Glorious Gems from Burma

Oh I have been so envious of my colleague who is a gemstone specialist and has just returned from her trip to Burma!  She brought back these stunning star sapphires, spinels and garnets and we have been ooh’ing and aah’ing over them here in the shop for weeks now.  Burma is well known for its fine quality rubies and sapphires but it is less well known for being a source of spinel in a wide range of colours: red, pink, grey, blue and black.

Now, just on a note that in case you lose your heart to one of these gemstones, please know that they are all for sale, price on application as my colleague told me:

Grey Cushion Cut Spinel from Burma

On of my favourite colours in the whole wide world is taupe – you know that luscious blend of pink and grey that is set off so beautifully against white?  Well, seeing this grey coloured spinel definitely made me think of the colour taupe, but my colleague didn’t agree with me, so you can draw your own conclusions of the colour.  I think it was just divine, either way!  It also happens to be my favourite cut: cushion, so getting to see it at close up was just such a treat!

Pink Spinel from Burma

Pink Spinel from Burma

Then there was this lovely, bright pink spinel, again in a beautiful cushion cut.  The second photo is more true to the colour of the stone in real life, I am not sure how I managed to get it so intense in the top photos – sorry about that!

Spinels are very interesting gemstones and have been mistaken for rubies for centuries; it wasn’t until 1783 that spinels were officially differentiated from rubies.  In fact, the Queen has a spinel in her Imperial Crown, which for many years was thought to be a ruby and still bears the name Black Prince’s Ruby.  However, when it was tested it transpired that it was in fact a red spinel!   It weighs 170 carats and is set just above the Cullinan II diamond at the front of the crown.  Spinels have a hardness of 8, which makes them more durable than emeralds and consequently very wearable gemstones.

Star Sapphire from Burma

And then there was this star sapphire; another one of my favourite gemstones.  You might remember from the blog post A Star Ruby Romance that 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!

Grey Star Sapphire at Richard Ogden

Last but not least, there was this parti coloured star sapphire (top gem in the photo above), which means that part of it is one colour and part of it another, which you can see quite clearly in the photo above.

Which one is your favourite?

More Vintage Treasures from the Frock Me! Vintage Fashion Fair

Today I would like to take you through three exquisite stands of vintage fashion collections that I had the pleasure of visiting at the Frock Me! Vintage Fashion Fair:

Clifton Vintage Boutique at the Frock Me! Vintage Fashion Fair

We are starting out with Clifton Vintage Boutique “fine cloth is never out of fashion”.  

Beautiful colour palette at Clifton Vintage Boutique

I sometimes find myself inexplicably drawn to certain shops, and in this case I was able to pinpoint why quite quickly: the lovely lady who runs it says that she doesn’t really specialise in any certain eras, but rather buys things that she loves, and I believe that you are bound to get a beautiful collection if you do things that way!  Here the colour scale of white, cream, silver and gold (my very favourites) looked so enticing and alluring, and I just had to have a closer look:

Fabulous gold coloured pieces from Clifton Vintage Boutique 

Extraordinary antique ring from Clifton Vintage Boutique

This ring was just stunning!  I can’t for my life remember when it is from but the design is just spectacular, and I bet that you haven’t seen anything just like before.  Again, one of the most wonderful things about antique jewellery is that the pieces are unique as they are handmade and you won’t run into someone else wearing an exactly replica of your pieces!

The collection of Compact Queen, Deborah Bouain at the Frock Me! Vintage Fashion Fair 

I then met Deborah Bouain, Compact Queen, who has a beautiful collection of vintage accessories – jewellery, handbags, shoes etc – and also provides pieces for our very favourite Downton Abbey.  I wish I had had more time to spend looking through her collection, as there were some stunning pieces, like these two Dior handbags:

How much do we love!?  You can find such amazing bargains at vintage fairs…

Vintage handbags getting some TLC 

Some more beautiful accessories from Compact Queen, Deborah Bouain

And finally we have the lovely vintage jewellery collection from Louise Ferdinando at Ferdinando Jewels:

A lovely set of earrings and a necklace by Joseff

A close up of these beautiful earrings 

This necklace and the matching earrings are just divine, which is not surprising as they are by Joseff of Hollywood – the most renowned designer of on-screen jewellery during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

He supplied 90% of the jewellery in Hollywood movies during the 1930s and 40s, and his designs were worn by Marlene Dietrich (a Diamond and Sapphire Brooch in “Shanghai Express” – 1932), Vivien Leigh (an Amethyst, Diamond and Silver Necklace in “Gone With the Wind” – 1939) and Marilyn Monroe (a Gold and Pearl Earring and Necklace combination in “Some Like It Hot” – 1959), only to name a few. (1)

I am obviously hunting for lovely brooches this February, and Louise Ferdinando had a wonderful selection!

Aurora Borealis earrings from Ferdinando Jewels

Sometimes it can be hard to date a piece of jewellery, so I thought that we could use the earrings above to learn something new, so that we can figure out how old certain pieces are.

You can see that the top part of these gold coloured earrings feature a lovely reflection of a rainbow of colours: pink, blue, purple… In the early 1950s Swarovski were experimenting with coating their crystals with thin layers of metal to create brilliance and reflection, and in 1955 Manfred Swarovski had perfected it and created the beautiful Aurora Borealis stone.  He would work closely with Christian Dior and eventually they presented this rainbow stone to the world, which was named after the Northern Lights, that are also known as Aurora Borealis.

So if you find a piece of jewellery that features this lovely reflective look, then you will know that it dates back to 1955 at its earliest.  (2)

As always, if you see anything that you just love, do send me an email and I will put you in touch with these lovely vintage fashion experts!  info@decadesofelegance.com

Sources

(1) Joseff Jewellery

(2) eBay – Aurora Borealis

Citrine and Topaz – the November Birthstones

“Who first comes to this world below
With drear November’s fog and snow,
Should prize the topaz’s amber hue,
Emblem of friends and lovers true.”

Above is the November birthstone poem included in Tiffany & Co’s pamphlet from 1870, “of unknown author”.  So the traditional birthstone for November is the Topaz, however, the Citrine is considered November’s contemporary birthstone, as it is more reasonably priced and also more easily available than the topaz.

From Richard Ogden square cut topaz, by Hemmerle, Munich

The topaz was given its name by the Romans, who discovered the stone on a small island in the Red Sea called Topazos.  Just to make things a bit more confusing; they also found the citrine on this very island, and I can assure you that these two gemstones can be very difficult to tell apart!  As history would have it, the topaz spent the rest of its life getting confused and mixed up with other gemstones, and most often with the citrine, as the two stones are very similar in colour – their shape and form are however different and helps us to tell them apart.

Citrine Ring ca 1960/70s, Decades of Elegance

The topaz comes in a wide range of colours – pure topaz is colourless yet with the addition of for example chromium, we get red and pink hues.  The most sought after colour is a reddish orange one, called Imperial Topaz, which can resemble the exceptional Padparadscha sapphire that I have mentioned before, but that I am yet to write a blog post about.  Topaz can also be found in tones of green, blue, yellow and brown – and these have all been mistaken for various other gemstones through times.  As a result of all these misconceptions, the topaz has been assigned a world of different healing properties!  It is associated with constancy, loyalty, faithfulness and friendship, as the poem above so beautifully points out.  It is also believed to help with health problems, including curing fever, asthma and insomnia.  Topaz is today found in Brazil, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and China.

From Moira Jewels: citrine and tourmaline necklace, mounted in gold

The topaz was popular amongst the royals during the Middle Ages and in the 13th century it was believed that a falcon engraved into a topaz would help its wearer cultivate the goodwill of kings, princes and magnates (2).

From Moira Jewels: a pair of citrine and tourmaline cluster earrings, mounted in gold

The other birthstone for November, the citrine, is known as the “healing quartz”.  It is believed to support vitality and health while encouraging and guiding hope, energy and warmth within the wearer (3).  We can find the citrine in a wide range of colours; from pastel yellow to dark brownish orange and it is most frequently found in Brazil, Bolivia, and Spain.  There are so many wonderful things to say about the citrine, as it is known in crystal work as a success and prosperity stone – to the point that it is called the “Success Stone”! (4)

Sources:

(1) Birthday Gems

(2) EarthSky

(3) American Gem Society – Citrine 

(4) Crystal and Jewelry

Frock Me! Vintage Fashion Fair on Sunday 26th October 2014

Sunday 26th of October it is all happening folks!  FrockMe! Vintage Fashion Fair takes place at Chelsea Old Town Hall

It is that time of year again my dear, when Chelsea Old Town Hall gets filled to the brim with beautiful vintage jewellery, clothing, shoes and other accessories, because Frock Me! Vintage Fashion Fair is back!  Designer pieces, flapper dresses and hats will fight for your attention from the rails and shelves, and you will have over 50 stalls to visit.

Heavenly vintage accessories… 

Our very favourite Blackbird Tea Rooms from Brighton will of course be there to serve you piping hot tea with warm scones, jam and clotted cream, while you catch up with you girlfriends.  It obviously takes place in the middle of beautiful Chelsea, so you have the King’s Road just outside the doorstep, with more glorious shopping and lovely restaurants to enjoy.

We fell in love with the collection of flapper dresses from Pennies Vintage a few years ago… gosh, these would be suitable for any episode of Downton!

Oh I so wish I could go, but I will be out of town!!!  As you already know I am completely addicted to Mad Men, and the series has inspired me to look for a 1950s night dress – you know those ankle length ones that are all soft and flowy with beautiful detailing.  Believe me, there is nothing in contemporary fashion that even slightly resembles that, so I have been waiting for the right vintage fair to come up – and unfortunately I will be out of town this weekend, but I will make sure to go to the next one!

FrockMe! Vintage Fashion Fair at Chelsea Old Town Hall

Below are the details for the fair, and if you end up buying anything or just want to share some photos with us, do get in touch on info@decadesofelegance.com, as we would love to see it here on Decades of Elegance!

FrockMe! Vintage Fashion Fair

Sunday 26th October 2014

Chelsea Old Town Hall

King’s Road

SW3 5RR

Hatton Garden – London’s Jewellery Quarter

A cheeky visit to Hatten Garden last week – obviously wearing the vintage snake necklace!

When I first started writing this blog almost 2,5 years ago, one of the first things that I did was visit Hatton Garden, since I had heard that it was the centre of the UK diamond trade and the heart of London’s antique jewellery world.  The other week I popped by there for work, which obviously was a great excuse to take some photos for you:

Hatton Garden, Jewellery Centre of London

What I didn’t know the first time that I visited, was that the area surrounding Hatton Garden has been the centre of London’s jewellery trade since medieval times! (1)  In fact, the old City of London used to have specific quarters dedicated to various types of businesses, and the area around Hatton Garden sure hit the jackpot in my eyes, when it became a centre for jewellers and jewellery.  Hatton Garden is located very close to Chancery Lane, and you can also get there on foot from Holborn tube station.

Diamonds, diamonds everywhere!

The history of Hatton Garden dates back to the 15th century, when the Bishops of Ely in London lived in Ely Place in Holborn.  One of Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite courtiers, Sir Christopher Hatton, built Holdenby Palace, one of the largest palaces in the Tudor period (1485-1603), in 1583 as an honour to the Queen.  She was mighty delighted about this and told the Bishop of Ely that he simply must rent a portion of his land to Hatton – although some say that the Queen actually granted Hatton the Bishop’s house, much to the Bishop’s displeasure!  Hatton went on to (in a very humble way..!) renaming the Garden in the area after himself, and so Hatton Garden was born! (2)

Hatton Garden

Clerkenwell was at the time well known for watches and jewellery, but once the roads improved around Hatton Garden, craftsmen from Clerkenwell started populating this part of town as well.  Gold and platinum were trades of the street and Hatton Garden became known as a cutting centre for Indian diamonds; and once the Kimberley Diamond Rush of South Africa took place in the late 19th century, South African diamonds also found their way to Hatton Garden. (2)

Who knows, maybe some of these diamonds were cut a long time ago in Hatton Garden?  These beauties are from the exquisite collection of Moira Jewels at Richard Ogden in the Burlington Arcade

These days you can visit jewellery shops that specialise in traditional as well as contemporary designs in Hatton Garden, and it is definitely worth a visit as you can stroll down the streets and admire the most sparkling pieces of jewellery in the windows!

Sources:

1) Wikipedia – Hatton Garden

(2) Sterling Diamonds 

 

LAPADA Art and Antiques Fair in Berkeley Square 24-28 Sept 2014

 

My desk this morning: an invitation to LAPADA Art & Antique Fair in Berkeley Square, a few silver rings and of course the beautiful Marilyn Monroe in the book Marilyn Monroe – Icons of Our Time.  Copyright: Getty Images

Good morning my dear!  This week is a fabulous one in London’s antique jewellery world, as LAPADA opens up its gates and treats us to the most beautiful displays of jewellery in Berkeley Square.  Last year I went with a friend and wrote a few blog posts about it:  LAPADA on Decades of Elegance.

LAPADA Art and Antiques Fair Berkeley Square 24-28th September 2014

Just to refresh our memory from last year; LAPADA is the UK’s largest Association of professional dealers in antiques and works of art, and between them members cover everything from jewellery and silver to paintings, furniture, carpets, clocks and ceramics.  When you visit the fair you will find that all the items are just exquisite, and they keep the standards this high by letting a committee of specialists vet all the items to ensure authenticity and quality.

Entrance is £15 per person and opening hours are:

Wednesday 24th September 11am – 5.30pm
Thursday 25th September 11am – 9pm
Friday 26th September 11am – 7pm
Saturday 27th September 11am – 7pm
Sunday 28th September 11am – 5pm

I hope to see you there – and if you see me running around with my camera do make sure that you come over and say hello!

Afternoon Tea – the Colonnade Hotel

We are back to one of my favourite blog post-series here on Decades of Elegance: Afternoon Tea!  This time we are visiting The Colonnade Hotel by Warwick Avenue, Little Venice:

The Colonnade Hotel, London

The beautifully arranged hotel garden  

The Colonnade Hotel is a luxurious boutique hotel based in a beautiful part of London called Little Venice.  You will find Little Venice just north of Paddington and the river that runs through the area is in fact the Grand Union and Regent’s Canals meeting up – and creating such a picturesque place.  I very much enjoyed the short walk down Warrington Crescent to the hotel from Warwick Avenue underground station, as I passed these beautiful Victorian houses so peacefully resting in the shades from the tall trees lining the street.  A set of stairs takes you down to the restaurant, which is nice and bright as the daylight comes in through the glass ceiling:

The staircase leading down to the hotel restaurant 

Now first of all, I didn’t have my camera, so we will have to make do with photos from my iPhone.  Please note that everything is 20 times more beautiful in real life than in these pictures!

We started out with a glass of bubbly each, which is obviously always a fabulous start to any tea party.  Now, I must confess that we didn’t make it very easy for the restaurant, as one of us was allergic to mayonnaise and mustard, and another one was gluten intolerant – and then there was of course my allergy to shellfish, but I am delighted to say that this didn’t create any problems, and they did a wonderful job coming up with suitable sandwiches and cakes for all of us.

Amazing selection of cakes, sandwiches and of course scones…

In the photo above you can see an afternoon tea-stand to the left.  My cakes, scone and sandwiches are at the back of the stand, and the gluten free delicacies at the front.  The scone had been substituted with a bunch of grapes for my friend who is gluten intolerant, and that is the only thing that I think they could have done differently.  I am pretty sure that you can make gluten free scones, so that might be an alternative for the future, but my friend was very happy with the cakes and sandwiches that she was served.

Afternoon Tea at the Colonnade Hotel, Little Venice, London

In the photo above here you can see my other two friends’ cakes and scones, and the restaurant did a great job sorting out mayo- and mustard-free sandwiches.

Tea, anyone?

We ordered a pot of tea each and since we spent almost three hours there, our teas obviously went cold towards the end, as they always do.  However, the waitresses were very quick and helpful and brought in new tea pots with fresh, hot tea, and we were able to continue enjoying the rest of our cakes.  Three of us had English Breakfast and one of us went for Green Tea and it was all delicious, although we would have loved to see a few more choices, like Jasmine Tea, which is such a lovely accompaniment to scones – and maybe some more exotic choices as well.

A chocolate éclair from heaven…

Here is a close up of the cakes, and guys honestly, those chocolate éclairs are to die for – they just melted in my mouth!  Definitely my favourite part.  The other ladies were swept off their feet by the carrot cake and the other cakes went down a treat as well.

I was being a veteran-afternoon tea’er, as I didn’t eat all my sandwiches and was therefore able to enjoy a whole scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam (sooo good!) – but one of the other ladies was heartbroken as she just couldn’t finish her scone since she had already had all her sandwiches!  So just a word of warning – pace yourself, or have the scones before the sweets, if you adore scones!

The perfect strawberry jam and Cornish clotted cream to accompany our scones…

We had the most delicious strawberry jam, so I was very pleased since I have recently been to two different Afternoon Teas where they had run out of strawberry jam.  Instead they served black forest berry jam or raspberry jam, which really takes away from the experience, but here everything was just perfect!

Two of my friends wanted to give this Afternoon Tea 4,5 Decades of Elegance rings, whereas another one of the ladies and I would like to give it 4.  The Afternoon Tea is £32 but we found an offer and much less than that, which I thought was very reasonable.  I personally would have liked for the interior to be a bit warmer and more Afternoon Tea’ish – the place is beautiful for a restaurant, but it could do with a bit more kitsch or luxury for the tea, to enhance the experience.  They could also add a few more tea choices to the list.  However, they did an amazing job catering for all of needs and the range of cakes was great – and delicious… I will be dreaming about that chocolate éclair for a long time…. mm-mm-mmm!

Unfortunately I am unable to create a 1/2 ring below, but we will give the Colonnade Hotel 4,5 Decades of Elegance rings:

Decades of Elegance Loves…

Good morning to you lovely one!  During the course of our journey here on Decades of Elegance we have dived into the most beautiful antique shops, markets and fairs and attended exciting auctions, which has resulted in an extensive and fascinating collection of vintage places to visit.  To give you the chance to plan your trips to the most fabulous ones we are now launching a ‘We Love’-page, which you can find at the top of the blog:

The ‘We Love’-page on Decades of Elegance

All these wonderful places are categorised under Antique / Vintage Shops, Fairs, Auctions, Eat and Drink, Weddings and Afternoon Tea and under these you will find geographical listings of: Brighton, Cape Town, London and Surrey.  Eventually we will include Stockholm and any other fabulous cities that we rate highly for antique and vintage shopping.  The page will also be updated on a regular basis with new, glorious places to visit.

To give you an idea of what you will find on this page, we are travelling back in time today and visiting a small selection of shops from our We Love-page (all the links below will take you to the blog posts about each shop – on the We Love-page the links will take you to the shop’s own websites).  

Let’s start out at the spectacular vintage scene in Brighton:

Stunning vintage dress at Hope & Harlequin in Brighton

Exciting finds at Kate & Aud in Brighton

… and continue to the sunny coasts of Cape Town, where we were mesmerised by The Jewel Tree‘s sparkling collection:

Antique Gold and Pearl Bracelet at the Jewel Tree in Cape Town

We have visited the hustle and bustle of Spitalfields Market, where we indulged in stunning pieces from Arabella Bianco, not to mention the gorgeous designs by Titania Fisher at the Pop Up Vintage Fair:

Arabella Bianco’s beautiful vintage jewellery collection 

Titania Fisher’s stunning design at the Pop Up Vintage Fair

We have ventured out on the gorgeous English countryside to the antique town of Dorking, where Chantecleer Antiques and Christique Antique Centre bring us antiques in the most perfect condition, and where Vintage Shrewd gets a well-deserved 55th spot in Vogue UK’s 100 Best Shops Outside London:

Chantecleer Antiques in Dorking, Surrey

Christique Antique Center, Dorking, Surrey

The fabulous Vintage Shrewd in Dorking, Surrey

We have visited Portobello Market to the point that a guide to this fabulous road was a must: Your Portobello Market Shopping Guide:

Our favourite Portobello Market in Notting Hill – with its own Decades of Elegance-guide!

Our visits to the Frock Me! Vintage Fair in Chelsea and the Blackbird Tea Rooms in Brighton resulted in a trip to vintage clothing heaven and the most amazing afternoon tea experience:

Frock Me! Vintage Fair in Chelsea Town Hall

Afternoon Tea at the Blackbird Tea Rooms in Brighton

… and the numerous visits to antique auctions have brought on so many interesting facts about antique furniture, accessories, jewellery and furnishing that you will find numerous blog posts about them:

Stunning antique jewellery at Lawrences Auctioneers in Bletchingley

So my dear, I hope that you will find the page of utmost use, and we warmly welcome all your thoughts and comments to make sure that it becomes as useful (and pretty) as possible!