Mardon Jewelers at the Mission Inn

Last year, after Elizabeth Taylor’s passing, the gem world was all abuzz with the upcoming auction of her famous jewelry collection. Noted auction house, Christie’s, New York would hold an evening sale, December 13, 2011.

When all the bids were in, the sale fetched record amounts for most of her pieces, including almost $12,000,000 for her pearl necklace. A lovely diamond, ruby, and pearl confection by Cartier, the piece features the most famous pearl in the world, a wonderful inch long pear shaped natural pearl known as La Peregrina. La Peregrina was fished off the coast of Panama around 1570, and has been owned by kings and assorted royals.

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Just in time for Christmas, we completed a very interesting and successful sale for a client who had found us via the Internet last spring. She had purchased this wonderful 5.72 ct. Paraiba tourmaline in the early 90’s, just when the first stones from the Paraiba region of Brazil were coming onto the market.

Prices of Paraiba stones quickly skyrocketed, especially since this small deposit was soon mined out. Collectors and aficionados realized the rarity and uniqueness of these gems and began paying astronomical prices for the best material. The “Electric” blues can sell today for six figures per carat!

When she asked me to sell the stone for her, my experience with fine gems told me it would a challenge, for a couple of reasons. Read the rest of this entry »

Our new Raincross piece for this year is the beautiful Heritage Raincross pendant, a brilliantly enameled version of the well-loved Raincross brand orange crate label. We were a little late in getting it into production, but fortunately, the new piece was an immediate hit—we pre-sold all of our opening order with orders for more to be delivered after the holidays. And then, as luck would have it, because of technical difficulties, our enamelists were only able to complete about 2/3 of the initial order.

Today, we had the very last one on display, but it was already spoken for, when a gentleman walked in, immediately zeroed in on our display piece and asked to buy one. We explained that we were sold out. Read the rest of this entry »

“Sunburst” descibes this new ring, a one-of-a-kind original design by Jim and Jenny Sweaney of Mardon Jewelers. The center diamond, just under I/2 ct, is a beautiful warm Fancy Yellow color that we’ve accented with a custom bezel of 18K yellow Harmony gold. The 14k white gold mounting supports six marquise brilliant diamonds that radiate sparkle and add drama to the beautifully balanced arrangement of round gems. Our stock # is I-21382 and the total diamond weight is 1.75 cts. Read the rest of this entry »

Every year for Christmas, we jewelers put our best foot forward, looking to make special pieces that will find their way into Santa’s sleigh. This year, I was able to find some spare hours to make these three special rings that feature one of the world’s most unique gemstones, the American Fire Agate. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest addition to our Famous Raincross Collection of fine jewelry is simply stunning! We think our fine silver pendant wonderfully captures the unique style and bright colors of the orange crate art from the heyday of California citrus. Read the rest of this entry »

We want to thank our loyal friends and fans who once again voted Mardon the Best Jeweler in Riverside for the third year in a row! Read about it in the annual Press Enterprise Reader’s Choice supplement in today’s paper. We truly appreciate your support! Read the rest of this entry »

Wife Kaye just created this charming necklace for a client, using relatively inexpensive materials including the baroque ammolite center, a freshwater cultured pearl, glass beads with copper and silver wrapped wire. This particular lady likes play-of-color,  asymmetry and a slightly funky look for not a lot of cost– Kaye captured her wishes perfectly! Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, we’ve had the pleasure of working with some outstanding vintage Art Deco jewelry. We appraised this wonderful diamond and black onyx ring which features two large Old European cut diamonds, both approximately 1 3/4 cts, both eye clean, near colorless and well matched. Imagine some flapper gal dancing the night away in a Roaring 20’s speakeasy wearing this striking piece, the epitome of the cocktail ring!

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Family Bracelet Before Restoration

Wife Kaye recently worked with a local family to renovate this heirloom bracelet, composed of sterling silver panels, strung on a ribbon, each hand engraved with the initials of a family member. Judging by the style, the bracelet probably was started around the late 1800’s or so– the most recent person on the bracelet was a grandmother.

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