Ring of 10.67ct oval-shaped and two 6ct diamonds by JAR, est. $2.5-3.5 million at Chrisite's HK May 29 (Chrisite's Images)

One thing that sets the designs of Joel Arthur Rosenthal apart is his approach to stones. He always chooses the very best, but it’s more than that. The Bronx-born designer who became known as “JAR of Paris” proved what a designer can achieve by going against convention when it comes to cut and color.

On top of the record-size private collection up for sale in May at Christie’s Geneva, Christie’s Hong Kong just announced they’ve got a little JAR of their own. How’s this for a sparkler?

Those are all D color, flawless diamonds, of course, so you can imagine the flash that gives off. That center oval-shaped diamond is 10.67 carats and it’s flanked by two diamonds of 6.04 and 6.07.

Note the setting of blackened metal lined with accent diamonds – typical JAR. (See what I mean in the amazing diamond thread ring pictured below.) This three-diamond ring is expected to fetch between $2, 500,000 and $3,500,000 at Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels sale on May 29.

Before it left for Asia for the rest of its pre-sale tour, many got to admire it stateside last week at Christie’s New York, Rockefeller Center, where it was on display with the 18 JAR jewels from the Geneva sale.

I’m not sure where Rosenthal got the diamonds in that ring, but the New York-based diamond dealer William Goldberg & Co. has been working with him for at least 25 years. I spoke a few years ago to Saul Goldberg, before the much-publicized Ellen Barkin sale, about what it’s like working with Joel Rosenthal – and what he looks for in diamonds. “He would expect a flat, cushion cut or an unusual rose cut, a special pink or blueish-green diamond – something exotic, always exotic,” Goldberg said, adding that it’s extremely difficult to predict JAR’s taste, even after two decades.

JAR diamond thread ring from the 2006 Ellen Barkin sale (Christie's Images)

“Something I might think he would like, I could be so off base. And something I don’t think he’ll like, he loves,” Goldberg said. “My father had that relationship with him also. We thought of him for special pieces that would come along, but we could never seem to predict his taste. The tone of pink might not have been his tone of pink, or the tone of blue might be beautiful but we wants it more gray than blue.”

In terms of shape, the Goldbergs learned to avoid showing him the angular cuts that were in fashion long after Rosenthal began rejecting them. “He definitely likes flat stones, not your conventional, traditional cuts. He likes soft things – a cushion or an oval, nothing with hard edges,” Goldberg said.  “Give him a pointy stone and he’ll say, ‘Cut off the points, then show it to me.’ Or show him a pear shape and he’ll say, ‘Cut off the point at the bottom.’ He can dictate those things because it’s him. He’s the designer. He is a great artist.”

If you want to see an interesting example of the JAR approach to topaz, you can find it here. Since we’re talking rocks, let me show you a couple more of the JAR-picked beauties you’ll find at the Christie’s Geneva sale next month:

Ring of Colombian emerald, natural pearls and diamonds, 1988, est. $500-700,000 at Christie's Geneva in May (Christie's Images)

Pendant brooch of garnet, ruby and diamond by JAR, 2001, est. $170-220k at Christie's Geneva in May (Christie's Images)

Camellia flower brooch of rubies and diamonds by JAR, 2003 (Christie's Images)

Jewels for Hope will be on view at Christie’s Hong Kong April 27-28. Viewings at Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva begin May 11. Sale: 8pm, Monday, May 14.

Related posts:

Jar in full flower: 18 rare jewels on the block in May

JAR: designer jewelry as calling card

Sex and the City: the jewelry

Back on the block: JAR topaz earrings

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Like Jean-François Fichot, Carolyn Tyler and Penny Berton both found a haven and outlet for their creative expression in Bali. Both invested a chunk of their lives developing a little design industry there, and both have since retreated somewhat to their roots.

Tyler (far right) maintains a home in Santa Barbara and Berton (left) resides on Salt Spring Island, off the coast of Vancouver.

Snake earrings of 22kt gold and pearl by Penny Berton

Both did their time with the snake. Tyler’s are chunky, sensual, well-fed. Berton’s are lean, hammered, ready to pounce or slither away quickly.

Earrings of Tahitian pearls and 22kt gold by Carolyn Tyler

Penny Berton comes from gold prospectors who met up in the northern Wild West at the turn of the century. Her grandmother met her grandfather during the Gold Rush. They never found gold, but instilled their quest and restless spirit in their offspring.

Blue emerald snake necklace by Penny Berton

Two generations later, Penny found gold herself, when she wasn’t even looking. Born in Kleinburg, Ontario, she stumbled into Bali in 1976 with a pack on her back and dreams of becoming a filmmaker.

What she found instead was an ancient jewelry-making tradition and an unexpected medium for her creative visions. Berton brings to her jewelry an appreciation for ancient Chinese, Balinese and Western mythologies.  She believes in the healing properties of the gemstones and the energy in precious metals.

Spiral snake ring of opal and 22kt gold by Carolyn Tyler

Carolyn Tyler takes a similar approach to her jewelry, but while Berton’s snakes utilize a chain weaving technique familiar to us from John Hardy’s sterling designs, Tyler sticks more to the traditionally opulent granulation of classical gold work. Her snakes are less slinky and more ornamental.

Sterling snake ring by John Hardy

But I’d put either Benton’s or Tyler’s snakes up against this stylized sterling snake ring from John Hardy, the ex-pat designer that took cottage-industry jewelry-making on the island to a whole new level – and possibly lost something in the process?

By the time this ring was produced, Hardy wasn’t doing the designing any more. He sold his company in 2007. The name “John Hardy” now refers to a global jewelry business headquartered in Hong Kong, though its design center remains in Bali.

Sterling snake bracelet with amethyst eyes by Penny Berton

Related posts:

Snakes and stones: Jean-François Fichot, ex-pat designer in Bali

Carolyn Tyler: reinventing a life in Bali

Making art and jewelry on a Caribbean island

                          

Earrings of 22kt gold and peridot by Jean-François Fichot

If you’re ever in Bali, check out Treasures Gallery in Ubud where you’ll find three primary designers – Carolyn Tyler, Penny Berton, and Jean-François Fichot, who died last year but whose jewelry designs are still represented.

Together they tell the story of a generation of artists who rebelled against the pressures and conventions of Western society and set up a jewelry design haven in this Hindu-drenched tropical paradise.

Treasures is next door to Ary’s Warung, where you’re sure to stop for a bite or sip at some point. It’s the perfect place to discover the kind of jewelry you might create if you were surrounded by Balinese temples, tropical foliage, and some of the world’s best goldsmiths.

Judging from Bali’s most successful ex-pat designers, it would probably encompass unusual gemstones, ancient mythology and goldsmithing techniques – and possibly snakes.

I have yet to encounter an ex-pat designer who landed on an Indonesian island and did not, at some point, design snake jewelry. Maybe this has something to do with the ex-pat role in Paradise? Or maybe it has to do with all the actual snakes in Bali and the ever-present possibility of encountering one:

From the tale of an encounter with deadly tree snakes in Bali on The Opinionated Diner

Jean-François was among the first rebel jewelry designers to discover Bali, settling there in 1978, after graduating from L’Ecole des Beaux Arts and roaming the world for a decade. Here is his Balinese haven as I photographed it in 2000:

Garden studio of Jean-François Fichot in Bali in 2000 (photo Cathleen McCarthy)

I went to Bali that year to profile Carolyn Tyler for a magazine and met Jean-François. I’d never heard of him but, it turned out, he had preceded Carolyn by a decade. He showed me the luscious gardens he’d been cultivating for 22 years and the treasures he’d been collaborating on with goldsmiths and gem carvers on the island. Here’s Jean-François’ take on the classic snake bracelet:

Tête à Tête bracelet of 22kt gold, sterling, carved turquoise and Columbian emerald by Jean-François Fichot

One of his collaborators was a Mexican lapidary artist who showed up at the studio while I was there and introduced himself as Pedro. Pedro Michel, famous for carving nearly life-size skulls out of gem-quality material like aquamarine, is a shaman practitioner who, last I heard, was living in Tokyo. Here they are discussing a project twelve years ago:

Jean-François Fichot collaborating with gem carver Pedro Michel in Bali in 2000 (photo Cathleen McCarthy)

(You can find more of Jean-François’ work and images of his tropical gardens on his website.)

Rings of gold, sterling, rock crystal with emerald (left) and baroque pearl by Jean-François Fichot.

Around the same time Jean-François set up camp on Bali, another restless soul landed nearby – and eventually shared a showcase with him at Treasures Gallery. This one was from Toronto and her name was Penny Berton…

                          

6.01-carat (left) and 8.01-carat fancy vivid blue diamonds (Sotheby’s Hong Kong)

Both are lovely jewels – and I’m sure much lovelier in real life, the magic of diamonds being impossible to capture in still photos – but they don’t hold a candle to the most famous blues, most notably the Hope Diamond. What makes natural blue diamonds so rare and so… blue? Something very unglamorous: boron, the stuff you find in flares and nuclear reactors, not so much in diamonds.

Hope Diamond, 45.52 carats, in 1910 Cartier setting (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)

Happily for all of us, a couple of the rarest and most dazzling blue diamonds can be seen, free of charge, whenever you happen to be in Washington, D.C. And, when we’re not looking at them in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, scientists can access them, in an endless effort to explain the phenomenon of blue diamonds.

They just performed another test on the Smithsonian’s blue treasures, including the Hope Diamond and the Blue Heart, to find out exactly why blue diamonds are blue. They knew it had something to do with the presence of boron, which is extremely rare in natural diamonds. Their question this time: Does the amount of boron in a blue diamond account for its color?

Every now and then, the Hope is removed from its display case and its 1910 Cartier setting, then inserted into various high-tech apparatuses, poked, prodded, and irradiated. But somehow it always defies analysis and ends up back in its showcase, mystery intact.

Hope Diamond glows vivid red under ultraviolet light (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History))

In 2010, for example, when the Hope shared the spotlight with the Wittelsbach-Graff, both historic gems were put under the microscope and exposed to infrared light. Both glowed brilliant red under ultraviolet light – though not in quite the same way. This bizarre ability of natural blue diamonds to emit a phosphorescent, glow-in-the-dark red, even after the light is turned off, is a tool gemologists use to separate real blue diamonds from fakes. Due to its particular boron mix, the Hope turns fiery red, as you can see in the photo at left.

Other tests were performed as well. Everyone, especially Laurence Graff who had just dropped $23.4 mil on the Wittelsbach, was hoping to discover they’d been cut from the same stone. Alas, while it was clear they’d been found around the same time (mid-17th century) and in close proximity in the Golconda mines of India, the famous diamonds were not, in fact, separated at birth.

Last month, after visiting hours were over and doors carefully locked, a local jeweler removed the Hope from its setting once again and four experts – Eloise Gaillou and Jeffrey Post of the Smithsonian, Detlef Rost of the University of Manchester, and James Butler of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC – brought the Hope, the Blue Heart, and 76 other natural diamonds to the lab. One by one, they were inserted into an ion mass spectrometer which shaved off millions of atoms from tiny patches of each. These atoms were then sorted by weight. The goal: to discover how many of those atoms were boron.

Once again, the Hope glowed brilliant red under infrared light and proved to have an extremely high concentration of boron. While type Ia diamonds showed no detectable boron, natural type IIb blue diamonds such as the Hope and Blue Heart, revealed significantly higher amounts than previously reported. Not surprisingly, the Hope had the most by far: as much as 8.4 ppm in spots, compared to as little as .08 in other natural blue diamonds. And yet, the boron content of the blue diamonds did not, in the end, entirely explain the variety or depth of their color.

“The samples in this study are all gem-quality diamonds, including some Intense to Fancy-Deep blue diamonds; color intensity, however, only loosely correlates with the boron content,” reads the abstract published in American Mineralogist last month. “The exact nature of the phosphorescence processes is still not fully understood.”

When museum visitors arrived the next morning,  the scientists were back in their offices scratching their heads, while the Hope spun slowly on her carousel, as though she’d never left. Someone probably trotted around the case like I always do, following it like a nail to a magnet and emitting mews of delight. If you’ve ever seen the real thing, you know it’s nothing like looking at the photos.

The Hope Diamond in a setting designed by Harry Winston in 2010. This necklace now holds a different stone and is being offered for sale.

When I saw it last, it was out of its glitzy white-diamond Cartier setting. If you ask me, they should leave it in its unadorned, naked glory, but I guess we’re all accustomed to seeing it in that white diamond halo its been wearing for a century. They replaced that 1910 Cartier setting with a sleek Harry Winston design in 2010, but after a year on display, it’s back in its familiar setting and the Winston piece is being sold off with a different center stone, proceeds to benefit the Smithsonian.

I swear, looking at the Hope makes you feel drunk. What causes this giddy reaction? The color? The phosphorescent emissions? Scientists are pretty sure the boron content causes the phosphorescent emissions, but frankly, they just don’t know what causes that particular shade of blue. It’s officially described as “dark grayish blue” – same designation given to the Wittelsbach-Graff before Graff had it recut to “fancy deep blue.”

But while these terms mean something to gemologists, they don’t come close to capturing the reality. The Hope Diamond is the color of the ocean when you’re out really far, looking into miles and miles of water, Titanic deep. And from that dizzying blue come those full-spectrum rainbow sparkles of a really fine diamond. That is one giddy combination.

Scientific explanation? Frankly, they haven’t entirely figured it out, but you can be pretty sure they’ll keep trying. In the meantime, we all get to admire it and catch a free buzz. No admission or cocktails required.

Related posts:

Wittelsbach-Graff diamond debuts

Smithsonian jewels for the masses, courtesy QVC

Elizabeth Taylor auction and Elizabeth Taylor auction’s 12 world records

Beware of glass composite rubies

A celebration of really expensive tiaras

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With a haul of almost $116 million, the sale was the most valuable private collection of jewels sold at auction, clobbering the previous record set in Geneva in 1987 by the Duchess of Windsor’s jewels which brought $50 million. The Taylor jewelry sale also set a world record for the most valuable jewelry auction, period.

La Peregrina, top lot of the night at $11.8 million, set two world records – one for pearl jewel, breaking the record set by the Baroda Pearls ($7 mil at Christie’s NY in 2007), and another for historic pearl, previously held by La Perle Napoléon, better known as La Régente pearl (below left), which sold for $2.5 million at Christie’s Geneva in 2005. The Bonapartes claimed La Peregrina too at one point.

But there was a third pearl record set that night for the most ever paid for a pair of natural pearl ear pendants (above) designed by Bulgari. Though not as elaborately set or pedigreed as the Peregrina, those were some sweet natural pearls and they sold for just shy of $2 million.

The Bulgari emerald and diamond pendant brooch broke the 2004 record set by the Jahangir Shah Emerald at Sotheby’s London for any emerald jewel, as well as the per-carat record set this year by the Muzo emerald at Sotheby’s Geneva.

Another Bulgari number, the fancy vivid yellow diamond ring (below) broke the per-carat record for yellow diamonds set at Sotheby’s NY in 1997. Taylor’s ring sold for $962,500 ($367,366 per carat).

That Van Cleef & Arpels ruby and diamond ring I mentioned last time also broke not one but two records, topping the per-carat record set by the Graff Ruby at Christie’s St. Moritz in 2006. It was also the most ever paid at auction for any Van Cleef & Arpels jewel, a record set at Sotheby’s NY in 1989.

This was a big year for Indian jewels. Taylor’s Taj Mahal sold for $8.8 million, setting a world record for Indian jewels – but the record it broke was set only last spring at Christie’s Geneva for another interesting piece of Indian jewelry history, the Imperial Mughal spinel necklace (left), which went for $5.2 million.

It was set with spinel beads engraved with the names of emperors. Along with diamonds and emeralds, large spinel beads were favored by the Mughal emperors, who spared no expense in the search for spectacular stones. “As much as these gems were a symbol of the opulence and dignity of the empire,” the catalog states, “they were also treasured as protective talismans.”

Taylor’s Taj Mahal Diamond (right) was also engraved, and mounted on a ruby and gold chain designed by Cartier – just a little something from Richard Burton for her 40th birthday. More about that in my previous post.

You’ll notice that many of the record-setters I just listed had some kind of royal pedigree. In this country, Hollywood is where the royalty hangs – and that kind of royalty inflates auction prices far beyond any practical estimate can ever account for.

As a specialist at Christie’s told me a decade ago, after a string of record-breaking celebrity sales that began in 1999 when Marilyn Monroe’s ring from Joe DiMaggio sold for $772,000 on a high estimate of $70,000: “These sales are emotion-driven. How do you put an estimate on Marilyn Monroe’s makeup case? My solution is to estimate very low in hopes that the market will find itself. In this market, there is always more shock than disappointment.”

Related posts:

Elizabeth Taylor jewelry auction breaks five world records

Liz Taylor on the block: $100 and up

Elizabeth Taylor: jewels of a lifetime

Van Cleef & Arpels: celebrity style

Van Cleef & Arpels: glamor and invention

                          

Bidding was still going hot and heavy by 10:30 pm on December 13, 2011, at Christie's packed auction house in Rockefeller Center

Recession, where were you last night? As crowds of holiday revelers packed Rockefeller Plaza outside, with its giant blue-lit tree, carols echoing from the ice skating rink, glittering jewels were flashing on a screen a few yards away while another crowd bid with quiet intensity, applauding each exhilarating hammer price.

No evidence of constrained budgets in that standing-room only auction room last night. It was rumored that everyone seated had to make a $100,000 commitment, the rest of the madding crowd filled the overflow room. Still, it seemed at least half the purchases were being made via phone. Rumors circulated that Madeleine Albright, owner of the Read My Pins collection that’s about to land at the Denver Art Museum, was in attendance. We’ll see if any of Taylor’s brooches lands on her lapel.

Taylor was showered in jewels by several famous men – most notably her husbands, actor Richard Burton, producer Mike Todd, and singer Eddie Fisher – as well as Michael Jackson. The decade of her two marriages and tumultuous relationship with Burton produced the most treasure. Eight of last night’s top sellers – about $47 million worth – came from him, or were purchased by the two of them as a couple. Her brief marriage to Mike Todd in the 1950s, before he was killed in a plane crash, produced several million as well. And that’s just the top 10!

Some highlights from last night’s sale:

La Peregrina pearl, once owned by King Phillip II of Spain, set in Cartier necklace, sold for $11,842,500, a world record for a pearl jewel (Christie's Images)

Most astonishing price went for La Pérégrina Pearl, given to Taylor by Richard Burton in 1969, which Christie’s had estimated at $2 to $3 million. It sold last night for $11,842,500, highest price ever paid for a pearl jewel at auction.

That luscious pear-shaped pearl was originally found by an African slave on the Gulf of Panama in the 16th century, given to the administrator of the Spanish Colony in exchange for his freedom, and then to King Phillip II of Spain. It ended up in the hands of the Bonapartes, appeared in two paintings by Velazquez, and was eventually sold to an English duke.

Burton scored the famous pearl for $37,000 in 1969. After all that, it wound up in the teeth of Elizabeth Taylor’s dog. She lost the Peregrina hours after receiving it, embarked on a frantic search and eventually found her Pekingese puppy chewing on it like a bone. Remarkably, the Peregrina appears unmarred, a testament to the durability of natural pearls.

Taylor had the pearl set in a stunning necklace of pearls, rubies and diamonds designed by Al Durante of Cartier under her own very specific instructions.

Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, 33.19 carats, purchased by Burton in 1968, sold for $8.18mil (Christie's Images)

Second highest price went for the final piece sold, the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, a 33.19-carat rock worn daily by Taylor. It sold for $8,818,500 on an estimate of $3.5 million – and a world record per-carat price for colorless diamonds. When Richard Burton bought it in 1968, it was called the Krupp Diamond for its former owner, wife of a German arms manufacturer.

“I thought how perfect it would be if a nice Jewish girl like me were to own it,” Taylor once said. (She converted to Judaism in 1959, between marriages to Mike Todd and Eddie Fisher, both Jews.) She described the diamond’s “deep Asscher cuts—which are so complete and so ravishing,” as steps leading “into eternity and beyond… it sort of hums with its own beatific life.”

Taj Mahal Diamond, c. 1627, on gold and ruby chain by Cartier, sold for $8.18mil, highest price ever paid for an Indian jewel (Christie's Images)

“How many young women get a set of rubies just for doing something wholesome like swimming laps?” she once asked (referring to the Cartier suite from Mike Todd, necklace of which sold for $3,778,500 last night). “Or win a diamond ring at ping-pong with their husband?”

The “Ping Pong Ring” had tiny diamonds by Taylor’s standards but she often wore it with the humongous Krupp, jokingly holding it up when people asked to see “the diamond.”

Another famous diamond sold for the same amount as that famous rock, but this time the $8 mil+ price brought gasps. While the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond was expected to bring a few million, the unusual Indian Taj Mahal diamond was estimated at only $300-500,000.

Burton gave it to Liz when she turned 40, a heart-shaped diamond engraved with the words “Love Is Everlasting,” originally owned by the Persian emperor in the 17th century. Cartier had remounted the diamond in a chain of gold and rubies designed to resemble the old, silk cord from which the stone was originally suspended.

Ruby and diamond ring by Van Cleef & Arpels, from Burton in '68, set a record for rubies (Christie's Images)

The Burtons purchased it at Kennedy Airport while waiting for a connection. Yes, if you call ahead, you can get Cartier to meet you at an airport with their most valuable jewels – if you happen to be Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, that is. (Burton always made fun of jetsetters, but if that’s not the definition of a jetsetter, I don’t know what is.)

For all the millions Mike Todd’s diamond-and-ruby suite brought, Burton trumped his predecessor yet again (from the grave), with the 8.24ct ruby and diamond ring by Van Cleef & Arpels he gave his lady love on Christmas of 1968. It sold last night for $4,226,500, four times the estimate and a world record per-carat price for a ruby.

Related posts:

Liz Taylor on the block: $100 and up

Elizabeth Taylor: jewels of a lifetime

Van Cleef & Arpels: celebrity style

Van Cleef & Arpels: glamor and invention

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Bracelet (left) of amethysts and emeralds, c. 1937, by René Boivin, and two by Suzanne Belperron of amethysts, tourmalines and kunzite (center) and tourmalines, emeralds and peridot (Christie's Images)

[Update 11/27/11: René Boivin bracelet on the left sold for $245,756, more than expected, but Suzanne Belperron's design with green stones, far right, sold for $330,980, a record price for a Belperron bracelet and more than double the estimate. Further proof that Belperron's reputation is continuing to grow, along with the value of her jewelry.]

Bracelet on the left was designed by Juliette Moutard of Boivin around the time Suzanne Belperron created the two on the right. Moutard took over as chief designer at Boivin in 1931, the  year Belperron went out on her own, having working for Boivin since 1921. The bracelets have the characteristic bold, geometric style and unconventional materials for which the house of René Boivin became famous under Jeanne Boivin.

Suzanne Belperron and Juliette Moutard of the René Boivin were both rising design stars in the decade before World War II, after which gold and lavish gems became difficult, if not impossible, to come by – especially in occupied Paris.

Their bracelets show how similarly the two women were designing at the time, even though Belperron had left Boivin several years before. Like Moutard, Belperron’s career was launched by Jeanne Boivin, who took over the firm after her husband’s death in 1917 and continued his legacy for bold innovation. Even though the Boivin jewels created in the following decades carry his name, what you’re really seeing, for the most part, is the collective, creative genius of a small group of women.

One of the bracelets by Belperron (center) is made with amethysts, tourmalines and kunzite; the other (right) has tourmalines, emeralds, and peridot. Each is estimated to sell at Christie’s Paris on November 24 for $110,000 to $165,000. (For more about upcoming jewelry auctions, visit our auction calendar.) The Boivin bracelet is expected to bring a bit more ($137,600 to $206,400). Here’s a closer look at that one:

Gold bracelet with amethysts and emeralds by René Boivin, late 1930s (Christie's Images)

Soon after designing this piece, Juliette Moutard would abandon bold, geometric work for a more naturalistic style. Unlike Belperron, who went out on her own, Moutard stayed with Boivin for the rest of her career, well into the 1970s. Boivin’s daughter Germaine joined the firm as a designer in 1938 and took over running the company after her mother retired.

Related posts:

Women who paved the way: Jeanne Poiret Boivin

Women who paved the way: Suzanne Belperron

Women who paved the way: Jeanne Toussaint of Cartier

Jewelry & watch auctions 2011

Related products: (Buying from links on this site doesn’t cost you extra but does add a few pennies to the maintenance of this blog.)

                          

Anna Torv wearing Lorraine Schwartz earrings with more than 80 carats of carved rubies at 2011 Emmy Awards

Sofia Vergara wearing Lorraine Schwartz emerald-and-diamond earrings at 2011 Emmy Awards

Aubrey Plaza wearing Lorraine Schwartz diamond cuffs and 20-carat diamond drop earrings at 2011 Emmy Awards

Elisabeth Moss in Lorraine Schwartz bronze champagne diamond earrings (and bronzed platinum diamond ring) at 2011 Emmy Awards

For the grand finale, when was the last time you saw fire opal mixed with amethyst on the red carpet – in an over-sized matching floral set? It took Heidi Klum to pull that one off:

Heidi Klum wearing Lorraine Schwartz floral earrings of fire opal, amethyst and diamonds at 2011 Emmy Awards and...

...her matching floral ring

It’s not the first time Heidi has strolled the red carpet wearing over-sized carved gems in nature-theme jewels. Here’s what she wore in 2008:

                          

Silver lacquer box, 2011, of silver, gold powder and wood by Shinya Yamamura (ippodogallery.com)

I admit it. I’m obsessed with jewelry boxes. This is partly because my own jewelry is overflowing my current jewelry box, stashed in various velvet boxes and satin bags and getting harder and harder to find.

But I also love the idea of beautiful containers for beautiful ornaments. In a perfect world, I would have a whole collection of jewelry boxes and each would hold the jewelry that belongs in it.

In this century, wood became the standard material for jewelry boxes – and there are many stunning examples. But wood is only one option. Asprey & Garrard sell suede-lined portable jewelry cases of stamped calfskin. Bronze and carved stone containers have been around since antiquity.

What would you guess this jewelry box was made from?

Always Blooming copper jewelry box, 2008, by Ryu-Hee Kim with separate containers for each season

I bet “copper” wasn’t your first guess. Ryu-Hee Kim was an art student at Indiana University when she created this wonderful box from copper, with separate containers designed to represent all four seasons. It was intended to hold “special jewelry relating to each season.”

Gemstone has a rich history as jewelry containers go. Master lapidaries during the Renaissance carved vessels called Prunkgefasse— literally, pride- or magnificence-containers—from rare crystals from the Alps. In the 1920s, Cartier made Egyptian- and Chinese-inspired vanity cases embellished with coral, lapis, diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires.

Containers carved of translucent alabaster date to antiquity. The bible even mentions them. Here’s a more recent example:

Alabaster containers designed and carved by Susan Zalkind (alabaster.net)

Can you think of a better place to store floral-theme jewelry – or a more luscious gift box to present a special piece? No one can capture the delicate beauty of a rose like Susan Zalkind, and she does it in alabaster, of all things. The containers she carves with husband Paul Hawkins come from stone they mine themselves, and range from sleek containers inlaid with fossil fish to Susan’s specialty: milky white, semi-translucent containers adorned with hand-carved flowers.

Each flower takes hundreds of hours to carve and their delicate petals look so real, the couple keeps them under glass at craftshows. “People try to smell them,” Susan says. “Old ladies come up and pinch them.”

Hexagonal intarsia box by Nicolai Medvedev of malachite, quartz, sugilite, turquoise, fossilized dinosaur bone, and cuprite. Interior of purpleheart, walnut, cherry wood, picture agate and 18kt gold (northamericangemcarvers.com)

Like the finest Fabergé objects, Nicolai Medvedev’s intarsia boxes are painstakingly handcrafted from high-karat gold, opal, amethyst, and what the Victorians referred to as hardstone: sugilite, malachite, lapis and azurite. Each 18kt gold hinge and clasp is hand-fabricated, each stone carefully shaped. Open a lid, and a jasper landscape appears beneath.

But the fascination of these boxes are their mosaic surfaces. Raised in Russia and trained at the Art Institute of Moscow, Medvedev is a master of intarsia, the labor-intensive lapidary art that flourished in western Europe during the 18th century. The geometric patterns he favors were inspired by the carpets of his homeland, Ashkhabad, Turkmenia, a Russian city near Iran, by the inlay in Middle Asian jewelry, and by the Fabergé he first saw at The Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Related posts:

Handcrafted wood jewelry boxes

Antique Chinese hair ornaments

More work by featured artists:

Shinya Yamamura

Susan Zalkind

Nicolai Medvedev

                          

Jewelry box of Olive ash burl handcrafted by John Farrar (johnfarrardesigns.com)

New jewelry is like new love. Once acquired, it’s difficult to part with. We want to take it everywhere. We struggle to keep our hands off it. Alas, the moment comes when it must be unfastened and put away.

One option is to return the beloved jewel to its velvet box and lock it in a safe. Very smart. Infinitely better than dropping it on the dresser where your cat can play hockey with it. (I speak from experience.)

My personal choice: put the treasure where it’s easily retrieved, in a container worthy of its contents. If you collect handcrafted art jewelry, it belongs in a handcrafted art jewelry box.

Jewelry chest in purpleheart wood by Mike Mikutowski ($300, mikutowskiwoodworking.com)

Wood has become the standard material for jewelry boxes, from craftshows to Target. Today, many woodworkers and furniture designers use exotic woods our grandparents never heard of, and apply aesthetics that evolved in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Tsunami jewelry box of Brazilian cherry with birdseye maple drawer pulls by John Traeger ($225, artistrycraftedinwoodworking.com)

One of the most famous contemporary wood craftsmen is Wendell Castle – and, yes, he makes jewelry boxes. These days they look something like this:

Wendell Castle standing beside his anthropomorphic jewelry case at 2010 Design Miami/Basel (photo Lindsay Pollock)

In Wendell Castle’s hands, a jewelry box becomes contemporary sculpture. A collector of cutting-edge art jewelry couldn’t ask for a more appropriate vessel. It’s also among the most accessible objects in the repertoire of Castle, one of the most inventive furniture designers alive today. His work has been in most major American art museums from the Metropolitan to the Art Institute of Chicago.

“It’s all a question of scale,” he says of his jewelry boxes. Castle’s boxes tend to reflect the aesthetic of the tables and chairs he’s designing. Thus, if you like the lacquered cone desk- and table-legs he became famous for in the early ’80s, you’ll probably go for the piece he cheekily dubbed Late Proposal for the Rochester Convention Center in the Form of a Jewelry Box. Likewise, if you prefer his metal platforms from the ’90s, you’ll covet the mahogany and ebony boxes that seem to float mid-air, carried by a wave of textured bronze.

The one pictured above is the most recent of Castle’s jewelry boxes, and it’s just exactly to my taste. This artist’s boxes may look like sculptures, but they all conceal places to hold rings, necklaces, and brooches, with various drawers and sometimes two levels of trays. “I will never know what people do with these things after they leave my studio, whether they use them or just look at them as objects,” Castle says. “But, oh yes, they’re all fully functional.”

My thanks to Lindsay Pollock for letting me use the photo of Wendell Castle. Check out Lindsay’s wonderful blog Art Market Views.

Related posts:

Thinking outside the jewelry box

Antique Chinese hair ornaments

More work by featured artists:

John Farrar

Mike Mikutowski

John Traeger

Wendell Castle