Historic stones rule the day at Christie's

source : nationaljewelernetwork.com
April 23, 2010

Legend has it that the Archduke Maximilian, who once ruled as emperor of Mexico at the urging of Napoleon III, had the Emperor Maximilian Diamond in a pouch around his neck when he was executed by a firing squad. The 39.55-carat cushion-cut stone sold for $1.76 million at Christie's on Thursday.

New York--Two stones with colorful histories sold above their estimates Thursday at Christie's "Jewels: the New York Sale."

According to a news release issued by the auction house, a private U.S. buyer paid $1.76 million for the 39.55-carat, I color Emperor Maximilian Diamond, which was estimated to fetch between $1 million and $1.5 million.

The cushion-cut stone has a long and interesting history, having once been owned by the Archduke Maximilian, who ruled as emperor of Mexico at the insistence of Napoleon III but was later executed. It is believed that he was wearing the diamond around his neck when he faced the firing squad.

After passing through a number of owners, the stone fell into the hands of diamantaire Laurence Graff, who bought it at Christie's in 1982 and sold it to Imelda Marcos, widow of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. ...

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Black Diamonds

What are Black Diamonds, as seen in most jewelry?

Black diamonds are typically enhanced. Black diamonds are genuine diamonds treated with radiation to make their color appear black. Under normal lighting conditions the color enhanced black diamond looks black. However, it is actually very dark green. To observe the very dark green color, a fiber-optic light source can be placed near a thin edge of the diamond (such as the girdle or culet). This allows the light to illuminate some of the interior of the stone. The very dark green color that becomes visible is commonly seen in enhanced black diamonds. The very dark green color that is seen is never seen in natural diamonds. It is a result of radiation treatment.

Famous Black Diamonds

The Black Orloff

The Black Orloff (Orlov) cushion cut diamond (shown left) which still weighs in at a very respectable 67.50 carats. It is reported to have belonged to a nineteenth-century shrine near Pondicherry, India, and to have weighed 195 carats in the rough. Set in a diamond and platinum necklace, the Black Orloff has been widely exhibited. In 1969, the stone was sold for $300,000. It was resold in 1990 at Sothebys for $99,000. Also called the Eye of Brahma Diamond. The diamond is currently owned by Dennis Petimezas, a diamond dealer from Pennsylvania who bought the diamond for an unspecified sum in 2005.

"The Gruosi" Black Diamond

Upon creating amazing black diamond jewelry for his luxury jewelry house de Grisogono, chairman and founder Fawaz Gruosi enjoys a special place in diamond history: he is credited with popularizing the fascination with black diamonds in 1996 - a fascination that continues today.

He also had a rare opportunity - a rare opportunity even for a grand jeweler like himself: he got to name a diamond. Naming a diamond is something reserved only for original buyers of a rough diamond. The de Grisogono founder chose the name "The Gruosi" for the incredible 115.34-carat black diamond. In fact, Fawaz Gruosi has actually been involved in naming two diamonds - the other being the 312.24-carat "The Spirit of Grisogono," also a black diamond with the famous Swiss jeweler Mr. de Grisogono. These two black diamonds are the two largest black diamonds in the world.

sources : generousgems.com,blackdiamonds.co.uk,vialuxe.com

Famous Emeralds

Gachala Emerald (origin: Colombia)
The Gachala Emerald is an uncut 5-cm emerald crystal weighing 858 carats (172 g). The stone was found in 1967 at Vega de San Juan mine in Colombia and is named after the mining district where it was discovered. Now in the United States, it was donated to the Smithsonian Institution by the New York jeweler, Harry Winston.



Chalk Emerald (origin: Colombia)
The Chalk Emerald is a 37.82 carats (7.56 g) Colombian emerald.

It originally weighed 38.40 carats (7.68 g), but was recut and set in a ring, where it is surrounded by sixty pear-shaped diamonds (totalling 15 carats (3.0 g), by Harry Winston Inc. The ring is housed in the National Gem and Mineral Collection at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in the United States and was donated to the museum by Mr. and Mrs. O. Roy Chalk in 1972.

Duke of Devonshire Emerald (origin: Colombia)

The Duke of Devonshire Emerald gets its name from the 6th Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish, who according to one version, received the enormous gemstone as a gift from the first emperor of Brazil, Don Pedro I, the son of King John VI of Portugal, but according to a second version purchased the gemstone from the emperor.

The Duke of Devonshire Emerald is a terminated hexagonal-shaped crystal discovered from the mines of Muzo, Santa Fe de Bogota, in Colombia, reputed to be the premier source of the world's finest emeralds. It is an exceptional deep-green emerald, with perfect transparency in certain areas, but heavily flawed in other areas. The emerald that measures 5 cm across the pinacoid also has a height of about 5 cm, and weighs 1,383.95 carats. The emerald had a reputation as the largest and finest uncut emerald in existence.

Mackay Emerald
The stunning 167.97-carat Mackay Emerald was mined in Muzo, Columbia. The largest cut emerald in the National Gem Collection, it is set in an Art Deco diamond and platinum necklace designed by Cartier Inc. In 1931, Clarence H. Mackay presented the necklace as a wedding gift to his wife, Anna Case, a prima donna of the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1909 to 1920. The piece was donated to the Smithsonian Institute by Mrs. Anna Case Mackay in 1984. Source: The National Gem Collection by Jeffrey E. Post.

QVC, Smithsonian partnering on jewelry line

April 09, 2010 Washington--In what may seem like an unusual pairing, multichannel retailer QVC is teaming up with the Smithsonian Institute to create a line of fashion jewelry inspired by the museum's collection of iconic pieces.

In a news release issued Friday, the Washington, D.C.-based Smithsonian, the world's largest museum and research complex, announced it was entering into a licensing agreement with QVC to offer a jewelry collection based on objects in the National Gem and Mineral Collection, which is part of the National Museum of Natural History. The QVC-Smithsonian collection is expected to launch this fall.

The National Gem and Mineral Collection contains more than 375,000 individual specimens, and counts among its ranks world-famous pieces such as the blue Hope Diamond and the Marie Antoinette Earrings, as well as a research and mineral collection used by scientists around the world, the release states.

The line with QVC will include earrings, rings, bracelets, pins and brooches, as well as replicas of pieces in the museum's collection.

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De Beers' 'Millenium Blue' sells for $6 million

April 08, 2010

Hong Kong--A 5.16-carat fancy vivid blue diamond, once part of De Beers' Millennium Jewels Collection, sold for $6.4 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong on Wednesday, as diamonds continued to show strength in the auction market.

According to a news release from the auction house, Moussaieff of London emerged as the winning bidder for the pear-shaped diamond, which sold for well over its estimated sale price of $4.1 million to $5.1 million following "intense" bidding.

The sought-after stone was once one of the 11 blue diamonds in the Millennium Jewels Collection, a group of rare diamonds selected by Andrew Coxon, president of the De Beers Institute of Diamonds, to mark the turn of the millennium.

Wednesday's sale of the 5.16-carat millennium blue marks the first time one of these stones has been put up for sale since the diamonds were placed with private collectors in 2000.

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Etruscan-inspired gold exhibit sets sail for U.S.

April 08, 2010
Gold jewelry from Italian master goldsmith Akelo, such as the necklace above, will be on display in a new exhibit opening June 5 in Columbia, Mo.

Columbia, Mo.--Ancient Etruscan-inspired gold jewelry designs will be featured this summer in a first-ever museum exhibition from Italian master goldsmith Andrea Cagnetti, also known as "Akelo."

The exhibition, "The Voyage of a Contemporary Italian Goldsmith in the Classical World: Golden Treasures by Akelo," was conceived and organized by the Museum of Art and Archeology at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo., and will open to the public there on June 5.

Akelo creates one-of-a-kind pieces of 22-karat gold jewelry and precious golden objects inspired by the gold designs of the ancient Etruscans, who were known for their fantastic artistry and craftsmanship. The goldsmith's work is based on myths, legends and symbols derived from ancient worlds, which is then rendered in gold via a knowledge of alchemy that is the result of years of in-depth study of ancient and medieval texts.

The exhibition "concentrates on the artist's voyage and ultimate transcendence of the Etruscan, Greek and Roman influences that inspire him as an artist," Mary Pixley, museum curator and exhibition organizer, said in a media release. "Unparalleled technical perfection is married with a timeless classicizing language and the artist's own aesthetic sensibility in Akelo's golden creations."

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World's most famous 'unseen' diamond

By Jane O'Brien
BBC News, Washington

The room was dimly lit. Armed guards stood at both entrances and enormous ironclad doors were slid shut to seal the gallery.

Nobody spoke above a whisper as we waited for the first glimpse in half a century of one of the world's most extraordinary gems.

The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond was last seen in public at the 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels. After that, it disappeared and its whereabouts remained a mystery until Laurence Graff, a billionaire diamond dealer, bought it at auction in 2008, appending his surname.

He and his son Francois were in the gallery of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC as the blue stone, was brought up from a secret vault and finally revealed.

Flawless beauty

"I've been privileged over the years to own some of the world's most important and famous diamonds, but I would say that the Wittelsbach-Graff is the most valuable and the most beautiful," he said.

Sitting unadorned on a silken white cloth, it glittered grey and blue in the low light. Classed as "internally flawless" it is said to have exceptional colour and becomes intense orange when viewed under ultraviolet light.

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News : Christie's Auctions Two Huge Gems

March 26, 2010, jewelry.com

It's auction time again. See the two stunning stones that are causing a stir this time around.

Jewelry lovers may not be able to afford the gems and jewels offered for sale at big auction houses like Christie's and Sotheby's, but we can certainly gawk at the incredible display from afar. To that end, we give you two stunning pieces on the block for the upcoming Christie's New York sale on April 22^nd: The Catherine the Great Emerald and The Emperor Maximilian Diamond.

The first stone comes in the guise of a large emerald and diamond brooch once worn by one of the world's most powerful and ruthless female leaders, Catherine II of Russia. The hexagonal-cut stone weighs between 60 and 70 carats and is surrounded by rose and old mine-cut diamonds. The estimated price for this little beauty clocks in at around $1 to $1.5 million.

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Jewelry Magazine : Ross-Simons Gets Busy with Two New Titles

Apr 18, 2006 6:48 PM , By Jim Tierney and John Fischer

Cranston, RI-based jeweler and décor merchant Ross-Simons has launched two new titles. Last month it mailed Via, which sells fashion-forward jewelry. And this month it introduced Global Treasures, specializing in jewelry and gifts from around the world.

Via mailed in early March to 1.1 million customers and prospects, primarily women 30-50 years old who have an average annual income of $60,000. This audience is both younger and less affluent than the typical Ross-Simons customer, a 58-year-old woman with an average income of $120,000-$150,000. " identified a new customer segment that we werent capturing," says Ross-Simons director of merchandising Patricia Ginesky.

Ginesky describes Via as 'chic, trendy, stylish, edgy, teetering on a little sexy!'.With items such as Italian gold hoop earrings for $275 and multistoned necklaces from $225 to $395, Via moves away from Ross-Simons's more traditional, conservative offerings of cultured pearl bracelets and rainbow butterfly pins.

Ross-Simons dropped 865,000 copies of its other new title, Global Treasures, this month. It plans to follow up in mid-May with a mailing of 735,000. So far the book is going primarily to customers, says senior marketing director John Buleza. Items range from hammered-silver cuff bracelets from Israel that sell for $127.50 to a pink-tourmaline-and-diamond necklace from India for $2,995. A smattering of non-jewelry items for travelers are also included, such as a $299.95 cashmere travel kit that includes a throw, a pillow cover, socks, and an eye mask.

At the same time it launched the titles, Ross-Simons also killed two others: Gift Book Digest and Fashion Preview.

source : http://multichannelmerchant.com/mcmweekly/Ross-Simons_new_04182006/