A
]]>
His speciality is something about which I have quite mixed feelings, incorporating antique, and sometimes ancient, elements into modern jewelry. The outcome is surprisingly good, considering the technique, but some of the original material deserved better then to be raw material for a Place Vendome jeweler. That said, here are the pieces, in no particular order. Unless specifically mentioned, assume that the modern work is in 18kt yellow gold.
Oh and a personal note to Auclert, or their PR firm: Thanks for the actual pictures of the actual pieces, so much better the the CGI that is sometimes used
| Cufflinks Set with neolithic carved carnelian beads | Pendents The decorative elements are gold plaques that originally decorated Chinese perfume flasks, dating from the 10th-13th century. They are set on silver-blackened leather with platinum fittings |
 |
 |
| Bracelet The 18kt gold bangle is set with a pair of Menuki in the form of tigers. They were made by Teiji Goto (1603-1671). | Necklace The chain is modern, but the pendent is a 1st Century CE gold roman spoon with a handle in the form of a goose (duck?). I can find no information if the bending of the spoon is modern or not. |
 |
 |
| Earrings The artifacts are a pair of Menuki from the 17th century representing male and female dragons. They are from the Mino school of the 17th Century. | Necklace The pendent is a pair of deer Menuki made in the workshop of Nagagawa Isho at the beginning of the 19th C. |
 |
 |
| Pendent The main piece is a “cameo” done in Berlin Iron, circa 1805-1810. Berlin Iron was a side-effect of the Napoleonic wars, women would donate their gold to the Prussian state to fund the war and receive an iron piece in return. The dangles are polished ruby crystals. | Ring Set with both a 1st C. BCE Roman carnelian intaglio and its impression, this piece is probably one of my favorites for the way it uses the original piece. |
 |
 |
If you have to ask, the prices range from 9,000-45,000 Euro.
(source)
A
]]>
1. Hirst has made an estimated 1,400 spot paintings since 1986.
2. Gagosian's The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011 contains over three hundred.
3. Hirst himself has painted five.
4. Hirst thinks those five are "shit." via
5. Rachel Howard paints the best spot paintings: "The best person who ever painted spots for me was Rachel. She's brilliant. Absolutely fucking brilliant. The best spot painting you can have by me is one painted by Rachel." via
6. Hirst is still making spot paintings, despite announcing he would stop in 2008. via
7. Hirst threatened to sue British Airways for copyright infringement after the airline used colored spots in an advertisement. via
8. Tensions with longtime patron Charles Saatchi boiled over when Saatchi formally exhibited a spot-covered Mini Cooper that Hirst had painted for charity. Hirst does not list this retrospective on his CV. via
9. Hirst has made an editioned "paint by numbers" spot painting kit, containing a blank canvas, numbered dots, and numbered tins of paint. These unpainted spot paintings sell for more than the painted ones, and they generally remain unpainted. via
10. The earliest paintings in the Gagosian show are in the Madison Avenue location because that location has "more of an old-master feel." via
11. An assistant once painted five yellow spots in a row. Hirst told him this was insufficiently random. "We had a big fight," Hirst admits. "Now I realize he was right, and I was wrong." via
First the dragon, entirely diamond set with ruby cabuchon eyes. The left side shows the piece in the usual configuration, the right with the pearl open to reveal the watch
 |  |
Closing off the dragon section, a closeup of the face
The phoenix has 300 baguette-cut diamonds (13.71 cts) and 603 brilliant-cut diamonds (5.77 cts) and 9 sapphires (4.19 cts). The dial and leaves are mother-of-pearl, or so says the PR, I don't see where the leaves are.
The first picture is of the watch in "closed" form, the second is open
(source)
A
]]> |  |
A
]]>
Now they've announced the final product, although no real-life pictures yet we do have some renderings of the final cased product. They will be making four of the pieces eventually, one for the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Athens with the original, one for the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris and one for the Hublot museum. The final piece will be the only one available to the public, it will be auctioned off with proceeds to benefit the Archaeological Museum which, if it is anything like the rest of the museums in Greece currently, is in dire straits.
 |  |
| Front of the watch with the time, some of the zodiac and celestial indications and the tourbillon visable through the dial | Back of the watch with some of the eclipse indications and the countdown to the next olympics |
(click on the pics for larger versions)
A
]]>
I. Paulini is a relatively-unknown late 16th century engraver, the Met simply provides the bio "Italian, active 16th C" in its catalogue page for the Mythological Alphabet which is the source for the new banner image. The images are from the Internet Archive for the copy owned by the Getty. Their caption only adds that though the "traditional" date for the work is c. 1570, the watermarks of the paper point to a later date, 1590-1600, for their copy.
The letters themselves are mythological in content, mostly based, as far as I can tell, on stories from Ovid's Metamorphosis. The A has Acteon, having offended Artemis, turning into a stag, with hunting dogs in the background. The M shows Midas, as king in the background and turning a rabbit to gold in the letter proper.
(via)
A
]]>
