Thursday 16 June 2011

London Jewellery Week 2011, Friday: Goldsmiths’ Hall, Wright & Teague, Holts Academy, Guilt, Treasure


What: Jewellery fakes and forgeries
Where: The Goldsmiths’ Hall
When: Morning- 10th June 2011



Hallmarks:

After a coffee or two, the crowd of mainly industry folks - ranging from auctioneers to shop owners - sat down for the initial talk by Robert Organ, one of the wardens of the London assay office.  I admit that I know very little about what the assay office does, apart from “test” what comes in for hallmarking and mark it if it’s good enough.  Hallmarking is one of the oldest forms of consumer protection.  The stamp is important because it verifies exactly what you’re buying.  Little did I know how important this was until it came to much older pieces. I learnt a common way of dodging the duty charge (the bigger the piece, the more it costs to handle, so the more it costs to get hallmarked) early on in the world of hallmarking was to mark a much smaller piece, cut the mark out and stick it on a much larger one.  Another way to avoid the charge was to make additions to an existing piece.  The example given was a tankard that had been converted into a coffee pot. The tankard was hallmarked when it was made, then 30-40 years later the owner added a spout and lid.  When it came to re-sale at an auction, by testing different sections of the pot they could tell by the tiny differences in the silver alloy the age of when the silver was produced. I don’t know about you, but I find this completely fascinating! On much bigger pieces that could potentially be worth millions of pounds at auction, it is important that the assay office checks the metal around the whole item. Another way of checking if a ‘cut and stick’ of a hallmark has been done is by taking an x-ray. But not any x-ray . Metal is incredibly dense, so the offending piece is taken to a military x-ray, super powerful radiation is passed through and any fluctuation in solder joins inside the item can be seen by eye shows up on the x-ray!  It’s amazing!

Makers mark (here, London assay office), fineness symbol (sterling silver), metal purity (parts per thousand), issuing Assay Office (London), date letter (2006).

BONUS INFO.: As of 1st July 2011 until October 2012 HM The Queens Diamond Jubilee Commemorative stamp is available!!!


Gems: 

Next up was Jack Ogden, Chef Executive of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain.  Another brilliantly fascinating talk.  He gave a brief history of gems and how even the Egyptians faked stones.  He gave a fantastic quote, written by the Romans - “Anyone found to be using crystals in the place of diamonds will burn and die in hell!” Excellent! 
Thank you London assay office for teaching me so much in only a couple of hours, I’ll definitely see you again next year for the diamond update.

Jack Ogden, Chef Executive of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain
Ring believed to be the first gold diamond ring, from 1400BC

Emerald stone and fake, rock crystal was heated, dipped in dye and cooled. 
This was part of the same necklace and would have looked identical in colour. 
Only after being buried for a few hundred years did the truth come out.

The future of gems is illustrated here by Japanese Newsweek magazine, synthetic diamonds. 
They exist and can be re-crated again and again to be near flawless.  Keep an eye out for
up-coming news.




What: Wright & Teague
Where: Dover Street
When: Morning- 10th June 2011

The rain came down and I ran into Wright & Teague. I’ve been here a few times over the years so knew where I was going, but I didn’t expect these fantastic tribal aluminium masks in the window! Masks with earrings!  This fantastic window display was of course for jewellery week and handmade by Gary Teague in aluminium to promote their new, fantastic tribal inspired jewellery.  These simple but elegant pieces in beads and gold are classically Wright and Teague, where the metal and the form create the piece.  If you haven’t been, it’s a beautiful shop with a circular display cabinet at its heart that was salvaged from the Victoria and Albert Museum and fully restored.  But the jewellery inside it is something else. 












What: Holts Academy- behind the scenes
Where: Hatton Garden
When: Noon- 10th June 2011

Ruth from Holts was kind enough to take me on a behind the scenes tour of the new ‘wing’ of the academy.  Set on the corner of Hatton Garden and Hatton Wall on the 4th floor is the new workshops and brand new CAD room!  Going in here, I was nothing but envious of everything I saw!  With the grand opening the next day as part of the Hatton Garden festival, all hands were on deck, screwing bits down, plugging things in and sweeping up!  One room with 20 work benches, the other with 25 with all new equipment, new and improved courses available to students and all in the heart of the London Jewellery quarter.  What more could any student ask for?  Information on the new courses available can be found here http://www.holtsacademy.com/home.aspx


new workshops on the 4th floor here

the light! 20 benchs here
CAD suite awaiting computers

all hands on deck!

workshop envy!

Brand new kit, and my wonderful tour guide, Ruth of Holts


  


What: Guilt, a performance by the All That Glitters theatre group
Where: The Cockpit Theatre, Marylebone
When: Afternoon- 10th June 2011

Afternoon at the theatre?  Don’t mind if I do! 
‘Guilt’ is a production based around mining and consumerism.  There was beautiful, traditional African singing by a choir and images of Africa being projected in the background.  This developed into actors portraying the tough working conditions in a mine and then to dancers.  The 2 dancers were the consumers, dancing around a shop.  The woman in a red dress looked very glamorous while a man in a smart suit kept putting more and more jewellery on her.  I think you may have guessed that the ending was happy, with Fairtrade coming in and bringing everyone together in perfect harmony!   The highlight of the performance came at the very end when the whole audience, me included were coaxed onto our feet to celebrate with foot stomping and hand clapping with everyone on the stage.  Even in this short amount of time, I did feel like I got taken on the journey with the performers and the finale bought a smile to everyone’s face! 


pre-show crowd


Audience participation





 What: Treasure Fairtrade Friday
Where: Holborn
When: Evening- 10th June 2011

A brilliant day topped off by an evening of more jewellery with the added bonus of sangria! What more could I ask for?
So… Fairtrade Friday! It seemed that everyone in attendance at this specifically Fairtrade evening had a different take on the matter.  A debate I’ll leave with you.  As a crowd at an invite only jewellery fair goes though, it was a good one!  Filled with anyone that could shuffle through and in - buyers, media, loyal customers and of course all of the exhibitors. By about 7:30 (event 6-8:30) everyone was congregated in the central area and throughout the Essence section (the section with all the ‘new kids on the block’).  Perfect time for me to have a whip around and see what was on show.  I’m not going to lie, there was a lot to take it and the layout confused me on more than one occasion, but knowing I was coming back later in the week, I wasn’t too worried.  Talking to a lot of people, it seemed that everyone was having a good week all around London, as it was only to second day of Treasure being open; there were a lot of mixed reviews.  I had a confusing evening!  But I did see a lot of things that I will hopefully find out more about later in the week.








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Thanks for taking the time,

Jx