Loose Diamonds

The Affair of the Necklace is a 2001 film directed by Charles Shyer and starring Hilary Swank, Simon Shackleton, Jonathan Pryce, Simon Baker, Adrien Brody, and Joely Richardson.
A lavish costume drama based on the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, a scandal in the final days of the French monarchy, when Queen Marie Antoinette’s reputation was trashed by a confidence trickster, who absconded with a lavish diamond necklace that she had purchased using the Queen’s name but without her knowledge.
Richardson expressed sympathy with Marie Antoinette’s undeserved fate, something which she tried to convey in the film.

Marie Antoinette

Necklace from the De Beers High-Jewelry collection.Exclusive pendant necklace designed in platinum featuring over 181 carats of mixed cut white and exceptional fancy colored diamonds.

***

Both men and women have worn necklaces in history since ages.

Gone are the days when men used to flaunt their status and wealth by the ornaments they wore. But still, possessing a diamond necklace is something, which all women crave throughout their lives.

Those who are already the proud owners of a diamond necklace, this unique and special Marie-Antoinette Diamond Necklace comes from De Beers to add on to their present collection.

But anyhow if you are the one who has just entered the age when a women begins the use of jewelry to adorn and make use of her wealth, then this diamond necklace from De Beers would be an excellent to start on with your collection.

The necklace is designed in platinum, with over 181 carats of mixed cut white and exceptional fancy colored diamonds. Wearing this beautiful, elegant and vibrant necklace would undoubtedly set all eyes only on you in the crowd.

The Affair of the Diamond Necklace was a mysterious incident in the 1780s at the court of Louis XVI of France involving the queen Marie Antoinette.

It concerned an unsavoury episode in which the wife of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, whose reputation was already tarnished by gossip and scandal, was implicated in a crime by contemporary public opinion. The Affair was historically significant as one of the events that led to the French populace’s disillusionment with the monarchy, which, among other causes, eventually culminated in the French Revolution.

In the world of the rich and the famous to grab the news headlines apart from other things means displaying their wealth and for the wealthy Hollywood actresses, nothing can be as special as showcasing their jewellery on the Oscar night.

On this D-day, perhaps the extravagant sartorial and jewelry display is the real contest among the big names in the acting world.

Nicole Kidman might not have won any award in this year’s Oscar but her astronomically priced L’Wren Scott necklace managed to catch the limelight.

The necklace is studded with 7645 pieces of rough, faceted and polished diamonds. While the real thing can only be afforded by Kidman, her fans can try an imitation piece.
Source: Eye 4 Style

***

Nice necklace and a great way of marketing low quality diamonds that would normally look like crap on their own.
Hooorooo from De Guru

***

Diamond Imports

Diamonds - Custom Designed Diamond Jewellery

Alexandra Jaffray, a Christie’s employee, holds a 101.27 carat diamond during a photo call at Christie’s in London on Feb. 19, 2008. Photographer: Suzanne Plunkett/Bloomberg News

By Le-Min Lim and Scott Reyburn
Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) — A 101-carat, near-flawless diamond may fetch more than $8 million at a Christie’s International sale in Hong Kong, the first time a gem of this quality and weight is auctioned in Asia, according to the London-based company.

The squash-ball sized stone, highlight of Christie’s jewelry sale on May 28, has the third-highest clarity rating of VVS1 and the third-best ranking on a scale used to measure colorlessness. Colored diamonds are graded on a different scale.

Christie’s only identifies the seller as a Europe-based diamond trading company run by three brothers. The auction house said the stone had been discovered at the Premier diamond mine in South Africa, the largest and oldest diamond mine in the country.

Hong Kong is Christie’s third-biggest auction market after New York and London. Growth in Asia outside Japan is accelerating, fueled by China’s 10 percent-a-year expansion, as the U.S. economy stalls.

“The seller called us up in Asia and specifically said they want the gem sold in this region,” said Vicki Sek, a Hong Kong- based director of jewelry at Christie’s. The buyer gets the right to name the stone, Christie’s said.

The colorless diamond is the fourth of more than 100 carats offered at auction, according to Francois Curiel, the company’s global head of jewelry. The last three were in Geneva, he said.

Two Decades

Cut from a 460-carat rough stone, the gem is now on exhibition in London and is also the biggest white diamond at auction in nearly two decades, Christie’s said. In 2005, the auction house sold a 120-carat brown diamond of lower clarity in Hong Kong. A carat is one-fifth of a gram.

In October, Christie’s largest rival Sotheby’s sold a flawless, 6.04-carat blue diamond in Hong Kong for HK$61.9 million ($7.9 million), a per-carat record for a gem.

” The market for big diamonds has gone up 20 percent in the last 18 months,” Raymond Sancroft-Baker, Christie’s European director of jewelry, said today when the stone was unveiled to the press in London. ” Diamonds are getting rarer.”

Sancroft-Baker said companies were no longer holding large diamond stockpiles and fewer stones were being dug out of the earth. He said that only one or two 100-carat diamonds were found per year.

During the London photo call the diamond slipped from the grasp of Christie’s black-dressed staff-member Alexandra Jaffray and fell to the thickly carpeted floor.

” Lucky that didn’t hit a chair,” said a relieved Sancroft- Baker. ” Diamond is the hardest substance in the world, but it can chip.”

The record for any gemstone sold at auction is the $16.5 million with fees paid for the 100.1-carat ” Star of the Season ” pear-shaped colorless diamond at Sotheby’s, Geneva in May, 1995.

***

RAPAPORT… Christie’s Magnificent Jewellery and Jadeite Jewellery sale in Hong Kong will feature a rare 101.27 carat diamond on May 28. The auction house claims that this diamond is the largest colorless diamond to appear on the auction circuit in 18 years.

The pre-sale estimate is about $6 million. “Only three colorless diamonds of over 100 carats have ever appeared at auction, all sold in Geneva,” said Francois Curiel, Christie’s chairman of jewelry.

“With Asia becoming such a vibrant market, it is fitting that this rarest gem should be offered on May 28th to the growing number of collectors in this region.” The stone, which will be named by the buyer, will be unveiled as part of Christie’s Spring Masterpieces Exhibition in London next week.

The diamond was cut from a 460 carat rough to its present size. The auction house described it as an unusual shape which “flaunts 92 brilliant facets.” The stone has been certified as an F, VVS1 “with the highest standard for polish and symmetry,” both rated Excellent by the Gemological Institute of America. “As auction leaders in Asia, we hold many records in the jewelry field, but never before were we able to offer such an important stone in Hong Kong,” said Vickie Sek, director of the jewelry and jadeite department at Christie’s Asia. “Its appearance on the market has already created a sensation.” (Rapaport)

Subscribe in a reader

“It is better to be envied than to be pitied.”

-Herodotus

While it’s not unusual to see Paris Hilton out working the party circuit, rarely do we see her so dolled up.

The occasion?

She is promoting her new movie called The Hottie and the Nottie. Paris is determined to make a name for herself in legitimate films, though it doesn’t seem like this story line is much of a stretch. In the film, Paris plays a ‘gorgeous girl’ who has vowed not to date until her unattractive best friend (Christine Lakin) also finds a man.

That would make Paris the hottie, of course.

[ Diamond Guru: Very admirable but the Guru still thinks Paris' first home movie was her best Hubba Hubba ]

Pictured here, Paris is attending the films after party, following the Hollywood premiere.

Since a hottie would not dare show up to two events in the same evening in the SAME ensemble, Paris managed to change her clothes somewhere between the theatre and the party.

Here at the party, Paris appears to be channeling her inner Marilyn Monroe in a pink Dolce & Gabba evening gown.

She is also wearing some substantial diamond jewelry.

In this case, it would seem that diamonds are a Hilton girl’s best friend!

While it’s unknown whose elaborate sparkling jewels she is wearing, Paris Hilton does appear to be wearing a timepiece from her own collection.

The Paris Hilton Limited Edition Watch collection feature approximately 1000 diamonds or roughly 9 carats, have five time zones and are set in 18k white gold. You can chose from intense pink, yellow or white diamonds faces.

Paris appears to be wearing a white diamond face, on a white diamond bracelet. With a starting price of $100,000 for a timepiece on a leather strap, we hope her fans have a big budget.

Source: Vialuxe

Subscribe in a reader

Hitting the spot
Jan 17th 2008
From The Economist print edition

People do not just say they enjoy expensive things more than cheap ones. They actually do enjoy them more

EVERYONE loves a bargain. But retailers know that people will sometimes turn their noses up at a cheap version of a more expensive item, even if the two are essentially the same. That suggests something is at work in the mind of the consumer beyond simple appreciation of a product’s intrinsic qualities.

The something in question is expectation, according to research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Antonio Rangel of the California Institute of Technology. Dr Rangel and his colleagues found that if people are told a wine is expensive while they are drinking it, they really do think it tastes nicer than a cheap one, rather than merely saying that they do.

Dr Rangel came to this conclusion by scanning the brains of 20 volunteers while giving them sips of wine. He used a trick called functional magnetic-resonance imaging, which can detect changes in the blood flow in parts of the brain that correspond to increased mental activity. He looked in particular at the activity of the medial orbitofrontal cortex. This is an area of the brain that previous experiments have shown is responsible for registering pleasant experiences.

Dr Rangel gave his volunteers sips of what he said were five different wines made from cabernet sauvignon grapes, priced at between $5 and $90 a bottle. He told each of them the price of the wine in question as he did so. Except, of course, that he was fibbing. He actually used only three wines. He served up two of them twice at different prices.

What is truth?

The scanner showed that the activity of the medial orbitofrontal cortices of the volunteers increased in line with the stated price of the wine. For example, when one of the wines was said to cost $10 a bottle it was rated less than half as good as when people were told it cost $90 a bottle, its true retail price. Moreover, when the team carried out a follow-up blind tasting without price information they got different results. The volunteers reported differences between the three “real” wines but not between the same wines when served twice.

Nor was the effect confined to everyday drinkers. When Dr Rangel repeated the experiment on members of the Stanford University wine club he got similar results. All of which raises the question of what is going on.

There are at least two possibilities. The point of learning is to improve an individual’s chances of surviving and reproducing: if the experience and opinions of others can be harnessed to that end, so much the better. Dr Rangel suspects that what he has found is a mechanism for learning quickly what has helped others in the past, and thus for allowing choices about what is nice and what is nasty to be made speedily and efficiently. In modern society, price is probably a good proxy for such collective wisdom.

However, goods can be desirable for a reason other than survival value. Many of the things for which high price is an enhancement are purchased in order to show off, as any male confronted with the wine list in a fancy restaurant knows. Indeed, conspicuous consumption and waste are an important part of social display. Deployed properly, they bring the rewards of status and better mating opportunities. For this to work, though, it helps if the displaying individual really believes that what he is buying is not only more expensive than the alternative, but better, too. Truly enjoying something simply because it is exclusive thus makes evolutionary sense.

Besides its role in giving cachet to wine, this may be the explanation for the sort of modern art that leaves the man in the street cold. Art collecting is a high-status activity par excellence. Many lowlier mortals regard it as pretentious. If Dr Rangel is right, though, pretence may not be the true explanation. The collector who has paid millions for a plain-coloured canvas or a pickled sheep probably really does think it is beautiful.

Whichever explanation is correct (and both might be), Dr Rangel’s research also has implications for retailers, marketing firms and luxury-goods producers. It suggests that a successful marketing campaign can not only make people more interested in a product, but also, truly, make them enjoy it more.

***

Diamonds of Excellence

Kiss Her With a Diamond

Subscribe in a reader

What is white gold?
White gold is an alloy that comprises of Fine Gold with other precious and base metals. As Fine Gold is a yellow metal, other alloys must be added to ‘bleach’ the metal to a relatively white or steelish colour. Palladium, Silver, Platinum and Nickel are the most commonly used metals added to Fine Gold to in order to produce white gold. By adding these alloys to Fine Gold the resulting alloy reflects more white light than yellow light.

As Nickel can sometimes cause an allergic reaction in people with sensitive skin, it is not recommended as a whitening agent in white gold jewellery. For this reason at Diamond Imports white gold jewellery products are produced using Palladium as the major bleaching agent.

The colour of white gold can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer due to a wide variety of white gold alloys. To keep the white colour consistent and bright, white gold jewellery is mostly rhodium plated. However, current international trends suggest that colour variations in white gold may be acceptable even desirable for some jewellery products. It is up to the individual manufacturer to consider the design objectives and the needs of the customer when making the decision to rhodium plate or maintain the natural state of the alloy.

What is rhodium plating?
Rhodium is an elemental metal, from the Platinum group of metals. It is a non-tarnishing metal, which is very white and hard. Rhodium plating is used to give a consistent and bright white colour to white gold jewellery. Rhodium plating may also be used on yellow or pink gold products to colour a specific area of product white.

Maintenance of white gold jewellery?
White gold jewellery may be cared for in the same way as yellow gold.
As most white gold products have been rhodium plated, it is important to note that rhodium plating is not a permanent plating, it will fade or wear over time. As it wears, the original colour of the metal beneath will show through. The length of time rhodium plating will last on a piece of jewellery depends on the individual wearer. Some people may find that the plating wears quite rapidly, while others will find that the colour lasts for a long period. In order to maintain the bright white colour, jewellery may be re-rhodium plated by a jeweller, as often as desired.

What kind of jewellery is white gold suitable for?
White gold is currently being used to produce all kinds of jewellery, including rings, chains, bracelets and earrings. Primarily white gold is used to compliment gemstones in a setting, particularly diamonds. Light reflected through the pavilion of a diamond set in white gold enhances the stone’s brilliance. Also, setting diamonds in white gold makes the setting area more a design feature.

What is the difference between white gold and platinum?
Platinum is a naturally occurring white metal whereas white gold is created by combining fine gold (which is yellow in colour) with other alloys to bleach the colour to white. As platinum is pure, it will maintain it’s naturally bright white colour, and does not need to be rhodium plated.
Platinum jewellery contains more fine metal than carat gold jewellery. Most platinum jewellery is 85%, 90%, 95% or 96% pure, (Diamond Imports platinum products are 95% or 96%) compared to 18-carat gold jewellery, which is 75% pure.

The purity of platinum makes it hypo-allergenic and tarnish resistant.

Platinum is even more rare than gold. In fact, 50 tons of ore is required to produce just 50 grams of platinum. Platinum is a greyish-white metal that is malleable yet, like gold, is resistant to attack by air, moisture, and most solutions. Its melting point is even higher than gold, at just over 3,000°F. It ranks 72 in abundance among the elements.
Platinum is generally alloyed with gold when used in jewellery.

Platinum is one of the heaviest and strongest metals in the world. Weighing 60% more than carat gold, platinum is extremely dense, and also very durable, making it ideal for jewellery that is to be worn everyday.

Diamond anniversary rings and diamond eternity rings are set with diamonds that encircle all or a large portion of the circumference of the ring. The anniversary or eternity ring is designed so it compliments the engagement and wedding ring to create a trilogy set of rings.

Diamonds - Diamond Imports