ETTORE SOTTSASS Italy
WALTER DE MARIO (maker) Italy
Architecural ring 1964
18K gold
Signed: ES1, 750, Walter de Mario touch mark
Illustrated: Ettore Sottsass, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1994, p. 65
Exhibited: Ettore Sottsass, Centre Pompidou, Paris, April 27-September 5, 1994; Barbara Radice, Ettore Sottsass: A Critical Biography, New York, 1993 p. 144-145 (for related drawings)
Verdura ring, highly textured 18K gold set with teardrop shaped turquoises and a convex center of pave diamonds, marked
***Top quality gem blue zircons over 10 carats trade at a minimum price of $200 per carat and go up from there depending on the size of the stone and the quality of the color. Blue zircon, the most popular color, is produced by heat treatment of brown zircon. But not all brown zircon will turn blue when heated; only some zircon has the right physical structure for this to occur. This is why most blue zircon comes from certain sources in Cambodia or Burma. Blue zircon is a reasonably hard gem with a Mohs hardness of about 7 to 7.5. Blue zircon has some unique properties that make it very popular with gemstone aficionados. Not only does zircon have outstanding brilliance, but it also has very strong dispersion or fire, the tendency to split white light into the spectral colors. Zircon also has very pronounced birefringence or double refraction, with a wide variance between the two refractive indices. This can be often be observed with the naked eye when you look down through the table of a cut zircon; you will observe facet doubling that makes the facet edges appear blurred.
The firm of Dreicer & Co. was one of the top luxury jewelry retailers in America during the first quarter of the 20th century. The firm is believed to have originated as J. Dreicer & Son representing the Parisian firm A. Eknayan and displaying an extensive array of diamond jewelry during the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The emphasis on diamonds at the St. Louis exposition would characterize the firm’s production and resulting strong reputation from about 1910 through the 1920’s. Though it is not clear in what year the firm opened its boutique in New York City at 560 Fifth Avenue, the luxurious jewels in platinum and diamonds as well as pearls within were comparable with Cartier’s luxurious designs. The firm maintained a branch at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago. Dreicer & Co. is credited as the first company to introduce in New York many of the latest diamond cuts from Paris. The shop was liquidated in 1923 following the death of Michael Dreicer, the founder’s son, in 1921. Cartier bought Dreicer’s stock of jewels for $2.5 million
Provenance: Rupert Wace, London Size: 8 and 1/4
These impressive and rare dragon rings have been a feature of all the great ring collections, including the Harari, Guilhou, Spitzer, Franks, and Koch collections. They are known as ‘Naga rings’ because they are thought to represent the naga dragon which is thought to have sheltered the Buddha during a prolonged period of meditation. Chadour suggests that these rings were made for Royalty. The extravagant design certainly re-enforces the idea that they were made for lavish ceremonial use. Another example is in the British Museum.