Jew­el­ers have always recy­cled gold. It has intrin­sic value, so no one sim­ply tosses this pre­cious metal into the trash bin. Those who wish to part with old pieces sell them to local retail­ers or metal refin­ers who weigh each item and pay cash for the per­cent­age of pure gold present (note: pure gold is […]

On Novem­ber 23, 1899, the New York Times reported the fol­low­ing news,
“Pas­saic, N. J., Nov. 22 –Mrs. Hyman Rich­mond, who lives on Sec­ond Street, this city, killed a turkey for din­ner to-day, and in clean­ing it found a dia­mond pin inside. A jew­eler told her the pin was worth $100. The turkey was bought on […]

It must have some­thing to do with a nest egg. The one I wish I’d been smart enough to put aside since our 401(k) began to molt. Still, there I was review­ing the beau­ti­fully ren­dered work of British met­al­smiths, select­ing three images for my post today, when I real­ized I was in bird land.
Self-taught and London-based […]

Cash­mere is the new black in this year’s hol­i­day cat­a­logs. Sweaters, gloves, and hats in double-ply are pre­sented in the stores like fresh apples at the gro­cer; there they are, front and cen­ter, ready to be picked up and paid for. To all these sweet, prag­matic prof­fer­ings I reply with a heart­felt… Bah, Hum­bug! Jewelry […]

This year marks the six­ti­eth anniver­sary of the jew­elry firm of David Webb. Webb, who was born in Asheville, North Car­olina in 1925, learned met­al­smithing tech­niques in his uncle’s sil­ver­smith shop. When he arrived in New York at the young age of sev­en­teen, he got a job repair­ing jew­elry in Green­wich Vil­lage. Blond, hand­some, and […]

I’m back from my sojourn to the fair city of Chicago. I was gra­ciously invited there to give a lec­ture about pins, brooches, and all things bright and beau­ti­ful to the mem­bers of the Woman’s Ath­letic Club, the old­est club for women in the United States. What a won­der­ful, inter­ested, and inter­est­ing audi­ence! Mid­west­ern ladies […]

Pin­ning down our soon-to-be first lady’s bejew­eled mien isn’t dif­fi­cult. She likes brooches. While I can­not take credit for her inspi­ra­tion, I would be curi­ous to know if she has read my book, Brooches: Time­less Adorn­ment. A signed copy would seem an appro­pri­ate thank you for “brooching” the sub­ject (ok, bad pun).
Need­less to say, I watched […]

Infanta Mar­garita Teresa of Spain, daugh­ter of King Philip IV of Spain and Eliz­a­beth of France, became engaged in 1644 to Leopold I of Aus­tria, who later became the Holy Roman Emperor. As part of her dowry, her father selected this 35.56-carat blue-gray dia­mond. The gem remained within the Aus­trian and Bavar­ian Crown jew­els, and […]