Humans have always tinkered with natural gem materials and tried to make them better, either by polishing, carving, faceting, coloring, clarifying etc. It’s our nature to try to make things better, to improve on nature, to want more. Some gem treatments are tricks meant to deceive, some are meant to delight. The actual materials that […]
I just had a very interesting conversation this morning with Paul Levin, one of my best gem dealers, just returned from a buying trip to the Orient. He’s always willing to talk freely and really knows the colored gem market. Paul was in Bangkok where he saw a vast scarcity of material, in particular fine […]
We recently acquired this striking coral cameo brooch, depicting Diana, the Roman goddess of the Moon- you can see the crescent moon in her hair. Diana was synonymous with Artemis of the Greek pantheon. The style of the brooch is similar to other Mid Victorian “Etruscan Revival” pieces we have seen, with very delicate twisted […]
