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T h e  B i j o u x  N e w s

Issue 3,  2000


Welcome to the latest issue of The Bijoux News.  In this issue there are several exciting articles about jewelry and gemstones.  You will find,

  • Important advice about custom designed jewels for the Holiday season

  • A wonderful article about the intriguing Victorian jewels known
    as "reverse intaglios crystals"

  • Exhibits of jewelry and gold to visit during your autumn museum wanderings

  • Diamond Trivia  -  Mailing the Hope Diamond?
If you enjoy our newsletter,  please  sign up  to receive The Bijoux News on a regular basis.  Happy reading!
Arthur Anderson
Editor

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Custom Designed Jewelry for the Holidays

Summer is over!  The autumn mums and asters will soon be blooming, while school children wait for school buses.  There is a refreshing briskness in the early morning air.

With the onset of autumn,  it is time to begin thinking about custom-designed jewels for the holidays.  Now is the time to decide on a design,  acquire the needed gemstones and begin creating the jewel you will give a loved one or even yourself.  This is definitely not a project to be left to the last minute!

To help you get ahead during the busy holiday season,  we have created the following checklist of important steps to consider when creating a custom jewel.  A great custom jewel requires four critical elements:

  1. Personal Design  -  A custom jewel should be a personal expression of the wearer's personality,  lifestyle and tastes.  Give yourself time to explore design options and create a jewel that is the perfect fit.

  2. Beautiful Gemstones  -  Just the right colored gemstones and diamonds are needed for your jewel.  Work with an accredited gemologist (a diamond and gemstone expert) to find the best gemstones at a fair price.

  3. Exquisite Craftsmanship  -  Finding the right goldsmith or platinum smith to work with your design is essential.  You need a master craftsman-artist who will help you refine your design into a beautiful jewel.
The fourth essential element in creating a beautiful custom-designed jewel is Time.  You need enough time to refine your design and acquire the right gemstones.  Your goldsmith needs sufficient time to turn your design into a beautiful jewel.  Creating a custom jewel should never be rushed and can take anywhere from five to ten weeks.

There is one other important consideration.  As the holiday season approaches the availability of top quality gemstones and the very best craftsmen becomes increasingly limited.  If you hope to create a beautiful custom-designed jewel for the holidays,  you should begin no later than the first few weeks of October.

To learn more about how we work with clients to create custom jewels,  please visit our  Guide to Custom Jewelry Design.  You can also visit our Gallery of  Custom Jewelry Designs  to see some of our recent creations.

Platinum sapphire and diamond ring.

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The Story of Reverse Intaglio Crystals

By  Roger Widener and Thomas Walter
Roger Thomas Ltd.

[Editor's Note:  Reverse intaglios,  also known as Cooke crystals,  are miniature works of art that were often set in jewels during the Victorian and Edwardian eras.  Reverse intaglios consist of a miniature scene etched and painted on the reverse of a small rock crystal cabochon.  The following article is reprinted with the kind permission of the authors,  two leading connoisseurs of these "little beauties."]

For many centuries dogs,  as well as horses,  birds and other images have been portrayed in art.  And for the last hundred years,  these subjects have been immortalized on enamels as well as on crystals though a process called reverse intaglio.

This technique is said to have begun in Europe,  and the crystal process has been attributed to a Belgian artist named Emile Marius Pradier.  Some of Pradier's early pieces were signed,  which makes them particularly appealing.  Such was the beginning of a treasured art form which evolved into incredible works of art in miniature.

Around 1860,  Thomas Cooke began making crystals for Lambeth and Company in England.  The crystals gained immediate favor,  and as their popularity increased,  Cooke trained a student to assist him.  This student  - Thomas Bean -  later trained his own son and subsequently his grandson in the crystal making process.

Crystal carving and painting has always been a family enterprise and is one of the few art forms of modern times to develop in secrecy,  being passed from one generation to the next.  Yet today,  with very few artisans possessing either the knowledge or the ability to produce crystals,  the process of reverse intaglio is considered to be one of the highest art forms.

The popularity of these "little beauties" soared as the twentieth century began and they remained quite fashionable until the early 1930s.  Then came the cheap imitations of the technique produced during the 1940s and 1950s.  However,  there is no comparison between the early works of art and the later pieces.

The best way to distinguish a fine crystal is to view it with a jeweler's loupe or other ten power magnifier  -  especially from the side.  On the very good crystals you will notice the depth of the carving and the phenomenal detail:  you may also see that the crystal has slight chips which have appeared over time.  If the crystal is in its original mounting,  the age can be assessed from the background:  the earliest were done on gold foil.  As the art form developed,  the backgrounds used differed.  The foil was replaced by etched mother of pearl,  and this was succeeded by plain mother of pearl.

At one time,  the crystals were wrongfully attributed to William Essex,  an artist well known for his miniature enamel work.  Although he had no connection to the reverse intaglio process,  many people commonly refer to Essex crystals even today.  As alluded to earlier,  there are only a handful of current artists who are considered to be masters of the craft.  While these artists should in no way be discredited,  we are of the opinion that no comparison can be drawn between the nineteenth century pieces and the contemporary ones in terms of quality,  beauty and value.

The precise physical process of the reverse carved intaglio crystal is a long and tedious one.  Rock crystal,  mined in Brazil and Madagascar,  is cut with diamond saws and then ground to a perfect cabochon.  This procedure could take as many as twenty different grades of polish,  and the entire process is done by hand.  Once the stone is shaped,  the design is drawn on the reverse side of the crystal with watercolors.  The image is then etched in the piece of stone with a scribe pencil.

The engraving begins with handmade soft steel tools.  As many as 250 of these tools may be used to execute this process.  The crystal is carved with a paste made from a combination of oil and diamond dust.  When the image has been completed to the artist's satisfaction,  he begins painting the crystal.  Just as in the carving phase,  the painting is done in reverse.  Sometimes the brushes that are used have only a single hair.

The quality of a fine estate crystal far outweighs the setting.  However,  the early Victorian mountings are generally as much a work of art as the crystal itself.  These mountings are usually of 18 or 22 karat gold and totally hand crafted.  Estate pieces can range in price anywhere from $300 to $30,000 for a spectacular example.  Naturally,  the rarity,  the size and the quality of the art,  as well as the setting and the age,  of the these little beauties must be taken into account when determining the value.  We hope this small bit of information can introduce a whole new dimension to the collector and make you want to add a "little beauty" to your life.

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18kt gold and diamond earrings.

Recently we added to the Bijoux Galleries several wonderful jewels featuring  woven 22kt gold,  dazzling  sapphire and diamond rings,  a wedding band with  burnish-set sapphires  and more stunning antique pieces.  To learn what is new and exciting at Bijoux Extraordinaire,  please visit our  What's New! page.

Platinum and gold wedding band with sapphires.

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Jewelry and Gold Exhibits

This autumn sparkles with several brilliant exhibitions of jewelry,  gold and objets d'art.  Among the landmark exhibits you will enjoy are:

Kremlin Gold:  1,000 Years of Russian Gems and Jewels

Gemstone encrusted crowns,  golden icons and Faberge eggs!  This exhibit draws upon the vast treasures of the Kremlin State Museum.  It features over 120 beautiful jewels and objets d'art created by master Russian goldsmiths during the past 16 centuries.

The exhibit features two Faberge eggs commissioned by Czar Nicholas II as gifts for his wife,  Alexandra.  One egg celebrates the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad in 1900.  The other egg features a miniature replica of the Czar's yacht,  The Standart.  The yacht sails on a sea of carved-quartz waves and the egg is set with over 1,700 diamonds

Where:   The Field Museum,  Chicago
When:     October 21, 2000  through  March 30, 2001
URL:      http://www.fieldmuseum.org

Gold of the Nomads,  Scythian Treasures from the Ancient Ukraine

The Scythians were a fierce,  nomadic people who roamed the vast grasslands of Eurasia from the 7th to 3rd centuries B.C.  They created and acquired incredibly beautiful gold objects and believed that these treasures would accompany their leaders to the afterlife.  Among the objects excavated from the many Scythian burial mounds are some of the most beautiful golden jewels,  headdresses and ritual objects of the ancient world.

Dominating an area stretching from the Black Sea to Mongolia,  the Scythians were influenced by and patronized the arts of ancient Greece,  the Near East and Central Asia.  The exhibition features over 170 treasures drawn from the collections of several Ukrainian museums.  Many of these objects have never before been seen in the United States.

Where:   Brooklyn Museum of Art
When:     October 27, 2000  through  January 21, 2001
URL:      http://www.brooklynart.org

Gold of the Nomads will also appear at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City and the Grand Palais in Paris during 2001.

Palace of Gold and Light

Imperial jewels and treasures from the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.  The Topkapi Palace was the royal home of the Ottoman Sultans during the 15th through the 19th centuries.  Among the treasures exhibited are the jewel encrusted Topkapi dagger  (circa 1750)  and an exquisite 16th century throne crafted for Suleyman I  (reigned 1520 - 1566)  out of ebony and ivory with mother-of-pearl inlay.

This exhibit has received rave reviews.  Stephen Kinzer,  of the New York Times,  enthused that the "beautiful art and artifacts comprise one of the most ambitious exhibitions of Ottoman treasures ever assembled."

Where:   Museum of Art,  Fort Lauderdale
When:     October 15, 2000  through  February 28, 2001
URL:      http://www.museumofart.org/

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Platinum engagement ring and wedding band with diamonds.

Diamond and Gemstone Trivia

How many 1-carat diamonds can you send for a  33¢  first class postage stamp?

A.  For 33 cents you can send just over 140 1-carat diamonds.  That's truly first class mail!

What is the most valuable diamond ever sent by US mail?

A.  In November,  1958 the Hope diamond was donated to the Smithsonian Institution.  The donor sent the  45.5 carat diamond from New York to Washington,  D.C. via registered mail.  The package weighed 61 ounces and the total shipping charges were $145.29  -  $2.44 for postage and  $142.85 for  $1 million of insurance.

Many of the custom jewels we create at Bijoux Extraordinaire and the diamonds we broker for out-of-town clients are sent by insured,  registered mail.  After all,  if it is good enough for the Hope diamond,  it is good enough for Bijoux Extraordinaire!

Ideal-cut diamonds set in a custom 18kt gold and platinum ring.

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Thank you for reading The Bijoux News.  If you have any suggestions,  questions,  please send  Art Anderson,  the editor,  an e-mail.

Please feel free to share this newsletter with your friends or to make copies for your personal use.  However,  no part of this newsletter is to be used for commercial or other purposes without the express written consent of Bijoux Extraordinaire, Ltd.

Other issues of The Bijoux News can be found the  Bijoux News Archive.


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