One night a guy strolled into our store a little before closing time, shoved a ring at me and asked, “Is it a real diamond?” The ring looked as if it had been crafted in the Alabama Home for the Terminally Inept and the gem in its center, I swear, looked frosted. “I’ll have to run a couple of tests,” I said; then I checked its thermal conductivity and refractivity. By golly, it was a diamond; so I pronounced it as such. My inquisitor came to bat again, “How big is it?” I took a few measurements and made a couple of calculations. “It’s about a carat,” I replied. “What do you think of it?” he asked. “You don’t want to know,” I replied. “No, really, what do you think of it?” he insisted. “You really don’t want to know,” I demurred. He relentlessly insisted, “Yes, I do.” Compelled to an honest evaluation, I said, “It’s the ugliest diamond I’ve ever seen.” Somewhat miffed at my candor, he stalked out with a parting shot, “Well, I only paid $2900 for it!” His rudeness aside, I could not help but wonder why he had bought it. If, however, you think he had been ‘pretty cool’ in his diamond purchase, I have formulated the following rules to aid you in emulating his success.
The first rule in “how to buy a mediocre diamond” is to never look at one. Buy one over the internet on the basis of a ‘cert‘ – a laboratory grading report. If you think yourself to be a serious diamond buyer, you’ll know that not all certs are created equally; the worst are inflated sales aids. Diamond experts, however, also know that even the best ‘cert’ won’t tell you everything about a diamond’s appearance. Were you to look at diamonds, you might gather some ideas and form an opinion about the components of diamond beauty. Then, goodness knows, were you to exclusively restrict your choices to beautiful diamonds, you’d have far, far fewer to chose from; and each would cost more than the ‘bargain‘ at the bottom of the barrel.
Our second rule for buying a mediocre diamond is to consider diamond weight exclusively in your purchase (diamonds are weighed in carats – a carat is .2 of a gram). Pay no attention to the fact that the distribution of a diamonds weight has a huge affect on a its appearance (If you think a 5 foot tall,100 pound woman looks no more healthy than a 6 foot tall 100 pound man this will come to you naturally). Ignoring a diamond’s proportions will guarantee that you will buy your “carats” cheaply. They might be homely, and they may not look their weight, but they’ll be cheap.
Our third rule for buying a mediocre diamond is to fixate on color, clarity and price. Pay no attention to the fact that color and clarity were innate in the diamond while it lay in the ground, just buy the color and clarity you want at the lowest possible price. I suggest you buy an uncut diamond. It’ll look like a piece of wax, but you will have successfully purchased your desired color and clarity at the lowest possible price. Indeed, you will have also maximized the weight you will have purchased at that price.
To understand the last rule, let’s go back to the fellow at the beginning of our story and his diamond. We’ll clear up the mystery of its polish (its frosted appearance) and that will take us to the fourth rule for buying a mediocre diamond. Polish is one of the important elements in a diamond’s beauty; so I couldn’t get the ugly gem’s appearance out of my head. A few months later I was talking to Hearts On Fire diamond cutter Brian McCardy; and I had to ask him about that frosted finish. “That’s easy,” he replied. “It had been burnt, exposed to high heat for a long time, probably in a crematorium.” When he said that, everything fell into place. The odds were very good that it had been stolen from someone’s ashes. Of course the guy wouldn’t be sure if it was a diamond, he’d bought “a good deal” but very probably not through a regular retail jeweler who had a reputation to maintain.
So there it is; if you really want to buy a mediocre diamond, you must never look at real diamonds, just buy a piece of paper. Then as you shop, shop for the absolute lowest price for a given weight, color and clarity. Ignore cut; and finally, pay no attention to the person you will buy it from – in fact, the shadier his personality, the better. If, on the other hand, you want a beautiful diamond, you need look no farther than Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers. Each of our diamonds is hand selected for extraordinary appearance. That means that when we turn out the lights at our diamond counter (try asking any other jeweler to do that) the diamond must still look brilliant. It’s up to you, beauty – at competitive prices – or a diamond that will dog you with its mediocre appearance forever. If you’re serious, phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment to buy the very best in diamond beauty.

I’d never heard of the Black Orlov, not to be confused with the historically important “Orlov Diamond”, until it was sold at auction four or five years ago. It was really the ‘legend’ associated with the diamond rather than the diamond itself that caught my attention. Its “history”, as presented in the newsletter announcing the auction, had been provocative. The diamond had been presented as “The Infamous Black Orlov Diamond”, a cursed gem; and the story had begun by tracing the diamond’s origin to the eye of an idol in Pondicherry, India. Stolen by a Russian adventurer in the early 1800s, the story went on, it had become the Black Orlov when it was acquired by Russian Prince Grigori Grigorievich Orlov, who had then presented it to the Tsarina, Catherine the Great. Early 1800’s? Catherine the Great? Not likely, as she had died in 1796. Perhaps the date was a misprint, so I dug a bit deeper.

The British Natural History Museum had displayed the diamond and reported the “curse of the Black Orlov” in it’s September 21, 2005 news release. It made the improbable connection to Catherine the Great as well; and it presented evidence of the alleged curse. It rested on the claimed suicides of Princess Nadia Vyegin-Orlov, Princess Leonila Galitsine-Bariatinsky and J.W. Paris, each reputed to have been a former owner of the diamond. A diamond that drove people to suicide? The story strained my credulity, even the Hope diamond doesn’t have inexplicable tragedy associated with it. In my skepticism I turned to the “Natural Color Diamond Encyclopedia” and found a story that was not associated with “selling” the diamond in any way.

The entry on the Black Orlov described the diamond as a dark “gun-metal” in color and not absolutely opaque; then it went on to discuss the “legend of the Black Orlov”. I was cheered to read, “Regrettably, most accounts of the early history of this diamond must be treated with the utmost skepticism.” The author observed that there is no evidence of black diamonds having ever been found in India (in fact, natural black diamonds have only been found in Brazil and in the Central African Republic). Had one been found, he or she continued, it is unlikely that it would have been used as the eye of an idol since Hindus see black as an inauspicious color. Third, there never was a Princess Nadia Vyegin-Orlov; all princes Orlov descended from the brother of Catherine the Great’s lover, Count Grigori Grigorievitch Orlov. Finally, the diamond’s cushion shape indicates that it was probably polished in the19th century.

“Diamond Legend”, another internet resource, shed a little more light on the story. It reported that one real, historical, princess might have been a cause of the “legend”. While there is no evidence of a Princess Nadia Vyegin-Orlov, it commented, there had been a Princess Nadezhda Petrovna Orlov (probably nicknamed Nadia). Her family had lived on Black Lake before the Revolutions of 1917 and bred horses known as “Black Orlovs”. Thus, though there is no record of it, given the family’s ‘branded’ horses, a large black diamond might have been a natural purchase. After the revolutions, probably using the family’s jewelry to finance her flight and resettlement, Nadia had settled in France. Hardly a suicide, she had lived to the age of 90, dying in 1988; and with no ‘witnesses’ to dispute the story, I suspect the stories of the Orlov (which Grigori, Grigorievich Orlov had given to Catherine the Great) and the Black Orlov were deliberately conflated, the better to sell the black diamond.

If you’re in the market for the perfect gift this Christmas and have become frustrated with salespeople who neither know jewelry nor are interested in you, come see us here at Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers. We know jewelry and we understand that your gift may well be your way of saying, “I love you..” No one will take your search for that perfect gift as seriously as we will. So to know a bit about our offerings, check out our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com, then come see us. Oh! To save a little money, you may want to check out our ’12 Days of Christmas Challenge”. Your correct answer can save you $50.00!

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, however, not the gem with which it was set. Gems pose other problems.
A few days ago, for example, one of our office people, a person without gem knowledge, was given a piece of jewelry that had just arrived and asked to begin the inspection process by checking it for obvious defects in manufacture and for the presence of hallmarks and trademarks. (To protect consumers against under karating, that is, cheating on gold or platinum content, U.S. law requires that fabricated precious metal jewelry shipped interstate must be trademarked if it is hallmarked – marked with a statement of gold or platinum content.) At any rate, our diligent staff member strayed into an inspection of the gems included in the piece and was horrified to see that one of them (a bead, probably faceted in India) had internal fractures. She called it to my attention and in the short conversation that ensued it became clear she was not aware that more gems are flawed with internal fractures than not. Indeed, these days most of the small diamonds incorporated into the inexpensive 10 karat gold jewelry found in mass merchandise outlets are so heavily fractured that they are opaque. Interestingly enough, in larger diamonds, those not so terribly fractured, this has led to “fracture filling”.
In principal, this is usually accomplished by flowing molten leaded glass into its fractures. Leading increases the index of refraction of glass enough to bring it close to that of a diamond, sufficiently close to “heal” the fracture and in so doing make the diamond appear to be perfect to the naked eye. Firms that specialize in fracture filling are continuously working on ways to improve their processes, but the buyer should be informed of fracture filling since the process (though it enhances the gem’s appearance) does not increase its value. Beyond that, no fracture filling process that I know of is as durable as the diamond, so, under some circumstances, it can fall out (a possibility usually covered by the processor’s guarantee). Of course, fracture filling some gems is nothing new.
Though I have access to some gorgeous, relatively ‘perfect’ untreated emeralds, most commercially available emeralds are fractured and for literally hundreds of years Asian gem cutters have “healed” their fractures by immersing them in oil – traditionally, cedar oil. The oil seeps into the fractures and stays there after the gem is removed from its “bath”, thus hiding its internal flaws. Of course, this treatment is far from permanent. Industrious washing using modern detergents or cleaning “oiled” emeralds in an ultrasonic cleaning machine will remove the oil and “restore” the gem to its fractured appearance. More durable fracture fillings for emeralds have been developed over the last few decades; but they must still be worn and cleaned with care. Most recently, fracture filling rubies has become commonplace. In this process rough rubies are mixed with powdered leaded glass (and some other, color specific, additives) and heated to between 1600º and 1900º fahrenheit. The range of temperatures is a reflection in the variety of techniques employed in this process; but simply put, the powdered glass melts and flows into the fissures in the rubies to hide them. As with all other types of fracture filling, this process enhances the gem’s appearance but not its inherent value. Like diamonds that are fracture filled, the consumer should be alerted to the treatment before he buys a fracture filled ruby – but I fear this will not always, and perhaps, seldom happen. They are likely to be set in inexpensive jewelry and sold by mass merchandisers who commit little time or money to training their sales people in the niceties of gem sales. Ignorance usually triumphs – Caveat emptor.
The buyer never need be wary when he buys a Hearts On Fire diamond or fine diamond Jewelry by Hearts On Fire. The brand is dedicated to quality, not price; and this drives Hearts On Fire to perfection. So uniformly perfect is the work of Hearts On Fire’s cutters that it is the only diamond we will buy sight unseen. We know it will be perfectly cut, amazing in its beauty. And while we rigorously inspect each piece of Jewelry by Hearts On Fire (you can’t compromise standards and be a Hearts On Fire jeweler), it is quite unusual for a piece of Jewelry by Hearts On Fire to “flunk” our inspection. In the rare moments when one has slipped by Hearts On Fire’s inspectors, we never get an argument. Hearts On Fire replaces it at once because it expects every diamond it cuts and every piece of jewelry it makes to be perfect; so if you need the perfect diamond gift, only Hearts On Fire from Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers will do. Check out our collection on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for our holiday hours.
OH! Don’t forget to check out our 12 Days of Christmas Challenge; you may save yourself $50.00!

I was barely four when, seventy years ago, the Japanese attacked our fleet based in the Hawaiian port of Pearl Harbor. Needless to say, a great deal has changed since then; but perhaps the event and the war that followed should be examined for its seminal effect on the world we live in.

On the eve of that long ago war, control of the Pacific basin was generally held to be divided between the Japanese and American navies; and Japan’s purpose was to tip the balance to the Japanese fleet. For six months and a bit more, the Japanese had it all their way, seizing control of the raw materials Japan’s militarists felt necessary to achieving economic independence. Then on June 4, 1942, a brilliant confluence of military intelligence, planning, courage and outrageous good fortune at the Battle of Midway allowed the beleaguered American fleet to even the balance. Over the next year and a half the struggle continued and through it all the American economy churned out an ever growing fleet of warships. As they came into service young Americans eagerly filled them; and the U.S. Navy increasingly tipped the balance our way. The growth had been spectacular.

On the eve of Japan’s incursion into China in 1937, the U.S. Navy had 355 ships in service. Once war appeared on the horizon, the Roosevelt Administration actively pushed warship construction so that on the eve of war in 1941 the U.S. Navy had almost doubled its effective strength; but once war began this construction program was dwarfed. By the end of 1944 our active fleet had grown to almost 6100 warships; and by war’s end (the end of August 1945) we had added nearly 700 more ships to that staggering level. The end of the war, of course, meant that the scale of our active fleet could be hugely scaled back; but the ships, mothballed in harbors up and down our coasts, remained silently in wait.

Though our active fleet on the eve of the Korean War (1950) was roughly the size of our 1941 Navy, its composition was far more modern; and it was without a serious competitor for primacy on the world’s oceans. Just to keep things that way, the U.S. hauled out many of its mothballed veterans to make sure that ‘Pax Americana’ would continue on the world’s seas. It did; and as the ‘Cold War’ continued, a funny thing happened, the law of unintended consequences came into play. That is, with the world’s oceans safe highways for shipping, international trade prospered; and over time the global economy of our own time sputtered into being. Japanese TVs, cars and cameras became commonplace, soon to be followed by newcomer Korean goods; and now, the Chinese have benefited from ‘Pax Americana’. Of course, we’re often alarmed at China’s increasing power; but at this moment the U.S. Navy stands as a singular power in the world. That is (and for the sake of comparison), our fleet is the world’s most powerful (by a huge margin); and taken together with the Navy’s air component and the Marine Corps, our Navy is greater in size than the whole of the United Kingdom’s military establishment. So what does that mean for the global economy?

Your clothes, the food we eat, and more, are often very easily imported; but some imports can be morally compromised. Your cell phone was almost certainly made ‘off shore’ using rare metals and minerals mined in still another part of the world – sometimes by people reduced to near slavery. The chocolate you enjoy very likely began as cacao grown in Africa – often harvested by children (Nestlé, the world’s biggest user of chocolate is currently investigating this); and of course, the jewelry business has been hit by the threat of ‘blood diamonds’. Unlike the electronics industry and the chocolate business, however, the jewelry business has been doing something about the moral challenges of a global economy. The mechanism is called the Kimberly Process and the U.S. Government subscribes to it. Without going into great detail, it is a system for tracking diamonds from the mine to the consumer in order to guarantee that they are ‘clean’. So while you may swear off some goods, fearing responsibility for the exploitation of others, you may buy diamonds with confidence.

Global demand for diamonds is growing rapidly; but the supply remains stagnant. Very simply, this means that diamond prices are rising and will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. It also has meant that to meet demands, inferior (homely) diamonds now abound on the market; but not here at Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers. We pride ourselves on the quality of our hand selected diamonds so greatly that we promise you that we will not sell you an ugly diamond. So this Christmas check out our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment with one of our jewelry professionals. We’ll help you buy the beautiful gift you really desire. Come see us!

Back in the 1800s English historian Thomas Carlyle coined the phrase “The Dismal Science” to describe the economics of a proposal to reintroduce slavery into the British Empire. His recommendations went unheeded, but the term has since come to be applied to all of economics, not unfairly I think.

A few weeks ago Professor Thomas J. Sargent (New York University) received a Nobel Prize for economics, primarily as a product of his thought on macroeconomic human behavior. It is built on the notion that the economic behavior of the human race is the product of our ‘rational expectations’. In this, he is not alone. After Professor Sargent published ‘Rational Expectations and Econometric Practice (with Robert E. Lucas Jr.) in 1981, the notion that the universe of our economic lives is mechanistically stable, rational and repetitive became dominant in the world of economic thought. Of course, the key word for the mechanists is “rational”. Its corollary, of course, is that virtually all people govern their economic lives through efficient economic decisions based on a cold analysis of all of the information available to them. Needless to say, I’m skeptical of their thinking.

What puzzles me is how the Swedish Academy could have ignored the economic collapse of 2008 in awarding the prize to Professor Sargent. Though he is clearly a thinker to be reckoned with, I fear that this event, dismissed by the ‘rationalists’ as a ‘random shock‘, has made it clear that rationality is not the only factor in our economic thinking. Indeed emotions such as greed, fear and aspirations seem to play important roles in our economic life, considerations that defied the predictions of Professor Sargent and his ‘posse’. After the fact, of course, macroeconomic thinkers have come up with explanations to link rationality to the behaviors that led to the train wreck; but I am inclined to dismiss this as the rationalizations of those who cannot admit to ignorance. All of which brings me to the price of gold.

Howard, one of the characters in John Huston’s 1948 film ‘The Treasure of Sierra Madre’ summarized the problem of gold, both for the viewer and future economists. “Aah, gold’s a devilish sort of thing, anyway. You start out, you tell yourself you’ll be satisfied with 25,000 handsome smackers worth of it. So help me, Lord, and cross my heart. Fine resolution. After months of sweatin’ yourself dizzy, and growin’ short on provisions, and findin’ nothin’, you finally come down to 15,000, then ten. Finally, you say, “Lord, let me just find $5,000 worth and I’ll never ask for anythin’ more the rest of my life.”” If you missed it, that’s greed and disappointment in a nutshell; and reason has little to do with it. And so it goes for the price of gold in our own time.

While the only sweat involved in speculating in gold is the cold sweat of fear (not rationality), I think it’s real enough to have caused the current demand for gold, and thus its price, to wobble a bit over the last few weeks. Those who have lost faith in fiat currency, fearful that the sovereign debt crisis currently afflicting Europe will somehow diminish their nest eggs of saved wealth, have driven the price of gold to new highs. Speculators (speculating on the gullibility of ‘gold bugs’?) have been the other force driving gold prices; but like Howard’s gold miner, they seen to have become a bit disappointed in the easy profitability of gold. After crossing over the $1800/ounce mark several weeks ago, the price of gold has wobbled between the $1600/ounce range and the mid-$1700s; and this can only be a product of the failed anticipation of quick profits. Not being a macroeconomist, I see the ‘ups’ as driven by fear and greed and the ‘downs‘, as Howard observed, driven by the failure of gold purchases to meet greedy expectations. No doubt, rationalist macroeconomists have an ‘after the fact’ explanation for the volatility of gold prices, but I think ‘rational expectations‘ really have little to do with it.

If any purchase is emotionally driven, it is the purchase of a diamond; so we don’t sell commodity diamonds and jewelry. Our gems are hand selected for beauty and our jewelry is design and labor intensive, much closer to art than mere raw materials. For these reasons, ‘one-off’ custom manufacture is part and parcel of what we offer you; and our “crown jewels”, of course, are our diamonds, particularly our Hearts On Fire diamonds. They are the ultimate in the diamond cutter’s art; so their singular blazing beauty makes them the perfect gift. Giving one to her or him will say “I love you,” perfectly. So check out our collection of fine jewelry on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment. We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers; and we have the stuff of dreams waiting for you.

One’s formative years are exactly that, years that shape you. With that as a given, I must confess that my formative years in the jewelry business (more than 55 years ago!) were colored by a certain contempt for costume jewelry. It was gold plated stuff that, at cost, sold at prices like ‘$13.75/dozen’; that is, each piece cost just a bit more than a dollar. My boss hoped to sell half of it at his regular retail mark-up for such merchandise and then close out the balance for half or less of the retail price. Anything that survived the sale would be, quite literally, scrapped. Given the fact that I was being paid fifty cents an hour, the idea of throwing away stuff he’d paid good money for horrified me; yet I could see the sense to it. It was, after all, often referred to in the trade as ‘junk jewelry’, stuff that could easily be discarded. It is equally understandable, however, that as I grew into ownership I would avoid being involved in jewelry of such dubious value. Give me gold, silver, platinum and real gems; that’s the stuff! So you can imagine my puzzlement when I learned that there are people who collect and value jewelry that I had participated in throwing away half a century ago.

I was, for example, stunned to learn that there was a market for the bakelite jewelry manufactured during World War II. The boss of my youth had held on to some of it for eight years after the war’s end, frugal Czech that he was; but even he reached the point where he scratched his head and could see no reason to save it from the trash can. It had no intrinsic value and no one wanted to buy it; why give it valuable space? Yet today, I’m told, a very tall former governor of our state collects the stuff and will pay a pretty penny for some of it. Who knew? Then there are the gold plated cuff links we had in for our recent estate sale. Fifty years ago I bought a pair like it in a men’s store (and better looking, I think) for $5.00. I still have them and I would have to say that they are valueless. The pair that arrived for our estate show, however, had belonged to Bob Hope; and apparently his fame had rubbed off on them to the tune of a couple of hundred dollars. I scratched my head in bewilderment at that. Certainly, their perceived value would dissipate as the late Mr. Hope became just a faint whisper in history; but perhaps therein lie the tales that impel people to collect. It’s romance. I will guess that somehow bakelite jewelry has some emotional meaning to those who collect it (association with what is perceived as an heroic age in our history?); while Bob Hope’s jewelry may have nostalgic significance for those who value it. At any rate, I’ve been drawn up short, again, on the subject of costume jewelry.

It seems that a London auction house, Drewatts, has sold some of the late Duchess of Windsor’s costume jewelry at auction (October 10). While the Duchess had a large collection of ‘real’ jewelry, the Financial Times recently quoted her as saying (in 1937, the year following her failure to make the cut as next queen of England), “I hate to admit it, but I am absolutely fascinated by fake jewellery at the moment; I think it is so good.” The pieces auctioned off included a ‘body-sculpture’ necklace of truly regal proportions; that is, it is a faux Middle-Eastern style necklace that, as it extends from neck to navel, is nearly a garment. I can’t say what it must have cost in 1937 nor what its value might be today; but prior to the auction Drewatts estimated that the collection might earn close to $5,000 at auction. James Nicholson, Drewatts, authority on jewelry, defended this estimate observing that “Royal memorabilia is in a different category. It’s the association with a woman known for her style and her jewellery.” “Anything to do with the duke and the duchess will help,” Nicholson observed, “Magical names bring people out.” I’m sure he’s right; but as for me, I’m still skeptical about the real value of anything that’s not ‘real’.

Of course, my prejudices reflect itself in our jewelry. I just can’t see jewelry that is the first thing to turn green in the spring; so ours is real gold, real platinum and real silver. Our gems are both real and gorgeous; and we pride ourselves, in particular, on our diamonds, which we hand selected for their beauty – very real and lasting ‘bling.’ We do our very best to tightly control the quality of all that we offer since we believe that it, with the careful wear a piece of fine jewelry deserves, should be able to last you for the rest of your life. Check out our jewelry collection on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us for an appointment to select your perfect piece of jewelry. We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers; and our greatest pleasure is fulfilling your dreams. Oh! When you come, bring your sunglasses. Some people find looking at real ‘bling’ hard on their eyes.

I know, you’ve never seen the term before; so think about it. Jewelry that you don’t wear can be scrapped; but if it has emotional content, that will be lost. If its emotional content is important, then you may think about reusing its component parts to make something you will wear, since it is a certainty that if it sits, neglected, in a dresser drawer for the next thirty years its emotional content will diminish. Out of sight is out of mind. Not only that, given the current high prices for precious metals and diamonds, ‘upcycling’ a piece of jewelry that has lost its wearability is probably the least expensive way to enjoy a new piece of jewelry you will love and admire. Perhaps a couple of stories I can tell you will make your decision a little easier.

A few years ago the daughter of one of my oldest friends came into the store with her grandmother’s diamond ring. She recognized that it was worn beyond repair but wanted to be able to wear ‘grandma’s diamond’. That meant scrapping the ring for its precious metal and setting the diamond in a new ring; but as the diamond was really homely (it had, most likely, been cut – for weight, not beauty – at the mine in the late 1800s); I had to stick my nose in with some advice. “Let me have it recut for you. It will make the diamond pop with beauty.” From the standpoint of a sale, I’d made a mistake – no sale; but she did say that she would think it over. To give her some food for thought, I had to remind her that I’d known her grandmother (and had hung around her house for countless hours in high school). She had been a much bigger woman; and I observed as much, remarking, “ If you had wanted to wear your grandmother’s wedding dress, it would have to have been altered. This is no different.” My argument not withstanding, however, she had to think it over.

A few months later she returned to ask me what she could expect if the diamond were to be recut. I measured it and realized that a really radical recut would reduce the weight of her grandmother’s diamond by less than 10%. Moreover, I told her, it would appear no smaller since the diamond cutter’s work would do little to change the diamond’s diameter. She left the diamond and I sent it off to one of the two best diamond cutters in the United States. Six weeks later the diamond was back, and it was beautiful. I phoned her to come see it. She loved it and selected a new ring to put it in, one that she wears to this day; and every time she looks at it or someone admires it and comments on it, her grandmother’s memory lives on.

Then there was the woman who had inherited her mother’s engagement ring and had worn it every day to do everything. She loved the old ring and her idea of ‘upcycling’ had been repairing it. Now it was worn beyond redemption, a collection of what can only be called ‘wires’; and one by one they were cracking. As she hadn’t realized that a gold ring could wear out, she was heartbroken. We looked at new rings for the diamonds; but nothing would do. Then we offered to duplicate her mother’s ring; and though that would be considerably more expensive than buying a series production ring, it was exactly what she wanted. It took a little back and forth with the artisan who would make it; but finally she felt we’d captured the essence of the original ring. We made it. She loved it. End of story.

Currently we’re upcycling grandma’s diamond for a young woman to wear on her wedding day. It has been somewhat problematic as she doesn’t have an easy time visualizing the designs we’ve proposed. It was time for Kathy to the rescue. She found pictures of some commercially available settings, cut them out and ‘pasted’ them on the young woman’s chest until, together, they found one that looked good in the mirror. It was a contemporary heart shape without a place for a diamond in it; but that was no problem. Stepping back into the dialogue, I pointed out a, somewhat unorthodox, place to position the diamond. Kathy removed doubts by placing one of our stock diamonds (of the same size as grandma’s) in the position and the young woman was pleased. Now we’re in the process of fabricating a custom head (the setting for the diamond) that will uniquely complete the piece. Sure it will take time, but fine jewelry is all about forever and the woman is patient.

This is typical of our business. We average at least one custom order each week; and to preserve the value of the pieces we make, we insist that they be crafted to the highest standards in the jewelry business. So if you need to ‘upcycle’ a piece of jewelry or need a new piece of breathtaking beauty, come see us. We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers; and our pleasure is helping you realize your dreams. Check us out on the web at hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment. We won’t disappoint you.

A few days ago a young woman visited our store in search of a wedding ring to match her engagement ring. The problem was not a difficult one to resolve, provided that the client was willing to throw money at it. She wasn’t; and that led to some revealing insights.

She remarked that she really admired a Tiffany ring but then said, “But I’m not willing to pay Tiffany’s prices!” That led to the revelation. Somewhat proudly, she told me that her engagement ring had been copied from a Tiffany style by another jeweler at a price lower than Tiffany’s. I bit my tongue; but I’ll let you in on my feelings. I’m always offended by copies of another’s work. It is not only unethical but stupid and lazy beyond belief.

Ethically, the design was and is Tiffany’s intellectual property and I see an exact copy of it as tantamount to theft. The questions of stupidity and laziness are a bit more subtle. In point of fact, while a design may be copyrighted, three or more alterations to the design of ‘inspiration’ render it, technically, a ‘new’ design. To fight this threat, many designers, including those who work for Tiffany, try to create designs that defy easy imitation. As her ring was a solitaire, its innate simplicity made it easy to copy; and in addition to his theft of intellectual property, the jeweler had turned a blind eye to the Federal Trade Commission. Though the ring was marked ‘Plat’, indicating that it had been cast in platinum, it was not trademarked; and since 1961 the FTC has required a piece of jewelry that is ‘quality marked’ to bear a trademark. Obviously, a copy bearing a trademark other than Tiffany’s would make suit for copyright infringement all too easy; so the prudent thief had left it out. At any rate, if I’d been able to have a reasonable dialogue with the young woman I might have asked about the gem in her ring.

It was set with a round shaped faceted blue sapphire; and given its size, smaller than six millimeters in diameter, I wondered if the jeweler who had sold it had revealed whether or not it had been treated to enhance its color. As this is a somewhat obscure issue, let me explain. Its size rendered it fairly common; that is, rough sapphire is usually found in long hexagonal crystal rods that fairly frequently grow to, but rarely exceed, six millimeters in diameter. As such a sapphire is not unique in its size, the temptation to make it as saleable as possible is so great that almost all such gems come to market after they have been subjected to some sort of color enhancement. The practice is so widespread that in the absence of a laboratory report stating otherwise, I presume that any sapphire offered to me has been heated to enhance its color. I’ll bet the question of enhancement never came up in the thieving jeweler’s sale of the gem. It is, after all, a question of ethics; and since the jeweler in question had readily agreed to one ethical lapse, why not another?

Needless to say, I sold her nothing. It may have been her attitude, “I like a Tiffany ring, but I won’t pay Tiffany’s prices!”; or it may have been mine, “I won’t compromise my ethical stance to make a sale”. In fact, as she left in a bit of a huff, I’ll gladly take the blame for the no sale. There are some sales a truly professional jeweler can’t afford to make.

Obviously, the young woman valued Tiffany design but was not knowledgeable enough, regardless of the ethics of the matter, to know that appearance, alone, is not the only value in a piece of jewelry. In fact, eavesdropping at jewelry trade shows, the most common question I hear one jewelry professional ask another (while looking at a piece of jewelry) is about price – “Is that my cost or is it retail?” It takes solid experiential knowledge of gems and jewelry and a close examination of them and of the workmanship in a piece of jewelry to be able to know what it is really worth; and at a fast paced trade show, that question is really just the beginning. It is asked to determine whether the piece is in the ‘ballpark’ for appearances at the price. Deciding whether one will want to stock it takes a hard look; and here is where the jewelry professional earns his keep. He or she must have the patience and experience to evaluate the quality of the jewelry he is looking at and the people who make it. To best serve his or her clients, its price must be commensurate with its quality; and the craftsmen who make it must be ethically and technically stone reliable in their ability to deliver that quality consistently.

I’d love to tell you about the sales we’ve made, sight unseen, to people who are confident in our expertise and integrity – or about the the people who travel from out of state to do business with us – but time and space won’t allow. Just know this; we know jewelry and take pride in what we sell. So if you’re in the market for a gift of quality or an important self purchase, check out our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us for an appointment at 708.788.0880. We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers; and we are happiest when we can help you realize your dreams.

I am frequently asked to look at a client’s jewelry and make estimates of age, value, quality or Lord only knows what else. Most of these requests are innocently made by customers who, flatteringly, presume my personal antiquity and experience in the jewelry business have empowered me to accurately answer any of these questions at a glance. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Take, for instance, a ring that I was presented with and questioned about recently. Specifically, the client wanted to know when it had been made.

It had been cast in yellow gold but had a white metal plate on its top into which three diamonds were set. The inside of the ring had been stamped ‘14K-PALL’ indicating that the basic metal of the ring was an alloy of seven-twelfths gold, other metals making up its remaining five-twelfths; while the white metal top was palladium, a member of the platinum family of metals. These markings suggested that the ring had been made after the passage of the National Gold and Silver Stamping Act of 1906; but the diamonds were an anomaly. They were, quite literally, chips. So long as small diamonds were abundant, it did not seem immediately likely that they would have been set in a ring that, owing to the evidence of its palladium top, clearly had not been produced at a ‘price’. The palladium top was another anomaly. Though, like platinum, palladium is naturally white and hypoallergenic, it is a more difficult metal to work than either gold or platinum. As a result, jewelry makers have generally shunned its use, particularly prior to this century. There was, however, a moment in the twentieth century when palladium enjoyed the spotlight. It was between 1939 and 1947.

When the Second World War began (1939), the U.S. government had declared platinum a strategic metal and forbid its use in any non-military application. Jewelry makers cast about for a substitute. White gold wouldn’t do, as quality jewelry buyers saw platinum as a major mark of quality; but as a member of the platinum family, palladium just might. So it was that palladium jewelry, in some small quantity, was made during the war. The diamond chips are explained by putting the ring’s manufacture into that time period as well. In 1940 the Nazis had overrun Europe’s diamond cutting centers – Belgium and the Netherlands. As these were, at the time, the world’s principal diamond cutting centers, the supply of cut diamonds dried up immediately (Several years ago I was told by an old diamantaire that the price of small diamonds had risen by 600% between May and August of 1940). Fearing that ships carrying its products would be sunk by U-Boats, DeBeers (at the time it controlled more than 90% of the world’s rough diamond production) shipped only industrial quality diamonds from South Africa to the Allies (yes, it was on our side). Newly mined gem quality diamonds were not to be had throughout the war. What this meant for the consumer (and ironically, the war had made consumers cash rich) and the jewelry business was that they would have to ‘make do’ with ‘recycled’ diamonds. For the young man who wanted to get married it meant that he would take what he could get – in the case of the ring I was examining, diamond chips (probably cut in the late 1800s for use in cheap diamond jewelry) in a palladium top. Yes, I think that owing to its composition the ring could only have been made during the Second World War or in its immediate aftermath.

Interestingly enough, when newly cut diamonds started to come to the market after World War Two’s end, DeBeers found consumers to be luke warm on them. The baby boom was on and they had more pressing economic concerns. So it was not until DeBeers launched the ‘A diamond is forever’ advertising campaign that consumers strongly returned to diamond gifts as statements of love. Platinum, in the Cold War that followed the hot one, remained a strategic metal until the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a result of its time ‘in the cold’ and despite its superiority as a metal for holding diamonds, most consumers had forgotten about it by then; so with platinum prices at only one-fifth of what they are currently, platinum jewelry went for a song when it was reintroduced to the buying public in the 90s.

Well, there it is. We know jewelry; and you will benefit from our knowledge and our requirement for exceptional quality in all we sell and service when you come visit us with your jewelry problem. Check out our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com, then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment. We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers; and our pleasure is helping you realize your dreams.

Jewelry has been cast, that is, made by forcing molten metal into a mold, for more than three millennia. And casting a perfect piece, free of porosity, has been a challenge for that whole time. The inherent problem is that of filling the whole mold cavity before the metal starts to solidify in smaller parts of the cavity. The most common way to avoid this (on the cheap) is to overheat the metal, which results in it frothing (think of it foaming). Thus the metal solidifies filled with internal bubbles. This porosity is both unsightly and compromises the strength of the finished piece (think of the ‘Liberty Bell’ which cracked as a result internal casting flaws). The appearance of a porous casting can be enhanced by some polishing techniques; but should the piece be heated after its pores have been peened closed, it will once again appear to be ‘poxed’. Jewelers who produce consistently ‘clean’ castings (and dental laboratories) are characterized by their meticulous knowledge and practice of both the art and the science of casting. Nonetheless, the bigger the piece to be cast, the more it ‘stretches’ the science and comes to rely more on art.

I learned of this, first hand (and more than forty years ago), when one of my clients wanted a 14 Karat yellow gold, ‘life size’, three dimensional, charm in the form of a mushroom. No one wanted to touch the job; but as she was a good customer, I didn’t want to disappoint her. So when all else failed, I hand carved a wood model, finished it with polyurethane (so the pores in the wood wouldn’t be duplicated by the mold) and used it to make the mold cavity I needed. It was a beginning. Trade shops were, by and large, too horrified by the size of the piece to attempt casting it; but finally I found one who could do a creditable job. The piece was cast and finished to the customer’s pleasure. With this experience in mind, I was amazed at the work of Cyril Wood.

My encounter with his work took the form of a wonderfully detailed 14 Karat yellow gold, three dimensional casting (more than 2 inches tall!) of a walking cherub. It had a walking stick in its right hand and carried a picnic basket in its left; and it had obviously been cast, beautifully, as a complete piece, not assembled from separate components. I was so taken with it (it was from the estate of Mary Pickford) that I had to do a little research into both Mr. Wood and the Beverly Hills jeweler (‘Marvin Wood Jewelers’) who had sold the piece. The story is fragmented, but interesting. It is my guess that ‘Marvin Wood’ was really ‘Marvin Hime’; and that the piece was sold some time between 1950 and 1952.

It is trademarked ‘M Hime’; and I find it hard to believe that this was not the real name of ‘Marvin Wood’. Why the alias? If you look back to American Society in the 1930’s, a fairly broad strain of anti-semitism soon becomes obvious; and just as Jewish actors and comedians found it to their profit to adopt more ‘Anglo’ stage names, I think Marvin found it to his advantage to become, in business, ‘Mr. Wood’. This is all conjecture on my part since I’ve been unable to find any modern references to either a ‘Marvin Wood Jewelers’ or an ‘M Hime’ in contemporary Beverly Hills or Los Angles.

Cyril Wood is a little easier. He was a talented multi-media artist, native to the Los Angeles area; and when he married another artist, Vera (in 1950), I think he found the inspiration for his cherub. He loved to work metal, so a great deal of his art (etchings and castings) was ‘metal intensive’. His artistic metier, however, tended to be more contemporary than the whimsical cherub might otherwise indicate; and so we must look a bit to Vera. As a child in England she had greatly admired the statue of ‘Peter Pan’ (by Sir George Frampton) in ‘Kensington Gardens’; and as a young artist, many of her drawings were filled woodland spirits reminiscent of that statue. The Mary Pickford cherub is in this same vein; but the actual casting can only have been Cyril’s work.

Dating it to the very early 1950’s is also speculative, and based on the trademark. Cyril’s later castings usually carried both the ‘M Hime’ trademark and another, ‘Cyvra’, which I think stood for ‘Cyril and Vera’.

We know our jewelry from ‘A to Z’; so if you’re in the market for a quality piece of jewelry, a completely custom piece or a fine diamond, you really need to see us. Check out our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment with one our staff. We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers; and we’ll help you realize your dreams.