The head of the Buccellati(see previous) jewelry family, Gianmaria Buccellati has died after a period of sickness. It wasn't until reading the notice that I realized that his brother is is Georgio, who has published one of the best modern Akkadian grammars, A Structural Grammar of Babylonian.
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From Chopard's (previously mentioned) 2013 Red Carpet collection comes this oak-themed necklace with a diamond and sapphire spider hiding within. The leaves are Tsavorite and most of the rest of the color accents come from fancy-colored diamonds
And a closeup of the spider photographed by Jamie Beck. Unrelated to the jewelry, when people talk about camera lenses having "confusing" or unpleasent bokeh, the background blur of the branch is a good example of what they mean
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One of the towering achievements of the Baroque jewelers of the early 18th Century, The Throne of Grand Mogul Aurengzeb is an assemblage of 132 figures and 32 other objects in enameled gold. It was designed by Johann Melchior Dinglinger and constructed between 1701 and 1708 by him and his two brothers, Georg Christoph and Georg Friedrich. Despite loosing 391 precious stones over the years it is still set with 4,909 diamonds, 160 rubies, 164 emeralds, one sapphire 16 pearls and 2 cameos. The google art project has a zoomable image of it, though the image isn't as sharp as one might desire at full zoom. It is housed in the historic Dresden Green Vault Museum, itself only recently recovered from damage suffered in WWII.
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The nile crocodile is said to be the inspiration for the new Hermes (see previous) necklace and ring set. It's at least clearly the origin of the name, Niloticus, for Pierre Hardy's newest design. The necklace consists of 112 rose-gold scales, and is set with diamonds, iolites, peridots and tourmalines and has a suggested retail price of $299,500 (clearly that $500 less than $300k makes it much more affordable). There's a matching bracelet and ring (MSRP of $30,000) as well.
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In honor(?) of the release of Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp, the Diamond in the Rough company has released a line of Iceberg jewels. All of their work, as their clever name implies, centers on uncut diamonds (see previous), mostly working with the classical octahedral crystal shape. Assume, unless otherwise mentioned that the pieces are 18kt white gold and using briliant-cut white diamonds as accent.
| Earrings, 17.79 ct of rough diamonds and 10ct of cut stones, pavee set | Bracelet, 15ct rough diamond and 16.81ct of cut stones, pavee set |
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Dressing for the big horse races, like the Kentucky Derby, has always been an exercise in eyecatching horror, but almost always limited to womens' wear, i.e. hats. Finally someone is starting to tap the market of hippocentric men and their lack of sense, in this case Theo Fennell (see previous) with this pair of white gold cufflinks. The inside of the binocular-shaped pieces are hand-painted enamels of the winning moment of a race, or something. £7,500 if you're asking
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The New York Times has an article in today's Magazine on the Parisian jeweler Auclert, who I've mentioned before. An interesting detail from the article is that he tries quite carefully to not make permanent changes to the antique pieces he incorporates.
| The man himself, Marc Auclert | |
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| Pink gold and oxidized silver ring. The granulated gold element is probably Etruscan, they don't bother to mention | Gold bracelet. The central element is a bronze-age bull's head from China |
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| Early 19th Century black-glass cameos in a bracelet-in-process | |
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Michelle Ong, who works under the brand name Carnet (see previous), apparently had an exhibit of her jewelry at the Asia House in London in 2011. I'm clearly a bit late to this, but the pieces were striking enough to warrent it. Particularly of note is her use of usually cut stones, like the briolette yellow diamond in the pendent and her ability to blend stones within a single field, for example the pomegranate seeds.
| Pink Cloud pendent: Tourmaline, white diamond, blue sapphire, pink sapphire and amethyst set in platinum, white gold and titanium. | Yellow teardrop pendent: Pale yellow diamonds and white diamonds set in gold and platinum |
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| Precious Plume: White Diamonds and Coloured Precious Stones "Feather" Brooch in Platinum and Titanium. | 'Supernova' broach. Light Brown Diamond and White Diamond set in Rose Gold. |
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| Pear Clip: White, fancy vivid and intense yellow and brown diamonds set in platinum and gold. | Pomegranate broach: White, fancy yellow and brown diamonds set in platinum and yellow gold. |
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Carnet jewelers was started in 1990 by Michelle Ong in Hong Kong. About 15 years ago she started using rose-cut diamonds, an antique cutting style with many fewer facets, 24, then the current modern cuts. This means that the cut only makes sense economically for stones that are very flat in the raw state.
| Palm Tree Broach with white and brown diamonds | Dancing Acorn Broach |
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With one obvious exception, Easter isn't thought of as a holiday for jewelry. That hasn't prevented some companies from releasing some Paschal pieces. First up is Lydia Courteille(see previous) and her Lapin Rose. These are set with pink Tourmaline and sapphires.
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