Jeweller(oct13)

Jeweller the

October 2013

£7.50

The Voice of The Industry

Incorporating

Gems&Jewellery

October 2013 / Volum e 22 / No. 7

The Hong Kong Show Alphabet Jewels Underco ver on 47 th St

Diamond market overview Ethical gold — new premiums announced Loughborough Conference

Jeweller

Contents & Contacts |

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The Voice of The Industry

C O N T E N T S

www.thejewellermagazine.com

O C T

1 3

Loughborough 2013

18

Sandra Page offers the first of a two-part report

Editor’s Letter

5

Rawlinson Speaks Out

6

Industry News

8

NAG News

12

Member of the Month

14

Education & Training

17

Notebook

20

Opinion: John Henn

22

The Jeweller picks…

24

Brand Profile – Tankel

28

Feature – Handmade in Britain

31

Business Support: Insurance

52

Business Support: Security

54

Display Cabinet

56

Last Word

58

on the IRV’s annual conference

Ethical gold – the good news

32

Belinda Morris speaks to Greg Valerio about the new Fairtrade Premiums for precious metals

Ice Cream

36

An in-depth look at the diamond jewellery market reveals the key issues that face the industry

Grading synthetic diamonds

48

Harry Levy sheds some light on this potentially problematic subject

October 2013 / Volume

22 / No. 7

Gems&Jewellery

The Jeweller is published by the National Association of Goldsmiths for circulation to members. For more information about The Jeweller visit: www.thejewellermagazine.com

Questions raised by the Kimberley Process; IJL and Hong Kong show reports; an undercover investigation into diamond trading in New York and more…

The Ho ng Kong Sh ow Alphabe t Jewels Underco ver on 47 th St

Jeweller the

October 2013

£7.50

The magazine is printed on paper and board that has met acceptable environmental accreditation standards.

The National Association

Sales Director: Ian Francis

of Goldsmiths

Tel: 020 7613 4445

78a Luke Street,

Fax: 020 7729 0143

London EC2A 4XG

ian@jewellers-online.org

Tel: 020 7613 4445

Publishing Enquiries/

www.jewellers-online.org

Classified Advertising:

CEO: Michael Rawlinson

Neil Oakford

michaelr@jewellers-online.org

neil@jewellers-online.org

Editor: Belinda Morris

Contributors:

bmorris@colony.co.uk

Lee Henderson, John Henn,

Art Director: Ben Page

Harry Levy, Sandra Page,

ben@jewellers-online.org

James Riley

The Voice of The Industry

Incorporating

Gems&Jewellery

October

2013 / Volume 22 / No. 7

The Hong Kong Show Alphabet Jewels Undercover on 47th St

Cover Image In conjunction with Tresor Paris

Diamond market overview Ethical gold — new premiums announced Loughborough Conference

7 Greville Street, Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8PQ Telephone: 020 3355 4030 Email: info@tresorparis.com www.tresorparis.com

The NAG is responsible for producing The Jeweller and, although every effort is made to ensure that the information supplied is accurate, the NAG does not accept liability for any loss, damage or claim whatsoever that may result from opinions expressed by contributors. Information and ideas are for guidance only and members should always consult their own professional advisers. The NAG accepts no responsibility for the content of Gems&Jewellery or any advertiser, advertisement or insert in The Jeweller.

Anyone having dealings with any advertiser must rely on their own enquiries.

The Voice of the Industry 3

NTR Metals is now offering more services than ever before. With our quick turnaround, grain exchange, and superior service, why would you go anywhere else?

Visit a branch near you to see why 30,000 clients keep returning.

Comment | This month:

Editor’s

Letter

To use Fairtrade gold for a five gram wedding ring would mean an extra £25 on the price… totally affordable to the retailer and the customer…

iamonds. Such lovely little things. So bright, so sparkly, so desired… and causing so

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much trouble. Well, OK, maybe not trouble exactly – but certainly the occasional

headache and some hand-wringing. In this issue we not only put diamonds, and jewellery thereof, under the spotlight but we rotate them so that they can be viewed from every possible angle.

One occasionally irksome facet of the diamond-dealing business is that of certificates, and

Page 32

on p50 James Riley tells a timely tale of trickery. And if you think you can tell a fake from the real thing at a thousand paces, Harry Levy’s insight into synthetics – and the grading of them – might just give you pause for thought (p.48). In this month’s Gems&Jewellery there’s a cautionary report on disclosure (or the lack of it) and Mr Levy (we can’t get enough of him frankly) adds his sagacious voice to the continuing debate on ethical diamonds in general and the Kimberley Process in particular.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. How could it be? These are diamonds we’re talking about! Lest we forget just how beautiful these carbonaceous gems are, the main story this

Because of its pure simplicity, the round will remain number one as it continues to represent the stone in the most understandable way…

month highlights some of the stunning pieces of jewellery that feature them in a starring role – not only the celebratory love tokens, but also the growing number of gorgeous, fashioninspired pieces. If the niggly nuts and bolts of our industry occasionally leave you feeling as though its allure might be in danger of fading, let these dazzlers reassure you otherwise.

Rock on!

If you would like to comment on any of the issues raised in this edition of The Jeweller or any other trade-related matters please email the editor at: bmorris@colony.co.uk

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The Voice of the Industry 5

| Comment

Rawlinson

speaks out The NAG’s CEO Michael Rawlinson reports on his two significant ‘firsts’ – IJL and the Loughborough Conference – as well as important new developments at the Association. t seems like summer is but a dim memory as the nights begin to draw in, the clocks will go back, and we continue preparations for what we all hope will be the best Christmas for many years. I experienced my first IJL at the beginning of September and it gave me the chance to meet many members for the first time, and to experience the glitz and glamour that the jewellery industry has to offer. From what I’ve heard, many of you were excited and impressed by the new designs on show; it was great to be a part of this positive atmosphere and I’m already looking forward to the Jewellery & Watch Birmingham Spring Fair International in February.

Just one week later – and another first for me — I attended the Institute of Registered Valuers Loughborough Conference. As soon as I arrived at the venue, it was evident that IRV co-ordinator and conference organiser Sandra Page had successfully put together yet another fantastic weekend, a continuing celebration of the 25th anniversary of this annual event. The atmosphere at

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6 The Jeweller October 2013

‘Loughborough’ (as it’s known) was a particularly friendly one with peer groups deep in conversation, discussing all manner of topics related to every aspect of the jewellery business and valuing. The keynote speakers were top class and included Geoffrey Munn and John Benjamin both of The Antiques Roadshow fame. Some of the most impressive presenters were those who ran the specialist workshops covering topics such as simple gemstone identification (excellent stuff for a beginner like me) through to synthetic diamonds and

date of the next conference in your diary now – 13th-15th September 2014 — it’s clearly an event not to be missed.

I was flattered to be asked to join the CIBJO Sector B group responsible for policy in the retail and distribution area, and I hope that together with my colleagues we can develop programmes and policies that will be beneficial to you, our members, as you run your businesses on a daily basis. I was also honoured to be included within the Professional Jewellers’ Hot 100. Obviously I am under no illusions that, as a new kid on the block, this recognition is far more about the high regard and esteem in which the NAG is held than about me.

In turn I hope that you will recognise and appreciate the enormous influence and

I hope that together with my colleagues we can develop programmes and policies that will be beneficial to you, our members, as you run your businesses on a daily basis… advanced methods for testing them and understanding the insurance market. As Loughborough came to a close I recognised the potential for many more NAG members to attend, and I would urge you to put the

power to do good that the NAG holds, and that you will take every opportunity to amplify this with the people and groups with whom you come in contact. We are working right now on a new website for the

Comment | Association, and one of the features I am most looking forward to seeing in place is the facility which will allow any consumer to search for a jeweller in their area. Not only will it have this facility but a clickthrough will also highlight the products, and equally importantly the services, that you provide. The benefit of this is we will be able to direct potential customers to members in a targeted way, reducing frustration and increasing customer satisfaction. This development is part of the NAG’s commitment to continue to look for and develop services that directly support and help member businesses.

During IJL, the NAG and the British Jewellers’ Association announced We will be able to direct that they would be estabpotential customers to lishing a working group to look at ways in which members in a targeted the two bodies can work way, reducing frustration closer together for the and increasing customer benefit of their memberships and the jewellery satisfaction. industry as a whole. At the press conference NAG chairman Pravin Pattni commented: “When we can present together a united voice representing our members and the jewellery industry, external stakeholders will listen and take note of our views and ideas. This is a very positive and constructive way forward.” I wholeheartedly endorse this view, and I’m really pleased that both parties have agreed to see how we might cooperate more for the benefit of all sectors of the trade.

I have been encouraged by the very positive feedback that I have received from members as we have met at the various events and conferences over the past couple of months. I would love to hear your comments on how we are progressing at the Association… so if you have something to say then please pick up the phone or drop me an email so we can discuss any issue, whether positive or negative. With its world-class education and excellent member benefits, the NAG is an influential organisation within the industry. It is therefore crucial that we continue to have your vital support and involvement to maintain the longevity and high standards which you deserve and have come to expect from us.

Finally, you are probably getting ready for Christmas now by planning your promotions, designing imaginative window displays, and calculating stock levels. I can imagine that this is a mammoth task for you so good luck and best wishes and I very much look forward to hearing about how everything is going in the run up to the festive season.

The Voice of the Industry 7

| Industry News

IJL launches new trade event nternational Jewellery London (IJL) announces the launch of a new premium trade event – Luxury by IJL – to showcase ‘some of the world’s most prestigious jewellery brands’. The event, at Kensington Olympia (the new home of IJL), will run from 31st August-1st September, 2014 (IJL will run from 1st-4th September).

Cassis Jewels from the US has been confirmed as the first brand to sign up to exhibit at the inaugural event and will use

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the show as a platform for its launch in the UK. Further names of exhibitors in the line-up will be announced shortly by event director Sam Willoughby.

‘Luxury by IJL’ is the first of its kind in the UK and has been launched to meet strong demand from retail buyers as consumer desire for high priced jewellery has grown.

Luxury jewellery sales have been growing steadily in the UK since 2007 and in 2012 hit sales of £1.2 billion. This is expected to

grow with a compound annual growth rate of two per cent between 2012 and 2017.

The show organisers explain that exhibitors will attend by invitation only and the exclusive feel will be emphasised by the fact that there will be a total of 15 companies exhibiting. All products shown must be in gold or platinum and every single piece of jewellery must have a minimum RRP of £5,000. No-one currently showing at IJL will ‘move across’ to Luxury.

Mappin & Webb relaunches

Beaverbrooks appoints new CEO

urum-owned jewellery company Mappin & Webb unveiled its new brand image and collections in Regent Street’s Café Royal last month. The new look for logo, monogram, store design and jewellery has been created by brand director Elizabeth Galton together with the new in-store design team.

Galton’s debut collection reinvents Mappin & Webb’s heritage (the company was founded in Sheffield in 1775) with jewellery that takes inspiration from motifs from the company archives, with a contemporary twist for a modern audience. The 24-piece signature collection in 18ct white, yellow and rose gold is ‘Empress’ which was inspired by a bespoke Mappin & Webb design for the Queen of Siam commissioned in the 1920s.

Today, Mappin & Webb holds two royal warrants – silversmiths to HRH the Prince of Wales and silversmiths to the Queen. The brand continues to supply the Royal Household and the British military with commemorative items for key ceremonial and regimental needs.

Speaking at the launch CEO Justin Stead said: “Mappin & Webb is a truly British treasure with over 200 years of tradition and historical significance in the silver and jewellery world.

[It] is now undergoing a renaissance and as guardians of this iconic brand, we feel we have a compelling moral obligation to return it to its rightful place at the forefront of British life.”

eaverbrooks has announced that Anna Blackburn is to be the chain’s new CEO. Blackburn, who joined the company in 1998 straight from Manchester University, began on the sales team before moving into management. In 2003 she was promoted to regional manager of Scotland. After being made head of office operations in 2008 she was then appointed as head of retail last year, overseeing 65 stores across the UK. This move marks a new chapter in the company’s 94-year history. Anna is the first CEO outside the Beaverbrooks’ family and will be working closely with chairman Mark Adlestone to shape the future and vision of the retail business. Last month TAG Heuer unveiled its first outlet in the North.

In partnership with Beaverbrooks the Jewellers, the Leeds boutique was opened

by Lions’ rugby captain Sam Wharburton who is an ambassador for the watch brand.

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Houlden holds design competition ewellery & Watch Birmingham, organised by i2i Events, is launching a jewellery design competition in conjunction with jewellery buying group, The Houlden Group.

The 2014 Bridal Design of the Year competition is the first of its kind, giving exhibitors the chance to have one of their designs sold through The Houlden Group’s network of stores.

The competition is open to all designers and manufacturers who are exhibiting at the Jewellery & Watch Show Birmingham and entrants are being asked to design an engagement and wedding ring set which will be exclusively supplied to The Houlden Group for one year.

There are two categories of entries; the first for rings retailing from £1,500 to £3,000 and the second for pieces priced between £3,000 and £5,000.

All designs must be commercially viable and work on a 2.3 per cent mark-up including VAT. They must also be diamond set and made in either 18ct yellow gold or platinum.

The final deadline for submissions is 6th December 2013 and all entries will be displayed on: www.thejewelleryshow.com and the finalists seen at the Jewellery & Watch Show Birmingham (2nd-6th February 2014)

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8 The Jeweller October 2013

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Industry News |

New branding for shows

S N I P P E T S

ewellery trade shows, The Jewellery Show Birmingham and The Jewellery Show London, organised by i2i Events Group, are to be re-branded as Jewellery & Watch Birmingham and Jewellery & Watch London in order to reflect the growing importance of the watch sector.

Effective immediately, the first show to carry the new name will be the Birmingham event, which takes place at the NEC Birmingham from 2nd – 6th February 2014. The I2i Events portfolio director Julie Driscoll said: “This name change demonstrates that we are listening to the industry and responding to the growth in watch sales. Although jewellery and watches are distinct categories in the sector, we are providing a platform for buyers to view both at two very important times of year in the jewellery-buying calendar.”

As a result of the re-brand there will be an increased prominence of watches on site at both events with watches also used on the catwalk in the marketing campaign in the run up to the shows.

Industry research commissioned by market research firm Mintel found that there was an 11.5 per cent year-on-year increase in watch sales in the full year to February 2013, while the average amount spent on a watch has risen by 11 per cent since 2007.

As well as the new name for the shows, i2i Events will also focus on securing a brand mix across the two events with the likes of Pandora, Bering Time, Lars Larsen Watches, Carat, Dower & Hall, Fable Trading, Alexis Dove and Sophie already signed up for the Birmingham show and Parure Paris, Bigli, Martin Ross, Arcadia Diamonds, Alfred Terry, Chavin, Parure Paris, Nomination and BQ Watches set to show in London in June.

A panel of experts and influential industry leaders is also currently being recruited to give advice on the content and direction for the two shows, with more details set to be unveiled in due course. The Jewellery & Watch Show London will be held at London’s iconic Somerset House on from 1st-2nd June 2014.

Bouton poppy released

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A limited edition sterling silver, pavé-set poppy, with a one carat ruby-red simulated centre stone, has been released by Bouton, with £25 of the £99 retail price donated to the Royal British Legion. The 2012 poppy was worn by HRH The Duchess of Cambridge and sold out within weeks. Parent company Buckley Jewellery, which has its own poppy, has raised over £2.5m to date through the sale of its charitable poppies.

Comparison site ‘celebrates victory’ new consumer-facing jewellery comparison site, which aims to make it ‘easier and less risky’ for shoppers to buy online, is celebrating its first ‘victory’. H Samuel has lowered the price of a white gold ring which was deemed such poor value for money by the site, it could be ‘squashed’ between fingers (as shown in a video which was sent to the retailer). Since the review’s findings H Samuel has reduced the price of the ring from £99.99 to £74.99.

The site, www.comparejewellery.com, is an independent and free-to-use service that compares jewellery from high street brands – 6,000 pieces have already been reviewed by the team comprising Ali O’Neill (formerly product manager at the Goldsmiths Group) and Jeremy Banks (previously at Alfred Terry). The founder of the site is entrepreneur Ashley Faull who created Bid TV. Users can be as specific or as general in their searches as they like. For example, if a visitor wants to buy a white gold and diamond pendant with a budget of £350, the site’s search engine will show all of the relevant items and rank them, with a star system, by best value, as the lower priced items aren’t always the poorest value.

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CW Sellors Design Centre plan shbourne-based CW Sellors took advantage of its Boulevard stand at IJL last month to unveil its plans for a ‘Jewellery Design Centre of Excellence’ adjacent to Carsington Reservoir in Derbyshire. The development, which is to be submitted to Derbyshire Dales District Council, will see the current head office relocated to allow the business to expand and evolve.

As the plans (including a 3D model) showed, the site will include improved and enlarged specially-designed metal and stone workshops with additional aspects including retail spaces, flexible exhibition areas, tea room and an auditorium for education activities. The new project will create a number of new jobs for local people and the design has been arrived at to complement the surrounding area.

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Stephen Webster in Harrods British jewellery designer Stephen Webster opened the brand’s new boutique in Harrods’ Luxury Jewellery Room last month.

The space will showcase the Autumn Winter 2013 fine jewellery collections ‘Thorn’, ‘Fly By Night’ and ‘Deco Haze’ together with iconic pieces from the classic ‘Crystal Haze’, ‘Forget me Knot’ and ‘Murder She Wrote’ lines. A select range of the women’s and men’s silver collections will be also represented.

Chinese payment accepted at Johnsons Nuneaton-based NAG member Johnsons Jewellers has created a new website and has added a page which accepts Chinese union payment – the only system used in mainland China. Alongside jewellery brands such as Andrew Geoghegan, Babette Wasserman, Tivon and The Fifth Season, Johnsons sells watches by major popular brands such as Rolex, Breitling, TAG Heuer and Longines.

The Voice of the Industry 9

| Industry News

Matthew Hilton launches timepiece ulti-award-winning British furniture and industrial designer Matthew Hilton has launched his first-ever watch, which was sold exclusively through Margaret Howell’s London store during last month’s London Design Festival. It is now available through selected retailers. “I wanted for a long time to find a watch that reflects my approach to design. I never found one and finally decided to make one myself,” said Hilton at the launch event. “This watch took a long time in research and development from fields as diverse as the medical industry and aerospace, but I wanted simplicity and reduction to shine through.”

The watch is manufactured in marine grade, bead-blasted stainless steel casing, with case and face combined in a single component.

The minimal design is underlined by the lack of further polishing or finishing. The Swiss-made quartz movement is embedded in a small hollow chamber inside the body. The black, chocolate or tan strap, in laser-cut and waxed Italian, aniline calf leather, has been created by British leather goods designer Bill Amberg. Each watch is engraved with a serial number.

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New concept launched by Trollbeads anish jewellery brand Trollbeads took a tiny, closed, unmarked stand at IJL to launch X

by Trollbeads – a new concept in personalised jewellery. The design allows customers to create their own bracelet or necklace from a range of silver, bronze, gold and black rubber X links. The mechanism uses an X-shaped bevelled edge connection that allows the links to connect with a ‘simple twist’, to create bespoke pieces of jewellery secured with one of two locks in silver or bronze.

The system was developed by Trollbeads’ founder and head designer Lise Aagaard.

The launch collection is creatively eclectic with a range of over 70 playfully-themed links and includes contributions from nine of Trollbeads’ artistic designers, each of whom brings their own interpretation and style to the design – from rock symbols to pixel-inspired forms.

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S N I P P E T S Ortak launches new lines While currently trading in administration, Scottish brand Ortak has continued to invest in product development in order to launch new collections in the lead up to Christmas.

The company has also released its new ‘Love Ortak’ campaign images, as the management team together with the joint administrators finalise a trading plan while the business is marketed for sale.

Fairtrade holds round-table discussion Fairtrade International unveiled its new standard and pricing for gold, silver and platinum, and new ways of working with the jewellery industry at a landmark round table in London last month. Held on 9th and 10th, the meeting included seven visiting miners from Bolivia, Peru and Colombia as well as representatives from a Fairtrade pilot project in East Africa. Programmes to eradicate mercury and ecological support were among the topics discussed.

Luminox to send Sir Bob into space Luminox, a partner in the space project of SXC, Space Expedition Corp., has announced that singer and Nobel Prize nominee Sir Bob Geldof has secured a seat in one of SXC’s upcoming space flights, thus officially becoming an astronaut… and the first Irishman in space. “Elvis may have left the building but Bob Geldof will have left the planet! Wild! Who would have thought it possible in my lifetime?” said Geldof, who will receive a Luminox Space Watch designed specifically for the project.

Lambert joins Gem-A board Jonathan Lambert, former NAG and IRV chairman, has joined Gem-A’s board of directors. The owner of an eponymous retail jewellery business in Suffolk, Lambert has often been the media-ready face of the NAG and is pro-active in the continued efforts to educate and inform the industry through best practice. Lambert said: “I’m delighted to join the Gem-A at an extremely exciting time in the Association’s history.

I look forward to supporting it through the changes and challenges ahead.”

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Industry News |

S N I P P E T S Raw Pearls sponsors awards Raw Pearls is to sponsor a new award for pearl design at the prestigious Goldsmiths Craft and Design Council Awards for 2014.

The aim is to encourage and reward the innovative use of pearls with contemporary fine jewellery design. The winning entrant will receive £1,000 as well as industry recognition. Closing date for flatwork design entries is 17th January, 2014. Application forms and information are available from: www.craftanddesigncouncil.org.uk

77 Diamonds relocates iamond e-tailer 77 Diamonds has relocated its head office and showroom to Hanover Square in Mayfair, London. Launched in 2005 by Tobias Kormind and Vadim Weinig the online company, which sells loose diamonds and diamond-set jewellery, now boasts a 1,000 sq ft luxurious showroom. To replicate the brand’s online shopping experience, all the sales team conduct each appointment using tablet technology. Customers are now able to receive their jewellery on the same day through a new express service on a large selection of engagement rings and wedding bands.

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Azza Fahmy fashion venture airo-based luxury jewellery house Azza Fahmy has collaborated with British fashion designer Matthew Williamson to create a capsule collection of silver and gold jewellery. The 10-piece line of neckpieces, earrings, modernist oversized rings and bracelets will be available from this month via Azza Fahmy and selected Matthew Williamson boutiques. Fahmy’s culturally-informed designs are paired with Williamson’s sense of glamour with inspiration drawn from botanical prints, architectural forms and textures.

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Private jewellery collections for sale in Switzerland Christie’s Geneva is to present two private jewellery collections at its sale on 12th November. Alongside jewels from the famous collection of Bolivian tycoon Simon Itturi Patino, will be 18 treasures once owned by Hélene Rochas (1927 – 2011), the wife and muse of renowned French fashion designer Marcel Rochas. A mysteryset ruby Magnolia brooch by Van Cleef & Arpels is just one example of her unique style and taste.

CIBJO and RJC reach ‘understanding’ CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, and the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at IJL last month. The MOU will work to advance responsible business practices among all sectors of the jewellery supply chain, and will include the use of CSR education programmes developed by CIBJO, in collaboration with the UN, and chain of custody certification programmes developed

by RJC. Clogau Gold was one of the most recent companies to achieve re-certification.

Dyson leaves Goldsmiths Co.

Fine jewellery brand unveiled ast month saw the launch of Ruifier, a new London-based luxury brand which has been two years in the planning, design and development by the St Martins-trained design team. The signature look of the brand combines structural shapes and precious materials and of particular interest is the innovative Kinetic setting which enables gemstones to constantly move within their settings. In addition to this debut collection, Ruifier showed the Icon Collection of static pieces – intricate diamond-set pendants, chain bracelets and rings.

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Paul Dyson, promotion director at the Goldsmiths’ Company, is leaving this autumn to pursue other interests. During his 12year tenure he has done a great deal to raise the Company’s profile with the media, the general public and the jewellery industry. As well as staging a number of exhibitions and events (such as ‘Gold: Power & Allure’), Dyson undertook a complete review of the brand identity.

The Voice of the Industry 11

| NAG News

Success again at IJL for NAG nternational Jewellery London 2013, one of the most anticipated events on the jewellery industry calendar, is over for another twelve months. This year was another triumph for the NAG with five new members signing up on the opening day alone, which really got the show off to a flying start.

Visitors to the show enjoyed a glamorous experience from the minute they arrived, greeted as they were by the tunes of a live acoustic guitar performance and a chic outdoor cafe. The show featured over 550 carefully selected brands, designers and manufacturers showcasing their work, and this number included 177 new companies. The four days also featured striking pieces on the runway which were based on the four A/W 2014 jewellery

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trends – ‘Self Portrait’, ‘Terrain’, ‘Future Plus’ and ‘Tribe’.

Our own activity included daily drinks receptions, competitions and meet-and-greets with the different NAG teams including the Design Service, The Jeweller and the Luke Street team, all being well frequented and received by everyone involved. In addition,

our board members were on hand at the stand to help answer queries from visitors and providing us with expert advice. Winners of our daily competitions included Flitwick Jewellers, F. Hinds and Paul Goble who will soon be receiving their prizes too!

Sam Willoughby, event director for IJL, commented on the success of the show saying: “We already have over 60 per cent rebooked for the 2014 event!” One of the NAG’s key members, Bec Clarke, founder of Astley Clarke, said she “felt this was one of the strongest years for IJL”, and we couldn’t agree more.

Looking ahead we welcome any of your suggestions for the future and wish to hear how IJL was for you – @NAG_UK or email: communications@jewellers-online.org

NAG members in the spotlight

New Member Applications

e were very pleased that our very own CEO was recognised as a ‘Business Big Shot’ in this year’s Hot 100 list and he wasn’t alone. Congratulations goes to many NAG members who also made the list for their hard work in the industry. Harry Levy (London Diamond Bourse); Ed Ferris (Diamonfire/Swag) and Salim Hasbani (Tresor Paris/Hasbani UK) were also ‘Big Shots’. In the Trendsetters category were: designer Sheila Fleet; Hannah Trickett and Vicky Leyshon (Gecko); Naomi Newton Sherlock (Domino); Bobby White, Tommy White and George Neal (Bobby White London) and James Deakin and Henry Deakin (Deakin and Francis). Eric Smith (Eric N Smith) was recognised as a ‘Trailblazer’ while a whopping 13 members made the IJL Retail Stars category including: Simon Johnson and Nadine Meegan (Marmalade Jewellery); Peter Wong (Wongs); Andrew Higgs and Phil Higgs (TH Baker); Tracey Brown and Harry Brown (Chisholm Hunter); Nicholas Wylde; Monique Hirshman and Andrew Hirshman (Drakes); Simon Warrender and Richard Warrender (W&W Jewellery); Andrea Maude (Maude’s the Jewellers); Matthew Ryan (Matthew Stephens); Natalie Blagg (Fraser Hart); Wendy Laing (Laings of Glasgow); Mike Rice (Hugh Rice the Jeweller) and Mark Worthington and Milly Worthington (Mark Worthington the Jewellers/MW2).

To ensure that NAG Members are aware of new applications for NAG Membership within their locality, applicants’ names are published below. Members wishing to comment on any of these applications can call Antonnea Johnson on 020 7613 4445 or email: antonnea@jewellers-online.org within three weeks of receipt of this issue.

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Ordinary Applications H-H Jewellery Ltd, London EC1 Eastern Gold Company, Manchester M14 Jyoti Jewellers Ltd, London NW9 Goodley’s Jewellers Ltd, Egham, Surrey Hornchurch Jewellers, Hornchurch, Essex Lapis Gold, Inverness, Scotland

Buzz begins for Birmingham he Jewellery & Watch Show Birmingham (part of Spring Fair International), one of the biggest buying events in the jewellery retailer’s calendar, is taking place from 2nd-6th February 2014.

This show will feature exciting UK and international designers and exhibitors, offering the latest products from new and established brands, keeping you up-to-date with the latest trends and providing crucial retail advice. There will be new feature areas, 300,000 new product launches. The NAG looks forward to welcoming all to its stand there.

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NAG signs up first e-tailers e are delighted to announce new members in line with the recent changes to membership – Paul Jewellers have recently launched two e-businesses under the names Hitdiamonds.com and Truejewels.com Also RJ Morris has launched an online e-business under the name Findjewellery.co.uk

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12 The Jeweller October 2013

Riverstones Fine Jewellery, Hebdon Bridge, West Yorkshire

Alumni Associate Applications Kim Sarah Wright, Rainham, Kent Giles W B Mann, Cirencester, Gloucestershire

IRV Applications If members wish to comment on any of these please contact Sandra Page on 029 2081 3615.

Upgrading from Member to Fellow J Louise Butterworth PJDip FGA DGA, Butterworth Bros, Rochdale.

Roy Egginton PJDip, Southern Online Valuations Ltd, Ringwood.

NAG News |

NAG passes resolution to expand membership uring IJL the NAG held an important Extraordinary General Meeting to decide on key changes to membership policies.

Members of the NAG, who were present at the meeting, voted to approve the new Articles of Association as tabled.

Following their approval the NAG aims to become a more inclusive organisation while maintaining the same high standards and expectations of fair trading. Significant changes to the Articles are as follows: • Full membership will now be offered to retail businesses regardless of the way they sell. This will mean that retailers such as those selling online or on the TV may now join us as long as they adhere to our code of practice • The structure for non-voting members has changed to make it easier for trade businesses to join us and engage more closely with full members to maximise business opportunities for both.

• The NAG’s Council will disband.

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The new changes will enable the Association to expand its membership base and to better represent the jewellery industry as a whole.

Chairman of the NAG, Pravin Pattni, said: “The NAG recognises that retailers sell in different ways and that we need to adapt to ensure we attract the best businesses no matter what their channel to market is.

I would also like to thank the Council for all the hard work and support for the Association and we will be ensuring its members can continue to make their valuable contribution to the NAG in the future.”

Andrew Hinds, vice chairman, added: “Not only does the NAG now allow a more diverse retail base to become full members, but they have also made it easier for manufacturers and suppliers to join and work closely with our retail members.

Today’s changes further highlight that the NAG’s membership base truly reflects the wider jewellery industry.”

Simon Johnson, chair of the New Standards Committee, said: “We are delighted that these changes have been approved and have made our membership structure more inclusive and flexible. This is a very positive step forward for the NAG and the Standards Committee will ensure that all new applications, as well as existing members, adhere strictly to our code of practice.”

Engaging members is one of the NAG’s key priorities which is why we continue with member meetings, introducing events centred on industry debates, business improvement presentations and networking events; we hope that you can participate in these.

The Association is currently formalising its communications and moving towards further digitisation so please email us at nag@jewellers-online.org to ensure we can still communicate with you directly.

To read the new Articles and updated By-Laws and Code of Practice visit: www.jewellers-online.org/pages/aboutus.php

Invitation The National Association of Goldsmiths ‘The Yorkshire Centre’

The Vice President Mr Ben Matthews cordially invites you and your guest to The Annual Dinner Dance Saturday 23rd November 2013, 7.00pm for 7.30pm (carriages midnight) at Tankersley Manor Hotel, Church Lane, Tankersley, South Yorkshire S75 3DQ (jnct 36 off the M1) Tickets £35.00 per person. Please make cheques payable to NAG ‘The Yorkshire Centre’.

Open to NAG members, non-members, manufacturers, allied trades, family and friends.

R.S.V.P.

By Thursday 14th November please to: Deans, 24-26 Lidgett Hill, Pudsey LS28 7DR Tel: 01132 393266

Staying over?

Please book direct with hotel on tel: 01132 203487 Double room, dinner, bed & breakfast from £82.00 per night.

Full leisure facilities and swimming pool.

The Voice of the Industry 13

| NAG News

NAG Member of the Month This month Arafa Kumbuka talks to Richard Cohen owner of Eternity Jewellers in St Albans. The business was established 13 years ago and has gone from strength to strength offering exclusive designs to its clientele.

Having come into the jewellery industry from another sector, what inspired you to establish Eternity jewellers?

To be honest it was something that I fell into by chance. I had spent the best part of ten years working for an investment bank but never felt at home in the city. I took a leap of faith in 2000 when a good friend asked me to start a retail jewellery shop with him.

What started as little more than a way out of the City quickly became a passion. A few years later I bought him out and relocated and rebranded the business.

restored and returned safely. Finally, I’ve learned what it takes to deliver on promises.

As a relative newcomer, how did you find your experience of getting into the jewellery industry?

It’s been hard work. I have spent the last 13 years studying jewellery and the art of retail – learning how things are made, what’s fit for purpose and what isn’t. I’ve been learning about the different types of gemstones and the different metals. I’ve learned about manufacturing and what it takes to create a product that has both function and form. I’ve learned just how much it takes to assume responsibility for someone’s property and make sure it’s looked after,

You offer your customers rare gems set in precious metals; how do you continue to maintain your exclusivity and gauge your customers interest?

A few years ago I had a chance encounter with my cousin Yves Kamioner who had trained at Chaumet in Paris. Yves is now a fabulous and gifted jeweller in New York and he really inspired me. He encouraged me to follow my instincts and express myself through design. I began to draw and to create. I immersed myself in patterns and shapes, in design styles, in history and, most importantly of all, I immersed myself

What would you say sets Eternity Jewellers apart from other jewellers in St Albans and even the UK? A key component is the understanding that jewellery is totally unique and incredibly personal. Often passed down from one generation to the next, its real value is in the spirit it evokes. Our jewellery is collectable, desirable and timeless. By definition we already create the antiques of the future.

in the emotion of the piece being created.

With each design there is a new story waiting to be told. When clients come to Eternity we treat them to a unique experience where we help them to express their desires through jewellery.

What lies ahead for your business?

Right now it’s an incredibly exciting time at Eternity. We’re embracing the retail revolution.

We have a fabulous new website that will launch in time for Christmas, where our current and new audience will be able to buy online. The brand is about to evolve even further as we continue to build our very own collection of jewellery, with an exciting piece ready to launch this Christmas. With this increase in the business I really feel that now is the right time to form strong strategic partnerships with people that can help Eternity grow.

Lastly, do you have a memorable customer anecdote to share with us?

An older lady asked me to redesign her husband’s original wedding ring. Time was of the essence. The husband was in hospital and she knew he would die soon. She really wanted to have the ring on before he passed away. We went above and beyond to make sure that the work was done as quickly as we could. She collected the ring on the way to her next visit to her beloved at the hospital.

Her daughter called me the following week to explain that the husband hadn’t opened his eyes for weeks. When the mother arrived that day she held his hands and told him how she had remade his ring to always remind her of her love for him. With that he opened his eyes for one last time, touched the ring on her hand, smiled and passed away. The family were eternally grateful for the work we had done.

If you would like your business to be considered as Member of the Month send an email to: arafa@jewellers-online.org

14 The Jeweller October 2013

The Voice of the Industry is louder than ever…

Jeweller the

Increased circulation in the UK as well as overseas!

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7 22 / No.

Octob er 20 13

£7.50

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The Voice of Th e Indu stry

Gems &Jewe ller y

October

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The Kon Hon Alphab g Sho g w Und et Jew erco ver on 47t els h St

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market ov erview Ethical premiums gold — new an nounced Loughborou gh Confere nce

The Jeweller magazine now incorporates Gem-A’s

Importantly for potential advertisers the magazine

magazine Gems & Jewellery within each of its nine

is now distributed to even more key individuals and

issues per year and is now distributed to all Gem-A

companies in the UK as well as overseas.

members, thus increasing the The Jeweller’s overall

With relevant editorial features, a competitive rate card

circulation to over 6,000.

and now an increased circulation of 6,000+ giving

Gems & Jewellery retains its own cover and identity

a readership of 25,000+, all the numbers add up to

within The Jeweller and will give readers a regular

The Jeweller being your first choice for targeting the

insight into the fascinating world of gemmology and

UK jewellery industry.

gemstones. This, in addition to its comprehensive coverage of all matters concerning the UK jewellery industry, will help maintain The Jeweller’s reputation as the authoritative jewellery trade publication and reinforce its position as ‘The Voice of the Industry’.

To advertise in the magazine contact sales director Ian Francis on tel: +44 (0) 20 7613 4445 or email: ian@jewellers-online.org For subscriptions call Amanda White at the NAG on tel: +44 (0) 20 7613 4445 or email: thejewellersubs@jewellers-online.org

NAG News: Education & Training |

The Bransom Award winner for July We in the NAG Education department would like to offer our congratulations to Bethany Lawless who is the latest winner of the coveted Bransom Award. e asked Bethany how she came in to the jewellery business. “I have been in the jewellery industry since September 2011, when I started as a part-time weekender at F. Hinds. After working there for a while I started to develop a keen interest in jewellery and sales,” she explained. “This led to me being offered a full-time position

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once I had left college. I later decided that I wanted to pursue my career in the jewellery industry further and so chose to enrol on the JET 1, to better my knowledge and understanding.”

So, how did it feel when she heard that she had won the Bransom Award? “I was surprised, incredibly flattered and extremely

The Bransom Award In July 2010 the NAG launched a competition with the aim of recognising the very best JET 1 projects. Course tutors put forward nominations before the winner is chosen by our chief moderator. The individual who is awarded the highest assignment mark is rewarded with a trip to the historic and prestigious Goldsmiths’ Hall in London for the presentation of their certificate at our annual award ceremony. The award, which is sponsored by Bransom Retail Systems, is made on a monthly basis.

excited to learn I had achieved such an award.

This was the icing on the cake to a truly wonderful week as I had just started my new job at Goldsmiths at Reading,” she said.

“I enjoyed completing the last JET 1 assignment on the 4 Cs of a diamond – namely, carat, colour, clarity and cut – as I found this most interesting, along with learning about jewellery repair work. I also found this assignment particularly useful as it greatly improved my knowledge of diamonds and gave me the ability to sell diamonds and other jewellery pieces confidently.

“Completing the course has been highly beneficial to my career within the jewellery industry. I have not only gained a better knowledge of diamonds, gemstones, precious metals and jewellery repairs but have also greatly improved my sales technique, which is essential in this industry.

I would highly recommend the JET 1 course to anyone who has a keen interest in jewellery and is thinking of, or already has chosen a career in the jewellery industry, as I really enjoyed doing the course and am looking forward to starting the JET 2.”

Bethany’s tutor, Michelle McCormick, said that it had been a pleasure to mark Bethany’s JET 1 course work: “She has put so much effort into every assignment undertaken and has researched every subject including drawing on her own experience and searching various websites.

Every part of her work has been answered in great detail. Her work was always completed on time too.”

The course moderator was also very enthusiastic about Bethany’s work.

‘Bethany's answer to this final piece of JET 1 course assignment work is amazing. A vast amount of diligent research must have been carried out in order to include such detailed coverage of the information given in each section. Nothing appears to have been missed in focussing on each part of the assignment; it was well presented and easy to follow. To say this piece of work was outstanding is an understatement, and for a JET 1 participant it is highly commendable.

The text contains evidence that Bethany has developed a high degree of selling skills and she has won this prestigious Bransom Award for July, against a large group of other excellent finalists.”

We wish Bethany the very best and look forward to receiving her JET 2 enrolment.

The Voice of the Industry 17

| NAG News: IRV Review

NAG Institute of Registered Valuers R

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V

I

E

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Loughborough No. 25… and counting!

In the first of a two-part report, Sandra Page offers a general overview of the 2013 IRV Loughborough Conference his year the NAG’s Institute of Registered Valuers Loughborough Conference was a week earlier than usual (14th-16th Sept). It was beyond our control but in fact it worked out quite well as weather-wise we had some sunshine (which is more than can be said for the weekend we should have had), although we did have a number of disappointed regulars who were unable to attend because we had brought the date forward. Apologies go particularly to John Sayer who was absent because his daughter was getting married (the lengths people will go to not to attend…). However, we were delighted that we had so many people participate (183 in total) and we welcomed 49 first-timers, many of them Certificate of Appraisal Theory (CAT) students.

This year we offered delegates an extra bonus for those planning to travel up on the Friday – a tour of the Blue John Cavern in

T

18 The Jeweller October 2013

Castleton, Derbyshire, just a ‘short’ drive from Loughborough, or that’s what we thought when we came up with the idea. Perhaps 80-odd miles (there and back for those travelling up from the South) isn’t a short drive, but that didn’t put a group of 14 delegates off. They thoroughly enjoyed their visit to this unique place and thank you to Miles Hoare who took some photos for us.

The Friday before the event is proving more and more popular with delegates – this year we had 49 people arrive early. We assembled for an informal dinner which included birthday wishes to Adrian Smith, who celebrated in style with a candle in his pudding!

As in previous years we offered the Early Bird delegates a chance to take the Munsell Colour Test and a Colour Blindness Test on the Saturday morning. Others chose to use the opportunity to get in a bit of networking before the Conference started at 1.00pm.

Geoff Whitefield, IRV chairman, welcomed delegates to the Conference and called upon everyone to wish David John Harrold congratulations on attending his 25th Conference – the only person who has attended each and every Conference ever held. Even I haven’t managed that – I missed the Conference in 1992 as I was heavily pregnant at the time. However, this year Annabel – my then ‘excuse’ for not attending – came with me, to take photos.

Geoff also reminded the IRVs attending the Conference that the Institute invites them to vote for the candidates standing for the vacancies on the new IRV Committee (they had until close of business on Sunday to vote). There were three places available and six IRVs had put themselves forward for election or re-election (from the IRV Forum and Valuations Committee): Rosamond Clayton, David Fromming, Peter Hering, Steven Jordan, Barry Sullivan and Richard Taylor.

The afternoon session began with a half hour main presentation from Loughborough regular David Callaghan who gave an illustrated talk on the Delhi Durbar Crown.

The remainder of the afternoon was set aside for two of the popular workshop sessions.

Delegates had chosen from a total of 11 offered for the first session and 10 for the second session.

Making the most of the hour between the finish of the second workshop and the welcome reception, delegates visited the stands of this year’s exhibitors – AnchorCert, Gem-A and T H March. Our thanks goes to Fellows who also supported the Conference and sponsored two free places at the Conference for the top examinees in the 2013 JET 2 exams, the lucky recipients being Anna Coppock from Payne & Sons, Tunbridge Wells, and Sarah Berkerey from Pravins, Bristol. Dinner on Saturday evening is the ideal opportunity for the IRV to express its gratitude to the many guests and guest speakers who take part in the Conference and make it the event it is. Let’s face it, without them we wouldn’t have a Conference!

Following a three-course meal delegates congratulated the four individuals who passed the pilot CAT exam which took place last September: Joanna Hardy, Barbara Leal, Ben Randall and Alan Wetherall. FIRVs David Baker, Louise Butterworth and Paul Johnston were also presented with their certificates.

NAG News: IRV Review | Shirley Mitchell received the David Wilkins Award

The evening was brought to a close with one of the highlights of the Conference, the presentation of the David Wilkins Award.

NAG president Margaret Harris read out the names of the nominees – Steve Carson, Georgina Deer, Alan G J Hayes, Shirley Mitchell, Dr Richard P Taylor and Geoff Whitefield – and called upon Janey Dunn (who was standing in on behalf of Margaret Wilkins who was unable to attend the Conference) to present the trophy to Shirley Mitchell. It was clearly a popular decision, as the long and loud applause demonstrated.

A rather tearful Shirley said: “To be nominated is an honour in itself; to be nominated and voted on by your peers to receive such an amazing award is the pinnacle. I have seen the standard of work produced by David Wilkins and it is plain to see just how forward thinking he was. To receive such an award created in his honour and to see my name alongside others who I have looked up to and admired since starting out is surreal and certainly a moment I shall never forget. We have come a long way since then and I am sure that David would be extremely proud of what the Institute has achieved.”

Sunday morning started promptly with a main presentation from independent valuer, author, historian and Antiques Road Show regular John Benjamin. His View from the Coal Face gave a glimpse into his world and highlighted the issues which all valuers should give serious consideration to when valuing items for any member of the public.

Following this talk, the third of the five workshop sessions on offer over the weekend saw delegates choosing from 14 options, after which past IRV Chairman

Jonathan Lambert gave a main presentation on Masonic jewels and watches. He shared his knowledge of these beautiful pieces and explained to delegates that they must be careful when valuing such items and seek advice if unsure of what they have before them.

Following a buffet lunch (apologies for the queuing problem – it won’t happen again!) the delegates welcomed another Antiques Roadshow specialist, and Wartski MD Geoffrey Munn, who gave a presentation on Queen Victoria’s collection of jewellery, many pieces of which were designed by Prince Albert. Delegates were also able to view some of the actual pieces mentioned during Geoffrey’s presentation.

The afternoon finished with another selection of 11 workshops before bringing the business sessions to a close at 5.30pm.

Sunday is always a busy, concentrated day and attracts a number of day delegates who are unable to attend the whole Conference.

For this year’s final evening celebrations attendees were encourage to create crowns to wear during dinner and we weren’t disappointed! The array of headdresses on show was amazing. Roy Huddlestone had pulled out all the stops to present what can only be described as a masterpiece and in order to give the other delegates a chance of winning a gem of a prize he was asked to be judge for the event. He selected 10 crown-wearing delegates to come forward so that the rest of us could pick the top three Pravin Pattni won the prize for the best crown!

by applauding their efforts. The chosen three – Shirley Mitchell, Jim Chanter and Pravin Pattni – turned their backs while the audience picked a winner by a show of hands. NAG chairman Pravin was the clear winner and he was thrilled with his prize of a chest of ‘jewellery related’ sweets including ‘gold’ ingots and coins, ‘gem’ watches, necklaces and, of course, Midget Gems – well, who wouldn’t be?

Monday started with the results of the IRV Committee ballot: Geoff announced that Rosamond Clayton, Steven Jordan and Barry Sullivan had been chosen by the IRVs at Conference. They were invited to draw lots to see how long they would serve on this new Committee: Rosamond will serve for three years, Steven for two and Barry for one. Next David Callaghan was invited to report on this year’s IRV monitoring exercise, explaining how the introduction of submission of a probate sample valuation had brought to light a few issues which a number of IRVs need to address.

The final main speaker for this year’s Conference was James Riley, CEO of the Gem-A. He looked back at the teaching of gemmology and diamond grading over the last 100 years and highlighted plans for the future including equipment available to the average valuer… as well as the equipment that most cannot afford to invest in!

Geoff brought the Conference to a close before the final workshop session and he thanked the many guest speakers for taking part. In addition to those we must also mention the lecturers who ran workshops – Peter Buckie, David Callaghan (yes he did workshops too), Steve Carson, Rosamond Clayton, Hilary Conquy, Eric Emms, Andrew Fellows, David Fromming and Louise Butterworth, Kerry Gregory, Kate Hopley, Michael Inkpen, Tracy Jukes, Heather McPherson and Shirley Mitchell, Claire Mitchell, James Riley, Chris Simpson and Ian Rook, Barry Sullivan, Richard Taylor, John Watson, Stephen Whittaker, Jason Williams and Naomi Wilson. He also thanked those who have helped the Institute over the past 12 months and the delegates for attending the Conference.

The dates for the 2014 Conference will be confirmed once the University has decided when they plan to hold their Open Day!

The Voice of the Industry 19

| Regular

Notebook

Where to go, what to read, what to see…

Jewellery & Watch Trade Fairs October 25th-27th: The Gemworld Munich, Germany This year the gemstone and fine jewellery fair will see the New Design Forum – a platform for emerging designers and gold and silversmiths. Another highlight is the Gemworld Pavilion showcasing the work of master lapidaries. https://munichshow.com 27th-29th: JA New York, Jacob Javits Convention Centre, NY Special delivery show with 500 exhibitors offering short order jewellery, including diamonds, gemstones, pearls, antique, children’s and men’s jewellery. www.nationaljeweler.com/jany

Sales & Exhibitions October Now until 19th Jan 2014, Pearls, V&A, London In collaboration with the Qatar Museums Authority, an exhibition exploring the history of pearls from the early Roman Empire through to the present day. www.vam.ac.uk 1st-6th: Goldsmiths’ Fair, Goldsmiths’ Hall, London EC2 Week two of the fair, featuring graduates and first-timers as well-established names. www.thegoldsmiths.co.uk November 8th-10th: Lustre, Lakeside, University of Nottingham Around 21 jewellery designers are among the exhibitors of fashion, textiles and ceramics at this Tanja Ufer at Lustre craftmakers’ market. www.lakesidearts.org.uk/crafts.html

20 The Jeweller October 2013

8th-10th: Handmade in Britain, Chelsea Old Town Hall, London SW3 This contemporary Crafts and Design Fair features over 100 UK-based designermakers, more than 30 of whom will be showcasing jewellery. See page 31 for a preview of the fair. www.handmadeinbritain.co.uk 11th-5th January 2014: Dazzle, Oxo Tower Wharf’s Gallery, South Bank, London Established and just-discovered contemporary jewellery design, from the UK and around 22 countries. www.dazzle-exhibitions.co.uk

NAG Diary Dates October 15th-16th: Diamonds and Diamond Grading Intermediate, London This two-day seminar will be of interest to those retailers and valuers who obtained diamond grading skills years ago; it can act as a step up or a useful refresher. To book contact Amanda White (Information and Membership Services) on tel: 020 7613 4445 or email her at: amandaw@jewellers-online.org

25th-11th January 2014: Dazzle, Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street One of the two new venues for this longstanding fair, showcasing work from 120 designers creating ‘wearable art’. www.dazzle-exhibitions.co.uk

Book Review Heavenly Bodies by Paul Koudounaris (£19.95, Thames & Hudson) A little tangential to the jewellery world, but surely morbidly fascinating all the same? Heavenly Bodies outlines an all-but-forgotten chapter in the history of the Catholic church – the story of a group of skeletons that were discovered in the Roman Catacombs in the late 16th century.

Believed to be the remains of early Christian martyrs they were heavily bejewelled and sent to Catholic churches in German-speaking countries as ‘a balm for a faith that had been wounded by the Protestant Reformation’. By the 19th century however the gruesomely dazzling skeletons were denounced as imposters and ignominiously abandoned, hidden or heavily disguised. Koudounaris made it his goal to seek out as many remains as he could and tell their stories. His photographs of more than 70 of these highlight the beautiful, if macabre, craftsmanship that went into their early veneration.

25,000 Years of Jewelry, edited for the National Museums in Berlin

by Maren Eichhorn-Johannsen & Adelheid Rasche (£45, Prestel) If you’ve read, learned from and enjoyed our regular Antique Jewellery features on the cultural significance of ancient jewellery, this weighty tome will provide further fascinating insight. From the beginnings of mankind, right the way through to the 1950s and up to the present day, it traces the development of personal adornment – the who, the what, the why and the where. Organised by time zones, it aims to present the greatest possible variety of jewellery in terms of materials and colour, as well as function and significance. Rites of passage, social rank and identity, affiliation, self-image and status have been, and still are, expressed through jewellery – simple decoration only being part of the story. As the introduction points out, jewellery was almost certainly one of the first human means of expression. Clear, detailed images are accompanied by essays on the various eras and themes, from ancient Egypt and the Bronze Age, to ‘memorial, friendship and mourning’ jewellery.

| Opinion: John Henn

A Great Exhibition John Henn’s overview of the last IJL to be held at Earl’s Court.

n 2014 IJL will be at its new venue, a refurbished Olympia with its beautiful glass ceiling with all that natural light pouring in and, rather like The Great Exhibition 162 years earlier, beautiful things will be on show at a rather more fitting venue. The Victorians managed to attract the whole world to London – maybe now we will too.

It is not that I didn’t like Earls Court 2 as a venue but I think it is better suited to other industries… is that diplomatic enough?

However as a show this year the content was excellent, the show organisers had worked hard to give us a new layout with different events and full marks to them for making the best of the industry look as good as it should.

I was surprised to see our brand new store on show at our shop fitter’s stand. “There’s something very familiar about those images,” I thought as I cruised passed, only to realise they were ours. How calm it looked, with the people airbrushed out! (I’ve been issuing new contracts of employment recently, those of you who have to do the same will sympathise with me I’m sure.) The editor will have to grant me ten thousand words to tell you about that, along with the introduction of uniforms and personal presentation… we were never trained for this!

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22 The Jeweller October 2013

Back to the show, the fashion for exchangeable coin pendants is gaining momentum as the number of companies offering something in this category is increasing. Which one to go for? That’s the big question. There are well-engineered ones with thin marketing campaigns and lighter made ones with great marketing.

They come predominantly in steel or silver

an interest in this category, as there were some great designs on display. We are still working on rebalancing our stock – what a task it has been. It is tough for designers starting out to make a commercial range given that they have no history of sales, without retailer support.

We were invited in to the only enclosed stand with nothing but a number on the opaque door that was hidden among the display providers. Someone had talked to someone else who knew us. It was all deeply mysterious, but by the time you read this ‘X’

by Trollbeads will be all over the place.

Locked down for a global launch on the 18th of September this new bracelet concept has the potential to offer an alternative look to the now established composable/ customisable segment. All credit to them for thinking about the reasons for the success of their original product and re-inventing another version of wrist jewellery that could bring in a whole new range of clients.

I’m now back in my office looking at the last days of the first floor carpet; laid in 1965 it is now almost as much black tape as carpet. Tomorrow it will be cast out for a tile equivalent. I think my office staff will all break out the champagne, as we have been contemplating this for some years. Finally the eBay fund has accrued £1,000 towards the cost; this was all obtained by selling stuff that before on-line auction sites, would have been sent to the recycling centre. Our star performer was a promotional pen from the

The Victorians managed to attract the whole world to London – maybe now we will too. It is not that I didn’t like Earls Court 2 as a venue but I think it is better suited to other industries… is that diplomatic enough? and are set with stones of every colour under the sun. What seems to be coming through is that those with staff who believe in it are getting ahead of the rest. You may think if you’re paid to sell, you’d sell irrespective of the product, but is does appear that fashion conscious staff are doing well and the rest are wondering what the fuss is about.

The designer section left me wishing it was still 2007 when you could experiment on a new style with 5k and see what happened – some would work, some wouldn’t. I hope a few of the more solvent of you have taken

Basel fair, which made £60 from a Japanese buyer; our most enduring are the 500 NVQ pins representing a £3,500 purchase (in an hallucinogenic moment by a now ex-member of staff) which are selling at around £1.00 each plus postage.

It will take more than a new carpet, shop fit and uniforms to make us look as good as Crystal Palace in 1851, but with the sun shining through our own little glass atrium this afternoon we could be excused a feeling that we are hopefully making the right moves.

Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (No. 306522)

Jeweller picks... the

SALLY-ANNE JEWELLERY

One of eight graduates working at Vanilla Ink Studios in Dundee, Sally Anne Fenton showed her two collections – Black Lace and the men’s range, Fenton – on the group’s stand at IJL. The 18ct gold vermeil belcher chain pendant shown here incorporates recycled black lace together with a pearl and the line also includes earrings, bangles and rings, with silver and oxidised silver available.

MALCOLM MORRIS

CARAT*

TI SENTO

The nostalgic flavour of the Self Portrait theme might be evident in the new Regent collection which has been influenced by the elegantly refined jewellery that the era was famed for. The luxury fashion jewellery brand has employed new techniques to the green stones in particular to recreate the inherent features of a mined emerald with its natural imperfections.

Amsterdam, considered to be the denim capital of the world, is the inspiration behind Ti Sento’s latest range – Denim Collection. It also falls neatly into the high polish, fussfree, androgynous mood of Adorn’s Future Plus trend. Each of the 21 pieces features a small swatch of denim fabric set among gemstones and available in sterling silver or plated rose gold.

To pull out just one or two trends from the plethora of styles, themes and moods unveiled at IJL last month would be impossible – they were as diverse as the brands, manufacturers and designers exhibiting. However, with Adorn Insight’s four directional catwalk trends in mind, we can pinpoint some of the collections and pieces that caught our eye as we worked the aisles.

Antiquity, and in particular Helen of Troy, has provided the inspiration for Malcolm Morris’ latest collection and rather than simply reproduce ancient jewellery, the designer looked at new techniques that would fit with his way of working. The traditional art of granulation has been reinterpreted for a contemporary look, with silver and oxidised silver finishes creating a small diamond-like effect. The textural quality also adding a Terrain touch perhaps…

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SIF JAKOBS

Based in Copenhagen, this fashion jewellery brand is designed by Nordic Sif Jakobs, who was educated in Sweden and considers Italy to be her second home. Italian elegance provides the inspiration for her luxuriously contemporary collections, which are created in sterling silver used alongside Swarovski crystals, zirconia and resin.

JEWELEVER

Visual impact, colour and pattern sum up the Tribal story and undoubtedly describe the effect of Jewelever’s Aladdin’s Cave of a stand at IJL. The three new statement jewellery collections being snapped up are inspired by Ottoman art, rough, carved gemstones and exotic tropical flora, and these tassel earrings take their influence from jewellery historically worn by Turkish women as well as Istanbul’s romantic palaces.

ROSIE SANDERS

‘Neoclassical couture’ is how designer Rosie Sanders sums up the inspiration for her new Rebel Renaissance collection of gold vermeil and enamel pieces. A hand-carved scroll motif lies at the basis of the line, which includes signet rings, stud earrings and pendants.

DIAMONFIRE FILIPA OLIVEIRA

Exemplifying the earthy vibe of the Terrain theme is Oliveira’s new Strata collection, inspired by crystal structures and their organic growth. The strong shapes are balanced by tactile, finely textured surfaces and feature a sprinkling of ‘hidden’ gemstones.

Following the launch of its new pink stone collection at the CMJ trade event in August, Diamonfire introduced a line of yellow stone pieces using the Ideal cut zirconia stone, including studs and rings. Also new are products for Christmas and Valentine’s Day.

| Feature

Brand Profile Tankel Keeping the customer satisfied – it’s a simple strategy and one that’s served his business well, Tony Tankel tells Belinda Morris. he secret to success in this business, says Tony Tankel of Glasgow-based diamond merchant HW Tankel, does not involve a magic formula. “The public have a right to buy what they want to buy and the retailer needs to supply that – it’s not rocket science,” he adds (with the hint of a sardonic smile).

He also points out that while we – those in the business of selling diamonds – might want to supply GIA D VS1 goods, this is not something that the majority of the public can afford. “The strength of Tankel is that we’ve grasped that,” he says. “We have to supply the right product at the right price.”

So clearly obvious to him is this sales strategy that Tankel takes an almost academically detached view of those retailers who seem not to see that they have options. “I ask them how business is and they’ll say it’s not good; they can’t make a sale because the customer can’t afford the grade of diamond that they sell. I ask whether they have thought of doing a different grade of stone… and the answer is ‘no’. I find that interesting. It’s not about selling cheap diamonds; it’s about value for money – about supplying what the people want to buy.”

He also observes that margins are an issue. “The days of always multiplying by two point five or whatever are no more. People who can be flexible with margins are doing better,” he says. “As long as they can make some profit they will turn the stock and the chances of success are greater. No sale of a high margin is still no sale.”

T

28 The Jeweller October 2013

That said, Tankel has observed that the public’s appetite for diamonds is “still extremely strong” – further incentive to keep the customer satisfied. “As a company our commitment to our customers is that we will source the relevant merchandise,” he says.

“Our major supplier has tapped into the same philosophy as us; when I visit the diamond markets abroad they can find the right kind of goods for the current economic times.

Not everyone can do this.

“If I phone a supplier in Tel Aviv he will do everything he can to help – he knows that I am not going from office to office in my search for a particular stone, so I become a

It’s about value for money – about supplying what the people want to buy. much more important player to him. And it’s the same with our customers who we’re building a relationship with – if they lift the phone we will do everything we can to help.

This way you have a better chance of making the sale – it’s a sensible business strategy and thankfully it’s working.”

Another policy is to eschew agents or reps on the road. “The diamond market is extremely competitive and our customers are not able to pay an extra five to ten per cent, so we show our merchandise in a different way,” Tankel explains. “As well as exhibitions customers travel to our office and we send

products out – few want to look at the whole range because they know that we specialise in particular items.”

These days the products in question are largely high colour diamonds from 50 points up, but with an increasing emphasis on two, three and four carat diamonds. “About four years ago we took a conscious decision to take stock of these larger stones,” says Tankel.

“The jewellery trade is a village and word gets around. We also keep huge stocks of D colour diamonds – we don’t buy certified stones, but send away parcels of stones for certification so that there’s no extra premium.

Retailers get the benefit of this.”

In common with one of its suppliers and at least one of its retail customers, Tankel is now in its third generation. Originally a watch and travel clock distribution business it switched to diamonds when the Swiss watch company changed its distribution policy (sound familiar?) after Tony’s father Albert joined the firm at the age of 19. His knowledge of diamonds was very basic so he went to Tel Aviv, discovered two or three suppliers and taught himself the business, followed by a stint in Antwerp to increase his knowledge. He is still involved in Tankel today. A bout of staff sickness saw Tony brought in to help out after receiving a degree in politics and before going on to study law. “Diamonds are a fascinating product – I’ve been here ever since,” he says.

He also adds that the company’s ability to source the stones that it does means that the internet is not impacting negatively on its customers’ businesses. “They can compete and compete well because we don’t have a high cost basis,” he explains. “As I perceive it, the internet is becoming less of an issue as they can give their customers what we give them – the best possible service and the best possible price. It’s not about being cheapest but about being able to offer consistent value… and we have a reputation for that.”

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October 2013 / Volume 22 / No. 7

The Hong Kong Show Alphabet Jewels Undercover on 47th St.

Photo: Atelier Tom Munsteiner

Gemworld in Munich !

October 25 — 27, 2013 Europe’s top show for gems & jewellery in autumn

www.gemworldmunich.com

us ok sit bo Vi ace F on

Meet the international

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013 t

Editorial

Gems&Jewellery

Oct 13

Keep it simple Look through the articles in this issue and you can see the dichotomy in our field. There is stuff about gemmology — detecting heat-treated tanzanite for example (page 7) — and stuff about lack of disclosure in the trade, like the need for clarification about diamonds (page 17).

Contents

There are expert gemmologists in the world and many people who earn their living buying

4

and selling gems. It should be simple to link the expertise of the former with the business needs of the latter. So why isn’t it?

The CIBJO Blue Books on gems, all three of them, present guidelines to gem nomenclature and how to describe and disclose. They are worthy and comprehensive. Compiling and re-compiling them has taken untold hours at meetings around the world over the passing decades, even eroding serious drinking time at CIBJO congresses, but just how effective and

Gem News

useful are they? I have come to the conclusion that they are confusing for gemmologists,

6

perplexing for the trade and incomprehensible to the public? They are just too complex.

They don’t need to be complicated. You really only need three categories of gem (in addition to synthetics and imitations): untreated natural gems, those that have undergone permanent treatment without addition of other substances (just heat and/or irradiation for example), and those which have been modified and are not durable or have had some extraneous substance added (e.g. oil, glass or beryllium) or both. Surely, if the present

Gem-A News

appearance (colour or clarity) of a gem is demonstrably due to adding some other substance, then it is modified. You could write the CIBJO guidelines in a paragraph or two — easy to

7

explain to the public and usually easy for gemmologists to adjudicate.

The problem lies in between. The trade has tied itself into knots and ensured voluminous CIBJO Blue Books because it is nervous, held hostage to the past. If, for example, we now define oiled emeralds as ‘modified’ what will customers say about the emeralds sold to them in the past?

Journal

You can’t have it both ways. Either the trade accepts very simple and logical (and honest)

10

disclosure will deteriorate further. It is up to you — I’m off (this is my final outing as editor)!

Jack Ogden

Cover Picture Dragon pendant on show at ‘Jewels of the Connoisseur’ (page 5).

Courtesy Bowers Museum. Photo Robert Weldon.

Around the Trade Shows & Exhibitions

categories for what they sell or we will have ever-more complex definitions and trade

12 October 2013 / Volume 22 / No. 7

Over the Counter

17

Gem and Jewellery History

20

Stone Scoop

22 The Hong Kong Show Alphabet Jewels Undercover on 47th St

Published by The Gemmological Association of Great Britain (Gem-A) 21 Ely Place, London EC1N 6TD t: +44 (0)20 7404 3334 f: +44 (0)20 7404 8843 e: editor@gem-a.com w: www.gem-a.com Registered charity no. 1109555 Copyright 2013 ISSN 1746-8043

Editor Jack Ogden Advisory Board Mary Burland, Harry Levy and James Riley Design and Production Zest Design +44 (0)20 7864 1504 Any opinions expressed in Gems&Jewellery are understood to be the views of the contributors and not necessarily of the publishers.

Advertising For mediapack and advertising rates please contact Ian Francis at the National Association of Goldsmiths on tel: +44 (0)20 7613 4445 or email him at: ian@jewellers-online.org

Page 3

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Gem News

Gem news Jack Ogden reports on Kashmir sapphire sales, an exhibition of rare gems and J. Paul Getty Museum’s open access programme.

Kashmir In the last few years there has been much talk of building up the mining for sapphire in the Paddar Valley in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir — the famed ‘Kashmir sapphires’. Some recently mined material is coming onto the market both officially and unofficially and the local government, keen to re-establish commercial mining, is seeking tenders from potential international gem-mining companies. Unfortunately the uncertain extent of the remaining deposits and wariness over potential military action in the region has slowed progress. Some yield is being sold via government auction.

Although the few samples we have seen of the recent production were rather colourless with a blue skin, some with small blue colour patches (below), there are reports of

finer quality from the area. Indeed in 2011 ‘high quality blue sapphire’ from Sonchan mines at Paddar were seized from Sri Lankan smugglers, according to a report in The Hindu (17 July 2011).

In the June Government auction this year a 63.60 gram rough sapphire was presented. This was the second time this crystal had been put up for auction (the first time in April 2011) and, again, failed to find a bidder at a sufficiently high price and we understand that private tenders are now being solicited. This large crystal was found during mining activity in 2010 but may actually have been found in the tailings of earlier mining activity.

With the global interest in fine Kashmir sapphires on the market today, it is hoped that a detailed survey of the

Two examples of recently mined Kasmir sapphire. Courtesy of Haji Abdul Majid Butt. Photo Jack Ogden.

Page 4

area will provide a clearer idea of potential yields and tempt investors.

Haji Abdul Majid Butt, consultant to J&K Minerals Limited, has provided the following figures for rough sapphire yield from the mining area:

Year Production

Sale

Revenue

2008

–

1,600 g

INR 13,000,000

2009

3913 g

12,330 g

INR 7,4700,000

2010

4502 g

–

–

2011

8820 g

5,799 g

INR 8,229,000

2012

4520 g

4,281 g

INR 4,328,000

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Gem News

Jewels of the Connoisseur The Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, Southern California, has been exhibiting Jewels of the Connoisseur (27 July – 6 October), rare gems from the private collection of Buzz Gray and Bernadine

Pinwheel pendant with a Madagascan rainbow feldspar centre, surrounded by benitoite, spessartine, pezzottaite, demantoid garnet, apatite and grossular garnet. Private collection of Buzz Gray and Bernadine Johnston. Photo Robert Weldon.

Getty makes photos open access The J. Paul Getty Museum has made some photos of objects in its collections open access. This is what they say: “The Getty

A mid-sixteenth-century French enamelled gold hat badge. J. Paul Getty Museum, inv. 85.SE.238. © 2013 The J. Paul Getty Trust. All rights reserved.

Johnston. Among 50 rare stones was a 1,377 ct morganite, said to be the largest faceted morganite in the world.

Shown here are a dragon pendant in benitoite, spessartine, black opal (21.09 ct from Nevada) and diamonds (right) and a pinwheel pendant with a Madagascan rainbow feldspar centre, surrounded by sections set with benitoite, spessartine, pezzottaite, demantoid garnets, apatite and grossular garnets (left).

Benitoite is the California state gemstone and found only in San Benito County, California. Buzz Gray and Bernadine Johnston are also well known for their butterfly collection — a range of butterfly jewels set with rare gems, including examples of hauyne, stibiotantalite, hiddenite and jeremejevite.

Following the Jewels of the Connoisseur exhibition, the Bowers Museum will host A Quest for Beauty: The Art of Van Cleef & Arpels from 27 October 2013 to 15 February 2014, presenting 200 pieces from the private collections of

Dragon pendant in benitoite, spessartine, black opal and diamond. Private collection of Buzz Gray and Bernadine Johnston. Photo Robert Weldon.

Van Cleef & Arpels including jewellery, watches, precious accessories, and archive drawings and documents.

adopted the Open Content Program because we recognized the need to share images of works of art in an unrestricted manner, freely, so that all those who create or appreciate art — scholars, artists, art lovers, and entrepreneurs — will have greater access to high-quality digital images for their studies and projects.” The range of objects available include several important pieces from their ancient jewellery collections, engraved gems and a thirteenth-century manuscript in Latin (right) with a description of diamond (adamas) which may be the earliest depiction of octahedral diamonds, although the octahedral shape had been described since antiquity. Shown left is a mid-sixteenth-century French hat badge and what appears to be a table-cut diamond described as a glass imitation — an early example of such imitations.

The full page of the Getty manuscript Concerning Diamonds can be found at: http://search.getty.edu/museum/records/ musobject?objectid=110644

Detail of a Franco-Flemish manuscript page ca.

1270 ‘Concerning diamonds’ which illustrates octahedral diamond crystals. J. Paul Getty Museum, inv. 83.MR.173.100v. © 2013 The J. Paul Getty Trust. All rights reserved.

Page 5

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Gem-A News and Views

Gem-A news Gem-A CEO James Riley

FGA

Showtime It’s that time of year again: show time!

The autumn season kicked off with IJL and a farewell to Earls Court. I have mixed views about this show; it’s expensive compared to other shows around the world, the quality of exhibitors is not representative of the UK market and it is not well attended. It could also do with a shake-up on the organization front. That said, it’s really Hobson’s choice with the Spring and Autumn fairs not being comparable. The word is that Olympia next year will be only three days but the opening hours will be longer — from 9 am until 9 pm.

That’s 12 hours on a stand? As the general manager of the Hong Kong Jewelry Manufacturers’ Association said to me, why would exhibitors from the Far East potentially want to spend 30 hours travelling for three days exhibiting? Add to this the late relocation of stands and poor interaction between stand holders and the organizers, and the future looks bleak. It is highly possible that Gem-A will choose not to exhibit unless things change; a dangerous strategy possibly but with the costs outweighing the benefits, the association can get a better return on its investment elsewhere.

We would welcome members’ feedback on this as we don’t want to ignore our own backyard, but there are, perhaps, alternatives.

New premises Tuesday 3 September saw the official opening of Gem-A’s new premises at 21 Ely Place with over 250 people attending. In spite of a request from IJL to move the date, a fantastic evening was had by all concerned with the general consensus being that this is an important new chapter in our history. For those of you who haven’t had the chance to visit, please do pop in. The building will be fully open during the conference for everyone attending. A massive ‘thank you’ from me personally, and on behalf of the members,

Page 6

gives a round-up of what’s happening at Gem-A. must go to all of the staff at Gem-A for their hard work over and above their normal duties to bring about the relocation. An apology and thank you goes also to the onsite students who have endured noise and dust, but still persevered and managed to obtain a very high success rate in the examinations.

Harry Levy officially opens our new premises

Staff This month sees the retirement from Gem-A of two of its most influential individuals of the last 20 years. As I mentioned last month, Jack Ogden is retiring, although he will be doing consultancy work. I know he has written about this elsewhere so there is little else I can add other than to thank him for all his efforts, particularly with this magazine and I hope he will continue to contribute to it.

Roger Harding, former director of gemmology at Gem-A, ‘retired’ many years ago but has continued as editor of The Journal of Gemmology, upholding its standards and ensuring that it has retained its pre-eminence as the leading scientific gemmological publication in the world. He has not been easy to replace, so much so that he has selflessly ensured continuity until we found the right individual. Thank you Roger.

Farewell also this month goes to our membership assistant Carlos Witkowski.

Carlos has been with us a little over three years and will be familiar to many as the

smiling face that greeted you on reception in Greville Street. He is taking on a new membership role at the Royal College of Paediatrics and we wish him every success in the future.

As a door closes so a new one opens.

Our new editor of The Journal of Gemmology is Brendan Laurs. Brendan will be known to many as the former editor of Gems & Gemology. His appointment brings a new chapter to The Journal and to Gem-A. From 2014 The Journal will return to four issues per year following the increase to two in 2013. The appointment of Brendan has been assisted greatly by Michael Krzemnicki and the SSEF. This is part of an exercise to make The Journal more accessible around the world, and to ensure it remains at the forefront of gem research and is able to communicate this with the highest possible impact. Brendan will be at our conference in November but feel free to contact him before with articles and ideas: brendan@gem-a.com.

A warm welcome is extended to our new IT manager, Charles Evans. Charles is an FGA DGA who has previously worked in IT in the publishing world. He will be enhancing Gem-A’s IT and also working on projects such as advanced instrumentation and looking to organize overseas trips for members.

Conference Last and by no means least, our next major event is our conference to be held in November, celebrating the centenary of the Gemmology Diploma and the fiftieth anniversary of the Diamond Diploma. This is set to be a really special event with some tremendous speakers as well as the opportunity to see and handle part of the Somewhere In The Rainbow™ collection. Space is limited for many of the conference events so don’t delay — book now! I hope to see you there.

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Journal Files

The Journal of Gemmology Gem-A’s most recent issue of The Journal contains articles dealing with the detection of heat treatment in tanzanite, Chinese freshwater cultured pearls and the characteristics of synthetic alexandrites. Jack Ogden sums up this latest gemmological research.

tanzanite, and even with treatment at 450°C, survival of inclusions over about 20 microns would be unexpected. The presence of hydrogen sulphide in multi-phase inclusions in tanzanite (1) — detectable by Raman analysis in a gem lab — therefore appears to be an indication of lack of heat treatment. The authors stress that this was initial research on a limited number of samples, but the potential is exciting.

The authors also note that the human nose is extremely sensitive to the ‘rotten egg’ smell of hydrogen sulphide and that if one of these multi-phase inclusions is opened, such as during cutting, the smell of the released hydrogen sulphide is readily detectable.

Chinese freshwater cultured pearls

1 Typical multi-phase inclusion in unheated tanzanite observed under crossed polars.

Detecting heat treatment in tanzanite Gemmologists are aware — and gem sellers should be aware — that the majority of tanzanite is heat-treated. It comes out of the ground a brownish colour and is then heated to develop its fine, characteristic blue — to fulfil nature’s intention, as tanzanite advocates might say. Only around 12–15% of blue tanzanites were blue when mined and so when there is no evidence of heat treatment there can be a premium on price. The problem lies in determining whether or not tanzanites have been treated.

There is no simple, 100% reliable criterion (see Gems&Jewellery August/September 2013, pages 13 and 14). In a two-part article, Dan Taylor, Professor Andrew H.

Rankin and Professor Peter J. Treloar propose a new approach — looking at liquid inclusions within the stone1.

The research reported here, instigated by the late Dan Taylor, looked at welldeveloped multi-phase inclusions in unheated tanzanite from the Merelani mining area (D block), Tanzania. Using Raman microanalysis, the researchers were able to identify the liquid and vapour phases within the inclusions as hydrogen sulphide (H2S). At even relatively low temperatures (well below 100°C) these liquid and vapour phases of hydrogen sulphide homogenized to a single liquid phase. Higher temperatures could destroy them completely. All but the smallest (<2–10 micron) inclusions would not survive the temperatures of around 600°C probably used for heat-treating

Recent years have seen huge developments with Chinese freshwater pearls with an extended range of sizes and shapes, including tablets and crosses (2). It is interesting to read the report on how they are produced and their characteristics by Professor Li Liping and Wang Min of the Gemmological Institute, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan2. The yield of freshwater cultured pearls in China has ranged between 1,000 and 1,600 tons between 2005 and the present. During this time there have been significant developments including optimizing the

2 Rectangular flake beaded freshwater cultured pearls. Photo Li Liping and Wang Min.

Page 7

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Journal Files

generation pearls are typically thin and of a curved petal or flake shape, and usually have a rough surface. However, large balloon-like ‘soufflé pearls’ are produced by injecting a muddy liquid into the existing pearl sac.

In cross-section, the new forms of nonbeaded, freshwater cultured pearls resemble the concentric structure of the previously known ones. Under cathodoluminescence most show a yellowish-green fluorescence, except the centres of the elongated and cross-shaped which have an orange fluorescence. X-ray diffraction revealed the yellowish green fluorescence was due to aragonite, the orange to vaterite. With the new beaded, freshwater cultured pearls, such as disc shapes, cross-sections were similar to those seen in other beaded, freshwater cultured pearls, with a sharp boundary between bead and pearl layer.

The authors conclude that: “The basic structure of the new varieties of freshwater pearls is similar to that of traditional freshwater cultured pearls, which consists of concentric nacreous layers; these are mainly of aragonite with small quantities of vaterite, and some organic residue remaining in the central hole.”

3 Second generation freshwater cultured pearls. Photo Li Liping and Wang Min.

breeding of mussels, including hybridization and improvements in surgery techniques.

This article explains some of these developments as well as gemmological study of the resulting pearls, including microscopy, cathodoluminescence, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction.

The non-beaded, freshwater cultured pearls are produced by introducing mantle tissue within the mussel. The shape of this mantle tissue and its positioning within the mussel determines shape. For example,

the bar or tablet shapes require a rectangular strip of mantle tissue, the cross shapes form when there are two strips of mantle tissue at right angles. Similarly, with beaded, freshwater cultured pearls, different bead shapes determine the final product.

The harvesting of freshwater cultured pearls has typically involved the death of the mussel.

However, it is now possible to keep the mussel alive and implant a bead or piece of mantle tissue to produce a secondgeneration pearl (3). Non-beaded second-

To view the full article, login as a member on the Gem-A website and go to: www.gem-a.com/publications/journal-of-gemmology/ the-journal-online.aspx

Page 8

Synthetic alexandrite The recent popularity — and multiplying varieties — of colour-change gemstones, plus Karl Schmetzer’s scholarly 2010 Russian Alexandrites, has brought alexandrites, natural and synthetic, to the fore. Synthetic alexandrite has been grown using the Horizontal Oriented Crystallization process (HOC) since the late 1980s, but surprisingly a complete gemmological description of this material has been lacking.

This is remedied in the first of two articles on synthetic alexandrite in this latest Journal

by Dr Karl Schmetzer, Dr Heinz-Jürgen Bernhardt, Walter A. Balmer and Thomas Hainschwang3. With the HOC process, plate-like crystals up to almost half a kilogram in weight have been grown (4).

The most significant internal characteristics of this material are curved growth striations and flat, irregularly shaped and somewhat elongated cavities. Both these types of

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Journal Files

there was an element present in addition to the chromium and vanadium commonly observed in synthetic alexandrite. Analysis confirmed that the colour of the synthetic alexandrite cat’s-eyes and stars was due to titanium and chromium with minor amounts of vanadium, and that oriented needle-like crystals causing the star were titaniumcontaining, probably rutile. The reddishviolet synthetic chrysoberyl from Kyocera is also coloured by titanium. The article includes a survey of the patent literature regarding synthetic alexandrite cat’s-eyes which reveal that both the Czochralski and Floating Zone processes could be used, 4 Faceted synthetic alexandrite grown by the HOC technique in daylight (left) and in incandescent light (right). Photos by K. Schmetzer.

internal characteristics can be seen also in synthetic alexandrite grown by the Czochralski process, but the form of cavities differ sufficiently to be a guide. The article also discusses the physical and chemical properties of the HOC synthetic alexandrite including UV Vis absorption spectra, trace element concentrations, crystal morphology and colorimetric parameters. This latest research also raises questions regarding whether or not synthetic alexandrite has been grown hydrothermally. Such production has been occasionally described in the gemmological literature, but as the reported characteristics of this material appear similar

to those now reported for HOC samples, the existence of hydrothermally grown alexandrite requires further confirmation.

The second article by Dr Karl Schmetzer, Dr Heinz-Jürgen Bernhardt and Thomas Hainschwang covers synthetic alexandrite and reddish-violet chrysoberyl grown by Kyocera in Japan using the Czochralski method4. The production of alexandrite cat’s-eyes by Kyocera dates back to the 1980s. This material when cut en cabochon in the right orientation produces asterism in one direction and chatoyancy in another (5).

The pleochroism and absorption spectra of this synthetic alexandrite suggested that

1. ‘Liquid hydrogen sulphide (H2S) fluid inclusions in unheated tanzanites (zoisite) from Merelani, Tanzania: Part 1. Recognition, characterization and gemmological importance’ by Taylor, D., Rankin, A.H., and Treloar, P.J., and ‘Liquid hydrogen sulphide (H2S) fluid inclusions in unheated tanzanites (zoisite) from Merelani, Tanzania: Part 2. Influence on gem integrity during and after heat treatment’ by Rankin, A.H., Taylor, D., and Treloar, P.J. The Journal of Gemmology, 2013, 33(5-6), 149-59 and 161-9 2. ‘Structural features of new varieties of freshwater cultured pearls in China’ by Li Liping and Wang Min. The Journal of Gemmology, 2013, 33(5–6), 131–6 3. ‘Synthetic alexandrites grown by the HOC method in Russia: internal features related to the growth technique and colorimetric investigation’ by Schmetzer, K., Bernhardt, H-J., Balmer, W.A., and Hainschwang T. The Journal of Gemmology, 2013, 33(5–6), 113–29 4. ‘Titanium-bearing synthetic alexandrite and chrysoberyl’ by Schmetzer, K., Bernhardt H-J., and Hainschwang T. The Journal of Gemmology, 2013, 33(5–6), 137–48

5 Ti-bearing synthetic alexandrite cat’s-eye produced by Kyocera in Japan in daylight (top) and incandescent light (below). Bosshart collection. Photo by K. Schmetzer.

that the colourants were chromium oxide alone or chromium oxide in conjunction with vanadium oxide or other oxides, and that the dopant causing asterism was usually titanium oxide. The patents explain that the needle-like precipitates causing asterism are formed by exsolution in a special heat treatment process subsequent to crystal growth.

Page 9

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Around the Trade

The Kimberley Process: it’s a question of provenance, not origin Harry Levy, Gem-A president, considers the current situation with the Kimberley Process and the questions it raises.

© Dreamstime

The Kimberley Process (KP) has now been with us for nearly 15 years; wars have come and gone, regimes have disappeared, rebels have become legitimate governments, yet those outside the trade continue to promote the KP and regard it as a solution to many of Africa’s problems. They regard any progress in African society as due to the KP being in place and continue to want to refine it.

The premise on which the KP came into being was that rebels in Africa were using diamonds to purchase arms and help their rebellions in killing native Africans. No one questioned why there were these rebellions or why people were fighting, and the NGOs and their supporters argued that if the source of diamonds dried up then so would the wars. The KP has been in place and indeed wars have ceased in parts of Africa, but one cannot argue that this is solely because of the KP. Cause and effect is a well-studied topic in philosophy. If A causes B it does not follow that if we do not have A, then we do not have B. For the argument to work we have to show that A is both a necessary and sufficient condition to cause B. In our case we have to show that it is necessary to have diamonds to have wars, and it is sufficient to have diamonds for war to happen. Neither of these conditions is proven. Wars occur without the presence of diamonds; it does not follow that if there are diamonds then war will ensue.

Page 10

The rebels themselves say that if there were no diamonds they would use other natural commodities to obtain money. The diamond industry has been maligned for years now as a source of evil and too many people with absolutely no knowledge of the diamond industry and trade have jumped in to try to make our world a better place. There seems to be little equivalent activity to control the oil industry and, more important, the arms industry.

The concept of ‘origin’ issue The latest attempt is to ‘help’ the industry by getting suppliers to know and give the origin of polished diamonds, no matter how small. The concept of origin has been the basis of controlling the diamond industry. But what do they mean by ‘origin’?

I remember having to complete customs declaration forms for importing parcels of gemstones. One question was on ‘origin’.

I never knew whether this meant where the parcel had been posted, where the gems had come from, where the stones had been cut and polished, the last place the rough had come from to the polishing centre or where the stones had been mined. Most of us would agree that it is the last option — it is where the stones are mined.

The case with diamonds is more complicated than that of other gemstones. Diamonds were formed in the mantle of the earth many millions of years ago from carbon under high pressure and high temperature. These come to the surface through volcanic eruptions in what are called kimberlite pipes. Most stay there and are mined, first near the surface and then we have to go deeper and deeper to find them. Those near the surface do not always stay there; they migrate. They get into sedimentary soil and are moved by rivers, floods and by the topography of the earth in mud slides.

So a diamond may be found (and mined) many miles away from where it first came to the surface. These are known as alluvial diamonds; the small-time miners who find them are called artisanal miners; they have no machinery and use bucket and spade.

When gemmologists talk about origins of coloured gems they refer to where the stones were formed, which usually is where they are found. Coloured gems migrate far less than diamonds because they are softer and are soon ground to small grit — look at a scoop of sand under a microscope and you will see many types of stones.

Gemmologists pride themselves on often being able to give an origin

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Around the Trade

for a coloured gem based on impurities which are manifested in the colour of the gem, its inclusions or both. Naming origins of gemstones is not a deductive science; it is based on building a database of the trace elements and inclusions in gemstones of known origin.

With diamonds, colour is not a positive indicator of origin as most are colourless and we have little or no database of impurities in diamonds. So confusions arise when we are asked to identify the origin of diamonds, especially for those with no gemmological knowledge. For example, if they want to ban diamonds from Sierra Leone, they cannot prevent their export by smuggling, but still expect gemmologists to tell them if the stones came from Sierra Leone originally. We have no way of doing this. Further, not all diamonds coming from a particular country are necessarily conflict diamonds. That is why the KP required the authorities in a conflict area to sort out which diamonds were legitimate and give these a licence (KP Certificate — KPC) allowing them to be exported. The only recent example of a total ban was for diamonds coming from Marange in Zimbabwe. Here, for the first time, a government had run foul of the KP, and some of these diamonds were easily identifiable because of a green tinge visible in polished stones. But the KP shot itself in the foot by allowing Zimbabwe to export several million carats of these stones, so many are in the legitimate trade. The Zimbabwe situation has forced the KP to try to re-define conflict diamonds to incorporate human rights’ issues, something which it was never designed to do and which has not yet been achieved.

A bridge too far Legislatures in the EU now wish to impose further restriction on diamonds by demanding origins be put on all diamonds, including those in set jewellery. This would be a bridge too far. It is not origin that is the issue, it is the provenance. It is not a question of where the diamond came from, but who sold the stones. This confusion has existed from the very beginnings of the KP. Those who know least about the diamond trade shout the loudest about origins.

The KP in its wisdom understood this difference, but many of those vociferous about cleaning up the diamond trade seem to have no idea about this.

Further, the KP understood how the trade functions and imposed restrictions on rough diamonds, not polished ones. Rough diamonds were sold by entities such as De Beers, Al Rosa and Argyle, by sorting the stones by type. For example De Beers sorts into a possible 5,000 types based on size, clarity and so on. It ensures that all the diamonds it has are conflict-free before they go in the mix and are then sorted.

The rough may come from many sources.

Cutters of diamonds get their rough from many sources and, after cutting, these stones are also sorted into types by shape, size, colour, clarity and so on. The cutters sell to dealers who again sort them, and then to manufacturers of jewellery who re-sort them to ensure the stones that go into a piece of jewellery are matching sets. Nowhere in this chain is origin an issue. The assumption is that the distributers of rough diamonds have ensured that their

diamonds are KP compliant; they are kosher, and what comes from a kosher source remains kosher.

To try to keep polished stones separate by origin would involve huge numbers of separate packets and no one packet will necessarily have a sufficient quantity or sizes of diamonds to complete an article of jewellery. Imagine trying to keep a tally of origins for oil until it becomes petrol and is sold at the pumps. Or those sellers of gold, some of whom claim that they deal in clean gold only, knowing full well that there is so much recycled gold in their system the initial origin of which is totally unknown.

The diamond industry has tried to comply with every demand made on it so far by those who want ethical jewellery, but is now faced with a possible demand it cannot meet. I have often used the analogy that you can ask a man to jump off the tenth floor of a building — which he can do. But try asking him to now jump back from the ground floor to the tenth floor and see the result.

I hope when these discussions come up, there will be people with knowledge of diamonds to explain these points to the legislators. Otherwise we will have decisions made by those speaking through their hearts rather than through their heads.

And on another subject…

Finally I would like to add my thanks to (Dr) Jack Ogden for the many years he has spent in producing this magazine, for his writings, lectures, talks, wit and wisdom, and most of all his subtle prods to our accepted knowledge and his sense of humour. I have worked with Jack for many years, going well back into the last century, in his days as CEO for the NAG and secretary general for CIBJO and much more. We often spent an evening, after a day at a conference, lamenting the fact that not many delegates followed the arguments, and “Oh, there is always next year!” Good luck to him in whatever he does.

Page 11

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Shows and Exhibitions

International Jewellery London The 2013 IJL exhibition took place at Earls Court, London, 1 – 4 September. Jack Ogden reports on the show – the good, the bad and the beautiful.

2. Marcus Reddish sapphire.

Photo courtesy Marcus McCallum Ltd

So, my tenth International Jewellery London exhibition (IJL) while working with Gem-A is over. There is an English expression about a curate’s egg. It derives from a cartoon dating back some 120 years where a bishop comments that the egg that his guest, a curate, is eating appears bad. The curate, not wishing to offend the bishop, replies that parts of it were excellent. IJL 2013 was a bit like that. First the negatives. There was a paucity of exhibitors — manifested in the abundant and always welcome spaces arranged as seating areas; a paucity of visitors, apart from on the Sunday, and a continuation of the trend towards more and more exhibitors of down-market products. Down market is still a market — a very big one — but it is not ‘fine jewellery’, nor the quality that made IJL the premier jewellery show it used to be.

There were also some exhibitors whose disclosure about gems was an

Page 12

embarrassment. Buyers (and only trade buyers are admitted) who think they can buy a bright red ‘natural ruby’ for a few pounds a carat deserve what they get — but their customers don’t. I’m not a great fan of vetting committees at major art and antique shows, even though I have been on a few. These committees consist of experts who preview the show and reject exhibits that are not what they say they are and, where applicable, demand that ticket descriptions be rewritten.

Maybe it’s time to think about an equivalent for IJL. In any case, the organizers of IJL really do need to put some sort of oversight or vetting in place. Their target is to get exhibitors to fill the hall, but it shouldn’t be at any price.

So what was good about IJL 2013?

First of all it looked great. The overall decor and decoration, and the style of the basic booths, did the organizers credit.

3. Couture Faye cocktail earrings in peridot, citrine and coloured diamonds by Sarah Ho. Photo courtesy of Sarah Ho.

1. ‘The Rose Garden’ pendant created for Tivon’s 50th Anniversary and set with Tanzanian red sapphires (quite distinct in colour from rubies).

Courtesy Tivon Jewels

There were many really good exhibitors, and a wonderful seminar programme.

We can start with the exhibitor who won this year’s Gem-A sponsored Gem Empathy Award. This award is bestowed upon the IJL exhibitor who demonstrates knowledge, enthusiasm and flare for coloured gems, and whose jewellery shows captivating use of them and is described accurately. In a sense the winner has to be a stand-out ambassador for coloured gems. This year’s winner was London-based Tivon Fine Jewels.

There were two pieces that really caught the judges’ eyes and which were the centre of interesting conversations (without the exhibitors knowing they were being judged, of course). One was a superb aquamarine and diamond pendant (see their ad on our back cover). This 58.60 ct stone was a beautiful greenish blue — traditionally the colour of the finest aquamarines, before the purer blue became prevalent. Indeed that was the core of the conversation — was it an aquamarine or a green beryl?

Both judges concurred that they’d call it an aquamarine. Colour descriptor was also the centre of the conversation about the second piece, a circular pendant set with 10 red sapphires (1). Red sapphires?

Well the stones, heat-treated and from Mozambique, were certainly red and certainly sapphires, but they had a brownish tinge that both Tivon and the judges agreed really wasn’t ruby-like.

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Shows and Exhibitions

Aquamarines were well represented at IJL. PJ Watson had a good range of aquamarine and diamond pendants, with bright aquas from Mozambique, while Marcus McCallum also had a reddish sapphire that none would claim to be a ruby (2). The stone, from Madagascar, was described by Marcus as a ‘brownie purpley orangey sort of colour’.

That might not be accepted colour terminology, but it certainly summed it up.

Sarah Ho used IJL to launch two new products, her ‘Paradis Collection’, inspired by the bird of paradise and Art Deco elegance, and her men’s DK30 collection which derives from a ring she made for a friend’s 30th birthday. Among the jewellery displayed by Ho was an exquisite pair of peridot and citrine earrings (3). Of course, not all exhibitors or their customers deal with high-end jewellery, so for every exhibitor of gem-studded gold or platinum, there were several who showed jewellery in sterling silver and base metals.

Among the latter, many exhibitors resort to gold, silver or rhodium plating, producing,

5. Pendants based on the forms of antique Ottoman locks, in gold, silver and diamonds,

by Sarrafians. Photo courtesy Sarrafians.

let’s face it, what can best be classed as imitation jewellery, regardless of how well it is designed. So I admire jewellers who have the courage of their convictions and exploit the possibilities of the non-precious metals they use. One such is Michael Michaud who casts botanical subjects in bronze and then applies various types of surface colouring and patination. Shown here is a patinated bronze and cultured pearl pea-pod brooch.

It is not just a casting based on a pea pod, it is cast from a pea pod (4).

4. Patinated bronze and cultured pearls pea pod brooch by Michael Michaud.

Photo courtesy Michael Michaud.

The international flavour of IJL was shown by exhibitors from several countries, including some Hong Kong exhibitors and, for the first time, Sarrafians from Istanbul.

Istanbul has a good and historical reputation for jewellery and in recent decades its designers have produced some wonderful Ottoman-inspired pieces. Among those shown by Sarrafians were pendants in hand-engraved gold, silver and diamond, based on Ottoman period locks (5).

One of the reasons Gem-A exhibits at gem shows world-wide is to keep in touch with members and students, and our diverse network of instructors. This year was no exception, with many old and new friends visiting our stand. Such visitors often have gems to show; some just bought, others treasures or puzzles from their collection.

This year one such visitor was Elaine Branwell who kindly showed us — and then presented to Gem-A — some interesting samples, including black moissanite sold as black diamond (with accompanying mini-cert) (6), milky opal that was actually plastic (supposedly from China) and various coated quartz samples. Apparently coating colourless, synthetic quartz to imitate citrine and other coloured quartz varieties has become a cottage industry in Thailand, although its economic viability is puzzling.

For next year, IJL moves from Earls Court to Olympia, just up the road. It will be interesting to see how this move, forced on IJL by the redevelopment of the Earls Court site, will affect the show. The new venue will provide a very different feel and I hope that the organizers will take the opportunity to build on their successes and learn from criticisms. IJL is a treasured part of the UK jewellery industry — both a flagship for the industry and a barometer of how that industry is faring. I wish it, its exhibitors and its visitors, well for the future.

6. Black moissanite with its ‘certificate’ stating that it is a 4.63 ct black diamond.

Copyright Gem-A, photo Jack Ogden.

For more information see: mamicameo.it • marcusmccallum.com • michael-michaud.com • pjwatson.co.uk sarrafians.co.tr • shojewellery.com • tivonjewels.com

Page 13

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Shows and Exhibitions

Hong Kong The September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, the largest gem and jewellery show in the world, proved again that it is the barometer for our industry. Jack Ogden reports on prices, products and new challenges.

Prices Prices for coloured gems are tricky to keep tabs on. Things change ridiculously quickly and quality is of paramount importance. The general feeling among gem dealers at Hong Kong was that prices for good- to- fine quality gems have gone up some 20% over the last six months. It is hard enough for gem dealers, so heaven only knows how appraisers keep up with things — even those with sufficient hands-on, market know-how to recognize the minute differences in shade of a ruby, say, that can add a zero to its value. At one end of the scale there are shovel-loads of natural but cheap stones — for example pretty coloured but heavily included Chinese peridot at 99 US cents a carat — at the other end there are the specimen gems at prices to make either your eyes or your mouth water (depending on whether you are buyer or seller). With fine gems I am not just talking about the large gems to feed the growing high end, collector and even embryonic investment market, such as a

selection of tanzanites over 100 carats on show. Small but beautiful gems also command high prices. For example coloured gem specialist Evan Caplan had two beautiful Brazilian Paraíba tourmalines, one pear, one a trillion (1). They weighed around two and three-quarters carats each and he was asking the best part of US$60,000 per carat. Bear in mind that the majority of Paraíba tourmalines are heat-treated — the trillion here was a sapphire-blue colour when mined. With some gems lack of treatment is of the utmost importance, with others it hardly matters.

2. Greyish sapphire rough that has been bleached and then immersed in blue, cobalt-containing glass which has glued them together. They would be broken apart and then cut. Copyright Gem-A. 3. Glass-filled sapphire: a low cabochon (99 US cents a carat) and two faceted examples (US$ 5-7 a carat). Copyright Gem-A.

Blues and the blues Blue sapphires are in the ascendant as the Chinese have been major buyers for the last couple of years — following their love-affair with red gems — and other blue gems, such as tanzanite, are being carried up with it.

For the Chinese, as with much of the market, lack of treatments in sapphires

1. Two small but beautiful Brazilian Paraíba tourmalines.

Courtesy Evan Caplan.

is important at the high end, but less of a concern for commercial goods. The demand is, of course, for fine Kashmir, Burma and Sri Lankan stones. Interestingly China does have its own sapphire deposits, but little reaches the domestic market. Some is exported to Australia, some to Thailand and a fair bit to Switzerland for the watch industry — their frequent occurrence as thin plates makes them ideal for cutting into little watch jewels, and their rich, dark colour means that the jewels look ‘sapphire blue’ when very small.

Page 14

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Shows and Exhibitions

Glass-filled sapphires While on the subject of sapphires, the blueglass-filled sapphires are now out there (2, 3). They had hardly been seen on the market previously. Just like the glass-filled rubies that have blighted the industry for the last few years, the sapphires are fairly readily identified by anyone with a bit of gemmological knowledge and a loupe — gas bubbles, colour flash (not always that evident) and fillings in crevices made obvious by relief effects. The blue glass filling is coloured by cobalt so they also typically show red with the Chelsea Colour Filter and blue laser; however this is probably not definitive as some blue sapphires with a touch of chromium (such as many from Sri Lanka) can also show reddish. Prices for the rough and some of the cabs were less than US$1 a carat, the faceted material generally around US$3–10 depending on quality (and seller). There are, naturally, other colours of glass-filled sapphire on the market — I’ve seen green, pink and yellow — but seemingly not in any quantity.

Hail a cab Perhaps the main gem trend evident with coloured gems is the use of cabochons.

There were cabochons and sugarloaf gems in all varieties, sizes and qualities — tanzanite, tsavorite, peridot, spinel, tourmaline, aquamarine, sapphire, ruby. You name it, the cabs were there, both loose and set, for example, the sapphire and ruby necklace on offer by Veerasak Gems (4).

Yellow fever

4. A necklace of ruby and sapphire cabochons.

Courtesy Veerasak Gems Co. Ltd.

produced in Surat, India — right next to the diamond cutting factories. Should we worry?

One gemmologist told me he had recently purchased a parcel of yellow melee for research at the Hong Kong Show last year.

Despite insistence by the seller that all were natural and untreated, testing revealed that around a third were synthetic, all the rest were natural but treated.

Blue light Gresham’s Law states, in essence, that the ‘bad’ coming on the market tends to kick out the ‘good’ — in perception as much as in practice. Thus announcements of blue amber for sale immediately trigger visions of yet more blue stained or otherwise treated amber

(or copal). But there is ‘good’ blue amber, such as that now coming from Sumatra.

Like the Dominican Republic green amber, the colour is a fluorescent sheen, not a body colour, but even so the colour can be striking under daylight, especially when on a black background (5). The Sumatran amber also includes reddish, in some lights almost ruby red, as well as various shades of yellowybrown. The story I was told was that the amber was first found in a Sumatran coal mine a couple of years ago and was being thrown away until someone recognized what it was. It has now been coming onto the market for about 18 months. Apparently it has been dated to between 25 and 35 millions years old. This was all explained to me by Starborn Creations, a US company exhibiting in Hong Kong and with a selection of blue and other Sumatran amber rough, polished and set in silver jewellery.

Proof of the pudding In business terms the show was slow, disastrous for some. Overall, loose gems seemed to do better than finished jewellery and some gem dealers had smiles on their faces — one I met had just signed up a million US dollar sale with one customer.

The recent changes on the Chinese political landscape including the crackdown on corruption, the associated reductions in

5. Two samples of Sumatran ‘blue amber’ — amber with a blue surface fluorescence, photographed in sunlight on a dark background.

Copyright Gem-A.

Do you have any jewellery in your inventory set with small yellow diamonds — say one or two points? Stake your reputation on them being natural? One Chinese producer of synthetic HPHT yellow melee (1–2 pts) showed me some of his production. He sells them for what they are, fully disclosed, but as he said he could not guarantee what happens further up the supply chain. He also reckoned he would be producing colourless synthetic diamond melee ‘quite soon’. Yellow HPHT synthetic diamond melee is also now being

Page 15

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Shows and Exhibitions

Hong Kong (cont.) lavish gift-giving, and greater wariness about large cash transactions have apparently slowed down purchases in some top-end gem and jewellery categories (much the same seems to have happened in Russia with Russian buyers thin on the ground in Hong Kong). Although Chinese growth might have slowed slightly it is still high and old hands reckon things will be back to previous levels soon. The reluctance of Chinese buyers to spend at the Hong Kong show may be due to their already having high inventories rather than any fear about a significant drop-off in trade.

New Zealand jade in China I popped into China for a day for a meeting and took the opportunity to visit the new Guangdong Museum in Guangzhou. A huge, spectacular museum that puts almost any

museum built in the West in recent years to shame, it is a perfect demonstration of the extraordinary economic growth in China.

One current exhibition in the new Guangdong Museum was a loan exhibition devoted to New Zealand jade, with a large selection of jade artefacts, boulders and informative material on its history and working. It was extraordinary to see how tough New Zealand nephrite used to be sawn and polished with unsophisticated sandstone saw and polishing blocks (6).

That strayed a bit from Hong Kong, but it underlined Chinese ascendance on world markets in general, and how it steers global gem prices and demand in particular. Thus, as has been true for several years now, the September Hong Kong Gem & Jewellery Fair, the largest such show in the world, is the barometer for our trade and an essential port of call for all those with a serious involvement

6. A New Zealand nephrite block partially sawn using an abrasive stone saw. On exhibit in Guangzhou (Guandong Museum).

in the gem and jewellery industry. For Gem-A the show provides the ideal opportunity to catch up with our many teaching centres, instructors, students and members in the region, including from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

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Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Over the Counter

Diamonds: not all is explained with clarity Antoinette Matlins was recently contacted by ABC-TV to follow up on an undercover segment she had done with ABC some eight years ago on the sale of clarity-enhanced diamonds to the public in New York. The producers thought it would be interesting to do a follow-up using her and the same investigative reporter, Dan Harris. So off they went, in disguise once more, to find out if unsuspecting members of the public still are sold clarityenhanced diamonds without proper disclosure. Here Antoinette explains that the good news is that things have improved to some extent, but the bad news is that poor disclosure is still pervasive.

Ring saga As we went from store to store in New York’s jewellery district, looking at pretty rings and talking to the sellers, I found that far more dealers now indicated that, with our stated limited budget, we might want to consider clarity-enhanced diamonds — what they called ‘CE’ diamonds — because they were less costly. Clarity-enhanced diamonds, that is diamonds where fissures have been made less visible by filling them with lead glass, have been around since the 1980s, but even just eight years ago none of the sellers we approached had mentioned CE, simply explaining their low prices as being a very competitive wholesale price. This time a couple of sellers were forthcoming and very honest about what they were selling. For this reason, I insisted to the producers that the segment should be balanced and show the ‘honest’ dealers as well as the bad.

The final segment, after editing many hours of recording, came to less than 20 minutes even though it involved many days of work — from discussions with the legal department to equally tedious hours in make-up to disguise us (I was supposed to be Dan’s mother). We donned special clothing to hide the cameras and rehearsed what could and could not be said for legal

reasons, and on and on. The first round of undercover work took four long days, filming our ‘search for the perfect ring’ followed by returning to the studio to make sure the equipment had been working correctly — it hadn’t always. Another four days were taken up with confrontation with the sellers and several days of ‘B-roll’, the background shots of 47th Street, my office and so on.

The segment was aired on 10 July.

The good, the bad and the ignorant While we found that there were some people deliberately deceiving, sales people were

Investigative reporters Antoinette Matlins and Dan Harris

often just woefully lacking in knowledge about what they were selling. What had changed from eight years ago was that many sellers did now mention CE the moment they heard what Dan’s budget was, distinguishing between ‘natural’ and ‘CE’. They acknowledged there was a reason for the lower price, even if hazy on the details. One seller explained that they “sell for less because something is done to make them look better than they do when they come out of the ground”.

Not one acknowledged that the appearance might not be permanent.

I will be able to dine out for years telling people some of the responses we got when we asked about CE treatment. Some sellers said it had to do with special cutting or a special polish, but my favourite was a dealer who told us that his CE diamonds were ‘enhanced’ by a very sophisticated process.

This, he explained, made flaws in a diamond invisible by lasering the flaw and then forcing gas through the laser path to the flaw so that it encircled the flaw — like a bubble.

So, when the light going through the diamond reached the gas bubble it was reflected away from the flaw so you no longer saw it! I was sure I’d heard wrong, so I asked him if he said ‘gas’ or ‘glass’ and he reiterated ‘gas’, he even spelled it for me (remember, I was playing ‘mom’ and my hearing wasn’t what it used to be).

Other sellers confessed that they didn’t understand the CE process because it was too technical.

In many instances we might have witnessed sellers’ ignorance rather than any deliberate intent to deceive, but the end result is the same. We felt justified in filming the segment. Although in the public media such as TV, I’d much rather focus on the positive facets of our field, the public do need to know what to look for, what to look out for and what to ask. If Dan Harris had really been just another young man venturing into the jewellery district looking for a good price on a diamond engagement ring, he almost certainly would not have received sufficient information to make an informed decision about what to buy; he may well have been exploited by the unscrupulous.

Page 17

Gem-A Conference 2013 Friday 1 November â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Tuesday 5 November

Understanding Gems Visit www.gem-a.com

TM

FRIDAY 1 NOVEMBER

Seminar day A series of practical half-day workshops will be taking place at Gem-A headquarters.

Richard Drucker FGA GG Coloured stone grading and pricing workshop II (Update on grading coloured gems with new grading methods and information) Arthur Groom Exploring emerald clarity enhancements Craig A Lynch GG, ACCREDITED SENIOR GEMOLOGIST, AGA Is the porridge too hot, too cool, or just right? That is the answer!

(The Somewhere In The Rainbow™ collection of green grossularite garnet and zoisite from east Africa, with hands-on study) SATURDAY 2 – SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER

GOLDSMITHS’ HALL, LONDON

Gem-A Conference Guest speakers: John Bradshaw GG Non-traditional gemstones: The rare, medium-rare and well done David Callaghan FGA In the beginning…

(The history of the London gem lab)

Sonny Pope The future in coloured diamonds: An introduction to the HPHT multistep process Martin Rapaport The state of the diamond industry

Dr John Emmett The colours of corundum: A search for the soul of a padparadscha

Gary Roskin FGA GG Mastering the challenges in diamond grading

Dr Emmanuel Fritsch GG Luminescence — what’s in a word?

(Luminescence in gemmology from basic UV to photoluminescence in HPHT treated diamonds)

Chris Sellors English gemstones, Blue John and Whitby jet Shelly Sergent Somewhere In The Rainbow™ Toto, We’re not in Kansas anymore!

(A look at the celebrated The Somewhere In The Rainbow™ gem and jewellery collection)

Arthur Groom Emerald clarity enhancement Brian Jackson FGA DGA Scottish gemstones Dr Jack Ogden FGA Treasure, traders and trickery: The Cheapside gems in context

Dr James Shigley The evolving challenge of gem LGHQWLÀFDWLRQ

EVENING SATURDAY 2 NOVEMBER

Anniversary Dinner EVENING SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER

Graduation Ceremony Martin Rapaport will present the Awards and give the address.

MONDAY 4 – TUESDAY 5 NOVEMBER

Exhibitions and Visits Private viewings will be held at London museums, including the Cheapside Hoard at the Museum of London, the Pearls exhibition at the V&A, and at the Natural History Museum.

There will also be a private viewing of the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, now to be held on Wednesday 6 November.

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www.gem-a.com/news--events/gem-a-conference-2013.aspx

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Gem and Jewellery History

Spell bound Jewellery set with gems that spelled out names or sentiments was common in the nineteenth century, but working out what was intended is not always easy.

Jack Ogden investigates a veritable alphabet soup.

The term ‘acrostic jewellery’ might not be that familiar, but most readers, especially appraisers and those dealing in antique jewellery, will at least know one example: the ‘regards ring’. The regards ring is a band set with seven gems, the initial letters of which spell out the word REGARDS. Indeed, an 1840 American report notes this “delicate way of expressing a sentiment” in England and mentions a half-hoop ring spelling ‘regards’ as a typical example.

Acrostics — initial letters of words spelling out names or messages — date back to ancient times, but their use in jewellery is very typical of nineteenth-century sentiment.

The earliest examples are seemingly French and Napoleon was a big fan. There are bracelets surviving that spell out the name of Napoleon’s mother Letitia and commemorate events such as the birth of his niece Napoleon in 1806 (yes, he had a niece called Napoleon — born in 1806).

If we go back to the popular ‘regards rings’ the gems used are pretty straightforward — typically Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, Diamond, Sapphire.

However, as we’ve seen with Napoleon, almost any word, phrase or personal name could be spelled out. It is not too difficult to work out what another mid-nineteenth-

century-ring says: Ruby, Amethyst, Carnelian, Hessonite garnet, Emerald, Lapis lazuli. Yes, the name ‘Rachel’. Albert, Prince of Wales, gave a ring to Princess Alexandra on their wedding in 1863 set with a Beryl, Emerald, Ruby, Turquoise, Jacinth (zircon) and Emerald.

This example of what was called a ‘name ring’, spelled his name BERTIE (J and I were interchangeable).

But not all gem names are as readily recognizable. What if you came across a Victorian ring set with a zircon, an amethyst, a jasper, a white topaz and an emerald?

Believe it or not, this actual example described in 1819, spelled J’aime — ‘I love’ in French. Zircon, known as Jacinth, gave the ‘J’. Jasper was ‘I’ here since, as noted above, I and J were interchangeable.

White topaz was known as ‘Mina Nova’ hence the ‘M’. Another example described in the nineteenth century was in French and would not be obvious to most of us today: ‘SOUVENIR’, spelled out with Sapphire or Sardonyx, Onyx or Opal, ‘Uraine’ (probably uranite, see below), Vermeille (orangy-red garnet), Emerald, Natrolite (which found some use as a gem in the early nineteenth century), Iris (iris quartz) and Ruby or Rose diamond. You see the complications. Even a simple diamond set

An early nineteenth-century acrostic ring with Cinderella’s slipper which reads in French ‘Elle vous va’ — ‘It fits you’. Photo Courtesy of Cathy Gordon.

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in a piece of jewellery might be supposed to be read as B (Brilliant diamond), D (Diamond) or R (Rose diamond). A Mina Nova (M) could also be interpreted as ‘Novas Minas’ — N. The ‘slipper’ ring shown below is set with an Emerald, two lapis lazuli, Emerald, garnet (‘Vermeil’), Opal, garnet (‘Vermeil’), Sapphire, garnet (‘Vermeil’ again) and an Amethyst (the gems at each end are not visible in the photograph). This thus reads in French ‘Elle vous va’ which, bearing in mind the central slipper and Cinderella allusion, can be read ‘It fits you’.

The second ring illustrated opposite has a political rather than sentimental message.

This was made around 1820 and showed political support for Caroline of Brunswick, Queen Consort of King George IV. In the centre is CR for Caroline Regina under a Royal Crown, and around this her name in gems: Citrine, Amethyst, Ruby, Opal, Lapis lazuli, ‘Jacinth’ (I), Novas Minas and Emerald. If it had been spelled in her native German, the emerald wouldn’t have worked.

In German emerald is Smaragd and would have stood for S, as the nineteenth-century German mineralogist Franz von Kobell reminded us when he pointed out that there were languages other than English and French employed in acrostic jewellery.

Kobell also noted an alternative choice for ‘U’: “Recent times have furnished a name which may assist, namely, a green garnet, containing chrome, from Siberia, which has been baptized after the Russian Minister Uwarrow and called Uwarrovite.”

This green garnet, now known as uvarovite, was only discovered in 1832.

Nineteenth-century writers provide extraordinary lists of gems for acrostic jewellery — some of which are blindly repeated in books to this day. Examples include Cacholong (common milky opal),

Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Gem and Jewellery History

A gold acrostic ring, ca. 1820, showing support of Caroline of Brunswick and spelling her name.

Photo Courtesy of Cathy Gordon.

Chrysolite (peridot), Diaspore, ‘Egyptian pebble’ (yellow to brown jasper), ‘Fire-stone’ (pyrite), ‘Krokidolite’ (for crocidolite — quartz cat’s-eye), Milky opal, Porphyry, Purpurine (glass sunstone), Uranite (a green uranium phosphate), Ultramarine (lapis lazuli), Vesuvianite, Verd-antique (a green serpentinite breccia), Water sapphire (iolite), Wood opal,

Xanthite (a variety of vesuvianite), Xepherine (no idea), Xylotile (probably the variety of chrysotile, less likely the nineteenth-century imitation of ivory) and Zurlite (apparently an old name for melilite). The ‘souvenir’ bracelet mentioned earlier supposedly contains a uranite and it has been suggested that the natural radiation

Gem-A Calendar Gem Central Monday 21 October, 18:15–20:00 Lesser known gemstones — test your knowledge with Andrew Fellows FGA DGA Career Service Monday 11 November, 18:00–19:00 A Career in Gem Dealing with Jason Williams from G. F. Williams & Co. Gem Central and Gem-A Career Service events are held at the Gem-A headquarters, 21 Ely Place, London EC1N 6TD. Please call +44 (0)20 7404 3334 or email events@gem-a.com for more information or if you plan to attend.

The Gem-A Conference 2013 2 and 3 November, Goldsmiths’ Hall, London A two-day conference to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Gemmology Diploma to be awarded and the 50th anniversary of the Diamond Diploma.

Confirmed speakers include John Bradshaw, David Callaghan, Dr John Emmett, Arthur Groom, Brian Jackson, Dr Jack Ogden and Gary Roskin.

For further details go to: www.gem-a.com/news--events/events/ gem-a-conference-(1).aspx

from this stone caused the ‘Iris quartz’ next to it to darken — which long prevented its identification.* What did radioactive uranite do to the wearer? Possibly it was lucky that uvarovite turned up as an alternative.

The problem is that with so many alternative and gem names, almost any combination of coloured gems in a piece of nineteenth-century jewellery might have been intended to spell out something.

Working out what is what can take the skills of a code-breaker equipped with an FGA. One also wonders whether all were meant to be readily deciphered. Perhaps sometimes they were indeed a secret message of love or political affiliation intended to be understood by the recipient or wearer only. I’m sure than in many cases their secrets are still safe. * For more on acrostic jewellery and the suggestion about radioactive uranite see http://sentimentaljewelry.blogspot.co.uk/ 2008/03/making-silent-stones-speak.html I’d like to thank Cathy Gordon and Michele Rowan (www.rowanandrowan.com) for their help in providing information and images.

Show Dates Gem-A will be exhibiting at the following shows:

Gemworld Munich 25 – 27 October 2013

International Jewellery Tokyo 22 – 25 January 2014

AGTA Show Tucson 4 – 9 February 2014

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Gems&Jewellery / October 2013

Stone Scoop

Fingers, seducers and dyes Dirty digits, old orators, an unsuccessful Romeo, a dead Saint and a coloured rock reveal a humorous side to diamonds and an amusing pseudo-disclosure of rainbow pebbles. Jack Ogden mines some of the funny side of gems.

Brilliant debate A comment published in the Cornhill Magazine in 1872 caught my eye: “The lowest vulgarity is to put a diamond ring on dirty fingers.” This reminded me of the comment of one gem dealer who recently observed that diamonds have become common, in the sense of down-market rather than numbers on the market. Whether or not one holds with that, diamonds have long said much about the wearer. In 1720 the humorist Thomas Gordon wrote: “In my opinion there is nothing so necessary in conversation as a diamond ring, though most authors are silent about it. The art of using it is still more necessary than the thing itself. A just extension of the arm… and thereby a proper discovery of the brilliant on the little finger, adds an irrefutable force to every argument; and this I believe is the true reason why the left hand has generally a greater share in every debate than the right.”

Ring saga A gentleman’s diamond could work in seduction too — well in theory. In a story by Thomas Brown in 1730, a playboy meets a ‘pretty lady’ and ‘besieges her with his eyes, he ogles at her’. But how to attract her attention? He tried wit and conversation, but she remained indifferent. So, time for the secret weapon. “He had a diamond ring of a considerable value upon his finger and… playing with his hand and holding it so that he might show his diamond more advantageously to the eyes of the fair indifferent, he plays with it.” Still no effect and he was “astonished to find a woman insensible to such a beau as himself and such a diamond as his was”. Then things changed.

She “seized him hastily by the hand to look nearer at the diamond”. He takes the ring

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from his finger and she inspects it closely, and then puts it on. He sees victory, but she, cold as ever, explains that it was her ring. It had been stolen from her by her husband (who pretended he had lost it) to give to a marchioness with whom he had had an affair. The same marchioness had then given it to our Romeo with whom she had also had a liaison. A circle completed, you might say, and a plot that might suit a modern sitcom.

And no reward for our lover-boy — just salt poured upon the wound. The woman has the perfect last word: “I take it for nothing though if I were of a revengeful nature, my husband very well deserves that I should give the same price for it that he received from the Marchioness.”

Trade bodies Diamonds and love may have long been associated, but only recently has it been possible to convert a loved one (human or pet) into a synthetic diamond. How about the opposite? A brief satirical note in the humorous British magazine Punch in 1855 reported: “In return for the splendid diamond tiara, value about 2,000,000 reals, recently sent to the Pope by the Queen of Spain, his Holiness has sent her Majesty the body of St Felix the Martyr.”

Dyertribe That’s enough about diamonds. Back to coloured gems… excessively coloured gems.

In a gift shop in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, I saw a small display of ‘Dyerite Granite’. A play of words, of course, on the good geological terms ‘diorite’ and ‘granite’. I’m not sure that name counts as disclosure, but it is certainly ingenious if not amusing. A quick glance at the internet shows that this material is not uncommon in gift shops

A small display of dyed granite as seen in a gift shop in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Photo Jack Ogden. in the USA, but it is not clear whether purchasers know what they are getting.

Testing dyed granite (just in case anyone thinks some of those bright colours might be natural) is not usually within the realms of gemmology, so we had to turn to advice on checking granite kitchen surfaces, where undisclosed dyeing — though seldom so garishly — is also rife. Seems that a small bit of cotton wool and acetone (nail varnish remover) should do the trick.

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Feature |

All ‘Handmade in Britain’ Now in its seventh year, the Contemporary Crafts and Design Fair returns to Chelsea Old Town Hall in London.

Lilly Hastedt

Maria Helena Spector

Jasmin Rowlandson’s new collection of porcelain and precious metal clay pieces and Ornella Iannuzzi’s dramatic creations featuring pearls, diamonds and Ethiopian opals. From Lorna Henderson there are her signature forged flowers, while Rachel Emmerson combines contemporary design with detailed craftsmanship for her silver and gold enamel jewellery. Alan Vallis presents inspiration from Middle Eastern design culture and ancient Egyptian artifacts and Peruvian-born and artist-trained Maria Helena Spector combines lapidary and

ttracting talent from the world of jewellery – together with many other disciplines – Handmade in Britain (8th-10th November) showcases established names alongside emerging makers. For jewellery retailers the fair – which is supported by The Jeweller – offers the opportunity to discover the work of new designers as well as explore new trends, techniques and materials.

This year is a bumper one as far as jewellery is concerned with over 30 designer-makers exhibiting at the show. Some of these will be well-known to a few jewellery retailers, exhibiting as they do at UK trade fairs. Many others however will be unveiling their work for the first time. Handmade in Britain provides a

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Mark Nuell

platform for such talent (created in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) not only through its events but also its work with other organisations, alongside a mentoring programme and membership scheme.

Among those showcasing their collections next month is Mark Nuell whose pieces feature bold gemstones. His inspiration comes from his father who mined sapphires in Australia and Mark learnt to cut and polish the stones, spending six years as a gem cutter, then designer-maker in Sydney. Another qualified gemmologist is Lilly Hastedt whose pieces are renowned for their graceful elegance, and defined by her affinity with coloured stones and diamonds and passion for pearls. Lilly’s upbringing in Guatamala has also inspired her use of colour and texture, as well as simple shapes and clever detailing.

Dulwich-based Annie Ruthven-Taggart works in silver and gold to produce distinctive pieces of jewellery that often incorporate gemstones. Organic forms and marine life are a frequent source of inspiration.

Other collections to look out for at the fair: Catherine Mannheim’s innovative work with coloured golds and fine gemstones and beads;

Rachel Emmerson silversmithing techniques for her silver and gemstone limited edition pieces.

The fair is open from 11am to 7pm on Friday 8th and 11am to 6pm on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th November. The venue is Chelsea Old Town Hall, Kings Road, London SW3 5EE and one day’s entry is £7 (£5 advance booking at: www.handmadeinbritain.co.uk/chelsea-13/tickets/) Subscribers to The Jeweller receive 2 for 1 tickets to the main show, redeemable online by entering the code JEWELLER13.

The Voice of the Industry 31

| Ethical Jeweller

Ethical gold — the good news Following the announcement of the new Fairtrade premiums for precious metals, Belinda Morris spoke to Fairtrade International Gold programme co-ordinator Greg Valerio about the implications for the ethical jewellery market.

Chris Chilla, aged 21, panning with mercury with a glove on for safety, at the Nsangano Gold Mine, in Geita in north Tanzania. The miners are part of a three-year project funded by Comic Relief to bring Fairtrade gold from Africa. The gold is still to be certified. Image by Matt Crossick.

32 The Jeweller October 2013

hen the world’s first certified Fairtrade gold supply was launched to the jewellery industry back in 2011 (rather poignantly on Valentine’s Day in fact), it was, of course, received with all the fanfare due to such a significant initiative. But while the concept, implications and benefits were undoubted, the reality of a transparent, traceable gold supply chain was not without its challenges. As jeweller and activist Greg Valerio, who worked tirelessly with Fairtrade to bring about the idea, commented, one year on from the launch, the Fairtrade premium “and the potentially marginalising impact this will have on the broader commercial adoption [of Fairtrade gold]” was an issue to overcome.

Today, a further 18 months or so into the initiative and the future looks somewhat rosier for all concerned. Following a Standards Committee meeting held back in June, Fairtrade International announced a new Fairtrade price and premium for gold, silver and platinum. Valid from the 1st August 2013, the new Fairtrade Premium (FP) for conventional gold is set at US$2000/kg and the Fairtrade Minimum Price (FMP) remains at 95 per cent of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) price.

There are no changes in the FMP and FP for ecological gold (gold that has been extracted without the use of chemicals and with strict ecological restoration requirements). The FP is paid in addition to the price, whether it is the market price, negotiated price or the FMP, and is typically invested in education and healthcare or processing facilities to increase income.

“What this now means is that the Fairtrade options for jewellery are more affordable and reachable for the average jeweller,” says Valerio. “It’s been a steep learning curve over the last two years. In 2011 the premium was reasonable but it rose exponentially as the gold price rose. It was too high and we saw a drop off in sales. The miners moaned, the jewellers moaned and we had to make a bold change. Since the new premium came into effect we’ve seen more orders in the market and now we want to get as many jewellers signed up to Fairtrade gold as we can.”

Valerio is also quick to point out the benefits to jewellers who decide to work with Fairtrade gold. “It’s from guaranteed traceable sources, the systems are fully-

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| Ethical Jeweller The price of gold

South American gold miners.

Image courtesy of Fairtrade Foundation

audited and transparent, it’s the only independently-certified supply chain and the gold is exclusively from small-scale miners with benefits being driven back to those mining communities. It’s the best gold in the world! This is not a charity – it represents good value to the miners and to the jewellers,” he says.

“The UK uses around 21 to 22 tonnes of gold a year and about 80 per cent of that is the recycled gold option,” Valerio adds. “That leaves around four tonnes of freshlymined gold coming into the UK market. Our aspiration is to capture those four tonnes for Fairtrade.” And what difference would this make? He’s done his sums: “To use Fairtrade gold for a five gram wedding ring would mean an extra £25 on the price – which is totally affordable to the retailer and the customer. The number of UK weddings has gone up to around 250,000 a year and if we can get 50,000 of those that equals half a tonne of gold, which in turn equals $1million Fairtrade Premium back to the miners.”

The new premium change is, says Valerio, an early start to make Fairtrade gold a ‘default purchase’ in the UK market. “I think our industry can really get behind this and we can achieve our target,” he says.

“And in doing so we will be at the forefront of driving international social change.”

34 The Jeweller October 2013

In a year or so it is hoped that Fairtrade gold will come from Africa. Martine Parry, Fairtrade’s media and PR manager recently visited the Tanzanian project and met with the organisation’s Ugandan partners as part of an exchange visit. Below is a Comic Relief blog on the Ugandan project.

The phrase ‘poverty-driven industry’ is often used to describe artisanal and small-scale mining, but it wasn’t until I visited a group of miners in Busia, Eastern Uganda that I understood what it means. In Tiira, a small village home to countless mine sites, I watched a chain of people pass a bucket of water up a steep slope. After heavy rains the night before they were draining the pit so that they could continue to mine. Water sloshed over the sides of the buckets making the earth wet.

Fractures were visible in the unsupported walls of the pit where recent landslides have caused them to collapse – two homesteads had fallen into a neighbouring mine a few weeks before, and deaths were common among passers-by. At the bottom of the chain a man stood waist-deep in water, crude tool in hand. Small children played nearby. They were all barefoot.

‘Poverty-driven’. In other words – you would have to be poor to do it.

Standing with me was Theresa Okwire, mother of seven and grandmother of five.

She became a miner just a year ago when her work as a tailor dried up (people now buy ready-made clothes) and she needed additional income to sustain her family. Her son Jimmy is also a miner, having dropped out of school to earn a living. Theresa is typical of the ‘gold rush’ that the current high price of gold has created in areas like this, bringing thousands of people into dangerous work as artisanal miners. She would not be here, she said, if she had a choice.

We are in Uganda to visit a three-year project funded by Comic Relief to improve the social, economic and environmental standards of small-scale gold miners in East Africa through Fairtrade standards. During a week-long workshop with the eight mining groups we are working with – plus our local partners in East Africa and internationally – I come to realise the scale of the challenge. As well as working in one of the world’s most dangerous industries, artisanal miners are subject to exploitation and marginalisation by traders and governments alike. In Tiira, miners are paying an illegal tax of 60 per cent to land-owners, on top of their government taxes.

Perhaps the biggest exploitation is through the traders. It isn’t just the case that miners have little money – what they do have isn’t theirs. Traders pre-finance their activities 100 per cent – including providing the mercury which is used to extract gold from the ore, causing massive health risks and environmental hazards. After the trader has collected their gold, plus interest, miners are left with barely a subsistence wage in return for risking their lives to produce one of the world’s most loved and valuable products.

During my week in Uganda I am struck by the miners’ commitment to the long and difficult road ahead, to become the first African miners to sell their gold under Fairtrade terms. Many of them cannot afford to eat breakfast, yet they are pledging to invest in systems and processes that will improve their environmental management, health and safety conditions, and organisational structure in order to become Fairtrade certified.

We must support them in every way that we can. Just as we have done with tea, coffee, sugar and countless other Fairtrade products, we will lobby jewellers to demand the Fairtrade mark on gold products. The history of artisanal and small-scale miners is one of exploitation, marginalisation and poverty. This is our chance to change that history with them – they are committed, and we must not let them down.

If you have any queries about Fairtrade gold, the new premiums or how to get licensed into the system, please email Greg Valerio at: greg@gregvalerio.com or call him on tel: 01243 537090

From simple solitaire engagement rings, to luxuriously encrusted statement pieces, diamond jewellery falls under the spotlight as Belinda Morris reports on the prevailing trends and talking points that these sparkly stones throw up.

Hearts on Fire

Stefan Hafner at Alfred Terry

t may not be the most pressing concern that the diamond market is facing (price, certificates, the ethical debate and a stillsluggish economy join forces to take away a little of the sparkle) but there’s no doubt at all that the internet has changed certain aspects of our industry forever. As the NAG announces that all jewellery retailers, regardless of their route to market, may be granted membership, the big issue of gem and jewellery e-tailing looms ever larger. And in particular its effect is being felt in the world of diamonds and diamond jewellery.

The Luddites among us may fight the developments with tooth and claw, but in the end, inevitably, the technical revolution

I

36 The Jeweller October 2013

will have its wicked way with all sectors of retail – even in a world as steeped in history and tradition as ours is. For many it’s a question of adapt or decline. “We have to change with the times,” says Nick Fitch of Hatton Garden-based jewellers Nicholas James, who admits that he has “strong opinions on the subject, that might go against those of many in the industry”. With several very big players in the market selling loose diamonds direct to the public – at the same prices that he buys them – he is looking at having to make one or two drastic changes to his business model.

Arguably, coming in for the most stick when discussions arise over internet selling,

are those companies dealing specifically in diamond engagement rings and loose stones.

But are they really the villains of the story?

Tobias Kormind, co-founder of 77 Diamonds would argue 'not'. For a start he rejects the claim that all e-tailers have an unfair advantage when it comes to overheads.

The brand's new Mayfair showroom may not have arresting (and expensive) streetfacing windows, but it's clearly had some money spent on it, as has the website.

A growing sales team doesn't come cheap, nor is the product bargain basement stuff – far from it!

The company is also beginning to broaden its reach. “We were getting approached on a regular basis by national jewellers who couldn’t understand how we could sell diamonds on our website at prices lower than they could source from their long term diamond dealer relationships, so we decided to open a wholesale business, where we

Danhov

Diamond Feature | give further discounts to trade,” explains Kormind. “Smaller jewellers are underserved by the high wholesale prices in the UK, and our wholesale business allows them to source through us directly from the global diamond market without worrying about the payment, insurance and transportation risks.”

Selling online is not necessarily an easy option. “The demands of being an online retailer are very different to those of a bricks and mortar store and if you’re not confident and brave it is very easy to get left behind,” says Ed Ferris of the Swag group. “A lot of people have jumped on the band wagon, but unless they invest significantly in their sites they will very quickly look tired and boring. The online world moves ten times faster than bricks and mortar,” he adds. That said, he is in no doubt that we’re talking change that has to be embraced: “At any level of jewellery retail, if you aren’t on-line then you are certainly missing out; our stores get more and more visitors armed with pictures from our site.”

Brown & Newirth

Because of its pure simplicity, the round is almost certain to remain number one as it continues to represent the stone in the most understandable way to the consumer…

Andrew Geoghegan

“Every bricks and mortar jeweller should have some sort of web presence by now and to add a purchase online function is not a huge step,” says Cherry Lench of Corona (Maple Leaf Diamonds). “So many people shop online for jewellery – if you’re not online it is a missed sales opportunity. Many retailers’ websites offer products that don't compete with their in-store products but can draw a customer in.”

And no virtual shopping trip can beat the great in-store experience. “Our customers find the internet very important for researching and browsing, meaning they are much more knowledgeable,” says Adele Thompson, head of buying at Beaverbrooks. “We do however really encourage our customers to come in store to appreciate the true beauty of a diamond and enjoy the experience of

“The modern consumer lives in an omnichannel environment so they will shop online, in store and through catalogues and magazines,” Charles Gumley, sales director at Alfred Terry. “The most successful retailers will understand this and offer a seamless retail experience through all channels. It is becoming a necessity to be where your customers are looking and not expect them to come and find you.”

Paul Spurgeon

selecting one of the most important purchases in their lifetime.”

Jessica Neiwert of Sholdt agrees that bricks and mortar retailers have “some sort of battle” with online retailing. “Most of our retailers seem to tackle it by offering a view of their designer inventory online, but require a customer to come into the store for pricing and purchase,” she says. “This allows for an experience that is unique to the store and that online sales cannot offer.

It grabs the consumer who likes to look on their own beforehand.”

A knock-on effect of the online buying experience is that some jewellers are re-thinking their pricing policy. “Rather than price the diamond jewellery as one whole purchase, I usually break down the cost into two – the jewellery piece and the diamond.

The Voice of the Industry 37

Diamond Feature | “The biggest issue is definitely value,” argues David Hartley of Hearts on Fire. “Many retailers are now pushing hard to illustrate that their diamonds are the best value; and as a result, the industry is reducing prices and placing ‘labels’ on diamonds to stay competitive. The implementation of such offers can be very beneficial to a business, but does mean re-training of staff and capturing the consumer mindset towards buying a diamond. And, unfortunately, this makes diamonds all seem more alike in the eyes of our customers than they really are.

Gemex

It’s just the way the consumer has been guided in buying jewellery online,” says Hatton Garden jeweller Jig Pattni. “Though the profit margin in selling retail diamonds remains competitive, the jewellery setting still proves very profitable.” Fitch is looking at changing his business model to offer the same pricing structure, with customers being given the option to bring in their own diamond, purchased – presumably – online.

Value added…

Going hand-in-hand with the presence of online retailing (for some at least) is the issue of price, which in turn might be translated as ‘value’. There’s no question that the consumer still wants to buy diamonds, but at all levels of the market they want to know that they’re getting value for their money… in the current climate especially so.

Recycling diamonds can pay dividends — here’s how: Selling small, uncertified and unmatched diamonds under 0.25ct has always been tricky, but a new business model now makes it easy for retailers to sell ‘melee’ diamonds collected from old stock or from pieces of jewellery being scrapped for their precious metal content. However, as Tim Phillips of White Pine Diamonds explains, if you are going to maximise the value of your stones, there are a number of points to bear in mind: • Don’t damage on removal. Diamonds are very hard, but they fracture easily, so don’t manually remove them from jewellery unless you are skilled at doing so.

Forcibly using pliers is a sure way to destroy value!

• Clean your diamonds. By washing your diamonds in soapy water, you will be likely to get a higher price, simply because a diamond buyer will be able to grade and value them more correctly.

• Volume. Gather as many stones together as you can because generally the bigger the parcel of melee the better the price per carat because the larger volumes will allow more of the diamonds to be matched and sold on to manufacturers and ultimately to the consumer.

• Valuations. The diamond industry has a reputation for being opaque. Things are getting better, but ensure you know how your diamonds are being valued. A dealer who looks at them through a plastic bag and throws out an offer is not likely to offer the best price.

Be sure your buyer is methodical and properly values your diamonds.

• Global reach. Most diamond traders are small, often family-owned, businesses where each member has a good reason to try to pay the lowest price possible. Buyers working for large, diamond recycling businesses are incentivised to buy diamonds at the company’s price; they are penalised for paying too much, but there is no benefit to them for under-paying its price list. Such companies will also have access to global jewellery auctions guaranteeing that your stones will be sold for the best possible price.

• Diamonds as an investment. It is a misconception that diamond prices will always go up. They won’t. There is little to be gained from sitting on your diamonds when it is extremely straightforward to get a no-obligation quotation as to their value and to sell them on.

Successful retailers will offer a seamless experience through all channels… it’s a necessity to be where your customers are looking, not expect them to come to you.

For us, this is where diamond brands, like ours, really come into play, as retailers and consumers alike can rest assured that they are receiving a high quality diamond every single time.”

“We are always looking at ways of adding value to our diamond jewellery offer and work closely with our customers to ensure that we’re providing the type of products and the service they want,” says Andrew Sollitt, sales and marketing director at Domino.

“Providing genuine choice is a top priority.

We’ve created a number of new pieces recently to help retailers meet important price points in both our Diamond Ring Mount, where we have 40 new designs and EW Adams

The Voice of the Industry 39

| Diamond Feature offered to potential customers was perceived as too high for their customers, so we have addressed that in the last three months by releasing G colour, SI quality. It represents a 40 per cent reduction over VS quality,” explains Lee Ruben, “and it’s opened new markets and done very well for us.”

The comfort zone?

Alongside price a key discussion topic is certificates. What can I say? Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. For many they’re essential. “Certification is extremely important to us,” says Ruben. “For the past three years we have worked with a lab and offer a cert with every ring. It’s a great marketing tool and can clinch a sale because it instills confidence.”

PJ Watson

Hockley Mint

Customers know that certificates are available, but it’s all about trust and [assessing diamonds] is not an exact science. in our ‘Petite’ ring collection.” Many of Domino’s diamond rings are also available in a choice of sizes and in either HSi or GVs to provide even greater flexibility.

“It is our experience that a well-informed client will continue to stretch their budget to

Sholdt

40 The Jeweller October 2013

acquire one of our exclusive designs, although on occasion altering the carat, colour and clarity to fit their budget,” says Tanya Hill of Diamond by Appointment.

Specific DBA training for stores’ sales teams introduces customers to the brand’s ‘story’ which highlights the ‘features and benefits’ of each diamond engagement ring – the value, both financially and emotionally, explains Hill, is implicit.

Inevitably budgets (at retail and consumer level) have been squeezed over the last few years and suppliers have generally adapted their offer to suit – or might already be geared up to meet the needs. “Our handmade rings already span a range of price points and because they’re individually made they can be customised to fit most budgets – for example diamonds on the shank can go half-way or all the way round,” says Jack Hovsepian, designer and owner of Danhov.

Meanwhile at Gemex the offer has been broadened recently. “The quality that we have

However, as with diamonds in general, the public’s knowledge of certificates can often be sketchy. “Most customers start by asking about certificates for their diamonds, but then when you have a discussion in depth, they don't understand what the process, limitations and/or benefits of a certed diamond are,” says Adam Jacobs of Jacobs of Reading. “We try to educate them as to the facts behind the process, then

Tankel

| Diamond Feature and it had a certificate, they’d buy it. It’s very sad. And we’re now in the untenable situation where certificates, by and large, are not worth the paper they’re written on. If you’re so inclined you can pop into a Hatton Garden dealer, name the colour and clarity and come out with a certificate 20 minutes later. The stones are not meeting the criteria set and it’s got to epidemic levels now.”

Fitch is not alone in his opinion. Ed Adams of EW Adams is also circumspect on the subject: “My view is that generally speaking certification of diamonds has got less consistent, and Si1-2 clarity stones have generally become worse over the last few years. Diamonds that five years ago may have been graded as PK1 are now regularly graded as Si2,” he adds. “Perhaps the main concern here is the lack of consistency between the labs. The public will accept most certs and this is sometimes used to advantage by the less scrupulous retailer,” adds Vivian Watson of PJ Watson.

Fei Liu

translate those facts into what it means in practice – ultimately leading to an informed decision by the customer for their own specific circumstances. It takes some time, but it’s all about spending that time establishing a rapport.” Mike Lane of Lanes in Holt agrees: “Customers know certificates are available, but it’s really all about trust and [assessing diamonds] is not an exact science.”

“Certification also gives customers the impression that they should be buying a diamond by the way it sounds and not the way it looks,” adds Hartley. “For example, there are many 0.50ct G VS1 diamonds in the

market and a customer looking for one could think that all are exactly the same.

However, we know that even at this point diamonds will all have their own level of performance and character. I feel that there should be more emphasis and education of the cut quality of a diamond on certification as, after all, this makes it do what we want it to do… sparkle. The better you cut a diamond the more beautiful and valuable it is and there is no argument there!”

“Certificates, together with price, are undermining my ability to retail a premium product in today’s market,” says Fitch.

Many people do not know that some of the ‘fancy’ cuts actually will not sparkle as much as a round or perfectly cut square because too much of their shape is cut away…

Jig Pattni

42 The Jeweller October 2013

“I’m fairly old-school – it used to be that you sold a diamond for the sake of the stone and as we educated customers they became drawn to them. But now I can honestly say that if a lump of coal was put in front of them,

Diamond By Appointment

The shape of things…

In the jewellery world, as in that of fashion generally, trends come and go. However, at the risk of being roundly contradicted (no pun intended) when it comes to the shape of a diamond – particularly for a solitaire engagement ring – you can suggest anything you like… as long as it’s a brilliant. A princess invariably gets an honourable mention, but the round is the favourite. “Certainly brilliant cuts make up the vast majority of our designs. Because of its pure simplicity, the round is almost certain to remain number one as it continues to represent the stone in the most understandable way to the consumer,” says Gumley.

The Voice of the Industry 43

| Diamond Feature “The higher up the numbers, the more safe people play it,” says Mike Lane, “and rounds, for a solitaire or three-stone ring, are classic.”

Pattni agrees that “a round brilliant will always be classic” and reports that the majority of his customers “prefer the fire/sparkle in rounds” and he agrees that a princess would rank second. “My personal favourite would be the perfect cushion – a nice compromise between the two.”

Tresor Paris

“Round diamonds are still by far the most popular and I feel this will not change as the round brilliant shape is the best performing – and most valuable therefore – as it sparkles more than any other,” explains Hartley. “Many people do not know that

some of the ‘fancy’ cuts actually will not sparkle as much as a round or perfectly cut square because too much of their shape is cut away to create the unique look. With that in mind, squares are easily the next most popular shapes. This is the only other shape that we offer –our ‘Dream’ cut, is a modification of a square and specially developed to have a square top and a round bottom.

The round bottom is what really makes a diamond come to life… even though more of the rough has to be cut away.”

Gumley does add though that: “Consumers have never been so individualistic and informed than now… I think this will lead to continued customisation and an increase in other designs such as the princess.” Backing up a trickle towards other shapes is the fact that Stubbs & Co. has just introduced its first ring to accommodate a princess cut and US brand Sholdt (which showed at IJL for the first time last month) has noticed “an upward affinity towards cushion-cut diamonds”.

PJ Watson reports that it is “selling a lot of emerald cuts in various sizes” while at Domino, the trend for retro looks is seeing the rise in popularity of pear shapes as well as princess and emerald cuts. And while brilliants are the most in-demand, designconscious consumers are being tempted by hexagonal settings in the Rosabella collection and Tresor Paris has a new diamond cut waiting in the wings to satisfy a growing desire for more unusual shapes.

Stubbs & Co

At any level of jewellery retail, if you aren’t on-line then you are certainly missing out. ... And another thing

Domino

44 The Jeweller October 2013

OK, so the main business when it comes to diamonds is wedding jewellery and we’re talking white. But it’s not the whole story.

Designers and manufacturers are also reporting growing business in other types of diamond jewellery, as well as coloured diamonds – sometimes the two together.

Diamond line bracelets and diamond dress or cocktail rings, especially with coloured diamonds, mainly intense yellows and richcoloured brown diamonds, are popular at EW Adams. “We like to call them chocolate browns as it’s a very good description of the colour and creates a nice image in people’s minds!” explains Adams.

At Tresor Paris, which offers a bespoke service on all items of jewellery, there have been more enquiries recently for fancy yellow and pink diamonds, while Gecko

Diamond Feature | offers a capsule collection of black and brown diamonds and electric blue diamonds are planned for 2014. Coloured diamonds have been ‘a passion’ for a number of years at PJ Watson, but while pinks are in demand, the prices are often beyond the consumer’s budget, according to Vivian Watson. Sholdt’s bespoke jewellery – pendants, earrings, right-hand rings and bracelets – often feature pink, blue or yellow diamonds.

To encourage engagement ring customers to return to a store, Stubbs & Co. has just introduced ‘sumptuous’ diamond pendants to augment its bridal range and Continental has recently brought out a basic single stone range of 9 and 18 ct stud earrings and pendants in a variety of styles.

The newly launched Ruifier fashion-led jewellery brand is using yellow, pink and black diamonds for its 18ct gold vermeil and sterling silver pieces. There are plans to introduce 18ct yellow and rose gold and platinum for its quirky, structural designs in the near future. Danhov meanwhile is finding that celebrities favour colouredstones and has created rings using canary and black diamonds.

Ruifier

Selling diamonds – the retail view:

Shaun Leane

• “Price and certificates have become the bane of my business model. Between them they’re undermining my ability to retail a premium product in today’s market.”

Nick Fitch, Nicholas James, Hatton Garden • “The wedding ring market is being trounced by a couple of online dealers – they’re selling through eBay and making very small margins. It’s great for consumers of course; they’re getting diamond jewellery virtually wholesale.”

Mike Taylor, TWJ, Crowthorne, and JewelStreet • “We are seeing vast discrepancies between labs which I personally find a concern for our industry as a whole. This is one of the reasons we supply all of our diamonds with our own certificate, which we absolutely stand by.”

Adele Thompson, head of buying, Beaverbrooks • “Ten years ago I thought that I probably needed to start selling on line and now it’s become a hugely important side of the market.” Mike Lane, Lanes, Holt • “The main conversation we have with people is the design of the item. The diamond is very important, but the design is paramount and is what people spend most time thinking about.” Ed Ferris, Swag • “The key explicit issue for us as far as diamonds are concerned is always a financial one. Our pricing has to be keen in comparison to our competition and identify products that are unique to us.” Adam Jacobs, Jacobs of Reading • “I think the main issue when it comes to selling diamond jewellery is trust. Once the customer has built that rapport and trust they will always be looking for the best ‘deal’ they can get within their budget irrespective of their purchasing power.”

Jig Pattni, Jig Pattni, Hatton Garden • “The price of diamonds has never been an issue. I am proactive in keeping a check on the prices of my stock to keep the RRSP updated. I work on a larger margin so there is room for an overnight surge in prices.” Peter Wong, Wongs Jewellers, Liverpool

The Voice of the Industry 45

Diamond Feature |

Gecko

For some major manufacturers, especially in the USA, the use of ‘recycled’ diamonds is providing an interesting new way of underlining their green credentials.

Doing the right thing The initial furore following the Blood Diamond film may have died down a little since its release in 2007, but some residual heat remains – the public is now aware of the ethical issues. It’s not a black and white thing (see Harry Levy’s opinion on the subject on p10 of this month’s Gems&Jewellery)

Corona (Maple Leaf Diamonds)

but the industry – at all levels of the supply chain – has come a long way in recent years in an effort to trade responsibly. Regular lists published by the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) reveal those businesses that have met its stringent ethical standards and achieved certification.

And it pays off. One such business is Swiss-based Gyrstones, a B2B buying and selling platform specialising in white and coloured diamonds as well as gemstones.

“Since we received RJC certification we have experienced a great response,” says Oliver Jones. “Retailers like to buy from us and our users as it provides security, it makes them feel comfortable with their clients.

Each user has to comply with the guidelines and of course we check the background of the dealer.”

To avoid the issue of ‘conflict diamonds’ buyers also have the option of looking to Canada for their stones – brands such as Maple Leaf Diamonds, Arctic Circle and

Canadia for example. “No retailer wants to have their customers better educated about a product than they are – we have tried and true tracking systems and can identify every product’s original source,” says Maple Leaf’s Cherry Lench.

For some major manufacturers, especially in the USA, the use of ‘recycled’ diamonds is providing an interesting new way of underlining their green credentials. Recycled diamonds – those that have already been used once in a piece of jewellery, removed from it before being re-cut, re-polished and re-graded – are now being sold in large quantities, especially in the USA, India and the Far East, where packages of recycled and matched melee are regularly traded at auction.

“There is no guarantee as to the original provenance of these recycled stones, because once a stone is cut and polished there is no way anyone can tell from whence it came, but using recycled diamonds does mean that no additional mining, or despoliation of the environment is required to source them, so they are a little greener than their brand new cousins, in the same way that recycled gold is less polluting than the freshly mined,” explains Tim Phillips of White Pine Diamonds, a forerunner in the diamond recycling field.

Continental

At present White Pine does not offer its recycled stones in small quantities, but if there were to be sufficient demand from UK producers for this service Phillips says it is something the company might be prepared to investigate. Consumer enquiries on ethical issues may be few and far-between, but the industry – one way or another – is more prepared now that it has ever been to deal with them.

The Voice of the Industry 47

| Diamond Feature

Grading synthetic white diamonds The trade still does not seem clear as to how to deal with synthetic diamonds. They have made progress but there is much they do not understand, as Harry Levy, president of the London Diamond Bourse and president of Gem-A, explains. ynthetic diamonds have been produced in commercial quantities since the middle of the 20th century. But what were produced were stones for industrial use; they had all the physical properties of natural diamonds, especially hardness, but no aesthetic value. A few gem quality stones were produced, but these could not generally compete in price with natural stones.

These stones were produced in the way nature had produced them by using high temperatures and high pressure (HPHT). Today HPHT is used to improve the colour of lightly tinted natural diamonds into the good white range. This is a successful way of improving colour, but since it is not easily detectable one wonders how many are correctly disclosed at the point of sale.

Another method was to use low temperatures and pressures and this is known as the Carbon Vapour Deposition system (CVD). This again imitates nature, as we have known for many years that diamonds are found in meteorites – in space there is no pressure or temperature. Diamonds produced by this method were not intended for the jewellery industry, but instead made use of another property of diamonds – namely good electrical and heat conductivity. Thin platelets of diamond are produced which are clear but are tinted brown. They were intended for the computer industry to act as computer chips, to replace the silicon chip that could not cope with the heat produced by ever faster machines. So much money has been invested in the silicon chip that the trade is not yet ready to switch to diamond chips, but this is now happening.

So the producers began to find other uses for their diamonds, namely cutting them into gem quality stones. Because they produced thin platelets they could cut small diamonds, something not too viable for HPHT stones,

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48 The Jeweller October 2013

and they could take the brown tint out by subjecting them to HPHT treatment.

The trade did not take too kindly to these man-made stones; they took a Luddite approach by burying their heads in the sand, hoping they would just go away. Realising this would not happen they took a more active approach by trying to ban their production, then trying to ban their introduction into the jewellery production chain. Dealers were warned not to deal with the product, Bourse members were threatened with expulsion if they dealt in such stones and banned from bringing them onto the Bourse trading floor. After failure in all these fields, due to restrictive trading laws, dealers are now busy finding a differential between natural and man-made diamonds.

much heat and debate. I can only assume that the word ‘cultured’ has been a success term. Cultured pearls are a respectable commodity sought by all and have replaced natural pearls. The problematic misunderstanding is the notion of ‘replacement’ – cultured pearls did not replace natural pearls because people preferred to buy cultured pearls, but rather because the sources had dried out.

The producers of synthetic diamonds (PSD) read ‘cultured’ as a success term, as did the traders in natural diamonds and they thought that ‘cultured diamonds’ would drive out natural diamonds just as it seemed to have done for pearls. The arguments further developed that ‘cultured’ could only be used for organic terms and the dealers saw themselves as the protectors of the cultured pearl industry. The irony is that the producers of South Sea pearls, highly expensive products, have never used the word ‘cultured’ for their products, and at this stage the producers of all cultured pearls – the Japanese with their Akoya, and the Chinese with their freshwater pearls – want to drop the term ‘cultured’ and sell their products simply as ‘pearls’. They argue that the majority of pearls sold are cultured, the consumer is aware of this fact, and if anyone

I simply cannot see a woman boasting that she has an F colour synthetic, in fact I do not see her boasting at all that she is wearing a synthetic diamond in her ring!

The first fight was then what to call such stones. The traditionalist wanted the simple words ‘synthetic diamonds’. A more extreme argument was then mooted by those who did not want the word diamond to be used at all. They claimed that part of the definition of diamond was that it was a natural product produced deep in the earth – these manmade stones did not have this property, ergo were not diamonds. They suggested they should simply be called synthetics. This may work between traders or in a Bourse but not with consumers; synthetic is an adjective and must describe something. So, synthetic potatoes maybe?

Synthetic diamond producers wanted to call their product ‘cultured diamonds’. This caused a huge negative reaction within the traditional trade. I have never understood why this term, in this context, has generated so

wants natural pearls they will use words such as natural and real to describe the product they want. Instead of qualifying the term pearl with ‘cultured’ we should qualify it with ‘natural’ in appropriate cases. This is an ongoing debate within the trade.

The PSDs then tried to go down the route Chatham took when he was unable to use the term ‘cultured’ for his emeralds, and asked for alternate terms such as ‘laboratory grown’ and ‘laboratory created’. This has now been accepted. The reason that the PSDs wanted alternate terms was that they claimed by calling their product synthetics they were classifying them with all synthetic products such as cubic zirconia, glass, etc, and their product was simply better.

We have now ended up with all sorts of terms being used such as ‘diamontine’, ‘diamontite’, ‘diamonique’ and so on. All these

Diamond Feature | do is confuse the consumer as they think they are buying some sort of diamond.

At present the only terms agreed by the trade are ‘synthetic’, ‘laboratory grown’ and ‘laboratory created’. Terms such as ‘manmade’ are not to be used. Here some of the non-English speaking communities argue that man-made translates in their language as being made from man. But man-made is short for being made by man, so this argument fails. The other objection is that the term is sexist, women can also make these stones. This too fails as many terms now use the masculine form for both sexes, such as actor, chairman and so on.

So all efforts to name man-made diamonds are problematic. To me the essential thing is to convey to the consumer that it has all the properties of a diamond other than its origin and this differential has to be clearly and unambiguously made.

The situation of man-made diamonds still confuses the trade, and it is traders in natural diamonds who are setting the rules. Having accepted that synthetic diamonds are on the market, they now think that everything we do with natural diamonds will be done with synthetic diamonds. We grade natural diamonds, therefore we will grade synthetic diamonds. This simply is not the case.

We grade natural diamonds in order to ascertain prices. The system has been set up so that there are large price differentials between different grades. Thus an F colour stone is worth much more than a similar G colour one, and a VVS stone is worth much more than an SI stone. This is not so for synthetic diamonds.

Unless there’s some very strong marketing explaining that an F colour synthetic is worth several thousand dollars more than a G colour synthetic, at most if an F stone sells for $1,000, a G colour may sell for $950.

It will not be worth paying a laboratory the grading fee. Further, synthetic diamonds are produced under controlled conditions, and the producers will soon learn how to achieve the best colours. I simply cannot see a woman boasting that she has an F colour synthetic, in fact I do not see her boasting at all that she is wearing a synthetic diamond in her ring!

The trade efforts at present are to produce grading reports for synthetic diamonds that look as dissimilar as possible to those for natural diamonds. Thus they want different terminology for colour terms and different terminology for clarity grades. Most of all they want the final report to be produced on yellow paper. This assumes that a consumer

is familiar with reports for natural diamonds.

This is something not taught at school. The average consumer may have bought, at most, one graded diamond with a report, with no prior knowledge of the terminology used and certainly does not know that it has to be on white paper.

Further, I recall when the matter first came up, traders wanted the laboratories not to grade synthetic diamonds at all. I remember arguing that having a report stating that the diamond was synthetic was the best form of disclosure possible. The report can be of any form provided it clearly states on the front and inside that the stone is a synthetic. We could ask for nothing better to differentiate between the two types of diamonds.

It would be disastrous for the trade in natural diamonds to be confused with that for man-made stones. We do seem to have methods available to differentiate but would not work for a trader with a loop and they would have to be carried out by a laboratory.

But since most better quality stones are now graded, the hope is that the grader will be able to identify whether a diamond is natural or synthetic.

The problem arises with small stones, especially when set. It is claimed that over 90 per cent of natural diamonds sold are below five points, both in size and value. Since we can produce such stones in quantities now with the proliferation of CVD stones, this really is a problem. The temptation will be great for a manufacturer to mix small man-made stones with similar looking natural stones, where the former would cost $100 per carat, to natural ones that will cost $500, knowing that even the best laboratories will have great difficulty in identifying the type of diamonds that are 2mm in diameter, especially when there are many set in a ring.

The trade has problems ahead – it will have to find methods to persuade manufacturers to disclose correctly what they are selling and to get a better understanding that there are both similarities and differences between natural and synthetic diamonds.

There is an old story that if there is a gold rush, don’t run as a prospector, but rather go in to sell picks and spades. If I was younger I would start a laboratory, not to grade diamonds, but to identify natural diamonds from other types. I already see consumers wanting a piece of paper to state that the diamonds they are buying are natural.

The Voice of the Industry 49

| Diamond Feature

A diamond scam to fool even the best…

Back in July Gem-A CEO James Riley wrote about the apparent discrepancies between laboratory reports. The issue rumbles on, as he offers this latest twist in the story. he move of Gem-A to Ely Place has involved many late nights and has been viewed with interest by the inhabitants of the Hatton Garden area. One evening while locking up I was accosted by an old friend with the following tale urging me to print it as a warning to the trade, in the hope that it might stop such things happening in the future. No names are mentioned for obvious reasons but the other details are true.

A well-known and respected diamond dealer of some 40 years’ experience recently purchased two 3ct diamonds from another long established, reputable Hatton Garden dealer. One was 3.17ct DVS1 and the other 3.33ct D VVS1. Both had GIA certificates, both were Excellent, Excellent, Excellent, with regards to cut, polish and symmetry. The stones weighed what they were supposed to weigh and both were on the second-hand margin scheme. Highly attractive, saleable stones you might say, and in fact there were buyers lined up. Bear in mind that these two stones cost over a quarter of a million dollars.

Now the first thing the dealer did having said ‘Mazal’ on the stones (yes, he did look at them before he bought them) was to look on RapNet — Mr Rapaport’s online trading forum — for some comparables to ensure he was competitive; diamond dealers have a feel for the market but when the tools are available it’s foolish not to use them.

Interestingly there was a 3.33ct DVVS1 for sale in the US at 5 per cent off Rapaport, the main price list used by dealers — exactly what you would expect. Alarm bells rang — the stone had the same GIA certificate number. Note the stones in the UK both had cert numbers laser-engraved on the girdle.

This is not as unusual as you might think, as firms often list stones belonging to other people. However, on requesting that the stone be removed from the list as he had just bought it, the response was: “You want to buy this one?” So we now have two stones of the same weight with the same certificate

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50 The Jeweller October 2013

number of the same quality. Which was the ‘real’ stone? Fortunately in this case this was easy to determine, as the stone in the US had been polished by the firm listing it and it had never been out on appro. so there was no chance of it having been exchanged.

By passing the stone off as second hand it would mean that dealers were less likely to look closely and the price would be attractive, making it much more saleable.

What then of the stone in the UK? On close inspection it was discovered that the GIA certificates for both the stones did not have a watermark. (This is something that many of us know about, but when was the last time anyone checked?) Therefore the certificates had been reproduced, laminated and attached to the correct GIA outer folder.

A cunning ploy…

What of the stone itself? It grades as D colour, it is a diamond and it is of VVS clarity — possibly a VVS2 but for most a VVS1 as per the paperwork. A Sarin machine, which labs use to determine the measurements of a stone, gave an almost identical result (within

the acceptable tolerances) to what was on the paper and — more importantly — what was downloaded from the GIA website where you can find copies of all certificates issued by them. A further test on a DiamondSure from DTC revealed that the stone was a Type IIa. The overwhelming conclusion — still to be confirmed — is that this stone has been HPHT treated to enhance its colour and then used to masquerade as the real stone that was in the US. By passing the stone off as second hand it would mean that dealers were less likely to look closely and the price would be attractive, making it much more saleable.

A comparison between the market value of an untreated stone at 5 per cent off the list price, against 70 per cent or more off the list price for a treated stone, shows you that someone is making a lot of money here.

Certainly it’s worth the time and effort.

So what happened? Our business is an unusual one in the 21st century; a word or a handshake is good enough to commit to buy and heaven help you if you fail to deliver.

But if there is anything amiss then dealers will happily unravel the sale. Their reputation, often built on generations of dealing, is too important. These stones have gone back up the supply chain and have, allegedly, been sent to GIA for verification. Could be an interesting phone call. The buck will stop somewhere…

The moral of this tale is several-fold.

Never ever buy a stone without the certificate, and double check if it has one. Determine for yourself if it is what it purports to be.

Check the paperwork has the correct seals and watermarks. Furthermore, buy only from a reputable supplier whom you genuinely know. The margins on diamonds are small — often only 5 per cent. If the deal is a lot cheaper there will be something wrong. You may just not be good enough to spot the (excuse the pun) flaw. All too often in recent years firms have abandoned their traditional suppliers as being ‘too expensive’ and have happily bought from travelling salesmen who are in the country for a only week or so; 99.9 per cent of these will be genuine but occasionally we provide an avenue for the unscrupulous to get one over on us. London has a good selection of dealers who know their stuff. It has a Diamond Bourse with high standards. Make sure you use them or they may not be around forever. The longterm losers will be you and your customers.

| Business Support: Insurance

All that glisters...

Bombarded with offers of cheap insurance? Remember that things may not always be as they seem, so take the time to choose carefully, says Neil McFarlane of TH March. ost people reading this will be familiar with what happens in the run up to an insurance renewal date: an unwelcome bombardment of seemingly cheap offers all purporting to give the best for least.

But unrealistic offers are usually just that and if something seems too good to be true, then it probably is!

Finding the right insurance protection can be complicated, whatever line of business you’re in because there is so much riding on it. And arranging suitable cover for the particular risks faced by the jewellery industry is an even more exacting task, one that necessitates research and an understanding of available insurance products and how these will work to protect those in the jewellery trade.

With insurance providers coming at you from all angles, particularly the internet, deciding which offering is the best fit for your specific needs is, understandably, a daunting task. That is where the advice of a well-informed broker will prove to be invaluable in identifying the insurance products that are most appropriate to your unique needs.

Aside from the obvious advice of looking at value, rather than just price (there are quite often substantial differences in the cover on offer, including excesses and policy limits), here are a few more important questions you should be asking.

Is the broker authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (formerly the Financial Services Authority)? This is a legal requirement.

You can check that a broker is regulated by visiting the Financial Services Register at the FCA's website: www.fca.org.uk Brokers regulated by the FCA must comply with a strict set of obligations that are designed to protect clients. If you are unhappy with the service your broker has provided, you may be able to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

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(Visit: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk for further advice on how to make a complaint).

These obligations include providing a clear ‘demands and needs’ statement (not just a sentence), together with a summary of the policy cover, listing the important terms, conditions and limitations, prior to cover being arranged.

Does the broker have experience of the jewellery trade?

The jewellery industry is a highly specialist area as regards insurance so it is therefore sensible to ensure that you engage a broker who can demonstrate an appropriate level of experience. To establish this try asking the following questions: • What do you know about my industry?

Are you a jewellery trade specialist?

• If so, how long is your experience in servicing the jewellery trade?

• Aside from the FCA, are you a member of any other recognised industry body (i.e. Chartered Insurance Institute, British Insurance Brokers Association)?

• Do you place the insurance directly with an underwriter or do you send it to another specialist intermediary?

•

Do you understand the particular security issues and risks relevant to the jewellery trade and are you able to advise me on these matters in relation to my business?

• Can you offer advice on approved services that could assist me if/when I have to make a claim? For example if my premises is damaged following a robbery/fire/flood etc.

• Will you visit me at my premises in order to fully understand the needs of my business?

• Who will I deal with and will I be given a dedicated account handler who will know about me and my business?

Choose a broker that is willing to perform an advisory role or, at the very least, one whose approach to customer service tallies closely with your expectations. Taking time to gain a clear understanding as to what a broker can offer you (in comparison with what you actually expect) is a very good way of selecting the broker that will suit you.

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) maintains a register of brokers so it is worth visiting: www.biba.org.uk to check.

In addition, good insurance brokers will always be happy to give security advice to

Arranging suitable cover for the particular risks faced by the jewellery industry is an even more exacting task… their clients. One recommendation we always make is that our clients should actively participate in the SaferGems scheme. This successful initiative was developed by TH March in partnership with the NAG back in 2009 and we are proud of the positive impact it continues to make.

It is essentially an information exchange scheme and it helps jewellers and others in associated trades (who are clients of TH March, members of the NAG or the BJA) keep a finger on the pulse of what is happening in terms of criminals and the latest methods being used to target the industry. Visit: www.safergems.org.uk to find out more.

A broker’s Terms of Business will provide useful information about their services.

Are you an independent jeweller who is looking to build your business?

, We re here to help.

Become part of a dynamic co-operative that exists to help support independent jewellers.

The CMJ is much more than a buying group. It is an alliance of independent retail jewellers, who together and with the CMJ’s team of professional experts can provide support, advice and friendship.

The CMJ holds two trade shows every year along with training events and a business conference. The CMJ’s executive team can provide expert advice on all aspects of your business and our supportive network of retail members right across the UK and Ireland are here to help independent retail jewellers.

We are here to help. So why not find out how we can help you?

Find out more at masterjewellers.co.uk or by ringing the CMJ’s membership services manager Lucy Hill on 01788 540250.

| Business Support: Security

SaferGems update SaferGems, the initiative against crime in the jewellery, pawnbroking and antiques industry, continues to prove its worth, as Lee Henderson reports.

collaboration between the NAG and insurance brokers TH March, SaferGems was launched in June 2009, following concern about the increase in crime committed against the jewellery industry.

It works to collate attacks, incidents and intelligence in relation to jewellery crime around the UK. And the formula is working.

As of the beginning of September 2013 the initiative has recorded 470 suspicious incidents and attacks/attempts reported by both the jewellery industry and police, which is an average of almost 60 reports a month.

To date SaferGems has recorded 111 robberies and smash and grab raids across the UK with approximately £12 million worth of goods stolen. And while the Metropolitan, Greater Manchester and West Midlands police force areas remain the hot spot regions, the North East in particular has seen a significant increase since May. It can also be noted that we have seen robberies in other areas of the country which have not previously been subject to attacks. As might be predicted high-end watches remain the most sought-after items, with approximately £5 million stolen this year.

As has been mentioned in previous reports, following the arrest and convictions of a team of Eastern European criminals by the

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54 The Jeweller October 2013

Metropolitan Police, we have seen a decrease in robberies against Asian jewellers. However, there appears to be an increase in mainland Europe which may indicate a displacement of offenders from the UK. As a possible example of this displacement during April there were three reported armed robberies in the Zurich, Crans and Lucerne regions of Switzerland, all believed to have been committed by persons of Eastern European origin.

On 10th June 2013 a man wearing a distinctive hat approached an Asian jewellery store in Brussels, Belgium, and pressed the security buzzer to gain entry. Once the door was opened a number of other robbers stormed inside and smashed display cabinets, removing five kilos of 24ct Asian gold to the value of 100,000 Euros. It is understood that Romanian men in their early twenties were arrested. An armed robbery in the Porthcawl area of South Wales in July has been linked to three men from Latvia and Lithuania.

The possible re-emergence of organised South American gangs who target and rob jewellery couriers is also of concern… not just in the UK but across the world. On 22nd August this year a diamond dealer was robbed by persons of South American appearance in Hatton Garden. The offenders distracted the merchant by placing tacks

underneath his tyre, making him believe he may have a puncture. A third person then removed the range off the back seat of his car; a technique which is very much a South American style. The South Americans are predominantly Colombian nationals who enter the UK on Venezuelan or Mexican passports.

These organised gangs are also believed responsible for recent similar style attacks on jewellery merchants in the UAE and Australia. On Friday 9th August 2013 one Ricardo Fajardo Guerrero from Colombia was jailed for five and a half years for stealing almost £450,000 of jewellery from two merchants in London between November and December 2012.

In addition to such criminal activity, reports of fraud from our members continue at a worrying pace, with courier fraud in particular being highlighted by both the police and Action Fraud. Jewellers are being contacted by criminals who are using stolen or cloned credit cards to obtain high value goods; again watches seem to be the item of choice. The perpetrators request that the items be delivered to a specific address.

The problem that arises is that the delivery address nearly always matches the credit card details, which makes us believe that the credit cards are possibly being stolen or intercepted in the postal system. When the items are distributed by either courier or via postal service, the criminals are intercepting the goods on delivery. Exacerbating the crime is the fact that this fraud is usually only highlighted some weeks later when the transaction is rejected.

This method of fraud is very difficult to deter and unfortunately there is no ‘silver bullet’ answer. We can only advise SaferGems members to be cautious and vigilant when dealing with such transactions.

Some members have directed potential fraudsters to their websites where the payments are more secure.

For more information about SaferGems, please visit: www.safergems.org.uk

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| Regular

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Last Word Lilian Lousky is a director and the designer of crystal and magnetite jewellery concept brand Tresor Paris, whose family-run parent company – Hasbani – has been a major player in the diamond business for almost 50 years. Lousky plays a part in every aspect of Hatton Garden-based Tresor Paris, which was launched in 2010, and works alongside her brother Salim Hasbani and husband Maurice Lousky.

Who has been the biggest influence in your life?

I would say my family is the biggest influence because of the way I have been brought up and taught that you can achieve anything.

Also the fact that I come from a different cultural background has taught me to be a strong person able to adapt and cope with anything that comes my way.

Looking back at your career, what one thing would you do differently if you had your time over?

I am fortunate to be able to say that I would not change anything. I have loved and enjoyed everything I do from creating a brand that is so loved and admired worldwide, to meeting a wide variety of clients and celebrities. It has also been very rewarding being in my position and being able to help charities by giving something back to people who need it.

What three words describe you best… in your view and according to others?

In my view I would say I am hard-working, creative and determined. In the view of others I am told that I am sociable, caring and bossy!

If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the jewellery industry what would it be?

If I had a magic wand I would make a few people disappear! On a serious note, I think

58 The Jeweller October 2013

the industry needs to be free from all the copycats who take credit for other people’s hard work. As flattering as it is to have Tresor Paris copied I do have concerns regarding the materials used in all the counterfeits of my brand and others.

If not the jewellery industry, what might your alternative career have been?

I would have done something with biology or genetics because I find it fascinating how you inherit your appearance and traits and to be able to use that to manage inherited diseases.

Do you Tweet?

Tresor Paris tweets all the time!

Tell us something not many people know about you…

When I was younger I studied optometry, hence the eye for fine jewellery…

Favourite shopping destination?

It has to be Paris because I think it is elegant and chic and I like to buy things that are different to what is available locally.

The last film you saw at the cinema?

I last went to the cinema with my husband and children to see The Internship.

Worryingly my children thought that my husband and I were ancient, and thought it was funny how all the guys working at Google were teenagers like them and who are more clever than the parents!

What’s your guiltiest pleasure?

I know I am going to sound old and boring but it has to be a cappuccino and croissant… maybe a few times a day!

What keeps you awake at night?

Nothing as I always get into bed too late but if I start something I am not able to sleep until I finish it.

Quick Fire • Cats or dogs? Neither • White or yellow metal? White • TV or radio? Radio • Jewellery on men? Yes • Delegator or control freak? Both • Beatles or Rolling Stones? Beatles • Paperback or e-reader? Paperback

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