids who took advantage of our traveling all over the place from time to time and they substituted imitations for the real things. We’ve been robbed. I’m sorry that it would appear on the face of it that I tried to defraud you.’
‘Of course, that was not true at all. What was true was that his wife had a very expensive boy friend. My visitor’s special anxiety was that I should not report what had happened to his bank director. I assured him I did not discuss business affairs with anybody else. As those who were then concerned are now all dead, I am at liberty to tell this sad little story.’
(via The Australian Gemmologist, Vol.11, No.10, Serial No.97, May 1973): A N Wilson’s interview with the famous dealer and gem personality, Harry Winston.
Harry Winston is sitting at his desk, loupe in his fingers. He is musing aloud: ‘You know, there’s always a client for something big or wonderful in the way of diamonds. I told you last year about Ibn Saud but there was something more I didn’t tell you then. I was in Geneva and Ibn Saud was on holiday somewhere in the vicinity. He called at my office and I did some very good business with him—something like $3,000,000 worth of diamond and other jewelry. I delivered all the jewelry to his residence myself and was waiting there for his cheque when one of his aides came to me and said the King had just asked whether I happened to have any diamond bracelets available at my office in Geneva. If so, he’d be interested in having half a dozen. I replied that I thought I could help in this direction. The aide then said the King was flying off at eight o’clock the following morning and the bracelets would have to be delivered to him before then. I telephoned my office and told them what was afoot and asked them to set out whatever they had in the way of diamond bracelets. I motored back to my office. There I found the office staff had dutifully put out five or six diamond bracelets selected from those that were available.
‘I called the staff to my office and said: ‘Have you no imagination?’ I had the whole range of diamond bracelets available set out and then had then carefully parceled and ready for display at the King’s residence. The staff then asked me about delivery. ‘You are surely not going to get up at four or five in the morning to take them out yourself?’ they said. I said to them: ‘Look, boys, I’m going myself with these fifty five bracelets. That’s the way to conduct business.’
‘So I got up that morning and took the bracelets with me to the King’s residence. When I arrived the aide told me the King was getting dressed, but would look at the bracelets over breakfast and make his choice. A little later the aide came down to tell me that the King would buy the lot at a price. The price was arranged. The King went off in his aircraft and I went back to my office. The staff was stunned when, the following day, a message came through from Ibn Saud saying that he now found he was short of 25 bracelets and asking me to send him these. Can you blame me if I read a little homily to my staff about how, be getting up early in the morning, you can convert a sale of six bracelets into eighty? A good lesson for any young person in the diamond business!’
Harry Winston chuckled as he remembered another story. ‘You’ve got to keep your eyes open at this business,’ he said. ‘One day a bank director called me up to say that a very distinguished and important client had a collection of jewels he wanted to sell. Would I do him as well as possible? Well the distinguished bank client duly arrived and he spread his collection of diamonds on the table. I looked at them very briefly and said abruptly. ‘Take them away, please!’ I had seen immediately that most of the diamonds were paste but I was not prepared to tell him so. ‘No, I’m not interested,’ I said, “I can’t give you a valuation. I can’t give you a price. I think you ought to go elsewhere.’ He gathered up his pieces in frustration and anger and said he would, indeed, go elsewhere. He said harshly that I had not even looked at them: that here was an emerald worth at least 150,000 dollars on its own and there was a beautiful pearl necklace. I insisted that I was not interested. He went away. Some time later he came back to see me. ‘I’ve come to apologize,’ he said, ‘because it now turns out that my wife must have had maids who took advantage of our traveling all over the place from time to time and they substituted imitations for the real things. We’ve been robbed. I’m sorry that it would appear on the face of it that I tried to defraud you.’
‘Of course, that was not true at all. What was true was that his wife had a very expensive boy friend. My visitor’s special anxiety was that I should not report what had happened to his bank director. I assured him I did not discuss business affairs with anybody else. As those who were then concerned are now all dead, I am at liberty to tell this sad little story.’
Tremolite
Chemistry: Calcium magnesium silicate
Crystal system: Monoclinic; in compact mass as nephrite; long bladed crystals; fibrous aggregates often radiated; twinning common.
Color: Transparent to opaque; hexagonite: rare pink variety (Mg); phenomenon: greenish chatoyancy: tremolite cat’s eye.
Hardness: 6.5 - 6
Cleavage: Good: in 2 directions; fracture: brittle, uneven.
Specific gravity: 2.976; 2.98
Refractive index: 1.62 mean; 1.60 – 1.63; 0.027.
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion:-
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: In metamorphosed dolomites or ultrabasic rocks; Burma, Taiwan, Canada, USA.
Notes
An end member in the tremolite-actinolite series of the amphibole group; transparent specimens faceted; translucent to opaque specimens carved or cut cabochon.
Crystal system: Monoclinic; in compact mass as nephrite; long bladed crystals; fibrous aggregates often radiated; twinning common.
Color: Transparent to opaque; hexagonite: rare pink variety (Mg); phenomenon: greenish chatoyancy: tremolite cat’s eye.
Hardness: 6.5 - 6
Cleavage: Good: in 2 directions; fracture: brittle, uneven.
Specific gravity: 2.976; 2.98
Refractive index: 1.62 mean; 1.60 – 1.63; 0.027.
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion:-
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: In metamorphosed dolomites or ultrabasic rocks; Burma, Taiwan, Canada, USA.
Notes
An end member in the tremolite-actinolite series of the amphibole group; transparent specimens faceted; translucent to opaque specimens carved or cut cabochon.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
From Russia With Love
Idexonline profiles Russia, the world’s second largest producer of rough diamonds + the expansion and development of domestic cutting and polishing operations + the export markets + the domestic jewelry industry + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullMazalUbracha.asp?id=27889
Can You Identify This Stone?
(via The Canadian Gemmologist, Vol.III, No.3, Spring, 1982) I am green in color and considered idiochromatic. I contain iron as an important part of my chemical composition. I am comparatively soft and belong to the orthorhombic system. I have a distinctive cleavage parallel to my vertical axis, a lowest R.I of 1.654 and a birefringence of 0.036. My absorption spectrum shows a broad band at 435nm and bands at 492 and 473nm. What am I?
Answer: Peridot
Answer: Peridot
The Google Legacy
Good Books: (via Emergic) Stephen E. Arnold's e-book entitled The Google Legacy: How Google's Internet Search is Transforming Application Software provides insights + future virtual applications via modified technological applications. I think the new simplied technology will open more surprises and opportunities for everyone in the coming years. Try it and see.
Here is an excerpt from the introduction on Arnold's site:
What kind of company is Google? The world mostly knows this high-flying, publicly traded West Coast company as the upstart that revolutionized search.
Wrong, says Stephen Arnold in this new ebook: Google is much more. New, radical and overlooked, Google is this era's transformational computing platform and could be about to unseat Microsoft from its throne.
Google is not just about search: search is merely one application you can load on its processor. Although Google has been releasing a series of separate application programs, the company is starting to assemble the mosaic pieces into a bigger picture. Its future will be about leveraging its innovative hardware/software infrastructure. In so doing, just as Microsoft replaced IBM, Google promises to replace Microsoft as Network Computing comes of age.
Written for business readers, especially senior executives of mid to large-sized, knowledge-based corporations, The Google Legacy places Google under a microscope, dissects Google's technology, evaluates its potential and determines that Google's future lies beyond search. Three appendices provide lists of Google patents, publishers who have indicated some type of relationship with Google, and universities working with Google-information that, according to the author, Google has sought to keep under wraps.
Information Week wrote recently:
Dig deeper into Google, dig into its software and engineering patents and you’ll find a roadmap for its future, says an author and online systems specialist, who believes the patents also spell bad news for Microsoft if the tech world moves to a new Google-dominated network paradigm.
Google really doesn’t hide things, said Stephen E. Arnold, who has written a book on his one-year odyssey studying the search firm. Bill Gates is basically in the same spot he had IBM in. IBM was challenged by Microsoft and IBM didn’t understand Microsoft’s business model. It’s history repeating itself.
Arnold, author of The Google Legacy, said in an interview, that it appears that Microsoft doesn’t understand Google in much the same way that IBM didn’t understand Microsoft 20 years ago. It will be the Googleplex from 2004 to 2020 a network paradigm, said Arnold. It will be enabled by Google’s approach to innovation....These patents suggest that Google is looking beyond search, possibly targeting such companies as Microsoft, as Google tries to become the leading info tech company of the 21st Century, he said.
Here is an excerpt from the introduction on Arnold's site:
What kind of company is Google? The world mostly knows this high-flying, publicly traded West Coast company as the upstart that revolutionized search.
Wrong, says Stephen Arnold in this new ebook: Google is much more. New, radical and overlooked, Google is this era's transformational computing platform and could be about to unseat Microsoft from its throne.
Google is not just about search: search is merely one application you can load on its processor. Although Google has been releasing a series of separate application programs, the company is starting to assemble the mosaic pieces into a bigger picture. Its future will be about leveraging its innovative hardware/software infrastructure. In so doing, just as Microsoft replaced IBM, Google promises to replace Microsoft as Network Computing comes of age.
Written for business readers, especially senior executives of mid to large-sized, knowledge-based corporations, The Google Legacy places Google under a microscope, dissects Google's technology, evaluates its potential and determines that Google's future lies beyond search. Three appendices provide lists of Google patents, publishers who have indicated some type of relationship with Google, and universities working with Google-information that, according to the author, Google has sought to keep under wraps.
Information Week wrote recently:
Dig deeper into Google, dig into its software and engineering patents and you’ll find a roadmap for its future, says an author and online systems specialist, who believes the patents also spell bad news for Microsoft if the tech world moves to a new Google-dominated network paradigm.
Google really doesn’t hide things, said Stephen E. Arnold, who has written a book on his one-year odyssey studying the search firm. Bill Gates is basically in the same spot he had IBM in. IBM was challenged by Microsoft and IBM didn’t understand Microsoft’s business model. It’s history repeating itself.
Arnold, author of The Google Legacy, said in an interview, that it appears that Microsoft doesn’t understand Google in much the same way that IBM didn’t understand Microsoft 20 years ago. It will be the Googleplex from 2004 to 2020 a network paradigm, said Arnold. It will be enabled by Google’s approach to innovation....These patents suggest that Google is looking beyond search, possibly targeting such companies as Microsoft, as Google tries to become the leading info tech company of the 21st Century, he said.
Ordinary People
Peter Schjeldahl writes about Edward Hopper + his greatest hits + his unique way (s) of connecting with his world @ http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2007/05/21/070521craw_artworld_schjeldahl
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