It’s A Jewel!

After a couple of weeks dwelling in the rainbow land of gemstones, we’re finally coming to their primary use - Jewels!

Before we get to the pretties, I’m going to spend a few minutes on precious metals. You’re not the only one who knows that 18k gold is more expensive than 14k gold, but you may not be quite sure how it all works. And, by the way, what makes yellow gold yellow, white gold white, or rose gold rose? Oh yeah, and what’s the difference between silver and sterling silver?

I knew that Karat (also Carat) is a measure of gold content, but I didn’t know exactly what a karat is, so I did a little research and came up with a page of mathematics, so let’s just accept a karat as a unit of measurement, OK?

Pure gold is 24k (karat). It’s very soft, easily scratched and bent, so it is alloyed with other metals, typically silver and copper, to strengthen it. So, breaking down 24k into 24 parts we get:

18k gold is 18 parts pure gold and 6 parts alloying material

14k gold is 14 parts pure gold and 10 parts alloying material

10k gold is 10 parts pure gold and 14 parts alloying material

Yellow Gold is usually alloyed with silver and copper 

White Gold Is usually alloyed with nickel and/or palladium

Rose gold is always alloyed with copper.

What about Silver? Pure silver is referred to as 99.9 fine. Like gold, pure silver is soft and malleable, easily bent and scratched, More than five hundred years ago, the British developed a standardized alloy of 92.5% silver to 7.5% other metals, typically copper, to create Sterling Silver. If something is just called “Silver” beware, it could mean anything. If you want good silver, pure silver is always referred to as 99.9 fine and Sterling Silver must be 92.5% pure silver to be called sterling.

One thing troubled me. If pure gold is a soft metal and pure silver is a soft metal and copper and silver are soft metals, how is it that when you combine them in an alloy, you get a stronger metal?

So, I did a little research and learned more about metallurgy than I ever wanted to know. I found out that it has to do with what happens to molecular structures when you combine them. Sometimes they get stronger. I’m sure that’s as much as you want to know about that subject.

Finally, Platinum is a white precious metal that is very strong on its own. That’s why it is so often used in the most precious jewelry and as the setting “head” or” basket” to hold the central stone in a piece of jewelry that is otherwise gold, such as a diamond engagement ring.

And now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for  - Jewels or Jewelry.

Many people think of jewels as trinkets, objects of frivolousness and vanity. There may be something to that point of view, but I reject it. Would you say that a fine painting is frivolous? Or music? Or dance?

There are those who believe that none of the arts is necessary to human life. And, from a totally pragmatic standpoint this is undeniably true. But, once safety, food and shelter have been secured, human beings seek life enrichment, beauty, grace and refinement.

Jewelry is an art, comparable to music and dance in its ancient, even prehistoric, associations.

Jewelry is art that people wear. High jewelry is high art that some people wear. But, like all art, you don’t have to own it to appreciate it. You don’t disparage the Mona Lisa because it isn’t hanging over your fireplace. You’re not indifferent to dance because you’re not a ballerina.

And again, like all art, what’s beautiful to some people is awful to others. Jewelry is subjective.

Many years ago, I read the story of “L’Affaire du Collier de la Reine” - The Affair of the Queen’s Necklace. This was a diamond necklace that helped bring down the French Monarchy.

It was made for Madam Du Barry, mistress to King Louis XV. It was enormously expensive and it took years to assemble the diamonds and fabricate the piece. By the time it was finished, Louis XV had died of smallpox and Madam Du Barry had been banished to the provinces.

The Royal Jewelers, Charles Auguste Boehmer and Paul Bassage, were bankrupt. They set about trying to recoup their losses by attempting to sell the necklace to the new King, Louis XVI and his Queen, Marie Antoinette. In part, because of its provenance, the new queen rejected it.

But, as court jewelers, Boehmer and Bassage were not without connections and influence. There followed several years of palace intrigue that spilled into the public square.

Marie Antoinette had never wanted the necklace and, in fact, never owned it.  But gossip led the people to believe that she had schemed to acquire it, spending millions of livres (pounds) on diamonds while the people starved. Finally, it utterly ruined her already shaky reputation, providing a focus for popular fury that contributed, in no small part, to the French Revolution and the fall of the French monarchy.

Not too long ago, I actually saw a picture of this famous necklace. In my opinion it was hideous! —overwrought and garish. Now, that judgment may be the product of contemporary taste, but remember, Marie Antoinette didn’t like it either.

So it is with all jewelry, particularly so called “High Jewelry”. Much of it is made by famous jewelers, either by commission or for promotion. To my eye, some of it is just this side of hysterical. But many people might look at it and see a dream come true. And again, like an oil painting, its beauty resides in the eye of the beholder.

For myself, the “dream come true” would be a large (20 carats or more) natural ruby suspended from a 30 inch chain of quarter carat diamonds. Oh yeah, and earrings.

When do you wear High Jewelry?

Since High Jewelry is, almost by definition, either very elaborate or impressively large, or both, you’d wear it for formal affairs or for “cocktails,” which is a kind of dressy party or what has come to mean the kind of clothing you wear to a dressy party - basically a street-length gown.

There is a British Duchess who is famous for wearing her high jewelry with jeans and sweatshirts, but I’m pretty sure her look isn’t going to be taken up by a broad swath of high jewelry owners. For one thing, swinging down the street in a million dollars worth of swag is just begging to be mugged. Most people who wear high jewelry are never more than ten feet from a secure door.

Fine Jewelry and its uses.

Now we come to the kind of jewelry that most of us own. It’s made from 14k or 18k gold or lavish sterling silver and may or may not be set with semi-precious gemstones and/or small diamonds.

You’ll wear your fine jewelry for formal occasions, cocktails, or any other time you’re dressed up. You may also have a fine pendant, ring or bracelet that has become a “signature piece” that you wear all of the time. This is a matter of personal style and not subject to anyone else’s opinion.

A rule of thumb for wearing your good jewelry is that you can wear all gold and silver jewelry, beads, pearls and cabochon gemstones after 12 Noon and reserve faceted gemstone jewelry for after 5 PM. 

Rings (and brooches if you wear them) are the exception here. You can wear most faceted gemstone rings any time. Use a little discretion here, though. If you have a fabulous “cocktail ring” save it for cocktails or later.

Fashion Jewelry. 

Guidance for fabulous fakes is the same as for the real thing unless you want to have a little fun and pile it on for a statement look. I’ve done this once in a while and enjoyed it.

The most important thing about jewelry is that it’s meant to be worn and enjoyed. It’s no good to anyone just sitting in a box.

Next week: Don’t Be A Fashion Vic

- Gabrielle