What is interesting is the way the Burmese King wanted to do business with the outside world . In my view, today's rulers aren't any different.
The government were provisionally continuing the old system which existed under the King of Burma. The rubies were dug by the natives who were licensed. They were bound to bring the rubies to a government officer, and record was made of all the stones. The person who dug the ruby estimated its value. If the government were satisfied with that valuation the digger had to pay one third of the estimated value to the government. If there was a dispute the government officer had a right to put a price upon it, and if that were not accepted the ruby was sent down to Mandalay and sold by auction.
The King theoretically had the right to purchase at market value all the stones above four carats in weight, but as a matter of fact very few of those stones ever got to him, as he could never give the fair value. A great many found their way to the dealers, and those that reached the concessionnaire, came to the markets of Europe. Ruby mines before the annexation of Upper Burma, had always been a sealed tract to European adventure and enterprise. No European was ever allowed to enter the forbidden region. There were no actual prohibitory orders, but there was a well-known disinclination on the part of the government, and that man’s perceptions would indeed have been dull who attempted to explore the country and expected to return. It was the policy of the Burmese government to conceal as far as possible from European eyes all appearances which would lead to a belief the Upper Burma was rich country which would well repay foreign conquest. Some years ago he said to the King who was then in want of money, that if he made concessions to trade with regard to overland route between Burma and China, money would flow into his country in equal volume with the waters of the great Irrawadi; but the King replied: ‘The money would come sure enough, but with it we should have a swarm of hungry European merchants and quarrelsome Indian natives, who would get into trouble with the people, and bring on complications which would eventually lead to the loss of the country. We would rather do without money, and keep our country.’ As soon as the disorganization set in, consequent on misrule, French intrigue took root at Mandalay, to the utter exclusion of British interests. A French consulate was established, and the government was asked to make certain concessions to French syndicates which if granted, would have imposed ruinous losses and conditions on the English commercial status in Lower Burma. One of those conditions involved a monopoly by France of the Ruby Mines district. The concession of the mines was actually contemplated at that time, but the contract was not approved and ratified by the King, and consequently was null and void.
As early as the 15th century, this country was known to produce rubies. Tavernier, a jeweler, who visited India in the middle of the 17th century, refers to Burma as yielding stones worth more than 100000 crowns a year, and that it is difficult to meet with one good quality weighing more than three or four carats, as the King kept all the larger. The largest stone of which any record seems to exist was 22 carats, and such stones are usually flawed.
Source: Anonymous
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Friday, November 02, 2007
Inherit The Wind
(via YouTube): Inherit The Wind - Spencer Tracy Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_DQUAuNUvw
A real gem. One of my favorite movies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_DQUAuNUvw
A real gem. One of my favorite movies.
Mali's Diamond-smuggling Centre
(via BBC Network Africa): Celeste Hicks writes about Mali's south-eastern town of Sikasso + the diamond smuggling network + other viewpoints @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7071286.stm
(via FastCompany) Ellen McGirt writes about Facebook + the new business applications + building ecosystems that's business/user-friendly + other viewpoints @ Facebook is the "It" Company of 2007.
Useful link:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/facebook-is-the-it-company-of-2007.html
Useful link:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/facebook-is-the-it-company-of-2007.html
Museum Of Broken Relationships Opens
(via The Guardian) Kate Connolly writes about an interesting outlet for painful experiences - The Museum of Broken Relationships + other viewpoints @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2201097,00.html
HINT: Avoid The Word ‘Nice’
Paul Gardner writes about the do's and dont's at art opening (s) + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1437
Zambia And Gemstones
(via YouTube): Loose Gemstone Mining in Zambia, Africa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqybLjT5huM
It was educational.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqybLjT5huM
It was educational.
Roman Jewelers And Lapidaries
(via Roman Book On Precious Stones: 1950) Sydney H Ball writes:
Among the engravers’ tools were diamond splinters, set in iron, capable of cutting the hardest substances known: for softer stones emery or merely an iron point were used by engravers. The gem engraver also used the lima (or file) and in the bronze statue which Theodorus of Samos, architect, sculptor, and gem engraver, cast of himself, he holds a file in his right hand. He was one of the earliest gem engravers known, being mentioned by Herodotus. The file consisted of a mixture of emery and melted resin. Appuleius says that Hippias, the philosopher, used one in engraving the gem set in a ring which he fabricated for himself. Maecenas in a letter to Horace also mentions the lima. This is the forerunner of the diamond impregnated wheels and tools of today. The lapidary’s wheel with its accompanying drills was used by the Mesopotamian lapidaries in the 4th millenieum before Christ and reached Europe between 1800 and 1600 B.C (Minoan III period). The gravestone of a gem cutter found at Philadelphia, Asia Minor, in a broad way a contemporary of Pliny, shows what appears to be a bow drill. Doubtless some of the diamond splinters set in iron were used as tools in such drills. A Greek gem of the 5th century B.C now in the British Museum, also shows drilling. The Greek name for this type of artist, dacyloiloglyphos, is most descriptive, ‘he whose fingers hollow out the stone.’ The Roman lapidary also used a saw (serra) consisting of a wire drawn back and forth, fed with a powdered abrasive. The ostracious (perhaps flint) was also used to engrave gems. Whether the gem engraver used a magnifying glass is a moot question.
At first the worker in gold was called aurarius, later aurifex, and the retailer of rings, anularii. As to the setting of gems, Pliny says little. The beauty of the turquoise is, however, heightened by setting in gold, the contrast of the stone and the gold being admirable: a statement true today. The chrysolithos (topaz) if fine was set a jour in an open bezel, if of inferior quality its color was heightened by a foil of aurichalcium (a copper compound). The beauty of sarda (our carnelian) was, in some instances, increased by the use of silver foil and in others of gold. The art of the use of foils is an old one. The Minoans (2000-1600 B.C) made a gaming table decorated with strips and discs of rich crystal. The latter was alternately backed by silver plaques and blue vitreous paste (cyanos).
The Roman private banker, like the bankers of the Middle Ages, traded in precious metals and stones and usually also performed the functions of a dealer in gold and silverware. The Roman merchant was a greater traveler than his American confrere, a personal interview being required in many instances in which today a letter, a telephone call, a telegram, or a radio message suffices.
Like the people of the East, each trade in Rome tended to have its quarters. In 211 B.C, Hannibal was much annoyed when he pitched his camp on the Anio and found that in Rome the very land on which his tent was standing had since then been sold in Rome, with no reduction in price, so Livy tells us. Being at the city walls, he was so confident of the city’s fall that ‘in pique he bade an auctioneer put up the silversmith’s shops in the Forum for sale.’ The finest jewelry shops in Pliny’s time were in the great market buildings by the Saepta Julia on the Campus Martius, on the Porticus Argonautorum and the Via Sacra. On these Fifth Avenues of ancient Rome, one could purchase crystal cups, agate vases, and jewelry of every sort. We obtain an idea of the shops themselves from Martial, who describes Mamurra, a fourflusher, on a shopping tour in Rome. He examined everything. Next, complaining that some crystal vases had been spoiled by admixture of glass, he selected and set aside ten murrhine cups. He counted emeralds set in chased gold, and examined the largest pearl ear pendants. He sought on every counter for real sardonyxes and cheapened some large jaspers. At last when forced by fatigue to retire at the eleventh hour, he bought two cups for one small coin and carried them home himself. Many inscriptions have been found on the Via Sacra relating to tradesmen in luxuries, particularly jewelers. While the jewelers, engravers of gems, and lapidaries had workshops on the Via Sacra, much jewelry was imported from Asia Minor and from Alexandria, Egypt, while at least some of the cups of precious stones were cut in the East. Certain provincial towns were noted for their precious wares, Aquileia, for example, for its amber object d’art, its silverware, and its gold jewelry. Some twenty years ago there was excavated in the Via dell’ Abbondanza, Pompeii, the house of one Cerialis, a jeweler of Pliny’s time. In his flight from the terrors of the eruption he doubtless took with him his finest gems but a number of precious stones and some tools were left behind in his shop. In the dining room of the house of the Vettii in Pompeii is a most amusing mural depicting all phases of the jewelry trade. The proprietor, the artisans, and the grande dame client are all cherubs, entrancingly chubby, their absurdly small wings apparently too short for long distance flight.
Roman Jewelers And Lapidaries (continued)
Among the engravers’ tools were diamond splinters, set in iron, capable of cutting the hardest substances known: for softer stones emery or merely an iron point were used by engravers. The gem engraver also used the lima (or file) and in the bronze statue which Theodorus of Samos, architect, sculptor, and gem engraver, cast of himself, he holds a file in his right hand. He was one of the earliest gem engravers known, being mentioned by Herodotus. The file consisted of a mixture of emery and melted resin. Appuleius says that Hippias, the philosopher, used one in engraving the gem set in a ring which he fabricated for himself. Maecenas in a letter to Horace also mentions the lima. This is the forerunner of the diamond impregnated wheels and tools of today. The lapidary’s wheel with its accompanying drills was used by the Mesopotamian lapidaries in the 4th millenieum before Christ and reached Europe between 1800 and 1600 B.C (Minoan III period). The gravestone of a gem cutter found at Philadelphia, Asia Minor, in a broad way a contemporary of Pliny, shows what appears to be a bow drill. Doubtless some of the diamond splinters set in iron were used as tools in such drills. A Greek gem of the 5th century B.C now in the British Museum, also shows drilling. The Greek name for this type of artist, dacyloiloglyphos, is most descriptive, ‘he whose fingers hollow out the stone.’ The Roman lapidary also used a saw (serra) consisting of a wire drawn back and forth, fed with a powdered abrasive. The ostracious (perhaps flint) was also used to engrave gems. Whether the gem engraver used a magnifying glass is a moot question.
At first the worker in gold was called aurarius, later aurifex, and the retailer of rings, anularii. As to the setting of gems, Pliny says little. The beauty of the turquoise is, however, heightened by setting in gold, the contrast of the stone and the gold being admirable: a statement true today. The chrysolithos (topaz) if fine was set a jour in an open bezel, if of inferior quality its color was heightened by a foil of aurichalcium (a copper compound). The beauty of sarda (our carnelian) was, in some instances, increased by the use of silver foil and in others of gold. The art of the use of foils is an old one. The Minoans (2000-1600 B.C) made a gaming table decorated with strips and discs of rich crystal. The latter was alternately backed by silver plaques and blue vitreous paste (cyanos).
The Roman private banker, like the bankers of the Middle Ages, traded in precious metals and stones and usually also performed the functions of a dealer in gold and silverware. The Roman merchant was a greater traveler than his American confrere, a personal interview being required in many instances in which today a letter, a telephone call, a telegram, or a radio message suffices.
Like the people of the East, each trade in Rome tended to have its quarters. In 211 B.C, Hannibal was much annoyed when he pitched his camp on the Anio and found that in Rome the very land on which his tent was standing had since then been sold in Rome, with no reduction in price, so Livy tells us. Being at the city walls, he was so confident of the city’s fall that ‘in pique he bade an auctioneer put up the silversmith’s shops in the Forum for sale.’ The finest jewelry shops in Pliny’s time were in the great market buildings by the Saepta Julia on the Campus Martius, on the Porticus Argonautorum and the Via Sacra. On these Fifth Avenues of ancient Rome, one could purchase crystal cups, agate vases, and jewelry of every sort. We obtain an idea of the shops themselves from Martial, who describes Mamurra, a fourflusher, on a shopping tour in Rome. He examined everything. Next, complaining that some crystal vases had been spoiled by admixture of glass, he selected and set aside ten murrhine cups. He counted emeralds set in chased gold, and examined the largest pearl ear pendants. He sought on every counter for real sardonyxes and cheapened some large jaspers. At last when forced by fatigue to retire at the eleventh hour, he bought two cups for one small coin and carried them home himself. Many inscriptions have been found on the Via Sacra relating to tradesmen in luxuries, particularly jewelers. While the jewelers, engravers of gems, and lapidaries had workshops on the Via Sacra, much jewelry was imported from Asia Minor and from Alexandria, Egypt, while at least some of the cups of precious stones were cut in the East. Certain provincial towns were noted for their precious wares, Aquileia, for example, for its amber object d’art, its silverware, and its gold jewelry. Some twenty years ago there was excavated in the Via dell’ Abbondanza, Pompeii, the house of one Cerialis, a jeweler of Pliny’s time. In his flight from the terrors of the eruption he doubtless took with him his finest gems but a number of precious stones and some tools were left behind in his shop. In the dining room of the house of the Vettii in Pompeii is a most amusing mural depicting all phases of the jewelry trade. The proprietor, the artisans, and the grande dame client are all cherubs, entrancingly chubby, their absurdly small wings apparently too short for long distance flight.
Roman Jewelers And Lapidaries (continued)
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