http://www.ingleandrhode.com/blog Precious Metals & Gemstones, Socially and Environmentally Responsible Jeweller en seo@aerodesigns.co.uk Copyright Ingle & Rhode,2008 2008-03-25T11:37:00+00:00 http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/gold_and_diamond_accessories/ http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/gold_and_diamond_accessories/#When:11:37:00Z At a time when the jewellery industry is troubled by serious ethical problems, there seems to be no limit to some consumers’ appetite for bling. More and more designers use precious stones and metals to add a sense of luxury to what used to look like sensible, everyday items. At a time when the jewellery industry is troubled by serious ethical problems, there seems to be no limit to some consumers’ appetite for bling. More and more designers use precious stones and metals to add a sense of luxury to what used to look like sensible, everyday items.  iPod The iDiamond iPod was made recently by Norwegian Jeweller Thomas Heyerdahl and consists of a modified iPod Shuffle with matching headphones. The iPod itself is home to 312 diamonds, the headphones holding another 118 and underneath those stones lies a casing made of 18 carat gold. The estimated value of this suped up MP3 player? US$41,000. More Information Here Cellphone The solid white-gold, diamond-studded phone on the left is apparently the world’s most expensive with a pricetag of US$1,300,000. The deal clincher? It comes with a 2GB memory card so you won’t need to splash any more cash for storage space. If you’ve forgotten your wallet and only have US$25,000 in your back pocket, the phone on the right could be yours. More Information Here Television When released back in 2006, Keymat Industrie claimed this dispicably extravagant television to be the most expensive LCD TV on earth. This wasn’t due to incredible technology but the 160 diamonds attached to its gold plated frame, all of which boosted the gadget’s value to US$130,000. More Information Here Laptop On the left is a 24 carat gold plated Macbook Pro, the Apple logo encrusted with diamonds. If this kind of laptop modification is up your alley and you have at least a few thousand dollars to spare, head on over to Computer Choppers, a company dedicated to beautifying the most plain of gadgets. There is no listed price for the Gold Macbook, but you can be sure that with the insurance on top it’s going to burn a hole in your possibly diamond-lined pocket. More Information Here Computer Mouse It’s a mouse. It’s home to 59 diamonds. It’s US$24,180. The website claims it to be ‘the perfect gift for a 60th Wedding Anniversary’ but it doesn’t say whose wedding anniversary. Obviously the mouse is also cast from 18 carat white gold. More Information Here Purse The next time your wife asks for a handbag for Christmas, just be grateful she hasn’t seen the one above. It was made by ‘Superstar Jeweller’ Ginza Tanaka, is fashioned from pure platinum, is adorned with 2,182 diamonds totalling 208 carats and will set you back a wallet-obliterating US$1.63 million. Just for the record, Ginza is the man responsible for creating a US$850,000 Christmas tree made from 28kg of gold in 2006. More Information Here Wheel Rims You know how annoying it is when your wheel rims get covered in dirt after a long drive? Now imagine each of those rims cost US$250,000 and the pain should be multiplied by a few thousand. Rim-manufacturers Asanti are apparently the only company to offer this kind of service and presumably they aren’t swamped with enquiries from serious buyers. Their Diamond range rims each contain 12,000 diamonds and 800 sapphires, hopefully glued on excessively. More Information Here Gearstick So you’ve got the diamond rims and some spare change… It now makes complete sense to start on the interior, and why not go for the ‘Most Expensive Bentley Shift Knob’ in history? Handcrafted with 30 carats of diamond set on 18 carat white gold, the knob is yours for US$150,000. As the website points out, ‘For all you Ballers out there…”What is your braggin’ right?” Wow. More Information Here Lavatory This sparkling lavatory, part of Jemal Wright’s Isis collection, could be yours for just US$75,000. Before you rush for your credit card details though: they aren’t diamonds deliciously wrapped around the cistern but 50,000 Swarovski Crystals. Maybe a diamond-studded lavatory would’ve looked silly. More Information Here Child’s Dummy / Pacifier This little item is truly remarkable. It’s a dummy/pacifier, made from 14 carat white gold and finished off with 278 pave cut white diamonds. If you really want to spend the required US$17,000.00 for diamonds, is your child’s mouth really the best place to put them? From the website: ‘We don’t recommend actual use’. Useful. More Information Here Hearing Aid With a retail value of US$42,590, this horrendous addition to any hearing-impaired person’s wishlist is cast in solid 24 carat gold, additional sparkle coming in the form of 220 diamonds. What’s more disturbing than the earpiece itself is the discreet remote control, emblazoned with a diamond-encrusted company logo larger than a normal person’s entire head. More Information Here 2008-03-25T11:37:00+00:00 http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/the_worlds_most_famous_engagement_rings/ http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/the_worlds_most_famous_engagement_rings/#When:12:54:00Z It is more than five centuries since Archduke Maximilian I of Austria gave the first recorded diamond engagement ring to Mary of Burgundy, and since then rich and famous men have indulged their fiancés with some quite incredible gifts. It is more than five centuries since Archduke Maximilian I of Austria gave the first recorded diamond engagement ring to Mary of Burgundy, and since then rich and famous men have indulged their fiancés with some quite incredible gifts. It’s ironic that perhaps the most famous ‘engagement ring’ in history may not actually have commemorated an engagement at all. There has been a deluge of speculation recently about the ring given by Dodi Fayed to Princess Diana. Though Mohammed Al-Fayed insists that the ring proves that Diana had agreed to marry his son, sources close to the Princess claim it was merely a ‘friendship ring’. Princess Diana’s ‘other’ engagement ring, given to her by Prince Charles, caused a stir at the time. This was made not with a classic central diamond, but with an eighteen-carat blue oval sapphire, circled by fourteen diamonds. Twenty years later, Prince Charles would buy another amazing engagement ring, an art deco antique-style platinum emerald ring with baguette diamonds, which he presented to Camilla Parker Bowles. Prince Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was given an engagement ring by Prince Phillip made out of diamonds from Phillip’s mother’s tiara. When Prince Rainier of Monaco proposed to Grace Kelly, he presented her with a twelve-carat emerald-cut diamond. Hollywood royalty have also traditionally bought lavish and extravagant engagement rings. When Elvis Presley proposed to his girlfriend Priscilla, the central diamond in her ring weighed three Michael Douglas marked his engagement to Catherine Zeta-Jones’ with a ten-carat antique marquise diamond, valued at nearly one million pounds, while Ben Affleck bought Jennifer Lopez a six-carat radiant cut pink diamond. However, both were smaller than the fifteen-carat diamond given to Paris Hilton by her billionaire boyfriend Paris Latsis. And as if one ring wasn’t enough, he also handed her a twenty-four carat canary diamond. IR News 2008-03-24T12:54:00+00:00 http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/beautiful_coloured_diamonds_now_on_display/ http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/beautiful_coloured_diamonds_now_on_display/#When:11:32:00Z London's Natural History Museum is currently showing some of nature's rarest treasures, including gems, crystals, and metals. Amongst them is 'The Aurora Collection', two hundred and ninety-six naturally coloured diamonds. London’s Natural History Museum is currently showing some of nature’s rarest treasures, including gems, crystals, and metals. Amongst them is ‘The Aurora Collection’, two hundred and ninety-six naturally coloured diamonds Only one in every ten thousand gem-quality diamonds is coloured. The colour comes from tiny impurities in the stone’s carbon lattice, or from minute defects in its structure. “Each coloured diamond tells its own story, giving us insight not only into its formation but also to the deep Earth processes that took place when the gem was formed,” says Alan Hart, minerals expert at the Museum. “For example, yellow diamonds are due to the presence of nitrogen in the structure, and green diamonds owe their colour to natural radiation damage. It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to display this unique collection of exceptionally rare gems at the Museum.” Due to their scarcity, coloured diamonds can be worth astronomical amounts. Five or six figure prices are not unusual. Red stones tend to be the most expensive. There are less than twenty certified red diamonds in existence, and some of these have fetched over a million dollars per carat. IR News 2008-02-15T11:32:00+00:00 http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/good_as_green_gold/ http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/good_as_green_gold/#When:15:11:00Z Recently ‘Ingle & Rhode’ visited several alluvial mines in the Jujuy province of Argentina – that’s up north, close to the high Andes at 12,000 feet and light years away from the glamour of a fine jewellery showroom.  Recently ‘Ingle & Rhode’ visited several alluvial mines in the Jujuy province of Argentina – that’s up north, close to the high Andes at 12,000 feet and light years away from the glamour of a fine jewellery showroom.  This was a chance to talk to the miners directly, share their lives briefly, and meet members of the EcoAndina foundation – a United Nations and NGO-funded mining operation which uses the ‘green gold’ trade to fund sustainable villages and support the local communities of the Puna plateau. In the village of Misa Rumi (a dusty collection of houses, a church and a dirt football pitch) ‘Ingle & Rhode’ met Santo Martinez, 48, and his son Julian, 26. They had come to sell their gold to the EcoAndina Foundation.Santo and Julian work as a family group and split the proceeds. They know all about the value of their gold and have the option of selling to various traders, but they said they prefer to deal with EcoAndina. This is not just because they get a good price, it’s also due to the foundation’s involvement in several projects that are essential to the survival of their village. The village just about exists. Llamas and goats are important; jobs pretty non existent; government social security is only £30 per family per month, so the cash from gold is important to keep the village viable.  EcoAndina are also involved in providing solar power, and environmentally friendly agriculture - sustainable villages are their aim, not desolation and the human tragedy you see every night in the doorways of Buenos Aires. And so to the mines … These are a hike away in the bottom of a dried up gorge. The Martinez family workings are in a patch of river bed 6 yards wide by 30 long.  At the gold-bearing layer the dirt looks pretty unconvincing - typical river deposits, rounded stones, grit and dirt.  But a couple of shovel loads fill the pan, next they dip it in the water and start ‘gold panning’.  First the stones are separated, then the lighter material is removed until after about ten minutes they are left with a little bit of mud in the bottom of the pan and perhaps … perhaps a tiny nugget of alluvial gold. Large scale gold mining means stripping the land, crushing the ore, leaching out the gold with cyanide or mercury, and leaving behind poisoned and contaminated spoil.  But all along the gorge at Misa Rumi ‘Ingle & Rhode’ met small scale miners like the Martinez’s – proud self-employed groups of men, washing out their gold, providing for their families and their communities. Which gold would you prefer on your finger?   [PICTURED: I&R representative Ian Stoker meets the miners of Misa Rumi]   Ethical Issues 2008-01-16T15:11:00+00:00 http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/luxury_brands_failing_on_ethics_says_wwf_report/ http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/luxury_brands_failing_on_ethics_says_wwf_report/#When:13:38:00Z Of ten high-end brands surveyed in this week’s ‘Deeper Luxury’ report by the WWF, none scores higher than C+ for ethics. Of ten high-end brands surveyed in this week’s ‘Deeper Luxury’ report by the WWF, none scores higher than C+ for ethics. Singled out for special criticism are Italian jeweller Bulgari, and the accessory company Tod’s, endorsed by Sienna Miller. Companies are graded for their “environmental, social and governance performance and reputation.” The grades are based on data from the analysts Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS), which uses company reports followed up with questionnaires, and from Covalence, a company that tracks brand perception through news reports. The report will make ugly reading for Sienna Miller, who in the past has been quick to identify herself with environmental issues. It warns that Tod’s could be “a liability” to her reputation - according to WWF-UK senior policy adviser and report co-author Anthony Kleanthous: “The world of celebrity leads by example and generates an aspirational desire for branded products. These stars have the responsibility to make sure that the brands they are endorsing are not damaging the planet.” Within the jewellery industry, the report highlights the ongoing issues around conflict diamonds and dirty gold. It refers to a recent UK survey by Amnesty in which three quarters of retailers admitted to having no auditing process in place to combat the trade in conflict diamonds, and to which nearly a third failed to respond in spite of repeated requests. The report also focuses on the environmental damage that often results from gold mining. It praises the ‘No Dirty Gold’ campaign run by Oxfam and Earthworks, which has helped to raise awareness of this issue, but concludes that “…much remains to be done in order to clean up the production and trading of gold and other precious metals.” The report is likely to reinforce the growing demand from consumers for socially and environmentally responsible products. It should also alert the luxury brands that they can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to unethical practices. If they fail to pay attention the warning, they could face a difficult future. As Anthony Kleanthous points out, “Let’s face it, who wants to pay extra for a dirty brand?”      The Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices has strongly criticised the report. Ethical Issues 2007-11-29T13:38:00+00:00 http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/the_worlds_ten_most_valuable_diamonds/ http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/the_worlds_ten_most_valuable_diamonds/#When:15:37:00Z This week Georges Marciano, the founder of Guess clothing, spent just over sixteen million dollars (£7,900,000) on a single diamond at a Sotheby's auction in Geneva. The price fell just short of a new world record. This week Georges Marciano, the founder of Guess clothing, spent just over sixteen million dollars (£7,900,000) on a single diamond at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva. The price fell just short of a new world record. The diamond weighed slightly over 84 carats (nearly 17g), and received the highest possible grading. It is D-colour, or finest white, has flawless clarity, and its cut, polish and symmetry have all been graded ‘excellent’. But while this stone may be the second most expensive diamond in the world, there is a select group that could raise more if they ever went on sale. So where would Georges Marciano’s diamond be placed in to our top ten? 10 Fancy Vivid Blue. This 6.04 carat flawless blue diamond sold last month at Sotheby’s auction house in Hong Kong, for nearly eight million dollars (£3,890,000). This worked out at more than one and a third million dollars (£644,000) per carat, a new world record.  9 The Taylor-Burton Diamond. It was the jeweller Cartier that first bought this stone when it was auctioned in 1969. But the very next day, film star Richard Burton paid an undisclosed amount of money for the diamond, which he gave to his wife Elizabeth Taylor. In 1979 it was sold to an anonymous buyer in Saudi Arabia for nearly three million dollars (£1,463,000), though it would be worth far more at today’s prices.   8 Golden Jubilee Diamond. At 545.7 carats, this is the largest cut diamond in the world. Graded as a ‘fancy yellow-brown’ colour, it was presented to the King of Thailand in 1997 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his coronation. Thailand was experiencing economic difficulties at the time so, to avoid accusations of extravagance, the government referred to this stone as a large ‘golden topaz’. 7 The Star of the Season. In May 1995, a 100.1 carat pear-shaped diamond went on sale in Switzerland. The stone was free of internal flaws, and its colour was graded ‘D’, or perfect white. It was bought by Sheikh Ahmed Fitaihi for a world record sixteen and a half million dollars (£8,073,000). 6 The Koh-I-Nor At 105.6 carats, the Koh-I-Nor is set in the Maltese Cross at the front of the crown made for Queen Elisabeth the Queen Mother. Once the largest known diamond in the world, it comes from Golconda in India. Local rulers fought over it for centuries. Eventually, in 1877, it became part of the British Crown Jewels when Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli proclaimed Queen Victoria the ‘Empress of India’. 5 Cullinan II (aka The Lesser Star of Africa) Weighing 317.4 carats, this is the third largest polished diamond in the world. It was cut from the Cullinan diamond, the largest rough diamond ever found, which was discovered in South Africa in 1905. It is now part of the British crown jewels, forming part of the Imperial State Crown. 4 The Centenary Diamond. In March 1988, De Beers marked its centenary celebrations by announcing the discovery of a perfectly white rough diamond of 599 carats. But it was not until three years later that the cutting and polishing process was completed. The end result was a diamond weighing over 273 carats, with a record 247 facets. 3 The Hope Diamond. French traveller Jean Baptiste Tavernier brought this steel blue stone back from India in the seventeenth century, before selling it to King Louis XIV. Following the French Revolution, it disappeared for two decades, before being purchased by English banker Henry Thomas Hope. It passed through several sets of hands until the jeweller Harry Winston bought it in 1949, and gave it to the Smithsonian Institute. At 45 carats, it is the largest dark blue diamond in the world. 2 The Millenium Star. In 2000, De Beers and the Steinmetze Group put the ‘Millenium Star’ on display at the Millennium Dome in London. Within months, this 203.4 carat, flawless D-colour diamond was the target of a daring attempted robbery. Police seized the villains, which is lucky since the diamond had an insured value of no less than one hundred million pounds (USD 205,000,000). This valuation may well be an under-estimate. 1 Cullinan I (aka The Great Star of Africa) Discovered in South Africa in 1905, The Great Star of Africa is the largest polished stone to be cut from the legendary Cullinan Diamond. Weighing 530.2 carats, it is now on display in the Tower of London, where it is mounted in the Crown Jewels at the head of the sceptre. It is literally impossible to put a value on it.   IR News 2007-11-15T15:37:00+00:00 http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/green_gold_is_no_myth/ http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/green_gold_is_no_myth/#When:14:45:00Z Recently there have been articles posted on environmental sites suggesting that, since all gold mining is inherently damaging to the environment, consumers should boycott gold products. Both these views are wrong.  Recently there have been articles posted on environmental sites suggesting that, since ALL gold mining is inherently damaging to the environment, consumers should boycott gold products. But this is not accurate. It is true that most gold mining is extremely harmful, but this is not always the case. It is the toxic effects of cyanide and mercury that cause the problems, as well as the physical impact of large-scale open cast mining. Small-scale mining, carried out without chemicals, need not be destructive. This photo shows villagers in Jujuy province, in northern Argentina. They extract gold by ‘washing’ the alluvial gravel that they dig from dry riverbeds. Without the use of chemicals, it takes a lot of hard work to extract a small amount of gold. When the rainy season comes, the rivers fill up, the riverbed returns to its original state, and work comes to an abrupt halt. In South America, a number of small-scale communities work this way. In Jujuy province, the villagers choose to sell their gold to the EcoAndina Foundation. This is a non-governmental organisation that helps safeguard village life through sustainable energy, sustainable agriculture, and environmentally friendly mining. Without the revenue generated from gold, more of Jujuy’s villagers would depart for the major cities, where they risk falling into the cycle of hopeless poverty that traps so many of Argentina’s migrant workers. Refusing to buy gold from these people would do nothing to help the environment, but would do plenty of harm to some of the poorest communities in a country that has already taken an economic battering in recent years. Don’t tar all gold mining with the same brush - some of it deserves our support. Ethical Issues 2007-11-05T14:45:00+00:00 http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/burmese_gems/ http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/burmese_gems/#When:23:38:00Z At a time when Burma's brutal military dictatorship is ruthlessly crushing pro-democracy protests, you wouldn't expect British businesses to be boasting about their links with this regime. Amazingly though, a number of jewellers are doing just this.  At a time when Burma’s brutal military dictatorship is ruthlessly crushing pro-democracy protests, you wouldn’t expect British businesses to be boasting about their links with this regime. Amazingly though, a number of jewellers are doing just this. This sapphire was photographed in London last week, in the window of one of Bond Street’s most exclusive stores. Burmese sapphires and rubies are of the very highest quality, but unfortunately the military junta profits directly from sales of these gems. They control the licensing of all mining operations, run the gem auctions, and have majority shares in every mine in the country.   While Burma’s generals have made an estimated £400 million from the gem industry, mine bosses get their workers addicted to drugs in order to exploit them in slave-like conditions. According to eye witness accounts, methamphetamine is mixed with drinking water to increase productivity, and heroin is given to miners at the end of the working day as a ‘reward’.  As a consequence of needles being shared, AIDS is spreading rapidly amongst the miners. Debbie Stothard of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma was recently quoted in the Scotsman newspaper saying: “Young people go off to the mines with big hopes and dreams, and they come back to die."  America has banned all imports from Burma, but the British government merely ‘discourages’ trade with the junta. So Burmese gems still find their way onto the UK market. What can be done about this? Firstly, we advise people to demand to know where and how their jeweller has sourced their gemstones. Do not be fobbed off with vague reassurances about ‘reputable dealers’ and ‘Kimberley Process Certificates’ (in the case of diamonds). If a jeweller is serious about offering a genuinely ethical product, they should be able to tell you exactly which mine their gemstones came from, and how the workers there were treated. If you meet with evasion, go elsewhere. As for the jeweller boasting about his ‘Burmese Sapphires’ - let us know what you think. Ethical Issues 2007-10-26T23:38:00+00:00 http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/welcome/ http://www.ingleandrhode.com/news/welcome/#When:15:26:00Z Welcome to the Ingle & Rhode news page. We'll be posting articles on a variety of topics, including some of the ethical problems facing the jewellery industry today, what the solutions are, and what you can do to get involved. If you feel strongly about any of the issues raised in our articles, please don't hesitate to post - we welcome your comments. Welcome to the Ingle & Rhode news page. We’ll be posting articles on a variety of topics, including some of the ethical problems facing the jewellery industry today, what the solutions are, and what you can do to get involved. If you feel strongly about any of the issues raised in our articles, please don’t hesitate to post - we welcome your comments. IR News 2007-10-26T15:26:00+00:00