MASTER OF JEWELLERY DVD:3

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PARIS

In 1830 two brothers in laws one was called Charles Christofle and the other was Joseph Bouilhet were partners in jewellery store in Paris. Ten years later in 1840 they met a rather very strange type of character that you would find in the middle of the 19th century this man was called Henri De Ruolz - He was a chemist, a play writer, an opera composer and most likely a crook on top of all that.

He sold to my ancestors the patent of Electroplating, which he pretended that he had invented, and in reality, he had worked on the work of two brilliant British silversmiths called Elkington.

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PARIS

His promotion, or rather lack of promotion, makes everyone want to buy a piece of jewellery by JAR. I remember the first exhibition in 1977 in New York. You were given a flashlight and a catalogue and you were asked to go into a room which was semi dark because it was like a treasure hunt.

I don't know if you have been to his shop at 7 place Vendome in Paris. It is a shop where there is nothing in the window, not even a name. There is a nasty little bell and none of this business of here come and look at my marvellous jewels - nothing. And if they don't know you and you press the bell, they say ' what do you want?' Well I would like to see some jewellery! Sorry we are a small firm, we have nothing to show you, there is nothing today. So they make it very, very difficult for you to buy.

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NEW YORK

One of the funniest things was making a chastity belt for a woman. Her husband ordered it and she would come in, in black leotards and we would adjust it and measure it, and fit it and finally, the hardest part was the lock and then I had to make a diamond key!

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PARIS

Mellerio is a very old family firm and was created in 1613 and I am the 14th generation. We have always been in the jewellery business - high jewellery, and also clock, watches and silver. We are definitely the oldest jeweller in France and maybe even in the world!

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NEW YORK

In 1973 my wife and I realised that to really get into fine jewellery New York was the place to be. and I got a job at Cartier. I have a book which shows the Cartier workshop from 1920, 1925 and it looked exactly the same, it hadn't changed in fifty years.

I got lucky enough to sit right across from the two best jewellers in the shop, and so I was constantly watching. One guy called me the giraffe because I was always looking over.

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I am able to imagine the individual parts and watch assembly in my mind - like a computer, without having to draw it or put it down on paper. I know the exact direction to take and what I have to do and I can design with my mind. This talent is extremely useful for antique watch restoration because when you see a movement, many of the parts are lost .

You have to reinvent the missing parts, the mechanism and have parts made to the same specification as the original. You must match style, art and technology.

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NEW YORK

I first heard about Verdura in a sort of embarrassing way. It was 1969 and I was doing an appraisal in Dallas Texas for Lilly Ponds - she was a big movie star in her day. She was French and she was also an Opera Singer before she became a Movie Star and she had a lot of Verdura jewellery. I had never ever seen the name before and this jewellery was quite amazing, it was sort of stars and comets.

I asked "Can you tell me more about it?" I was 24 and I was head of the jewellery department at Sotherby's. She said "Young man, you don't know who Fuoco Verdura is?" I said "No I don't" She said "When you get back to New York you should find out!"

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PARIS

When I arrived at Fred, Mr. Fred asked me "I have a big client who would like to buy rare blue stones. I can't find a blue stone". I replied "I'll have to think about it and perhaps it's possible for me. I have a good friend, and my friend has a 26 carats flawless blue diamond". When I met Mr. Fred I said "I think I have found the stone for your client" and he sold it.

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LONDON

David Thomas was the golden boy of the Goldsmiths Hall. I was very lucky to meet him. He had just left the Royal College, and he had no money and he employed one very young apprentice craftsman and I went to see him on a Saturday morning on my day off. His mum told me where he was, it was pure accident. David said sit down and see if you can make these rings.

My break came because David could not really afford me and he thought "I'll get him a teaching job at the Colledge here in London at the Central School of Art and Design". It had only just been set up and they were looking for tutors. He was teaching there himself and they needed someone to show the practical side and that was the best type of education that anybody could ever have.

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NEW YORK

She made beautiful products, and they lasted. She would go on a public appearance and a woman would come and say, Mrs. Leiber I bought this fifteen years ago, see how great it is. And she would says"It is time you bought another one!"

Judith started making handbags on her own in 1963.She became a GI bride, came to the United States after the war and worked for the most prestigious Handbag Company at the time, which was Nettie Rosenstein. In fact Judith made Mamie Eisenhower's inaugural bag, with the Nettie Rosenstein label. Eventually she got tired of working for other people and in 1963 she hung out her own shingle.

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PARIS

You can imagine 32 year ago it was a big adventure to go to the Tribal zone of Bhurma or Pakistan. To buy raw stones you must carry cash money so you are not very sure that once you buy you would actually reach home safely.

So our philosophy was always to buy four and to leave one behind like a sample - take the sample for my next trip so you have the sample for the colour we need. This was insurance. It was therefore not necessary to kill us and to take the money and the stones.

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LONDON

When i first joined the company which was 1959, Cartier were all owned by the Cartier family. Jack Cartier owned the London business and his cousins had the other two, and he was the last one to sell.

He used to give me my bonus every christmas. He was lovely, great guy, Ialways thought that he was a little bit nervous and shy in some ways about us. We were in awe of him. It was sort of tweedle dum and tweedle dee really.

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