Conversations

An older gentleman walked into our store, introduced himself and then started to talk about himself.  “I lost my dog a few weeks ago,” he said.  “She was my pal for 17 years.  She went everywhere with me.”  Having lost a 17 year old pet myself just before Valentine’s Day, I commiserated with him.   He turned to me and went on, “You know my wife,” he gave me her name and went on to say, “She’s in here all the time.   We’ve kind of drifted apart over the last few years and I want to tell her how much I love her still.  I want to buy her a ring.  We didn’t have any money when we first were married, so I couldn’t afford one.  I want to buy her a ring today.”  We had to talk a little more.  I asked him what her day was like.  “She doesn’t work.  She likes to cook a lot.”  I asked him to tell me a little more about her and he did the best he could.  “She isn’t a jewelry person.  She doesn’t really like fancy things.”  Somehow that didn’t quite fit with the notion that “She’s in here all the time;” but it was clear that the man was troubled about his inability to express his feelings for her to his wife.  Listening to him I’d come to the conclusion that when he said “a ring” there was only one ring on his mind, a diamond ring.  Beyond that, it was clear that the death of his pet had him reviewing all of his emotional attachments and he’d come to believe that recently he’d not invested enough of himself in her; he hadn’t made it clear just how much he loved her.  So I decided that there was only one kind of ring that would convey his message to her, a diamond wedding ring.  I showed him two.   Pointing to one of them, he said, “That looks more like her.”  Then he pulled out a cashier’s check he’d had prepared and gave me a credit card for the balance.  We gift wrapped it; and since I’ve not seen either him nor her since, I guess his message was loud and clear.

As I write, Kathy is in the middle of another conversation.  One of her clients has been trying to pick out exactly the right diamond to propose with.   While it has become clear to him that we just won’t sell “ugly” diamonds, it has also become clear to him that he wants the diamond he gives her to make a statement.   While the color of the diamond has some importance for him, its “purity” is of paramount importance.  As a sometimes eavesdropper, I am pretty sure he wants the diamond he selects to speak for him, to tell her how rare she is and how important she is to him.   So he has only been interested in extremely rare diamonds, those that have been laboratory graded “internally flawless”.   As Kathy is good at understanding us inarticulate men, she seems to understand his needs; and with the diamond settled, she’s now in pursuit of the ring itself.  He has told Kathy that the woman he will propose to has an eye for detail, so the search has become focused on a ring that is both detailed and “uncommon”.  In a word, the ring has to be rare as well.   The design must be striking, the small diamonds in it must match the center diamond he has chosen and it must be platinum. 

The need to speak with jewelry isn’t that uncommon.  Two weeks ago a different man walked into our store and said to Kathy, “I need an ‘I’m sorry gift’”.   She asked, “A big ‘I’m sorry’ or a little ‘I’m sorry’?   “A  big one,” he answered; so Kathy interviewed him about her (not his sin) in order to make sure the gift would be appropriate to the woman receiving it.  Fifteen minutes later he’d made his selection and left.  The point of these three stories?  Fine jewelry does “talk”.  It speaks for us when words alone are too weak, when only clear and understandable action will have the durable emotional content we need in our conversations with those we love. 

All three men purchased one of our hand selected diamonds.  Its perfect beauty said it all.  Think about it.  When you give someone a diamond of clear recognizable beauty it thrills all who see it.   That’s a strong statement - an “I love you” louder than the loudest shout, yet you won’t have to say a word.  So let our diamonds and fine diamond Jewelry do the talking for you.  Check out our collection on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then come in and let us help you fine tune the statement you want to make.  Phone us at 708.788.0880 for our hours and any other information you may need; after all, we’re not the common jeweler

THE HOLE IN THE MIDDLE OF GRANDMA’S DIAMOND

If not grandma’s, then some other diamond you’ve seen; and perhaps you’ve wondered why it was there.  The answer is simple; and I first heard it in a story told by a much older acquaintance.  In the early 1920s he was about 12 years old; and one day his father brought him along to “help” him buy his mother a diamond ring at a jeweler in his home town, Cincinnati.  The jeweler showed his father several diamonds and one of them was unique by virtue of what appeared to be a hole in its center.  When the youth asked about the “hole”, the jeweler replied that there was no hole, that he was looking through the diamond’s culet and its purpose was to let light into the diamond.  Apparently this answer satisfied both the youth and his father as the diamond was purchased and became a treasured family heirloom.  The youth of that time became a man, a father, a grandfather, a great grandfather and passed away about fifteen years ago; and throughout the several years I knew him, I never felt the need to give him the rest of the answer about the hole in his mother’s diamond.  Here it is now.  

It’s true that the diamond’s culet, the flat cut at the diamond’s pointed bottom, was so large in order to let light into it.  Without it, given the diamond’s other poor proportions, it would have looked dark and lacked brilliance.  In the trade, such diamonds are often called “nail-heads”.  Cut to better proportions, the diamond would have had a much smaller, perhaps invisible, culet and it would have been brighter; but it would have weighed less, and weight sells.  Indeed, weight was, and is, so obviously important to the average diamond buyer that for more than a century most diamond cutters have been paid for the weight they retain from the rough while cutting and polishing a diamond.  Let beauty take the hindmost!  Fancy diamond cuts; that is, shapes other than the round brilliant cut?  Usually they have originated out of a desire to save weight from the rough. 

Take the marquise for example.  It was developed in 18th century France (to save weight) and originally named the “navette”.  Navette, however, just had no marketing pizzaz; so when Louis XV gave one to his mistress, the French jewelers seized on the opportunity.  The humble navette became the prestigious “marquise”, a name associated with a noble rank less than a duke but greater than a count.  Sales of diamond navettes, oops, make that diamond marquise, to the courtiers at Versailles soared!  Don’t chuckle over that too quickly.  In our own time a square, brilliant cut diamond (again developed as a way to save the rough’s weight when cutting it) has been very successfully marketed as the “princess cut”; and everyone knows a princess is more important than a marquise.  

It’s more brilliant than and sparkles more than the older square cut diamonds that preceded it; and since it is less wasteful to cut than an ideally proportioned round, brilliant cut diamond, it is usually considerably cheaper than a round brilliant cut of exactly the same weight, color and clarity.  Nothing is free, however; the princess cut sacrifices brilliance and the appearance of size for its weight.  Yes, even though you may find princess cuts out there with laboratory reports that describe their cutting as “Ideal”; none of them is as brilliant as the best cut round diamond.   Indeed, at this writing the very most beautifully cut princess cuts generally return only 62% of the light that enters them to the viewer’s eyes.  By contrast, a round brilliant cut diamond cut to the very highest standards that may currently be achieved returns a bit more than 98%.  This is tremendously important as light performance is the heart and soul of the diamond “shine” beloved by diamond fanciers.   Don’t be confused by the term “ideal”.  It is relative to the style of the cut and cannot be meaningfully used to compare the light performance of two different diamond cutting plans.    My word of advice on buying a diamond?   Don’t buy one without looking at it; I won’t.  Oh!  If you have grandma’s diamond and you don’t like the “hole” in it, bring it in and we’ll re-cut it for maximum beauty.

There are square and modified square shapes on the market that have more sparkle than a princess cut; so if it’s a square you must have, come see us.  We’ll lead you to brilliance brilliantly.  In diamonds, cutting equates directly to beauty; and  we insist on diamonds cut for beauty.   Think about that.  Diamond color and clarity - rarity factors that affect price - can seldom be seen in any meaningful sense outside of the laboratory; while perfection in cut is immediately obvious to everyone.  There is no choice.  If you want to pay her the greatest compliment and words fail you, there is no better way to say, “I love you,” than with a gift of perfect beauty.    She’ll love and treasure it forever!   We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers, an uncommon jeweler.  Check us out on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment that will answer your desires perfectly.

Jewelry Allergy

When we were in Las Vegas (attending trade shows) a couple of weeks ago part of our mission was to find hypoallergenic earring posts and a relatively inexpensive hypoallergenic clasp for a pearl bracelet.  The search proved harder than it first appeared to be.  In large measure this probably stems from the fact that the metals used in jewelry are largely hypoallergenic.  This doesn’t mean that they are absolutely hypoallergenic; in the absence of any U.S. Government standards for the term, the expression ‘hypoallergenic’ has come to rest on a broad understanding that a metal called hypoallergenic is not likely to cause an allergic reaction.  In other words, most people will not be allergic to it, but some may.  Spare your indignation if you believe you suffer from a metal allergy and read on.

In my experience, most people who complain of metal allergies have, in fact, reacted to soap built up on earrings or inside rings or chains.  If you are not up on your chemistry, allow me to explain how this may be so.  Virtually all soaps are alkalis; that is, they are soluble bases.  They clean your skin by attacking it, literally ‘burning off’ the top layer.  If you find this hard to believe, just look at a classic formula for ‘castile soap’; it’s primary ingredients are olive oil and sodium carbonate, a powerful caustic.  In fact, taxidermists use sodium carbonate added to boiling water to remove flesh from the skull or bones of an animal to create an educational display.  On a smaller scale, water or perspiration can activate the soap film on a piece of jewelry into a flesh eating demon.  So if you think you have a metal allergy, the first thing to do is to eliminate soap from the equation; that is, have the jewelry you are suspicious of professionally cleaned of all soap residue.  Once soap has been eliminated you can look for a classic indicator for a metal allergy, corrosion.

Green corrosion on a piece of jewelry, usually sterling silver, is almost always indicative of a reaction to nickel.  Nickel shows such significant chemical activity as to be an allergen for many people; but interestingly enough its presence on silver jewelry rests on this chemical activity.  The common silver alloy, sterling silver, is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper; and when it is exposed to sulfur (a very common part of industrial air pollution) it discolors.  To prevent this, it has become fairly common for many jewelry makers to rhodium plate their sterling silver production.  Rhodium, a very ‘white’ member of the platinum family of metals, is hypoallergenic - and very expensive.  To complicate using it further, its relatively inert character makes it difficult to get a good rhodium plate on silver.  Enter nickel.  Owing to its chemical activity, it is easy to apply a very thin and smooth nickel plate over silver; but both its activity and its off white color make it unattractive to leave it at this.  Fortunately, nickel loves rhodium; so the next step in production is to plate the piece with rhodium thus giving it a beautiful silvery finish that will not discolor.    However the rhodium plate is only a few thousands of an inch thick; so a scratch through it will expose skin to nickel and create the possibility of an allergic reaction.  

Between soap and nickel, this accounts for most presumed jewelry allergies; this brings me back to our search for earring posts and a pearl clasp.  Both clients have proven allergies to nickel, either in its ‘raw’ form or when alloyed with gold; unfortunately nickel is the common whitening agent in white gold alloy.  Since there were some real price constraints on the posts, we sought palladium posts (palladium is another, less costly, hypoallergenic member of the platinum family); but couldn’t find any.  We had to rethink the problem.  The customer wanted Tahitian black pearl earrings; so we decided to shop the pearls first.  If we could buy nice pearls reasonably enough, we could have the earrings made with platinum (hypoallergenic) posts.  With careful shopping we succeeded.  Interestingly enough, the pearl bracelet clasp posed a greater problem.  Again we were up against price constraints The woman needs a white metal clasp that is free of nickel.  This eliminated white gold alloys and most commercially available sterling silver.  Platinum was available, but it exceeded her budget.  So we wandered the Las Vegas Jewelry Show looking for raw (unplated) silver; and it was harder to find than we had imagined.  Finally we were able to make a connection with a manufacturer who, at relatively reasonable prices, was willing to sell us a sterling silver ‘semi-finished’ clasp - ‘semi-finished’ meaning unpolished and unplated.  With a sense of relief, we went on with the rest of our business.

If you’ve not noticed, there is more than one point to this story.  The first is that complaints about jewelry metals must be carefully considered to see if they are valid.  The second is that we take our clients’ needs very seriously.  So if you’re in the market for a superb piece of jewelry, you really need to come see us.  We hand select our diamonds for exceptional beauty and we demand the very best in jewelry manufacture - including the many custom pieces we make each month.  Check out our website for a sense of our style (http://www.hurstsberwynjewelers.com/); then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment to select or design the ring, necklace or earrings of your dreams.  We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers, not a common jeweler.

Jains and Jewelry

Kathy and I got back from the big Las Vegas jewelry shows last night; and as has become usual, we spent a fair amount of time with a young woman of Indian extraction and a practicing Jain.   If you are not acute to Janism (and I’m certainly no authority), it’s worth noting the  values espoused by them.   In a world of violent extremism, Jainism, a strict and democratic splinter of mainstream Hinduism, prescribes non-violence.  Naturally, this makes them vegetarians; and since dining on root vegetables ‘kills‘ the plant, strict Jains avoid things like potatoes and carrots.  But I digress.   

Jains are urged to follow a philosophy of self-effort in conquering one’s inner demons.  While this might seem rather esoteric, the brass tacks of their business ethics are not.  Jainism encourages close family ties, cooperation with others and strict business ethics; and these have facilitated their entry into the world of diamonds.  In fact, though they number only about 5 million, they’ve become quite influential in the world of jewelry as a whole.   At its heart, the jewelry business, particularly the diamond business, functions on an understood system of trust.  A reputation for integrity is all; and Jains have become recognized for this. 

Though historic India was the first important source of diamonds, most of India’s diamond mines were played out by 1750.  Nonetheless, consumer demand  persisted there; but it was not until the discovery of diamonds in South Africa (1867) that the demand could be met.   The Jains were not far behind.  In 1909 a small group of Jain merchants in Palanpur, India, entered the jewelry business as importers of cut and polished diamonds.  Over time, the international diamond business developed confidence in India’s Jain merchants; and their close family ties and cooperative habits helped them to prosper in India’s domestic diamond business.  After 1947 (the year India became independent), India’s new government, anxious not to lose foreign exchange, attempted to discourage the importation of luxury goods by taxing it heavily.  Jain diamond merchants countered by importing rough diamonds and cutting them (gem cutting in India was already a long established art).  The government found this agreeable; but to the dismay of both the new Jain cutting firms and the Indian government, Indians started to horde diamonds as a hedge against inflation.  Government intervention soon followed.

Faced with Government opposition to their new industry, in 1955 the Palanpur diamond cutters made a creative overture to the government.  They proposed the “Replenishment Scheme”.   The heart of their proposal was a commitment to import rough diamonds and cut and polish them for export, only. To make it most attractive to government, they also proposed that the government would regulate mandated increases in value of their diamonds after cutting.  As this would both create jobs and benefit India’s balance of payments, the Government readily agreed.

Despite this victory, the Palanpuris were still faced with the fact that the tightly knit diamond business was concentrated in Belgium.  Practically speaking, this meant that rough would be hard to get, particularly high quality rough.   Palanpur’s cutters usually had to make do with such very poor quality material that they  complained, “. . . these are industrial and industrial sand.”  In fact, the yield from such inferior rough was quite poor.  Typically more than 83% of their rough weight was lost in cutting; but the Palanpuris persevered.  Their high ethical standards eventually brought them more and better rough; and then the monolithic character of the diamond business was broken.  Dissatisfied with the old DeBeers monopoly’s sales of their rough material, Rio Tinto, majority owner of Australia’s Argyle diamond mine, offered India’s cutters as much rough as they could cut.  Again, most of the rough was of poor quality (Argyle’s rough is mostly dark and included); but the deal provided the stepping stone that India’s diamond cutters needed to establish themselves in the world market.  Between low labor costs and modern equipment India’s diamond cutting business began to soar.  While in 1966 India accounted for about 6% of the world’s polished diamond production, today it accounts for about 92%!  And while most of India’s production is in small diamonds (smaller than 1/5 of a carat), the quality of Indian cut diamonds continues to grow.

As for us, here at Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers, the young woman we were doing business with is quite acute to fashion.  As a result, some of her designs have been seen ‘on the red carpet’ at entertainment industry awards.  Naturally, we avail ourselves of her talents; and while we have a nice representation of her work currently ‘in house’, she’ll be making some great rings and earrings for us for our fall collection.  Since many are hand made, it may take a while; but when you come see the collection it will be even more worth the time and money that it is now.  She and her designs are a perfect for us as we’re not the common jeweler.  You can view part of our collection on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com; and then, appetite whetted and in need of a purchase, you can phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment.  We look forward to seeing you and sharing our passion for interesting jewelry with you

Rings and Romance

One visit to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum will underscore the fact that rings have been worn for more than 5,000 years; but the question of how they came to be connected to love and marriage is difficult to answer.  Tantalizing evidence from ancient Rome makes it clear that rings were being given as tokens of love before the birth of Christ; and we know that the custom was continued into the Christian era.  Their intrinsic value must have appreciable enough to make them inaccessible to the very poor; and this so disturbed the Bishop of Hippo (later canonized St. Augustine) that he urged priests under his rule to refrain from requiring wedding rings.  But despite the good St. Augustine’s concerns the custom of giving rings continued in the Roman Empire until both of its halves collapsed.  Interestingly enough, the 7th century bishop of Seville observed that the ring was given as a symbol of the marriage vows “to join their hearts to this pledge” and was to be worn on (presumably) the finger we see as the ring finger “because a certain vein is said to flow from thence to the heart.”  As the Dark Ages fell upon Europe, however, most of the wedding traditions the bishop had observed soon disappeared and would not reappear until the Renaissance.  Royalty led the way.

In the last quarter of the fifteenth century Charles the Bold ruled a rich combination of territories that are now parts of northern France, the Netherlands and Belgium but were then known, collectively, as ‘Burgundy.”  When he lost his life in battle in January, 1477, he left behind a single heir, Mary; and in the paternalistic world of fifteenth century Europe, she was vulnerable.  Burgundy’s wealth was great, so suitors abounded.   Needless to say, marriage could be either her salvation or her punishment.  Her subjects underscored this by demanding that she forego some of the governing powers she had inherited.  She yielded, conscious that if she did not, her subjects might well fail to support her if Burgundy were invaded by France.   England’s Duke of Clarence (later beheaded for treason) was interested and Louis XI, King of France, was urging her to marry Charles, his 7 year old son and heir presumptive; but In 1476, her father had arranged for Mary, to be betrothed to Maximilian of Habsburg and Mary’s step mother, Margaret, counseled her to honor the contract.  It made political sense; and the 18 year old Maximilian was enough acute to the importance of their marital and political union that he signified its importance by giving Mary the first ‘modern’ diamond wedding ring.  Paintings from the period depict the diamond he gave her as a ‘point cut’; that is, it looked like a polished pyramid, the product of an advancement in diamond cutting that had taken place late in the previous century.   

Max meant well, but like many who think they know it all, he was behind the times; the diamond he had given her was ‘old fashioned’.   It had become possible to cut diamonds to more ‘sparkly’ gems of shapes not terribly different from those we know today.   Louis van Berquem, one of Charles the Bold’s subjects, had revolutionized diamond cutting two years earlier.  He had invented the ancestor of all of today’s diamond polishing wheels; and Charles, recognizing the importance of this technological advancement, had awarded him three thousand gold ducats and become his patron.  Had she lived, Mary might have had a nicer diamond; but she died after being thrown from a horse less than five years later.

Of course, the combination of Louis’ advanced diamond cutting techniques and the social statement made by Maximilian’s gift made Europe’s aristocrats eager to own and give diamond rings and jewelry themselves; and the fact that common folk couldn’t afford them made them all the more attractive.  Thus for around four hundred years diamonds were mostly reserved to the very few; then the Industrial Revolution and the discovery of diamonds in Africa changed that.  The spread of wealth in western Europe and the United States, occasioned by the Industrial Revolution, put jewelry within the reach of far more people than ever before - and a wedding ring of precious metal became part of most weddings.   Diamonds became affordable for many after 1869 when they were found, in quantities unknown before, in Africa.  Inevitably, therefore, more than a few of the wedding rings  crafted and given since that time have been set with diamonds.  Now the newly well to do of the  ‘BRICs’ (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are demanding more diamonds than ever before; and the diamond ring has become part of romance on the world stage.  The only downside to this is that the supply of diamonds is stagnant; so demand, the invisible hand of the market, has caused the prices for diamonds (already more than 100 times more valuable than gold by weight) to increase significantly over the last few years. 

If you’re in the market for a diamond ring to express your love, now is the right time to buy; and we will help.  Here at Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers we know diamonds; so unlike Max, you we won’t let you be caught a little behind the times.  Check us out on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment to select what may well be the gift of a lifetime.  We’re not the common jeweler; so come see us.

The Pasta Standard

 Often, those of our fellow citizens who have speculated in gold have done so out of fear that the U.S. dollar will collapse in value.   Their belief seems focused around the character of the dollar, fiat currency backed only by the promises of our government.   They see the course of government spending over the last thirty years or so as dooming the value of the dollar.  This may well be so; but it brings to mind the story of a gambler in the old west who stormed out of a gambling house raging, “The game is fixed!”.   Fixed or not, however, two nights later a friend spied him back in the gambling house.  Curious, the friend approached the gambler and asked, “Don’t you think the game is rigged?”  The gambler shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Oh, it is; but it’s the only game in town.”  The Chinese, of course, know that the size of the American economy makes the U.S. China’s most valuable trading partner; so their government ignores the price of gold, cheerfully accepts our dollars and continues to export to us. 

Ours, after all, is the world’s largest economy; and while the dollar may not be the only game in town, it is so important a part of the world’s economy (not just in trade, but in widely held U.S. money, bonds, stocks and other assets) that if the dollar tumbles in value all other currencies (they’re fiat currencies as well) must also fall in value.  In these circumstances, the most holding gold as an asset can do for its owner is to maintain his wealth; but what if there is no catastrophic failure of the dollar?  Certainly, it is in the profound interest of the the U.S. Government to guard against this to preserve its credit; and the looming debate in Congress over future spending and taxation gives clear evidence that our usually inept, contentious and lackadaisical legislature is aware (if not seriously alert) to this.  This spells out the gold speculator’s risk.  Gold is a non-performing asset.  Unlike dividend paying shares of stock in a corporation, gold’s value is locked into its sale.  You can make no money, if money is to be made, until you sell it; which brings us to the crux of the problem for those speculating in gold.  The speculator needs to know when to fold his hand; and those who did not when gold was higher this year face holding a losing hand (as I write, gold is down 20% from its high this year).

In the past (normal times in my view) 80% of the world’s gold supply has gone into either jewelry or (mostly east of Suez) been hoarded.  But these are not normal times.  On the world stage spikes in gold’s price are largely supported by the mercurial plays of speculators managing very large money funds.  It seems that when they need to prop up the apparent profitability of their fund they’ve gotten into the habit of buying gold.  Because the funds are so large, their increased demand drives its price up and allows them to show their investors an increased profit, albeit paper, at the end of a quarter.   That’s not to say that there has not been some real new demand for gold, it exists in the Chinese market.  China’s new economy has enabled China to become a major consumer of gold; but here the key word is ‘consumer’.  Like the people of India, China’s new gold buyers tend to buy it and hold it.  The reasons for this behavior are more cultural than anything else; but they have created a new ‘floor’ for the price of gold.  Unfortunately, at this moment no one knows what the dollar value of that ‘floor’ may be; so this new demand has created an opportunity for speculation.   While this seems to leave the question of the dollar’s vulnerability still open for discussion, that value has to be considered in the context of the spread of wealth to other parts of the globe.  Indeed, Indian gold merchants are currently horrified that gold sales are off by more than 28% when compared year to year.  As a word to the wise, the Rupee has collapsed while the dollar retained its value.

The world we live in is economically interconnected; and as recent events in the U.S. and Europe have demonstrated, their affects on our economy are unpredictable.  Let us go to the obvious however, this interconnection means that a collapse of the dollar would certainly be contrary to the general interests of those holding any dollars or dollar denoted financial instruments public or private.   So who does benefit from the current volatility of gold prices?  Obviously, those who are smart enough, or lucky enough, to sell on the metal’s ‘highs’ - the successful gamblers.   But as with any bubble, when speculative demand collapses, the price of gold must collapse to some value that gold users can accept; and those who have not unloaded their high priced gold must suffer.  Fortunately I have an answer for those who wish to guard against the devaluation of their gold - Pasta!  

Speculators arise!  Pasta is your future!  Unlike gold, pasta can be consumed and yield some nutritional benefit to the consumer.  What is more, wheat harvested and stored in the ancient Middle East (but discovered in our own time) has been found to be “alive”; so in as much as pasta (carefully stored) can easily outlive any one of us, it has lasting value at least as great as that of gold.  Not only that, pasta has world wide acceptance that is, in the ultimate, greater than that of gold (Ask a starving man anywhere on Earth if he wants a bar of gold or a bowl of pasta).  In fact, in a world with shrinking water resources, it is clear to me that in the foreseeable future pasta must out perform gold as an investment.  You heard it here first.

For a more solid investment than most, one with immediate rewards, you can invest in your personal relationships with a durable gift of beauty - a fine diamond. There is no better way to say ‘I love you’ than with a beautiful diamond; and I hand select each one that we sell for outstanding beauty.  So checkout our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment to select a piece of beauty.  We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers, not the common jeweler.

Stealing a Crown Jewel

Unlike contemporary banks, usually some sort of “MegaCorp”, important banks of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were often privately owned and based on the fortunes of their principals. As a consequence the loans they made were not matters of public policy; and they could remain quite secretive about their business, unless their probity came into question. One such banking firm was that of “Hope & Company; though founded in Amsterdam in 1726, the kaleidoscopic politics engendered by the French Revolution had led the firm to move its “home office” to London before 1800. The move didn’t harm it. In fact, its prominence was such that when, in 1803, the United States purchased Louisiana from France, both nations agreed that it was the bank to handle the financial particulars of the deal. By 1812, however, Hope & Company was in trouble; troubled enough for Henry Philip Hope, the firm’s principal owner to start looking for a buyer. 

Ultimately, a deal was made to sell Hope’s bank to Barings Bank (Established in London in 1763, bankrupted by a rogue trader in 1995), and Hope’s money problems were over. By curious coincidence, however, in the midst of Hope’s money problems, and only two days after the French statute of limitations put crimes committed in 1792 beyond the reach of the law, London Jeweler John Francillon wrote a “laboratory report” on a 45.5 carat blue diamond that was clearly the Hope. The gem’s owner was unnamed, so the name on the report was that of London diamond merchant Daniel Eliason, recognized as a middleman. Significantly, Eliason never explained his client’s motive for making the diamond a matter of public record. No sale of the diamond appears to have transpired thereafter; so the Hope disappeared from view until H. P. Hope’s death in 1839. Then, in the settlement of his estate, it passed into the hands of one of his nephews; and it has remained, more or less, “on public view” ever since.

Little was made of the diamond’s origin, however, until it was given to the Smithsonian. There it was subjected not only to the gazes of the public but to the scientific scrutiny of the museum’s staff and diamond professionals; and a question began to nag at them. “Was it a recut of the French Blue, stolen from the ‘Royal Storehouse’ in 1792?” Dogged by conflicting historic data, the question went unanswered for decades until a startling find was made in 2007 at Paris’ Natural History museum. It is a cast lead model, the shape and dimensions of which led the Gemological Institute of America’s scientists to believe it to have been cast from the French Blue.  Using a combination of computer modeling and their own hard won diamond lore, they established that the Hope would fit within the contours of their putative French Blue.  As the French Blue has never been recovered, nor has there ever been any report of a blue diamond larger, they were led to the conclusion that the Hope is almost surely a recut of the French Blue. This, of course leads to the questions of when and why it had been recut; and the lead model provides us with some interesting clues.

In the 1850s the cast had been donated to the Museum by the Archard Family, prominent Parisian jewelers in the first half of the nineteenth century. Though the first Archard would have been a mere apprentice in 1792, when the French Blue was stolen, we know that by 1817 Mr. Archard counted Henry Philip Hope among his clients.  All else is conjecture.  Had the blue diamond brought them together? If so, when? The date of Francillon’s report makes it clear that the diamond had been recut before it was submitted to him in 1812.  If Archard had made the cast of the French Blue, is it possible that he had been involved in the original theft? It is self evident that the recut was intended to hide the gem’s origin; but why, in the words of master diamond cutter Maarten de Witte, was it “a real hack job? Was the poor quality of the recut the result of amateurism on the part of the thieves or was it the result of Hope’s haste in readying the gem for a possible sale? If it was Hope’s haste, was he fearful that the French statute of limitations didn’t apply to the stolen French Blue, or was he afraid that the window of opportunity offered by the amnesty might soon be closed? In any event, what role was played by Daniel Eliason, who was not only a gem dealer but Hope’s diamond purchasing agent as well? Had he obtained the diamond for Hope and if so, what role, if any, was played by Archard? However the questions may be asked, the most likely answers always come back to Hope.  A wealthy and reclusive diamond collector, at the time he was one of the few men in Europe who could have, and might have, bought the stolen French Blue; and Archard’s cast makes Hope’s responsibility for the recut a real possibility

Diamonds are romantic. They say, “I love you” when given as gifts and “I made it” when purchased to mark one of life’s important milestones; so why not say it perfectly with one of our hand selected gems?  We know and love diamonds so  any gem you purchase from us will be the beauty you deserve.  Check out our  jewelry collection on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment to select the very best diamonds for you. We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers, not the ordinary jeweler.