THE INSPECTOR

When we receive any new gem or piece of jewelry from a vendor it is subjected to an exhaustive inspection.  Our quality standards are so high that on one occasion I was not particularly startled to overhear Kathleen say (speaking on the telephone), “I don’t care if it is good enough for (fill in the name of a prestigious jeweler), it’s not good enough for me!”  She was addressing faults she had found in the manufacture of a piece shipped us that made it unacceptable to us.

This sort of inspection is important to guarantee that the consumer receives the value he expects.  It has two aspects, an inspection for obvious defects in manufacture such as cracks, poor polish, flaws in gem settings and so on, and an inspection for the presence of hallmarks and trademarks.  The first may seem obvious, but jewelry retailers with little interest in anything other than price seldom seem to check the basic finished quality of the jewelry they offer.   The importance of checking for hallmarks and trademarks is a little less obvious.  Unlike most of the ‘developed world’, quality marking precious metal jewelry (stamping it ‘14K’, ‘18K’ or whatever to state its precious metal content) is optional for jewelry sold in this country.   Current U.S. metals laws allow a seller to verbally claim a precious metal content without quality marking it but they require him to trademark (state who made it) if he puts any quality mark whatsoever on it and it is shipped interstate.  Since the law is relatively vague, it is little appreciated by the buying public.   This opens the door to under karating, quality marking a piece of jewelry to overstate its gold or platinum content,  a common ‘cheat’ among those who sell ‘bargain priced jewelry.  As you might expect, cheats rarely identify their goods with a trademark, but those who buy ‘price’ goods for mass market retailers are seldom vigilant and sometimes both ignorant and trusting.  As a result, untrademarked goods are easy to find; and from time to time, those who sell them (and those who buy from them) get ‘stung’. 

A few years back a classic case erupted in California.  As it transpired, shoppers at a department store chain began to complain that their ‘14K‘ gold chains were tarnishing.  When the complaints finally became loud enough, some one of the buyers for the chain had the wit to have the gold content of the ‘14K‘ chains they were selling tested for gold content.  The test came back and the report wasn’t good.  Though the chains were marked ‘14K’ (a bit more than 58% gold), they actually tested a little less than ‘8‘ karat (33% gold, not a legal gold alloy in the U.S.).  Unsurprisingly, when department store officers went back to look for the chain manufacturer, he was ‘out of business‘; and its officers were not to be found.  A little more detective work revealed that the erstwhile chain makers had bought ‘scrap gold‘ on the open market at bargain prices, melted it down with a judicious addition of scrap brass and used this promiscuous mixture to make their chains.  As both manufacture and sales were pretty much limited to California the fraud they perpetrated was not in violation of U.S. law; and it must have been hugely profitable to the slippery fraudsters.  I don’t know, at this time, whether or not they’ve ever been arrested and prosecuted; but back when the fraud was discovered it was learned that they’d fled the country to avoid prosecution.  I’m sure they traveled first class.

Gems are quite another matter; and assessing their value is not for the uninitiated.   Usually the problem is not so much fraud as it is failure to read the fine print.  In point of fact, U.S. law is almost silent about gems; so this can leave the shopper to make his way through a dark and bewildering forest of claims and documents.  Even diamonds are not immune to misunderstanding since most consumers do not know that only a very few laboratory grading reports have consistent and reliable value; and even they have weaknesses - bringing me back to the inspector.  While internal characteristics, for example, may be cited on a laboratory report for a diamond, it may neglect to mention surface cracks.  These will affect rarity (and thus value), but if they neither affect durability nor appearance, they may not be cited on a report.  Then there are the other precious and semi-precious gems.

What do you do when a vendor ships you a ring set with an ‘amethyst’ that has a piece of purple paper behind it (to ‘enhance’ its color)?  The inspector ships it back, refuses to pay the bill and refuses to do any more business with the supplier.  The same is true when a vendor furnishes a ring with a ‘black’ opal in it that turns out to be a very white opal set against a black background.  The client must be presumed to be naive because gems are so subtle.  This makes the retailer’s inspector vital to assuring that all goods are as represented when they were first ordered to be made and before they are offered for sale.   Deceitful vendors are weeded out by the inspector and only the work of the most virtuous are offered to the client. 

We value our reputation; so when you seek enduring quality in fine jewelry you must come see us.  Check out our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com, then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment.  We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers, not a common jeweler.

The Eagle Diamond

The Eagle diamond, very likely now “deceased”, had a checkered career.   Found near the village of Eagle, Wisconsin, in 1876, it was probably an ‘immigrant’, having traveled via glacier, from one of northern Canada’s then unknown diamond deposits.  Its finder was Charles Woods, a hard scrabble tenant farmer who, having no reason to think it might be a diamond, kept it as a ‘pretty stone‘    A few years later, however, the tough farming that was his life pushed him and his wife, Clarissa, into desperate straits, and along with anything else that might fetch a few dollars it was sold to Samuel Boyton of Milwaukee (for $1.00!).  Boyton was not much impressed with the smokey yellow 16.25 carat gem he had purchased so he put it on the shelf until he was ready to travel to Chicago.  There, just to satisfy his curiosity, he had it appraised and was amazed to learn that it was, indeed, a diamond.  

Timing can be everything; and so it must have been for Sam Boyton.  Tiffany of New York had just recently made the young (23 years old) George Kunz a vice-president of the firm in recognition of his expertise as a ‘mineralogist’.  Self taught, Kunz was both a gem enthusiast and an enthusiast for all things ‘American’.  Needless to say, once Kunz heard of the diamond he had to have it for Tiffany’s collection.  A deal was struck; and Boyton pocketed $850 for what then became known as ‘The Eagle Diamond.’  Never cut, it went straight into Tiffany’s gem collection and there it remained until the early teens of the 20th century.  Always thought of as a curiosity, Tiffany finally sold the uncut gem to American financier J. P. Morgan who promptly donated it to New York’s American Museum of Natural History.  It sat there quietly for the next half century until, in 1964, it was stolen.  

In some ways it was an almost archetypical ‘60s event - beach bums, precious gems and even a movie star were all somehow involved.  A pair of 27 year olds, described as ‘surf bums’ in the newspapers (Jack Murphy, AKA ‘Murph the Surf’, and Allen Kuhn), had been inspired by a film they had seen to attempt the robbery.  The film, ‘Topkapi’, is a thriller in which the action revolves around the burglary of Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace Museum.  The home of the Ottoman Empire’s sultans until 1856, it houses a fabulous collection of gems, jewelry and art objects, a wonderful target for burglars.  As Jack and Allen saw it, there was a fortune to be made.  While they had no money and couldn’t afford the trip to Turkey, New York’s American Museum was doable; and on the night of October 29, 1964, they did it.

On the morning of the 30th the museum’s guards found that 24 gems had been stolen; and while the focus of concern was the world’s largest star sapphire (the Star of India, once owned by a heavy drinking advertising man who had kept it in his pocket), that oddity, the Eagle Diamond had also ‘flown the coup’.  The ‘case’ was soon cracked, however.

Murph and Jack weren’t that slick.  Their big spending life style and absence of visible income had already aroused the attention of Miami’s police; and on suspicion of a number of burglaries, they were arrested on Halloween.  Their ‘modus operandi’ then attracted the attention of New York’s police; but it was only a suspicion.  Released on bond in Miami, the New York Police Department’s interest in the duo became public knowledge.  This made them instant celebrities.  It was also their undoing.  Actress Eva Gabor saw their pictures in a newspaper and recognized them as the pair who had robbed her at gunpoint several months previously.  She filed a complaint; and this rattled Allen so badly that he made a deal with Manhattan’s District Attorney.  He agreed to supply information about the American Museum theft in exchange for leniency on other charges.  Information in hand, the bulk of the stolen gems, both in number and value, were recovered; but not the Eagle Diamond.  And it never has been.  While it may be hidden somewhere waiting to be found, most of the law enforcement agencies that had become involved in solving the theft think that it was probably cut into a few smaller, anonymous gems.  Sic transit gloria.

Diamonds are, of course, the most transportable pieces of wealth on the planet; and coupled with their beauty, their attraction is immediately understood.  Indeed, their rarity and beauty make them perfect gifts since they wonderfully express the love you have for another.  Not all diamonds are created equal, of course, but as your diamond experts we’ll help you purchase the gems that best speak for you.  We’ll never sell you a homely diamond; so visit us on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com for a look at our offerings then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment to select a beautiful self-expression.  We’re Hursts Berwyn Jewelers, not an ordinary jeweler.

VIRTUE IN THE WORLD ECONOMY

Saturday a young woman visiting our store asked me if I knew about the ‘Kimberly Process’.  I replied that I did and went on to demonstrate that we require all who supply diamonds to us to adhere to it.  Yet, in a way, it was an odd question, one I hadn’t heard for a few years.

Established in 2003 between diamond producing countries, diamond consuming countries, companies that process diamonds to bring them to market - as well as non-governmental human rights organizations, the goal of the Kimberly Process is to bar ‘conflict diamonds’ from the market.  It was engendered by vicious civil wars in Sierra Leone and Angola in which some of the warring factions had enslaved civilians to gather largely alluvial diamonds they then sold to finance military operations.  Though both wars had come to an end in 2002 and with their end much of the world’s concerns had subsided, the Kimberly Process institutionalized a mechanism for dealing with the problem of conflict diamonds in the future.  For this reason the 2006 release of the film ‘Blood Diamond’, and an ensuing public concern over conflict diamonds, came as a bit of a bewildering shock to the diamond business.  It was, of course, the public’s failure to understand that the film was historical in context that had engendered their alarm.  Fortunately for the diamond business, as the film disappeared from circulation the public’s anachronistic concern for conflict diamonds had subsided so completely that the young woman’s question caught me by surprise.  As a result, however, I felt compelled to look into its current state.

In large measure, and despite the currently unsettled state of both Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, it still seems to be working.  In point of fact, however, a new issue has arisen, that of re-defining ‘conflict diamonds’.  At present the Kimberly Process defines them as diamonds, produced by whatever means, used to finance rebellions against sitting governments and bans such gems from trade.   The demand for a redefinition stems from a protest of human rights abuses made by artisinal miners against the Government of Zimbabwe.  Shamiso Mitsi, speaking for the artisinal miners, pointedly declared in June that he stands for expanding the term ‘blood diamond’ to include diamonds that sitting governments mine using the coerced labor of their citizens.  Global Witness, a non-governmental watchdog group, has already resigned from the Kimberly Process over Zimbabwe’s human rights abuses; and at the June intercessional planning meeting of the Kimberly Process western European governments, with the government of the United States,  were united in supporting the re-definition of ‘conflict diamonds’ to cover all diamonds mined in a fashion abusive of human rights.   Understandably, the government of Zimbabwe lead other African and some Asian nations in resisting this change in definition.   As the meeting’s purpose had been to  lay the groundwork for the plenary session of the Kimberly Process scheduled for November, any decision on a redefinition of the term ‘conflict diamond’ will have to wait until then, and even then might not take place.  Tafadzwa Musarara, chairman of ‘Resources Exploitation Watch’, another non-governmental organization, speaking after the close of the June Kimberly Process meeting, said he felt only the United Nations could change the definition of ‘blood diamonds’.   While this may leave you a bit skeptical of the ability of the diamond business to guard its virtue, I must point out that unlike much of the much larger world of international trade, the attempt is real and it is being made.  Take oil for example, or cocoa.

About 8% of our annual oil consumption comes from Venezuela; and the government is above criticism.  Just ask Marianela Sånchez.  When, this last May, she criticized prison conditions in Venezuela, a couple of government goons kidnapped and threatened her husband; but since we like Venezuela’s oil we say little.  Or cocoa.  By Nestle’s own 2008 audit, 89% of Cote d’Ivorie’s children are employed in harvesting cocoa; but child labor or not, our sweettooths will not be denied.   The moral of these stories?  It’s hard to be virtuous in our connected world economy; but the diamond business is seriously trying - and it should.

The moral imperative for the diamond business having a ‘clean act’ is, of course, connected to the importance of a diamond as a statement of love.  It speaks love; and that voice makes its ethics important.  So feel good about buying a diamond to do the talking for you; and unless you’re an expert, come see us so we can guide you to a beautiful diamond - an eloquent voice to speak your love.  Check us out on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com, then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment.  We’ll never let you down because we care.  We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers, not a common jeweler. 

Luxury

It’s one of those things that’s relative; and perhaps a trip to the dictionary will only confuse this notion. The word, luxury, has a Latin root, ‘luxus’, meaning excess or extravagance; but even the Romans found the word slippery. ‘luxuriare’ was used by the ancient Romans to describe profuse growth, so the notion of abundance has clearly been an inherent part of any understanding of luxury for at least two millennia. Excess, extravagance, abundance - luxury - how can one consider it except as a comparative?

In the late 1940s (yes, I’m that old) family trips were often aimed at reconnecting to relatives - family - in other parts of the country; and for this city boy they were often eye opening. There were, for example, no paved roads into one of my dad’s boyhood homes, Marshfield, Missouri; and while there were paved roads into Tulsa, Oklahoma, my aunt Ellen’s home had no running water. Things were more ’luxurious’ when we visited my cousin Bob Hackett’s home in Oklahoma City - paved roads, electricity, running water, all the ‘modern’ conveniences and not that dissimilar to our family home in the Chicago area. Of course, the circumstances of  his home were luxurious when compared to those of my aunt Ellen; and the circumstances of her life were more luxurious than those of my great aunt Ophelia and my great uncle John, 90+ year old residents of Marshfield. On the other hand a comparison between my cousin BobÕs late 1940s home in Oklahoma City and your home today might illustrate the ‘profuse growth’ aspect of ‘luxuriare’.

Few, if any, Americans had air conditioned homes when we visited cousin Bob; and during our visit it never fell below 100¼ (Fahrenheit), even at night! Yet we survived; so I guess air conditioning could be considered a luxury. The ‘phones were all land lines; and in much of the U.S. you called the operator at a central switchboard to place your call; so it seems you could consider our cellular world to be one of ‘luxurious’ communications. There were a few television sets (and only a few television stations) and they were both so expensive and so impractical’ that few had one - a far cry from the entertainment luxuries we enjoy today. My point, of course, is that luxury is relative, except when it comes to luxuries with emotional content - strikingly, fine jewelry.

I have a friend who has, over the last forty years or so, become a well to do and respected figure in the world of jewelry; and one of his most treasured possessions has no obvious practical function. It is his mother’s engagement ring; and its immense value lies in its emotional importance. It connects him to a mother who passed away while he was only a child; and while this is remarkable within the context of his life, it is, very generally, the greatest value in fine jewelry. My late mother’s pearls connect my daughter to her grandmother and my late mother-in-law’s diamond wedding ring is proudly worn by one of my sisters-in-law. What other luxuries can have so enduring a value? Certainly the present demonstrates this.

Recently a couple came in to our store to have a new ring made for the diamond he had presented her twenty years ago. Like many men (particularly an engineer!), he had concentrated on the value of the diamond he purchased and paid little attention to it as a piece of jewelry. In fact, he’d done a good job in selecting it, that is, he had bought for beauty not just for weight; but it had never reflected her ebullient personality. When one of the prongs holding the diamond had failed, she’d put it in a safety deposit box and got on with her life - a daughter, a profession and more; but the ‘itch’ to wear her diamond had grown over time. With a good marriage, and the understanding that comes with it, they were ready to let her ‘finish’ her engagement ring by setting her diamond in a ring that was really hers. She looked at dozens and found nothing; but then, as more came out of our vault, she spied one that she had to put on her finger. She loved it; and after we had made her ring, she loved it more. Her husband, however, may have been the happiest. He wrote us a quick note reading (we’ve saved it with their pictures together) ‘Thank you for making my wife happy.’ Without a concrete function, perhaps the ring is a luxury; but I find it hard to acknowledge happiness as a luxury.

In fact it is the enduring emotional content of fine jewelry that lifts it far above all other luxuries and yet may make it the most practical of possessions. Should you buy a piece of fine jewelry to celebrate one of life’s momentous events or to express your love for another? Of course you should! There is nothing like it; and if you focus on the purchase of a beautiful diamond it will remain a treasured statement of your love and joy forever. So come see us here at Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers. We care about your feelings and that is our gift to you, one that few can

equal. Because we know the real value of jewelry, check out our website,

hurstsberwynjewelers.com, then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment. We have the stuff

LEGACY DIAMONDS

Perhaps a big part of jewelry’s mystique is its durability. Not a week goes by without someone approaching us with a request to “do something” with “mom’s”, “grandma’s” or “great-grandma’s” diamonds.  It’s clear that, in some way, they emotionally connect women in the present to their fore bearers; and  it doesn’t have to be a post-mortem gift.

Take, for instance, the ring a client and one of our staff worked out as a means to make use of a couple of baguette cut diamonds (diamond ‘sticks’).  They were ‘left-overs’ from a previous repurposing of some her diamonds; and they weren’t really large enough to serve as the top of a ring.  One of our staff, however, had the bright idea of making the focus of the ring’s top a baguette cut blue sapphire.  Less expensive than a diamond; it would keep a simple ring from looking too bridal - an important consideration as the client wished to give it to her “away at college” daughter.  So far so good.  Working together, the two women decided on an narrow but angular ring that would echo the shape of the diamonds; and to emphasize the gems, they decided to give the ring a very matte finish.  When the ring was finished the client liked it and the member of our staff who had guided the project loved it; all that remained was the reaction of the young woman who would receive it.  She loved it; so a successful gift, one for a lifetime connection to her mother, had been accomplished.

Then there was the family diamond a young bride-to-be wanted to wear at her wedding.  About a third of a carat (round brilliant cut), it had been her grandmother’s; but the ring it was in was worn out.  She wanted to be able to wear it at her wedding and had decided that a pendant necklace was in order.  The problem was to make the diamond look significant in a piece of neck jewelry large enough to ‘show’ with the low neckline of her wedding dress and yet versatile enough to be a continuing part of her jewelry wardrobe.  We managed this in two ways.  First, as she liked heart shapes, we designed an open, somewhat abstract heart shape.  If you can imagine it as a drawing, it would look like a heart drawn with a thick line from the point up through the notch and then the line narrowed and returned to the notch.  At the point end of the narrow line we fabricated a one-of-a-kind setting for the diamond that made it hint at being the head of an arrow; and never had the diamond looked so important!  Then we met the problem of versatility (in future wear) by fitting it with a neck chain with two attachment points.  This would allow her to vary its effective length and so be able to wear it with both open and less open necklines.  In spirit, she was able to have grandmother with her at her wedding and will be able to have her with her often in her daily life. 

A not infrequent problem is that of making use of small diamonds of different shapes in a single piece of jewelry.  So it was for a woman who approached me a few years ago.  She was very close to her niece and wanted to give her something using a mix of small round brilliant cut diamond and baguette cut  diamond ‘left overs’.  She wanted to give them to the young woman to wear at her wedding; but the problem she presented to us was complicated by the imperfect matches of the diamonds one to another.  In a ring they would have looked like something just thrown together; it would have been unprofessional.   After some consultation, the client decided to go with my recommendation that we use the diamonds to make a pair of dangling earrings.  The diamonds would be separated from one another by small lengths of white gold chain so that they would have movement and any ‘mismatch’ would not be apparent.  As earrings, of course, they would be on opposite sides of the wearer’s face and the combination of distance and motion would make the disparity in their sizes far from obvious yet capitalize on the visual interest imparted by their different shapes.  When we were finished the client was happy - and delighted to later report to us that her niece had loved them and wore them at her wedding!

There are, perhaps, three ‘morals’ to these stories.  The first is not to despair of being able to use diamonds that are currently exiled to a safety deposit box for either emotional reasons or questions of fashion.  With a little imagination, if not yours, ours, you can use them.  The second is don’t despair of using your smaller diamonds in a piece of jewelry that may cost more than such small diamonds may be valued.  If they are pretty gems (and only if they are), to do so is to overlook the fact that diamonds are, weight for weight, probably the most valuable personal possession you will ever have - 1 carat weighs only 0.2 grams!  Finally remember that diamonds are so durable that with reasonable care they can, regardless of weight or value, last very nearly forever.  If, as opposed to needing to do something with your diamonds, you are in the market for a diamond, you should put yourself in the hands of someone who is interested in the art of jewelry, not just your money.  Naturally, that means that you must see us here at Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers.  We’ll never sell you a mediocre diamond and we’ll treat the diamonds you already own with the love and respect they deserve.  Check us out on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment.  We’re not the common jeweler.

Wealth and Suicide

The price of gold is always a matter of interest in India as it annually consumes about 20% of the world’s gold production - 963 metric tonnes in 2010. In the face of negligible domestic production (Indian mines produced less than 3 metric tonnes of gold in 2010), the reasons behind Indians preference for gold lie deep in the country’s culture. Unlike the U.S., India’s culture is ancient and still predominantly rural; and within that culture gold is not just a luxury. It has long been a hedge against capricious government and crop failures; and in modern India it has become, albeit not a secure one, a hedge against inflation. In its capacity as a piece of ‘security’ it is given to brides and babies, while as a symbol of status a grain of gold is placed in the mouth of a deceased loved one. All of which brings me to the role of wealth in Indian society and the affects of a disparate distribution of wealth on the country’s rural poor. While Europe and the United States went from boom to bust over the last sixteen years, in that same interval more than a quarter of a million Indian farmers have committed suicide, often with our world’s economy as a contributory factor.  As India’s urban population has increasingly benefited from industrial growth, its wealth has grown. Increased wealth has made increased spending possible for them; so the law of supply and demand has kicked in. That is, as the supply of money (to urban Indians) has become greater, they have been able to buy more goods and services; and they have demanded them. As demand has grown, prices asked for them have grown as well in the inflation typical of growing economies. This has affected the 72% of India’s population that remains rural in a number of ways.

Both their costs of living and their aspirations for the good things in life have grown. They have become less content with a life built around subsistence farming; that is, farming principally to feed themselves - selling whatever surplus there might be for a little cash or gold. Discontent has led India’s agriculture to drift into two directions, both aimed at producing ‘cash crops‘ that would give rural Indians the wherewithal to buy what they desire.  In India’s traditional ‘grain belt’ farmers have used newly developed grains (products of the ‘green revolution‘ of the 1970s) to increase their production of some, but not all, crops. They have concentrated on cereal grains and ignored much of what had been traditionally raised to feed the family. This has left them less self sufficient than they had been in the past and newly dependent on the cash earned by their crops. In parts of India less suitable to food crops, cotton culture has reigned supreme; but of course, farming this cash crop has created an even greater exposure to the risks created bycrop failures - as well as a new risk. Both grain and cotton farmers are now more exposed to the vagaries of market prices for their products than ever before.

As savers, Indian farmers have historically guarded themselves against crop failures by hoarding gold, very often in the form of gold jewelry. In traditional India when the failure of the monsoon, on which much of India’s agriculture depends, caused crops to fail, the gold was sold. If there was enough of it to pay the cost of feeding the family until the next harvest, the family survived. The rise of cash crop farming, however, has made even a fairly modest failure of monsoon rains a potential catastrophe. In drought conditions many Indian farmers have borrowed money, using their land as security, to sink irrigation wells. Without effective laws against usury, however, usurious interest on such loans have been the rule, not the exception; and this has often led to personal disaster.  Recently, for example, there has been a case in the Indian appeals courts involving a $280 loan that ballooned, through the application of huge interest, to almost $1900. Unable to make his payments, the farmer has lost his land; so indebtedness has become impoverishment  

Then there is the market. Between failures of the monsoon and the collapse of the world market price for cotton, the current situation of India’s cotton farmers is dire. While India’s per capita GDP is a bit more than $3000 per annum, the current value of the average Indian farmer’s cotton crop is most often less than one tenth of that. This has driven many into insuperable debt; and such debt and a consequent inability to feed their families has so shamed many that they have taken their own lives. In this way India’s better than 8% annual economic growth rate has led many of India’s rural poor to suicide.

Clearly, we Americans aren’t so bad off as many of us have thought; so we should feel free to celebrate life - and what better way than with a gift of fine jewelry? It has only one purpose in life, to say what sometimes we can’t put into words. That is, a beautiful and enduring piece of fine jewelry will tell the someone you share your life with just how much you care - every day, now and forever. So check out our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment to select the perfect gift. We’ll make it easy because we care. We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers and we have the stuff of dreams waiting here for you.

1776 - 2012 Deja Vu

This July 4th we celebrate our Declaration of Independence.  It was written by rebels against king George III 236 years ago.  That's a long time; but how different were the Americans of that time from us?  In part, the answer may be found in descriptions of the jewelry they wore.

The well dressed man present at the signing of the Declaration very probably wore cuff links and decorative buckles, very often of silver, to hold his knee breeches firmly around his upper calf.  Instead of a necktie, he wore a stock at his neck and it was secured by a buckle, preferably of silver; and were he a real ‘dandy’ of the era he might well have had steel buckles on his shoes set with ‘paste’ gems.   The buttons on his clothes may have been stone, silver, gold, pinchbeck (an alloy of copper and zinc resembling gold) or pewter; and all of these wonderful metal and stone bits would have been provided by a jeweler.  A wealthy man, such as George Washington, would own a piece of high tech, a pocket watch.  Usually this would have been made in England; but interestingly enough, the watch Washington purchased in 1775 seems to have been made in Switzerland or made by a Swiss, Jean-Henri Mairet, who had been working in London at the time the watch was made (1770).   Were he just a bit more inclined to wear jewelry, he might well have had a ring, very possibly with a seal (made of stone, gold or silver), a cameo or intaglio or a gemstone such as an agate.  

Women offered much more opportunity for the jeweler’s arts.  In addition to buttons, shoe buckles and rings, necklaces of gold and silver beads were a must for well dressed women, to say nothing of earrings, bracelets, decorative girdle buckles and stay hooks and buckles   In 1776 girdles were belts and were often worn for decoration alone, not to secure clothing nor to improve a woman’s ‘shape’; stays, however, were designed to ‘shape’ the feminine form.   In the 19th century fashionistas appropriated the word used to describe a belt, ‘girdle’, to describe what had previously been called a stay.   The jeweler came into the picture as the purveyor of bejeweled buckles for girdles and bejeweled hooks and buckles to tighten stays.  A wealthy woman might have had diamonds on her many pieces of jewelry, including stay buckles and stay hooks, but as large diamonds were quite rare and expensive, it was likely that her diamonds would be small and used to accent her jewelry, quite likely intermingled with paste gems.  Oh how things have changed and yet remain familiar.  At this year’s Las Vegas Jewelry Show Kathy and I found very few buckles being shown; on the other hand all of the other types of jewelry found in the America of 200 years ago were there in abundance, as were personal luxury accoutrements unknown at the time.

Men’s jewelry has been (sadly for jewelers) simplified.  Watches have become cheap and abundant.  Cuff links are still to be seen and in Las Vegas they ranged from precious metal and gems to contemporary icons such as computer chips and baseball memorabilia.  Interestingly enough, it’s possible that one of the signers of the Declaration wore Roman coin cuff links; and you can buy similar links today.  Buckles, but sadly reduced in importance to belt buckles only, can still be found; but rings abound.  ‘New’ accoutrements for men we found in Las Vegas included writing instruments, hand crafted money clips and something a blacksmith might have made in 1776, hand crafted pocket knives.  Naturally, we have it all.

There is a little more deja vu to women’s jewelry.  With the exception of ‘stay’ accessories, the types of jewelry offered for women have remained largely as it was, with one major change.  Gemstones have become much more readily available (come check out our new ‘take’ on mother’s rings) and diamonds in particular are far more accessible than they were in 1776.  Silver has become much more available than it was then; so we brought back a remarkable collection of Italian designed silver jewelry that is breathtaking in its sophisticated concept, execution and great prices.  And though pinchbeck is gone, we have another new collection in bronze (a different gold look-alike), silver and gemstones designed in an imaginative tribute to antiquity, and again, remarkable for its reasonable pricing.    

The desire for jewelry and the persistence of jewelry concepts make it clear that if a piece of jewelry is well conceived and executed it will endure; for this reason we insist that the jewelry we present to you has been crafted to the highest standards.  If you share our passion for great jewelry, check us out on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com, then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment.  We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers, not a common jeweler.