(via YouTube) Zubin Mehta is one of the world's greatest conductors + I love his music.
Zubin Mehta Talks to Charlie Rose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B0DWvyECig
On the beautiful Blue Danube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4rUaITuXSg
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Sapphire Mining In Sri Lanka
(via YouTube) White Sapphire Mining and Cutting @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCz1bQ1_CDs
I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed it.
Jonathan Glancey
Good Designs: (via The Guardian) Jonathan Glancey's Classics of everyday design.
Classics of everyday design No 32
Classics of everyday design No 33
Classics of everyday design No 34
I enjoyed it.
Classics of everyday design No 32
Classics of everyday design No 33
Classics of everyday design No 34
I enjoyed it.
Rare Van Gogh On Display In Amsterdam
Toby Sterling writes about a never-before-exhibited painting by the troubled Dutch genius + other viewpoints @ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071102/ap_en_ot/art_van_gogh
Who Was the Real Artemisia?
Ann Landi writes about 'Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi: Father and Daughter Painters in Baroque Italy' +Artemisia's unique position as a supremely talented female artist of the 17th century+ other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1063
The Trihedrally Faceted Diamond Point
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Additional faceting was not necessarily a sign of increasing skill or experience on the part of the cutters, but was forced on them by the irregularities of the rough. One of these, the trisoctahedron, is rarely, if ever, fully developed in the natural rough, but many octahdedrons have one or two faces shaped according to the trisoctahedral distribution of faces; others again have a ‘hexoctahedral design’. Both these types were imitated by very early cutters.
There are in the literature very few examples of trihedral faceting of Point Cuts, and I have found only two: ‘a cutt with diverse triangles’ in the 1587 inventory of the jewels belonging to Queen Elizabeth I of England, and ‘ein facet Steinen pointe mit dray Facetten ab jeder Seit’ in a Prussian document dated 1677, to do with the Orange inheritance. Several Point Cuts of this type have been illustrated, but with no comment on the additional faceting. Two perfectly square trisoctahedrally faceted Point Cut diamonds in pendants from the collection of Duchess Anna of Bavaria were painted by Hans Mielich.
Additional faceting was not necessarily a sign of increasing skill or experience on the part of the cutters, but was forced on them by the irregularities of the rough. One of these, the trisoctahedron, is rarely, if ever, fully developed in the natural rough, but many octahdedrons have one or two faces shaped according to the trisoctahedral distribution of faces; others again have a ‘hexoctahedral design’. Both these types were imitated by very early cutters.
There are in the literature very few examples of trihedral faceting of Point Cuts, and I have found only two: ‘a cutt with diverse triangles’ in the 1587 inventory of the jewels belonging to Queen Elizabeth I of England, and ‘ein facet Steinen pointe mit dray Facetten ab jeder Seit’ in a Prussian document dated 1677, to do with the Orange inheritance. Several Point Cuts of this type have been illustrated, but with no comment on the additional faceting. Two perfectly square trisoctahedrally faceted Point Cut diamonds in pendants from the collection of Duchess Anna of Bavaria were painted by Hans Mielich.
Roman Jewelers And Lapidaries
(via Roman Book On Precious Stones: 1950) Sydney H Ball writes:
We must add a link with today, our friend the pawnbroker. Menander, an early writer of comedies (born 342 B.C) in his Arbitration, referring to the ring of one of his characters, states: ‘Or he may have been at dice and put the ring up as a stake: or perhaps he owed some debt and had no cash, and so paid with the ring. Hundreds of things like that happen at drinking bouts.’ Martial (86 A.D) describes a young Roman blade, faultlessly attired, seated in his sedan chair and accompanied by clerks and pages, who had just pledged a ring at Claudius, the usurer’s for eight sestertii to pay for his supper.’ Juvenal describes the spendthrift who, having used up his patrimony, has only his ring left:
‘At length when nought remains a meal to bring,
The last poor shift, off comes the knightly ring.’
Other’s pawned their plate. In Ptolemic time in Egypt an unfortunate importunes his friend, ‘Now please redeem my property from Sarapion. It is pledged for two minae.’ After stating that the interest is partly paid, he lists the property pawned. Two bracelets were also pawned with another pawnbroker, one Onetor.
Trogus Pompeius states that his father in the time of Julius Ceasar had as keeper of his cabinet of jewels (libertus a dactyliotheca Caesaris) one Julius Philargyrus. Hadrian also placed his large and valuable collection of jewels in charge of a dactyliotheca Caesaris; this collection was later sold by Marcus Aurelius (121-180 A.D) at public auction to more than successfully defray the cost of the war with the Marcomanni. Nor were gem collections confined to royalty as those of Maecenas and others show. Indeed as a patron of gem engravers and lovers, Maecenas was the Lorenzo de Medici of his time. The rich had a slave to see that the banquet guests did not pry the gems from the gold drinking cups which were used only on ceremonial occasions. All the emperors from Augustus to the later emperors and, we may add, their wives, had goldsmiths attached to their household staffs.
We must add a link with today, our friend the pawnbroker. Menander, an early writer of comedies (born 342 B.C) in his Arbitration, referring to the ring of one of his characters, states: ‘Or he may have been at dice and put the ring up as a stake: or perhaps he owed some debt and had no cash, and so paid with the ring. Hundreds of things like that happen at drinking bouts.’ Martial (86 A.D) describes a young Roman blade, faultlessly attired, seated in his sedan chair and accompanied by clerks and pages, who had just pledged a ring at Claudius, the usurer’s for eight sestertii to pay for his supper.’ Juvenal describes the spendthrift who, having used up his patrimony, has only his ring left:
‘At length when nought remains a meal to bring,
The last poor shift, off comes the knightly ring.’
Other’s pawned their plate. In Ptolemic time in Egypt an unfortunate importunes his friend, ‘Now please redeem my property from Sarapion. It is pledged for two minae.’ After stating that the interest is partly paid, he lists the property pawned. Two bracelets were also pawned with another pawnbroker, one Onetor.
Trogus Pompeius states that his father in the time of Julius Ceasar had as keeper of his cabinet of jewels (libertus a dactyliotheca Caesaris) one Julius Philargyrus. Hadrian also placed his large and valuable collection of jewels in charge of a dactyliotheca Caesaris; this collection was later sold by Marcus Aurelius (121-180 A.D) at public auction to more than successfully defray the cost of the war with the Marcomanni. Nor were gem collections confined to royalty as those of Maecenas and others show. Indeed as a patron of gem engravers and lovers, Maecenas was the Lorenzo de Medici of his time. The rich had a slave to see that the banquet guests did not pry the gems from the gold drinking cups which were used only on ceremonial occasions. All the emperors from Augustus to the later emperors and, we may add, their wives, had goldsmiths attached to their household staffs.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Prejudice
Andrea Ravano writes:
Einstein said 'it is easier to break the atom than prejudice' and the same goes for the markets. Prejudice is your worst enemy. The lack of clarity when analyzing data, or your inability to understand the nature of the ever changing cycles, will lead you directly on to the wrong side of the trade.
Andrea Ravano was writing about the cyclical patterns in the stock markets. In my view, it's true in the gem and jewelry markets. There are many desires that make up the complexities of human nature regardless of our culture. People who are looking for shortcuts to make money without hardwork may be in for the mother-of-all surprises.
Einstein said 'it is easier to break the atom than prejudice' and the same goes for the markets. Prejudice is your worst enemy. The lack of clarity when analyzing data, or your inability to understand the nature of the ever changing cycles, will lead you directly on to the wrong side of the trade.
Andrea Ravano was writing about the cyclical patterns in the stock markets. In my view, it's true in the gem and jewelry markets. There are many desires that make up the complexities of human nature regardless of our culture. People who are looking for shortcuts to make money without hardwork may be in for the mother-of-all surprises.
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