Jewelry Trends: Everything is Coming up Rose Gold

Rose gold is the hottest trend for jewelry this Spring.

Its warm hue is a perfect match with the neutrals, pastels and florals that are in for Spring. The characteristics of rose gold are flattering to any skin type.

The pink color comes from copper, which is alloyed with yellow gold. Yellow gold is always mixed with another metal for use in jewelry to improve strength. The result is the various colors of gold that we love to wear: rose, green, white, yellow.

Rose gold jewelry can be found in every price range. Fun, affordable vermeil pieces can be found like this rose gold over brass hammered cuff by Diana Warner NYC. Cartier and Etienne Perret are showing timeless classics in rose gold, and Ivanka Trump is showing fantastic rose gold, rock crystal and diamond earrings in her collection.

The groundhog says Spring is coming early this year.  Are you ready with your rose gold jewelry?

Recommended Jewelry Reading

 

Whether you are building your own jewelry library, or looking for a perfect gift for yourself or another jewelry enthusiast, I have a few suggestions of titles that would sparkle in any collection.

Bulgari From 1884 to 2009: 125 Years of Italian Jewels, by Amanda Triossi. An elegant book featuring over 300 color photographs of Bulgari jewelry. It is written by the curator of the Bulgari vintage collection, who is also author of several other well-known jewelry books and is a jewelry expert at Sotheby’s London.

Amazing Cartier: Jewelry Design Since 1937, by Nadine Coleno. With a focus on trend setting creations, this book features over 100 pieces of Cartier jewelry, archival drawings, and society photographs. The author is a well-known fashion writer, and has also written several other books.

Read My Pins: Stories From A Diplomat’s Jewel Box, by Madeleine Albright. The book features the brooch collection of the U.S. Secretary of State, both costume and fine, and accompanied an exhibit by the same name at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York. The book tells of international diplomacy and how the brooches were “tools” in many of the talks.

Brooches: Timeless Adornment, by Lori Ettlinger Gross. A beautiful addition to any jewelry book library.

Scottish Jewellry: A Victorian Passion, by Diana Scarisbrick. The author is a well-know jewelry historian, curator and author of several other jewelry books. If the subject is of interest, the book is sure to delight.

Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels

 

On December 9^th Sotheby’s will hold a jewelry auction in their Manhattan showroom. The sale contains a collection of magnificent jewelery spanning over a hundred years of jewelry history and several loose stones that are poised to sell at new record prices, including a 30.48ct D, Flawless, oval brilliant cut diamond.

The sale includes some museum quality pieces, both in rarity and beauty. Lot 88 is a pearl, diamonds, enamel and glass brooch by Rene Lalique, circa 1900. The piece features three pinkish-orange glass roses in a cluster framed in red enamel branches, diamond-set branches and button pearls. The shape is very organic and represents nature in all of its splendor and perils, beware of the thorns. The sale also includes a rare and important Fancy Intense Yellow Diamond and emeralds ring (lot 222), by Louis Comfort Tiffany, circa 1910-1915. The full page catalog description of the ring was written by Janet Zapata, renowned jewelry historian and author of many books including The Jewelry and Enamels of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

The sale would not be complete without some stunning pieces by Cartier, the famed French jewelry house that is celebrating its 100^th anniversary in the United States. Finally, offered for sale is a collection of jewelry and fabulous Cartier handbags from the late Brazilian model and philanthropist, Lucia Moreira Salles, which includes the three rings shown here designed by JAR.

Sotheby’s website is also quite spectacular and easy to navigate. It hosts a new e-catalog where each lot is photographed and can be examined up close, with a condition report available at a click of the mouse. I looked at the online catalog before I had the book and found it more captivating. The photographs are the same color and quality as the catalog, but the e-catalog features each lot separately, so no jewel is overshadowed by another that it might share a page with in the catalog. The public exhibition will be held in New York the week prior to the sale.

Stack Them High

Stacking bands…we love them!  These bands are a wonderful accessory. Today it seems like every manufacturer from the lesser known to the very high end are making bands that can be worn together in a multitude of combinations.

Some of the more playful bands are manufactured by Hidalgo, who has created enamel bands with every motif imaginable!  Whether you have pugs or want to show off the names of your four children, they make the bands for you.  Bands are also available in nonfigurative designs or in solid colors that can be dropped into plain or diamond-set jackets, or spaced by unadorned bands or various eternity bands.

Tiffany & Company also has an extraordinary collection of diamond and gem-set bands in many sizes and shapes and settings.  These bands make great gifts.  Collect them and stack them up to commemorate the birth of a child, an anniversary or birthday.

Alex Sepkus (shown here), Martin Katz, Penny Preville and Cartier also produce some of our favorite lines of stackable bands, which incorporate fine detail and color options for everyone!

Pearls

All pearls, whether natural, cultured from salt water or fresh are created in the same way. Natural Pearls are formed inside a mussel shell, or mollusk, where an irritant, such as a parasite, has entered the body and the mollusk secrets nacre to cover the irritation, making it therefore less irritating. Cultured pearls are formed in the same manner, but the irritant, generally a bead is placed in the mussel shell intentionally. The bead is obviously larger than a parasite, making the process much faster.

Natural Pearls are very rare and therefore quite costly. Occasionally pieces with natural pearls come up at auction, like the Baroda Pearls sold in April 2007 at Christie’s in New York. The historic two-strand natural pearl necklace of 68 pearls, ranging in size from approximately 9.47mm to 16.04mm, with a diamond clasp by Cartier, en suite with a pair of ear pendants, brooch and ring fetched $7,096,000!!! This price set a world auction record for pearls.

In general, when we refer to pearls as a contemporary jewelry item, the pearls are cultured. The price of these pearls takes into consideration several different factors, all of which are based on rarity. Simply put, the more “perfect” the pearl, the more rare it is and the price is higher. Pearls are valued upon their size, the larger the better. Round (spherical) pearls are considered the best shape. The shapes can be described as round, near round all the way to baroque, completely out of round and symmetry. Pearls can be found in almost any color of the rainbow, but the most common colors are neutrals. There are also several surface quality criteria, which examine the thickness of the nacre of the pearl and how perfect or imperfect the condition is. Finally, and perhaps most important, the pearls in any piece of jewelry should be well match. This is important for the look and the long-term value of the jewelry.

Saltwater pearls are primarily a product of Japan, and range in size from 6-10 mm, the average being the most common. South Sea pearls, cultivated mainly in Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines, are also saltwater pearls and are generally from 8-15mm in diameter. Tahitian pearls are cultivated primarily on the islands of French Polynesia, and range in size from 8-14mm.

Today freshwater pearls come mainly from China, and can be found in a large range of shape sizes and colors. Over the past few years the Chinese have been producing larger and rounder freshwater pearls.

**This section is based upon the Gemological Institute of America’s pearl grading system.