Moira Jewels at the LAPADA Art and Antiques Fair

Good morning dearest!  We are back at the LAPADA fair in Berkeley Square from the other week, and today we are admiring the collection of Moira Jewels:

A few beauties from Moira’s collection: a pair of aquamarine and diamond earrings, and a black opal ring with diamonds

I have been told by quite a few people to look closer at the pieces that belong to Moira’s collection, as they are some of the finest antique and vintage jewels around.  Above is a pair of aquamarine and diamond earrings – pretty sure I can hear a few of you swoon!

A few dress rings (also called cocktail rings) from Moira.  I adore the opal at the front here with its soft colours

I obviously have the privilege of looking at Moira’s pieces to my heart’s content, as they have their collection on display at Richard Ogden in the Burlington Arcade!  Their pieces span across the 20th century and you will find signed originals from the finest design houses, covering the art deco period – and continuing on to 1940s gold work and the modernist creations of the 1950s to the 1980s.

Vintage diamond watches from Moira Jewels

… and if you are anything like me, then these Art Deco diamond watches will make your heart beat just a little bit faster!  Oh can you imagine wearing one of these to that birthday party, or to those drinks at the weekend?  As soon as I wear a special piece of jewellery, I get so much more inspired to get dressed up and match it with a lovely dress.  I do think that we have moved away a little bit too much from the times when we would often wear our finest, so let’s just bring that back, shall we?  I am doing a proper summer to winter-wardrobe revamp this week and I will make sure to keep some glorious dresses out to stay inspired to wear them!

 Diamond tiaras from Moira Jewels

And these diamond tiaras were just too pretty you guys!!  Here in the UK (since I know that you lovely readers are based around the world) it is quite common for the bride to wear a tiara, and so it is just wonderful when these lovely ladies come into the shop and try on our collection of vintage and antique tiaras!  I would love to hear whether you would choose to wear a tiara or a veil or flowers or just a gorgeous hairdo at your wedding?

I will write a longer post on Moira Jewels soon and bring you some more photos of these heavenly pieces, and now I would like to wish you a lovely rest of the day!

 

A Star Ruby Romance

I came across a Star Ruby in the shop the other day and it was so beautiful that immediately started my research to be able to show you what it looks like:

A star ruby and diamond cluster ring at Richard Ogden in Burlington Arcade

A Star Ruby is a type of ruby that shows a star-like phenomenon known as asterism.  The word “Asterism” is derived from the Greek word “aster”, which means star, so asterism is often referred to as “star” or “star-effect”.  The six-rayed star pattern that you can see in the gemstone is caused by needle-like inclusions that cross each other’s paths when they follow the underlying crystal structure.  Star rubies tend to be cut in cabochon style – like a dome – so that the centre of the star resides at the top of the dome.

You can see the star ruby to the top right here, and I took this photo so that you can see what it looks like when the star isn’t centred 

The placement of the star in the gemstone depends on the angle that you view it from, and in the photo above you can see an example of the star not being centred (the ring to the top right).  Out of every 100 mined corundom (rubies and sapphires) only three will show this star pattern – and only one out of these three will have a good star and good colour!  What really confused me with this particular star ruby was the colour, as I thought that it was a star sapphire (assuming that rubies are red sapphires and any other colour would be a sapphire!).  However, we get pinkish-red, purplish-red or purplish-brown rubies, and the one here is obviously a purplish-red one.

Purple Star Ruby and Diamond Cluster Ring at Richard Ogden

This beautiful star ruby is surrounded by diamonds in a classic Cluster Ring-setting and if you love it lots and lots you can buy it at Richard Ogden in Burlington Arcade for £4200 – and you can see it on their website here.

A Trifari Vintage Treasure

Good morning my lovely, I hope you had a nice weekend!  Mine was just wonderful as I was out in the countryside and it turned out that the monthly Village Antique Fair was on, which I decided to pop by early on Sunday morning.  I spent over an hour browsing through everything from old clocks and watches to photographs from the 19th century (when people would only have their photo taken once in their lifetime, so you can imagine what a big day it was and how important it was to wear their very finest clothes and jewellery!), loads of jewellery and other objets d’art.

Vintage Trifari necklace – not in its original box

I soon stopped by one of my favourite jewellery stands, where I was shown this gold coloured vintage Trifari necklace, covered in rhinestones.  It had the Trifari hallmark on the clasp and I believe that it is from the 50s or 60s.  It is always so lovely to see pieces in perfect condition, with all the design features intact for us to admire.

A closer look at the Trifari necklace

I know that I have mentioned Trifari before, and I thought that the necklace gives us the perfect excuse to look at the history of this famous jewellery company:

Trifari was founded in New York in 1925 by Gustavo Trifari, Leo F Krussman and Carl M Fishel in New York.  Gustavo Trifari came from Naples, where he had been trained by his grandfather in his little goldsmith workshop.  When he moved to New York in 1902 he initially worked for a company called Weinberg and Sudzen, and after ten years his started his own company together with Leo F Krussman, and simply decided to call it Trifari and Krussman.  

In 1925 Carl Fishel joined and this is by many seen as the start of the company, but others only consider the firm to have been complete in 1930, when Alfred Philippe became the head designer.  Philippe produced some of the company’s most recognisable pieces, and with a background designing high end jewellery for companies like Cartier and Van Cleef & Arples you can understand what an air of elegance and luxury he would have added to the designs.

Despite the rationing during the war, Trifari flourished and produced some of their finest pieces, which is quite remarkable since so many other companies drew their last breaths during these difficult years.  Gustavo Trifari passed away in 1952 and Krussman and Fishel continued without him until 1964 when their sons took over the business, and continued to run it for many years to come.

A sparkling Christmas party at Grays Antique Centre II

In this last post before Christmas we are visiting DB Gems at Grays Antique Centre, where I was mesmerised by this late 19th century diamond tiara:

Late 18th Century tiara with rose cut diamonds at DBGems, Grays Antique Market

The centre stone is a Rose Cut Diamond, and this sounds so alluring that I just had to find out more:

The Rose Cut dates all the way back to the early 1500s (1) and was a very popular choice of diamond cut during the Georgian and Victorian eras (2).  However, as cutting technology developed the Brilliant Cut became the popular choice in diamonds, as it provided more sparkle in candle light and so the rose cut fell out of fashion for a while.  It did however regain popularity soon again and has remained a treasured choice in engagement rings until this very day.

A rose cut diamond as the centre stone

You might notice in the photo above that the centre diamond is raised above the others?  A rose cut stone is cut to resemble the spiralling petals of a rose, so it features a flat bottom and a dome-shaped crown.  It can have anything from 3 to 24 facets, which are the flat areas on the stone that allows it to reflect light and dazzle us!

Vintage cufflinks at DBGems, Grays Antique Market

I was also delighted to see the amazing collection of cufflinks at DB Gems, that will make the perfect Christmas presents for the gentleman in your life who has everything!

Antique diamond rings at DBGems, Grays Antique Market (please forgive the reflection in the photo!)

I also spent a looong time admiring their necklaces and diamond rings.  We can also glimpse some sapphires and rubies in the photo above, just in case anyone is after a wedding present for their loved one for example..?

Grays Antique Centre, 7 Davies Mews, London, W1K 5AB 

A huge thank you to Grays for having us over!  Hopefully you will get a chance to pop by there during Christmas as it really is a wonderland of beautiful jewellery and works of art.

Sources:

(1) Tracy Matthews

(2) Brilliant Earth

A sparkling Christmas party at Grays Antique Centre

We received a lovely invitation to a Christmas party at Grays Antique Centre last week, which really put the sparkle into this year’s Christmas!

Grays Antique Centre in Mayfair

Grays Antique Centre is based in Mayfair, just by Bond Street tube station and with Christmas coming up it is such a wonderful place to find some very special presents for your loved ones.  You can get everything from very high-end pieces of jewellery (diamonds, emeralds, amethysts etc) to very reasonably priced costume jewellery – from all the glorious decades gone by!

Any favourites?

I stopped by Westleigh Antiques and had a lovely chat with the trader there – and I just couldn’t take my eyes off the most stunning pieces antique and antique-style jewellery!  I was especially delighted to see the most glorious cocktail rings shimmering and sparkling back at me:

30 karat Aquamarine cocktail ring at Westleigh Antiques, Grays Antique Centre

Diamond and pearl cocktail ring at Westleigh Antiques, Grays Antique Centre

Chandelier Diamond Earrings at Westleigh Antiques

The Haywood Sisters at Grays Antique Centre

We also had the pleasure of seeing the Haywood Sisters performing Christmas songs for us.  This lovely vocal trio were styled top to toe in vintage and brought a wonderful touch of glamour and sparkle to the evening.  With backgrounds in West End musicals and other high-end performances they are the perfect addition to a wide range of events, so do check out their beautiful singing here: The Haywood Sisters.

John Joseph at Grays Antique Market Christmas Party

We have seen a few pieces from John Joseph before and I couldn’t resist the temptation of photographing their vintage and antique engagement collection:

Antique Engagement Rings at John Joseph, Grays Antique Centre

They also do the most beautiful cocktail rings with all the precious gemstones you could ever dream of:

Sapphires and emeralds at John Joseph Antiques

We still have a few dealers to visit so stay tuned and I will take you along to see some heavenly antique lace, a late 19th century tiara and some very handsome cuff links – the perfect present for the gentleman that has everything!