GEM-T 04

INTUITION, EMOTION OR REASON?

As your eye falls on a piece of jewelry, have you ever wondered where the decision to buy (or not) should
lie: with your heart or with your head? While the philosopher Blaise Pascal taught us that “the heart has its
reasons that reason knows not”, any practical-minded individual will consider the facts, the figures and
investment potential. Gold remains the ultimate safe haven, a financial port in a storm. Reflecting greater
scarcity, the price of certain unheated Burmese rubies and sapphires, along with certain colored diamonds,
rises year after year. Historic pieces signed by houses such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Bulgari set
salerooms alight, achieving often astronomical prices. So how to buy wisely? We asked experts for their
advice. In this issue, a gemstone trader explains why, in the space of a decade, the value of Mozambique
rubies has rocketed, along with that of Mahenge spinels which, from a few hundred dollars a carat in 2007,
now trade at several thousand.
At a recent jewelry event, I had the pleasure of meeting a diamond specialist whose ring finger was
adorned with a magnificent stone. It was, she told me, an exceptional specimen. Enough to walk away from
it all and live comfortably for many years. While waiting for that day, which may never come, she assured
me that she wore her diamond every day simply for the pleasure it gave her, regardless of any practical
consideration. And so it would seem that even experts, those whose job it is to appraise jewelry and foresee
increases in value, give in to something of another order: attachment, memory, the pleasure of wearing a
gem that makes the heart beat faster, or the fun of w earing a bold and bright 1980s design.
Financial investment or emotional investment? Maybe this is the wrong question, as the two so often go
hand in hand. If I had to choose a single compass to navigate between them, I would find it in words which,
however familiar, however often we hear them, never fail to strike a chord: “It is only with the heart that one
can see rightly.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wasn’t writing about necklaces or bracelets, but ultimately, isn’t
this how we appreciate jewelry best?

Marie de Pimodan, editor-in-chief