I received a note from the Field Museum yesterday advertising the coming of a new exhibit on gold; and it brought to mind John Huston’s 1948 film ‘Treasure of Sierra Madre’. I’m sure the current speculation in gold was at least in part the impetus for the show; so a few of the lines uttered by the film’s characters may be of interest – particularly as one of them philosophized on prospecting for gold. “Aah,” he said, “gold’s a devilish sort of thing, anyway.” (You promise yourself that you’ll by happy with $25,000 worth) “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.’ But I tell you, if you was to make a real strike, you couldn’t be dragged away. Not even the threat of miserable death would keep you from trying to add 10,000 more. Ten, you’d want to get twenty-five; twenty-five you’d want to get fifty; fifty, a hundred. Like roulette. One more turn, you know. Always one more.”

There’s nothing new about ‘gold fever’; and Columbus’ journal makes it clear that he was as obsessed with gold as the paranoid prospectors of ‘Treasure of Sierra Madre’. On December 23, 1492, he wrote, “Our Lord in His Goodness guide me that I may find this gold, I mean their mine, for I have many here who say they know it.” The monarch who financed him, Isabella, was not quite so starry eyed about gold; she was simply interested in negotiable wealth and either by design or accident, pearls topped her list – but I’m getting ahead of the story. In that first blush of discovery Columbus established a colony, La Navidad, on Hispaniola and returned to Spain, a hero, with cotton, some gold and ‘hombres in Dios’ to be baptized – but without pearls. This was the pattern of his next voyage; but in his third voyage he visited the mouth of the Orinoco River and it would undo him.

To his disappointment, he found no gold; but he noticed the natives wearing pearl jewelry in some abundance. Dutifully, he asked where the pearls had been found and they pointed north and west. His sailors, sturdy and pragmatic adventurers, bartered with the ‘Indians’ for pearls to sell on their return to Spain while Columbus ‘talked’. Columbus sailed on; and in honor of the Austrian princess betrothed to the heir to the Spanish throne, named an island off Panama ‘Isla de Margarita’, a name that would haunt him. A revolt (against Columbus) by the colonists of Santo Domingo began to take up his time; and with a head full of politics (and perhaps, still obsessed with gold), he prepared his report to the monarchs, mentioning nothing about pearl fisheries. So it was that ‘innocent’ dispatches and sailors bent on making a killing selling pearls arrived in Spain simultaneously. Of course they did sell them; and of course they made huge profits; and of course, the news got back to Ferdinand and Isabella – who did a slow burn. As they read Columbus’ dispatches, particularly his naming an island Isla de Margarita (Margarita is not only a woman’s name, it was also the common Greco-Latin word for ‘pearl’), they became convinced that the ‘Admiral of the Ocean Sea’ was holding out on them. The revolt was enough a hint of malfeasance for Ferdinand and Isabella to appoint Francisco de Bobadilla a royal commissioner to the New World with powers superseding those they had accorded Columbus. On his arrival in the New World, he had Columbus arrested and returned him to Spain, in chains, for questioning. After a very uncomfortable time, he was able to convince the monarchs of his innocence and returned to the New World in a fourth voyage of exploration; but he had missed the boat. By the time of his death in 1506 wealth had escaped him and the great ‘pearl rush’ was on.

Adventurers flocked to the coast of Venezuela and the Gulf of Panama, soon to be known as the ‘Pearl Coast’, and in each of the 150 years of that pearl rush tens of millions of pearls were brought into the port of Seville. Indeed, the value of the pearls extracted from the pearl coast in that first Spanish century was so great that it exceeded the value of all of the gold and silver mined in the Americas during the same period. Poor Columbus, gold stricken sailor that he was, he failed to realize that when it comes to jewelry (and wealth) gems always outshine gold. Unlike him, Silvio Hidalgo, designer of the eponymous jewelry collection, has come to deeply appreciate the beauty of gems in his most recent, and gem encrusted, offerings of ‘Hidalgo’ stacking rings and earrings. Naturally, as Mr. Hidalgo’s greatest proponents in all ‘Chicagoland’, we’ll be featuring it throughout the autumn; and to kick the season off, we’ve scheduled a huge Hidalgo trunk show for August 13 and 14. Check out the Hidalgo collection on our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for a show appointment. Don’t miss the boat! We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers and our pleasure is helping you realize your dreams.

Most modern Americans certainly do value gems; but perhaps we do so in a loss of innocence. That is, while our distant forefathers usually valued gems for their medicinal and spiritual qualities, we, unimaginative drudges that we are, usually value them for only their beauty and rarity. – grouping the medicinal and spiritual qualities of gems with quackery. Fortunately there are some traditionalists, some in traditional India and most assuredly some in modern America, who believe that luck, health, wealth and happiness can be imparted by gems to their owners. Beware, however, that some gems may be more appropriate to you than others.

In the Brihat Samhita, a first century B.C. text on Vedic Astrology, Varaha Mihira attempted an exhaustive study of gems and their astrological affects, determined by each person’s sun sign, moon sign and birth star as well as his or her birth number’s (numerological) affect on the appropriateness of gems for each individual. “Humbug!” you say; but if your birthday is forthcoming, you must read on.

If diamond is one of your ‘good’ gems, Vedic astrology assures that owning one will make the wearer faithful (a good reason to buy diamond jewelry) and lead to increased wealth. If ruby is one of your ‘good’ gems, possessing one will benefit your beauty, preserve you from bad friends and protect your liver (I have some great rubies!). “Pearl?” you ask. Owning them (take a look at ours!) will help you become wealthy, popular and serene; while a ‘good’ emerald (ours our breath-taking) will strengthen your mind and your pocket. Blue sapphire (ours are the blue you dream of), unless you must avoid it, will aid you in defeating your enemies, strengthen your wealth and your physical and mental health. Both yellow sapphire (we’ve got some great ones) and emerald will be beneficial to your health, wealth and psyche. While there may be no Vedic gems you should avoid in your particular sign of the zodiac, Vedic wisdom counsels that you should wear any gem that is not known to be beneficial for a few days to see how it resonates with your well being (provided it’s not damaged, we’ll give you 30 days to bring it back). With that advice (and a little salesmanship), let’s move on to the nitty-gritty of gems and birthdays from now into December.

If you were born between June 22 and July 23, you were born under the (western) sign of the Crab (Cancer). In Vedic Astrology this would mean the gems that will benefit you are diamond, pearl, ruby and yellow sapphire; but you should avoid blue sapphire and emerald. If you were born between July 24 and August 23 you were born under Leo; so your beneficial gems are ruby, emerald, diamond and sardonyx. Virgos, August 24 to September 23. must possess emerald, pearl, diamond and both yellow and blue sapphire for luck, health, wealth and happiness. Libra, September 24 to October 21, follows; and what a treasure trove of gem lore there is for it, oh bountiful Libra. Diamond, pearl and opal are all good for you; and orange colored stones will yield gain without pain. Be careful if you gamble, however, wearing blue gems will benefit those you play against (Could this be part of the problem for ‘Cubby Blue’?). The Vedic advice for Scorpio, those born between October 22 and November 22, is to wear yellow sapphire or topaz to foster pregnancy, ruby if you want to prevail in court and pearls to succeed in college. Vedic advice for our last sign, Sagittarius (November 23 to December 22) is abundant. Don’t wear ruby! It will make you short tempered and reckless; but emerald will help you become famous and prosperous. Any orange colored gem will bring good luck if you seek assistance from government or travel. So those of you with faith in Vedic astrology (or those of you who just like a good story), consider yourself told.

Now if you want to convert some of your old jewelry into new, beneficial, goodies, come see us. Our jewelry collection is particularly strong in beautiful diamonds and we’re willing to talk trade. That is, you can, with a few dollars more, trade in something you aren’t wearing for a piece or two of fine jewelry that will do you some good. Come see us for a free jewelry consultation so that you’ll know whether you want to ‘hold ‘em or fold ‘em. To give you our undivided attention, it will be best if you make an appointment. Just phone us at 708.788.0880; and if you want a look at our jewelry, check out our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com. You can’t go wrong. We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers and our greatest pleasure is helping you realize your dreams.

To Recut or Not to Recut? That is the Question.

I hope the shade of William Shakespeare will forgive the license I’ve taken with Hamlet’s soliloquy; but I had to do it simply because of its relevance. While diamonds are, in fact, older than dirt (how does 4 billion years old sound?), cutting them dates only from the early 16th century; and the question of recutting them to enhance their appearance has been a matter of contention ever since.

A few years back, a friend of ours, Maarten de Witte – an internationally known master diamond cutter (from Urbana, Illinois, of all places) – had a private tour of the Smithsonian Institute’s gem collection. In its course, he had occasion to closely inspect the Hope Diamond. Inspection finished, he observed to the Curator, “This is a real ‘hack’ cutting job.” Then he made his offer, “Let me recut it for you.” The museum’s curator was not amused; but Maarten’s position should be examined. The gem’s history, in Maarten’s view, is a fact of its provenance quite separate from its physical details. To be sure, it would not do to cut the diamond (it weighs 45.52 carats) into a multitude of smaller diamonds; but Maarten sees shaving off 4 or 5 carats in the interest of enhancing its sparkle and color as completely in keeping with its history – a view he shares with the late Louis XIV of France.

The diamond that would become the Hope was brought to France, as a cut gem of 115.16 carats, by French merchant-adventurer Jean Baptiste Tavernier. Tavernier described it as a beautiful violet in color and sold it to Louis XIV of France. Louis, thinking that it didn’t have as much sparkle as he would have liked, gave it to the court jeweler (Sieur Pitau) with orders to improve its appearance. The result was a diamond of a little more than 67 carats; but Louis was not real happy with its modified appearance. Fearing, were he to have it recut again, that he’d lose more weight without any gain, Louis left it alone; and it remained, as the “French Blue”, in the Crown Jewels until it was stolen in 1792. To hide its origin, the gem was recut again (into its present configuration) some time between its theft and 1812. As the late 18th/early 19th century recut was done for criminal purposes, Maarten’s offer has some merit in my eyes; but that takes us a bit afield from the most recent recut of a great historic diamond, the Wittlesbach Blue.

It too has a ‘glamourous’ history, albeit of another kind. It came into the hands of Bavaria’s royal family, the Wittelsbachs, in the early 18th century. It remained in their hands until (probably) 1951; but by 1960 it was in the hands of some ‘upstarts’, the Goldmuntz family. In the 1960s they had the temerity to ask jeweler Joseph Komkommer, to re-cut it! He refused on the grounds of its “historical significance” (Maarten, had he been an adult at the time, would have taken umbrage at this). Komkommer, however, did put his money where his mouth was; and with a consortium of diamond dealers, bought it. They resold it to Helmut Horten, a wealthy German department store magnate, in1964.

He’d met an Austrian gal, Heidi Jelinek, in 1960; and though she was 32 years younger than he, proposed marriage. She accepted. They were married July 23, 1966; and the Wittlesbach was his wedding gift to her. He passed away in 1987; but she (at about 68) remains active – and rated by Forbes Magazine as the world’s 224th richest person. Wealth notwithstanding, however, she decided to sell the diamond. So it was that in early December of 2008, the 35.56 carat diamond was sold to London-based jeweler Lawrence Graff (for about $23.4 million). Graff took the gamble and had it recut to enhance its color. It lost not quite 4.5 carats and was proudly renamed the Wittlesbach-Graff. Then the furor began. World renowned diamond cutter Gabriel Tolkowsky called it “the end of culture,” while Professor Hans Ottomeyer, Director of the Deutsches Historisches Museum of Berlin, compared the recut to overpainting a Rembrandt. Maarten, of course, approved. The recut had improved its color and clarity.

Does the romance intrinsic to any particular diamond change when you recut it in the name of beauty? I’m afraid I’m with Maarten here; I think not. So if you have a diamond that can have its appearance improved, bring it in. We’ll take grandma’s diamond (you wouldn’t wear her wedding dress without alterations, would you?) and let Maarten make it a gem of rare beauty. He can work miracles on most diamonds – except one (just one!) I took in trade – so do come see us. Check out our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com, then phone 708.788.0880 for an appointment. We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers; and our pleasure is helping you realize your dreams.