Hello and welcome to Kwiat and Fred Leighton. My name is Greg Kwiat. I’m joined by my colleague, Rebecca Selva, Creative Director. We are thrilled to be here with you today. And we thank you for joining us. We have a lot to discuss, a lot to show you. We are on the verge of what will be a great spring. And there is a lot to be excited about. A lot of positive energy in the air. We’ve got Mother’s Day coming up. We’ve got graduations coming up, birthdays, anniversaries, lots of reasons to be thankful and to celebrate. And we are appreciative for you joining with us. We are going to show you some wonderful jewelry. Are you excited, Rebecca?

I’m very excited. I’m so happy that we’re here. Lots of positivity in the air. So many things happening, good things happening. So let’s talk about some great gift items.

The first theme that we want to discuss today is about classic minimalist everyday jewelry. At Kwiat, this is our one hundred and fourteenth Mother’s Day, and we believe that every mom wants to wear something that is both easy and timeless. And so our first look, we’re going to start with diamond stud earrings, the perfect gift for any occasion. Rebecca, why diamond stud earrings?

Well, the question is why a Kwiat diamond stud earring?

Good question. So at Kwiat, all of our diamonds are cut to perfection. We cut each diamond to be as bright and as brilliant as possible to show its full size. We call this cut, our Kwiat Tiara Cut and all of our diamond studs feature our beautifully cut diamonds. They’re set in a three pronged platinum martini setting. It shows less metal, sits closer to the ear. Just a beautiful way, really the only way you should ever wear a diamond stud earring. And you can see how lovely it sits on the ear, as Lily models it for us.

It’s perfect.

Absolutely. Also, look at that wedding band that she’s wearing. That is an Ashoka Diamond wedding band. Each of those diamonds is one carat each. And the Ashoka is an exceptional cut. It’s a proprietary cut that only we carry in the United States at Kwiat. The beauty of the cut is that it brings the best of the cushion and the emerald cut. It’s in a elongated stone with rounded soft corners, a beautiful faceting pattern that’s unique and brilliant in these wedding bands really show off the beauty of that stone.

And tell us about the cut of the Ashoka, doesn’t Ashoka show more bigger in size than its carat weight?

Absolutely. So relative to an emerald cut of comparable carat weight, it’s actually thirty percent larger looking, which means you can make beautiful jewelry with it that really shows nice scale and has maximum brilliance. It’s a it’s a beautiful stone and we make a lot of jewelry. Wedding bands are among the most popular designs for the Ashoka Diamond.

Another everyday piece, Rebecca, the necklace that we see here. Tell me about this.

Well, this is a Diamond Riviere and this is a Kwiat classic as well. But this classic has, as you mentioned, a very special setting. This is a two prong setting.

We hear all the time, how can we show less metal, more diamond? And so we engineered this necklace to perfection to use only two prongs on each stone. That is the minimum number of prongs you can hold to securely hold the diamond and still show the maximum amount of beauty from those diamonds. And you can really see the each individual stone and you see the scalloped edges and it looks like a row of round diamonds. Really a beautiful way to wear a necklace. And it’s easy. I mean, this is easy.

It’s easy to wear and also on its own, it’s gorgeous. But let’s talk about layering, which we will later on. But it’s perfect for layering.

Absolutely. Finally, one more piece that Lily is showing is this beautiful Riviere diamond bracelet. A diamond line bracelet, sometimes called a tennis bracelet. It’s for everyone. It’s so easy to wear when we talk about what’s the first staple that you can put on in the morning, a diamond line bracelet. We’ve been making diamond line bracelets since the days of my great grandfather and we continue to improve upon it. We have our Tiara clasp that is just a nice detail that really shows that it’s a Kwiat piece, fine hallmark of excellence.

This is a great look.

Easy, right? Easy to wear.

Easy to wear.

Now let’s take a look at some other pieces that are also easy to wear. We hear stackable a lot. People like to stack bracelets. These are perfect.

These are perfect. And we have three bracelets here in 18 karat white gold, and yellow gold, and in rose gold. And you can absolutely wear them all together and they look beautiful.

And why are people afraid of mixing metals?

I don’t know, Greg, but we’ve got to debunk that.

Well, let’s debunk that. Take a look at these three that you can see how the metal sing to each other. These are wonderful together. And stacking is both easy and it’s popular. And it’s something fun to do. It gives a playfulness to what is still important pieces in your jewelry collection.

Another fun way to stack bangles is to mix in some lighter and thinner ones. So in addition to the stackable bangles, we also have this, our seven stone mix shaped bangle. This is in yellow gold. We do this in both white and rose as well. This is a lovely style. It’s so easy to wear alongside other things you might have, other bangles that you might wear in your daily life. This is a great one.

And it’s very impactful, Greg.

Yeah, there’s a lot of look to this, for sure. Mix shapes, we use marquees and rounds, Ashoka diamonds, all the different shapes come together in a really beautiful way. Really interesting. One of the things at Kwiat that we do really well is use a variety of diamond shapes. So it’s not just about the round diamond. It’s about mixing the rounds with pear shapes, and marquees, and ovals, and emerald cuts and bringing it all together in a piece that just tells a great story.

Everyday fabulous, that’s what I say.

Now, let’s take a look at this next look on Lily, a great group of pieces that really show what everyday glamor can be about. So on her ear, we see the fine ear climber earring. This is classic with a twist. The up the ear style has been very popular.

Very popular. And look how beautiful that looks, you know. And we know that, that type of design goes back to the nineteen thirties and nineteen fifties. But it is so current and it just as you know that accent that makes it unexpected.

Absolutely. And, and I like the way that it graduates. And we had fun designing this because it was all about how do you tell a great story, how do you do something really beautiful using just five simple stones? And I think this is a really beautiful and wearable earring, I love the way this looks on her.

Also the necklace. She’s actually layering two necklaces. So, yes. And you can see she’s actually layering them in a mixed metal. Which is a lot of fun. So the solitaire pendant is one and a quarter carat Kwiat Tiara cut diamond. So that is a round diamond cut to our extraordinarily strict standards set in a very delicate setting. Appears to float on the body in a platinum chain.

And tell me about the gold chain that she’s wearing.

So the gold chain is from our Diamond Strings collection. We call it our quads. The four diamond element alternating with the single stone. And this is 16 inches, which is a wear a kind of on a once around on the neck. We do these longer as well that you can double. And so this necklace is a wonderful piece. This necklace is one thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars, really easy to wear and really fun piece.

And it lays beautifully on the neck, Greg. And that’s a 16 inch necklace, right?

Absolutely, yes. This is a pair of Moonlight huggie earrings from our Moonlight collection, a huggie is a hoop style that just sits really close to the ear. And so it’s really elegant and a lot of ways classic and simple, but yet super wearable.

Every day perfect, and certainly now, Greg, very close to the ear it is great and comfortable and easy to wear.

And that’s because we are all wearing masks. And so sometimes when you can’t wear the bigger, more dramatic earring, something that frames the face is the right answer here. And these are again, Moonlight huggie earrings set in white gold. These are one thousand nine hundred dollars. Great gift for anyone on your list. And then, of course, the Sunburst emerald cut diamond East-West pendant.

That’s a fabulous pendant. The design of that is quite special. Let’s talk about how it has such an impact and how it’s designed.

So the beauty of this piece is you get a look of a three carat diamond and this costs two thousand six hundred dollars.

Wow.

We do that by combining stones in a very creative and unique way. So we start with a series of baguettes to create the rectangular frame, surround it with a delicate halo and create a necklace that has a lot of impact and a lot of look for a very attractive price.

And I love the East-West Story as well.

That’s very, it’s very young. It’s fresh, it’s a very modern way to wear the East-West direction. It makes it feel more casual and there’s something about casual and diamonds that really can go together. You know, you just need to envision it differently. The East-West orientation is exactly how we do that in this design.

So our next theme is Modern Classics, and we are going to be showing some wonderful Fred Leighton pieces of 20th century and 21st century that have a modern spirit and bold design.

So let’s see what Lily’s wearing. Here, what are we doing, we’re debunking the myth.

Let’s start with this necklace. This necklace is a lot of fun and it’s a real twist on that classic diamond Riviere. It’s got this beautiful swirl elements. This is a necklace from the 1950s by Oscar Heyman Brothers. It is numbered with over five carats of diamonds. This is a great piece I love. It’s a classic with a twist. It’s really easy to wear. And did you know that it actually has an attachment? You can hang a pendant from this. So if you want to dress this up even more and hang something colorful or a large diamond, you can do that with this necklace.

It has such great detail and it has a beautiful baguette swirl on either side that just adds that distinct accent to the necklace.

You know what I love? You can see in that necklace the parallels between, for example, the 1950s and today. What women were wearing in the 1950s this is coming out of World War Two, the classic American woman. You know, a very it’s a demure style, but it’s, it had it had real meaning and oomph then and it’s exactly the way people are wearing it today. It’s that really easy, feminine way to wear a diamond necklace.

Absolutely. And on her fingers, Lily is wearing two beautiful dome shaped rings. One, nineteen thirties in diamond and platinum. It’s French marks, beautiful with these baguettes through the middle, creating this lovely dome shape.

And I love that ring. I love that ring because I think it speaks to the height of that art modern art deco moment that was happening in the nineteen thirties. I love the use of the rounds along with the baguette shapes. That has almost four carats of diamonds. That ring is thirty four thousand five hundred dollars. And the other ring, of course…

Look at that, also that beautiful classic dome shape, but here in gold. Here’s the nineteen forties. Gold is used a lot in the 40s because of the war efforts and the scarcity and the price of platinum. So here you have the wonderful gold ring but also has diamond accents and has this beautiful square shaped diamonds throughout the top.

And I love the way you’re showing these two rings together because you really see the evolution of that style, that bombè style, that domed ring, powerful cocktail ring. Nineteen thirties is a hyper art deco, but then just ten years later, the styles have completely changed and it’s in yellow gold. It has a very different look. But the idea, how does a woman wear a powerful and bold cocktail ring? It’s all right there.

And look how beautiful they look together with that necklace. So here is platinum and yellow gold together and looks fabulous and on her ears, Lily is wearing our hexagonal shaped stud in gold with a diamond, a rose cut center. It’s fabulous together.

This is a contemporary design, Signed Fred Leighton. I love this earring because I think this is such a great alternative to a classic diamond stud. If you’re looking for something to change it up, bring in a little bit of gold. This hexagonal motif has recurred over the years in jewelry, and we use it here with that accent of that rose cut diamond in the center. These earrings are three thousand nine hundred in eighteen karat yellow gold. I love these, perfect gift for anyone on your list.

Now, let’s turn our attention to some more classic styles, let’s look at these three bracelets together. You picked these together. I want you to talk about why you think these bracelets together tell such a great story.

Well, they share a modern spirit, as we mentioned before. And also they have these, they’re so easy to wear. They’re links. They have architecture. They’re sleek and they’re modern. I think they they sing to each other. They can be, they’re wonderful worn alone or they can be worn with other bracelets, but they have such presence and style.

So the first bracelet, the one closest to the hand is gorgeous concave links. It’s hollow, so it wears easily. It’s a special bracelet. This is actually one of our more recent acquisitions. We both got really excited when we saw this piece and we had to bring it into our collection. I love this one. Nineteen forties, that bracelet is eighteen thousand five hundred. The one in the middle…

Cartier.

Cartier, London, from the 1920s, art deco signed and numbered, that’s a great piece, has over eight carats of diamonds set in platinum. That is a one hundred thousand dollar bracelet. It’s highly collectible, classic art deco, classic Cartier at the height of their work.

And then the third bracelet…

Wow.

Highly architectural in design, beautiful, also 1940s, this one has quite a bit of heft to it. That’s that’s a really feel the Gold weight.

Those spheres are just beautiful. The spheres, you know, that run through the center of the bracelet. It’s got such architecture and bold design. And yet it sits on the wrist so gracefully.

And that is in 18 karat yellow gold as well. That is nineteen thousand five hundred. That’s a great trio of bracelets.

I love them.

With Mother’s Day right on the horizon, we like to think of gifts for mom. A popular gift on Mother’s Day is flowers, and we’re a big believer in roses. You can bet my mother’s going to have a bouquet of roses to wake up to that morning. But at Kwiat, we’ve often designed jewelry in a floral motif. In fact, our name Kwiat means flower in Polish, and we’ve always taken that meaning to the spirit of our design. And we love to bring flowers and floral designs to life in diamonds.

Why is floral jewelry and with its clusters, why are those so popular?

Well, flowers have always inspired jewelry design and they actually look so feminine and beautiful. But a cluster actually achieves a very big look, as you know, and it’s very effective as well.

When you when you take a group of smaller stones, whether it’s five, six, seven stones and you group them together, you can get a beautiful and layered design that actually has a scale bigger than a single stone, and it’s very impactful.

So let’s take a look at what Lily is wearing. She’s got two wonderful pieces, the cluster pendant necklace, in 18 karat white gold that is a beautiful mix of round and oval diamonds in that cluster design. Very impactful. That looks, I mean, if you had a 10 carat diamond on your neck, I’m not sure you’d even have the dimensions of that piece. This piece is thirteen thousand five hundred. It’s a wonderful statement piece for an event or for daily wear. It really works beautifully in beautiful diamonds. And of course, paired on Lily’s ears with this gorgeous five stone pear shaped cluster.

Look at that.

I love this. It’s 10 pear shapes. This piece is eleven thousand three hundred and fifty dollars. And that is a huge look. A special pair of earrings, really wearable, but really special in its design. And those are set in platinum.

And now we move on to my personal favorite. Tell us about it.

The American Beauty collection, you have always loved this collection.

I love it. I love it.

I think I know why.

So as the story of my family goes, my grandfather, shortly after he was married to my grandmother, designed a floral necklace for her. A garland style using Marquise and Pear Shapes and called it the American Beauty collection. And it has always had a mythical spot in our family’s history. And we have continued with this collection ever since those days. Exceptionally beautiful in design, classic and timeless. This is as enduring today as it was more than a half century ago. And I expect a half century from now my grandkids will be talking about this collection with the same enthusiasm. This pair of earrings is your personal favorite. If I’m not mistaken.

I love them. It also says much about, you know, the design esthetic and your grandfather’s love of pear shapes and marquise. So it’s not only love for your grandmother, but love for these diamond cuts and how it’s ingenious because you can achieve a very big look using these stones.

My grandfather David, or D.K, as we all called him, in the professional context, either that or Mr Kwiat, of course. But D.K loved Marquise Shapes, just loved them. There was never a marquise shape that he didn’t want to build a design around. This is our five stone pear shaped and marquise cluster from the American Beauty collection. This is the more petite wearable size at ten thousand five hundred. But we do this in sizes up to one carat each diamond for exceptionally important events. And I love this design. This is a really wearable earring.

Now for some really wearable flower pieces. This is the four petal flower pendant from our Sunburst collection. Beautiful design. That’s an everyday piece, and that’s a one thousand dollar necklace set in 18 karat white gold.

It’s so pretty!

What can I say, it’s just so easy. It’s great to layer, great to wear alone.

I say yes.

How could you not? So then, the next piece, this is the floral cluster and in a frame there’s actually a double halo of diamonds around this piece. Set in 18 karat white gold, this has almost a half a carat of diamonds. It’s one thousand eight hundred dollars.

So this has a floral cluster and a frame around it, no?

Absolutely. Have you ever seen that YouTube video about the double rainbow? This is this piece always makes me think of it. I want to say double rainbow every time I see it, because you’ve got the double halo of diamonds, it’s one of one of the favorites around here.

So the next pendant is this beautiful five petal cluster pendant. It’s from our Starburst collection, just another beautiful flower motif. But what’s amazing about this, is it really shows how when you take a group of diamonds together and build a design around them, you can build a really impressive scale. This necklace is two thousand three hundred and fifty dollars. But it really shows as a very important necklace. That is, of course, that set in 18 karat white gold.

How pretty is that?

Then for some beautiful cluster earrings, this six stone floral cluster stud earring is a perfect stud alternative. So, sometimes people want to put on something with just a bit more design than the classic round diamond. This is a six stone diamond cluster, easy to wear, carat and a half plus of diamonds set in 18 karat white gold, six thousand one hundred and fifty dollars for a very significant look.

It’s a great diamond earring, you just don’t take that off. You just wear it every day.

And then, keeping with the floral theme, our floral earrings in 18 karat white gold, these are floral petal earrings, seven thousand three hundred and fifty dollars, just a beautiful design for the flower lover. This is something that really speaks to you.

Just got a lovely trefoil design, which is also a very classic motif.

Of course, trefoil meaning three leaves.

Three leaves, there you go.

And to wrap up our flower section, we’ll look back at Lily and she is wearing our four petal stud earrings, one thousand three hundred and fifty dollars in 18 karat white gold. Paired with the sunburst necklace, so you’ve got the beautiful clusters of diamonds. Again, another take on that Riviere. Something that’s got a little bit of modulation of size. That’s a very pretty piece.

Do we make that in other, in rose gold or 18 karat yellow?

We certainly have. And if you’re a rose gold person or yellow gold person, all of our pieces can be special ordered that way. But we have made this for sure in rose and yellow gold. And finally on her finger, the Vine ring. Sometimes it’s not just the petals, but the vines of the flower themselves. And this ring is inspired by the nature of the vine kind of wrapped around the finger. That’s a great ring. Ever since you designed it a couple of years ago, it became one of our most popular styles. That ring is three thousand and fifty dollars, set in 18 karat white gold.

In our next segment, we’re going to take a look at gold jewelry throughout time. We’re going to look at the way that gold jewelry has been used in modern times and also some of the pieces from almost two hundred years ago. So why don’t we begin?

Well, let’s start with what Lily is wearing, which is a wonderful gold look that integrates 19th century jewels, 20th century jewels, and 21st century jewels. We’re going to start with her ring. Her ring is a beautiful 1940s citrine and gold ring. The 1940s were all about gold, using gold and using these wonderful semi-precious stones to have great effect. And here you have a very sumptuous citrine ring in gold.

And since we like to throw some fun facts at our friends, here’s a couple of fun facts about the 1940s and this ring. In the 1940s, World War Two was happening and so, platinum was reserved for the war effort and gold in its colors of rose and green and yellow became very popular. And you started to see jewelry done mostly in those types of metals. On top of that, the escapism that people were looking for was found where? At the movies. Hollywood was all about big and glamorous. And so you saw stones like amethyst and citrine and aquamarine, stones that are naturally very large in nature became very popular in jewelry. And this is a great example of that. This cocktail ring with a thirty seven carat citrine. This is French hallmarked, which tells you that it’s really made in a very fine quality.

It’s beautiful. Also a fact, citrine, amethyst, and aquamarine also were much more affordable gemstones, compared to rubies and sapphires and emeralds, and that’s why they were also favored. But here, Lily is wearing a wonderful 19th century gold chain with it. This is a chain that’s 53 inches long, which is very typical of the 19th century. They had these beautiful long chains.

Intricate link too, it’s a beautiful link.

Yes!

It’s one of my favorite things in vintage jewelry is the variety of styles in gold chains, you see these necklaces with all of these different intricate links, you can imagine how long it would have taken someone to make that. This is in the age before jewelry could be made by machines. This was handmade jewelry. And that’s what’s so amazing about these intricate links.

And as a wonderful complement to the necklace and to the ring, Lily is wearing collet set citrine earrings by Fred Leighton. These are by Fred Leighton, inspired by 19th century settings, the cushion shaped citrines are set in silver and gold collets. Why don’t we talk about that Greg?

So in the eighteen hundreds, what we call the 19th century or the Victorian era and the era before the Georgian era, jewelry was set in yellow gold. There was no alloy for white gold yet that was broadly used. There was not an awareness of how to use platinum in jewelry. And so jewelry was made in yellow gold. And because most of the diamond jewelry, you wanted it to look bright and white, you would layer silver over the yellow gold when it was first created. That would make the piece bright and white. But fast forward almost 200 years and that silver has tarnished. And so now you’ve got a darkened metal look. And that’s actually what people love today about antique jewelry, that darkened metal look that makes it look so edgy and yet so modern.

Well, the darkness of the metal creates a wonderful frame to the stones.

Absolutely, and the color of the stone, either the whiteness of the diamond or in this case, the beautiful golden tone of the citrine really pops off of the background. These are Signed Fred Leighton, these are a pair of earrings that we make. And these earrings are one thousand eight hundred. The citrines are six carats in total.

And she’s also wearing two rings that are Signed Fred Leighton, a beautiful rose cut, bombè ring and a seven stone old European cut diamond. And here again, you see our use of that silver top gold technique where we are plating the yellow gold base with the layer of silver that we then oxidize. So you’ve got that darkened metal look to create the contrast between the white diamonds in the bombè ring. You’ve got all the mix shaped rose cuts. And then, of course, there’s the seven stone old European ring, two great rings, easy to wear together or individually. The mix shape rose cut ring is eight thousand one hundred and the seven stone diamond collet set ring is three thousand seven hundred.

That’s one great look.

Let’s look at the ways gold has been used in some other great designs. So our first piece is a wonderful pair of earrings by a modern jeweler, someone working today that we are very close with here at Fred Leighton. Someone by the name of Hanut Singh. Yes! Hanut is a jeweler based in India. He himself comes from, is descended from royal family members. And he’s taken that esthetic of Indian glamor and he’s brought it to a modern sensibility with such a wonderful use of different materials.

And he loves to use rock crystal. And here you have Hanut’s take on a classic pendant earring called a Girandole, which has three drops using rock crystal to great effect. Rock crystal ,diamonds, and touches of ruby. Beautiful.

And it’s got such a glamorous style to it. You can feel how it’s inspired by, you know, the past era. So that’s a lovely earring and that is twelve thousand four hundred dollars. The next earring is this beautiful pair of Victorian yellow gold drops featuring one and a half carat each of old mine diamonds. It’s a beautiful, simple earring, and yet there’s a beautiful antique twist to it. You can see it in the design above the earring.

Well, you have a diamond, as you said, a diamond earring here that has style and is distinctive and is different.

And it takes you right back to the late eighteen hundreds when you can imagine someone right out of Bridgerton wearing this earring. And finally, the Etruscan revival, gold hollow form earrings, a wonderful design. Etruscan revival period was in the eighteen hundreds. The jewelers of that era were looking backwards to ancient civilizations, and the Etruscan revival movement was really about this granulated gold. The surface of the gold has these little granulations that you can see the texture and it makes for a more interesting earring.

And, you know, you also have great design motifs that came with the Etruscan revival movement spheres, darts, and here you have them featured in this wonderful earring. The spheres are hollow form, we talked about that. So they’re light, but they just have great design. Look how pretty they are.

They have a lot of presence. These earrings are four thousand five hundred dollars. And then, what would you wear with these earrings? On your wrists, you could stack bangles. Just as we do today with modern designs, you can always stack antique bangles and the Victorian period has a wonderful selection of bangles to choose from. So here we see Etruscan revival again, this this Etruscan style continues.

Well, it was such a strong and important movement in the 19th century, using gold, granulation. And bangles go back to antiquity, so that is part of the popularity of bangles in the 19th century. And this is a wonderful bracelet with cabochon rubies.

It’s got one point eight carats of rubies around the bracelet. This is fourteen thousand five hundred dollars in 15 karat yellow gold. Now 15 karat yellow gold.

It’s English!

It is an English thing. It is the standard of gold that was used in jewelry made in England in the Victorian period was 15 karat gold. So, you know, the dead giveaway when something 15 karat, it is an English piece by background. And then here we see a 14 karat yellow gold wire work, bangle bracelet. So, again, a little bit of design to the bracelet. You see the wire work on the piece itself. This is in 14 karat yellow gold, most likely indicating that it was American made in that period. It’s dated, we dated to 1912. And how do we know to date it to 1912? Well, there’s personal engraving on the inside that actually lists the date.

There you go!

And that is how we, that is how we know. It’s not much of a mystery when you have written on the inside of a piece.

OK, and what’s the other bangle?

And the other gold bangle that we’re seeing it paired with here is 14 karat yellow gold engraved bangle by a company called Riker Brothers. Riker Brothers was one of the Newark, New Jersey makers. Fun fact coming for you, Newark, New Jersey, in the nineteen hundreds and at the turn of the century, for about the next 20 or so years was one of the most creative and important spots for jewelry manufacturing. You saw beautiful work being done in Art Nouveau styles and the early Edwardian jewelry. You see a lot of enameled work, a lot of granulated gold work in Newark, New Jersey. Today it’s not really a center for jewelry manufacturing, but it really was a place and Riker Brothers was one of the most notable makers from Newark, New Jersey, in that period.

Well, you know, they were, it was an important center that was not only supplying the American market, but also they were exporting to England.

And it’s a perfect example of when a cluster of talented people together, they feed on each other and they really can accelerate the movement of design ideas. And you saw a lot of great work coming out of all these. And they’re all referencing each other in that respect, but really, it’s a lot of fun to learn about that movement, the Newark, New Jersey movement.

And then, of course, Fred Leighton, Signed Fred Leighton piece, our collet set bangle using Fred Leighton Round Diamonds, our take on the old European, the perfected old European cut. That is a perfect piece by itself or stacked together.

And again, a take on the beautiful inspired by the collet setting with the beautiful patina that the silver has as it is ages and oxidizes. And how beautifully does it work with the gold? It just they complement each other and they actually. Our next theme is emeralds. Emeralds have historically been coveted, had incredible allure. What is it about emeralds?

It’s one of the most regal of gemstones. It has one of the longest histories in society, with royalty. The history of emeralds is embedded in the history of exploration of the new world and discovery, the Spanish ships and all of the ships from all over Europe that came to the new world, one of the most prized things to bring back, to thank the king and queen for their patronage were emeralds from the mines of Colombia. And Colombian emeralds have long held this place in our culture and history as some of the most special gemstones ever found on Earth.

It’s that color isn’t it? It’s the color.

It’s the color. So the color of the Colombian stones. Is that beautiful deep green with a bluish overtone. It’s such a vibrant color. The beautiful Colombian emeralds are incredibly vibrant and bright. At Kwiat, all of our emeralds are Colombian and we are thrilled to have introduced a broader Colombian emerald collection just a few years ago. We took all of our expertise in diamond cutting and sourcing, and applied that to the emerald part of what we do and have built up our designs in emeralds. And so here we see Lily wearing a couple of our important emerald pieces. Let’s start with the necklace. That is East-West setting again. You can see it’s a cushion cut emerald set in East-West direction with a delicate halo around it. That’s a three carat center with almost a quarter carat of diamonds simply set.

That east-west orient always just gives it something new and fresh, right?

Yeah, it feels younger and more contemporary and I think that that’s why people like to set them in that direction. And with it, we’ve paired these earrings, Colombian emerald drop earrings, each of the centers in that earring is one and a quarter carats. You’ve got the double halo. The intricate work here is really the hallmark of this earring, you’ve got the halo of round diamonds. And then around that, you’ve got a calibre cut, specially cut to fill exactly the design of an emerald. That earring is thirty one thousand four hundred dollars set in platinum, really elegant earring featuring the deep green of the beautiful emeralds.

On her finger, you see this gorgeous four and a half carat emerald cut emerald ring.

What a classic, beautiful way to mount an emerald. Shall we give them a little history about?

So tell me, someone famous in history has worn an emerald cut, has received an emerald as an engagement ring, who is that?

The Duchess of Windsor. And that was a 19 carat emerald ring by Cartier, nineteen point seven six exactly. And she had it remounted in the nineteen fifties to, in the style of jewelry then, in gold. But her ring, her engagement ring was an emerald.

And here you see this is a beautiful square shaped, vibrant color surrounded by four baguette diamonds. It’s a really great way to design and wear this emerald ring. Truly a classic.

Now, if we look at some other beautiful emerald rings, the first ring is our band. It’s a beautiful emerald band from our Splendor collection. This is a diamond and emerald stripe Eternity band on the middle finger there. You can see the way that emerald comes across in a diagonal across the finger that’s over carat of emeralds and almost a half of carat of diamonds.

Are those emeralds French cut?

They are French cut emeralds, yes. Which is such an unusual way to cut emeralds. But in our design, we wanted to really highlight the beauty of the stone and to bring that calibre cut to life. So we did it in this really intricate design. That ring is eight thousand three hundred and fifty dollars. It is set at 18 karat white gold.

I love this next ring.

This next ring. The snake ring. So we designed a series of rings around pear shaped emeralds using the snake as a motif. So this is the all diamond snake with the pear shaped emerald head, that is over one carat emerald in the head of the snake. And it wraps three times around the finger. That is thirteen thousand five hundred dollars, that ring. And that is set in 18 karat white gold.

That’s such a great ring. What is it about snake rings?

The snake is such a romantic motif, I have a feeling we’ve got a few more snakes coming up later to discuss. And then the other snake ring that we are showing today, also with almost a one carat pear shaped head and full carat of diamonds. And also you’ll see the detail of the green on the tail of the snake. Just a nice little detail to show that we were really thinking the design through all the way. That is eleven thousand nine hundred dollars. And this series of snake rings are really wonderful, and there are a few more in that series, some of which we will look forward to sharing with you.

One more beautiful emerald earring we’ve talked already today about clusters and the impact clusters can have, this pair of earrings features a carat and a half of oval emeralds surrounded by one carat of diamonds. It is a wonderful cluster design, impactful, but yet still classic.

And a regal design, I think we see that type of a very colored gemstone with diamonds around, we know who received an engagement ring.

It reminds me of Princess Diana’s engagement except, this is an emerald and that was a sapphire.

Yes, and that is, it’s a classic design and way to show a beautiful color gemstone.

Here we see a beautiful Colombian emerald pendant in a similar cluster design that center stone is over a carat 30, surrounded by over a carat of diamonds. A special piece of jewelry, bold, impactful, regal, and classic.

Absolutely.

And now for the pièce de résistance. Well, now, Lily is wearing something pretty, pretty special. This is one of our most important designs from our Colombian emerald collection. Tell me about it.

Well, what you have here is the classic pear shape. Used in a very creative way that brings your eye to that wonderful emerald. The weights on these stones are just nine carats.

One is just over nine carats. One is under nine carats. You have the deep green color of the Colombian emerald. But there’s something edgy. There’s something so alluring about the way in which this is worn. This is unexpected, it’s modern, and it’s dramatic.

And it actually brings your eye to that because you’re not expecting to see a pear shape mounted that way or shown that way or suspended that way from an earring. And here you have a very glamorous and elegant earring.

And that earring is eight hundred thousand dollars set in platinum. That is a special pair of earrings. And we’re thrilled to be able to show it to you today.

So let’s talk about one of our favorite themes, layering. It’s so on trend and frankly, it’s so beautiful and it allows someone to create their own story and to be creative in wearing jewelry, which is great because you’ve got to enjoy it and take joy in wearing your jewelry. So let’s talk about what Lily’s wearing in this wonderful layered look.

So these are three necklaces, one of which is wrapped twice. And that’s the one we’ll speak about first. It is 21 carats of briolettes and almost seven carats of tanzanite, the blue stone in the necklace that you see here. This is beautiful because the diamonds are briolettes. Briolettes are 360 degree diamonds, so they’re barrel shaped. Beautiful old world feel to them. Just, this is a great necklace, and the way we set it is such that you can’t see any metal at all. It just really looks like floating diamonds on the neck. A wonderful and important necklace. This is layered with the long necklaces, all rose cut diamonds. It’s actually got one hundred and fourteen rose cut pear shaped diamonds in varying sizes and that’s over 11 carats of diamonds. It’s mixed in with little sea pearls just to give it that pop of texture amongst the white stones. You get the little White Sea pearls. Again, that’s thirty two inches and she’s wearing that just long hanging. It’s not layered, although it could be doubled, it’s not doubled on her neck. And in the middle of those two layered necklaces, we have of course the solitaire pendant.

A gorgeous solitaire pendant. This is a Fred Leighton round, it’s our old European Cut and it’s one point eight one carats and it’s just perfect.

At Fred Leighton, we’ve taken the Kwiat family’s expertise in diamond cutting and we perfected the old European that old world round shaped diamond. And so we call it our Fred Leighton round. And we built this pendant around it. Take some of the antique styling in the mounting simple platinum chain, perfect for layering. And with these great necklaces, a wonderful pair of earrings. Talk to me about these.

Well, these are by Fred Leighton. These are Signed Fred Leighton collection, Blue chalcedony, that is framed in sapphires and that wonderful hexagonal shape and studded with a diamond, a perfect complement to that, to all this layering.

And chalcedony, of course, is a material that has been used in fine jewelry going back to really the early part of the nineteen hundreds. You see it in a lot of art deco jewelry, wonderful jewelers like Suzanne Belperron, Cartier, Tiffany used a lot of chalcedony in their designs. Chalcedony has a wonderful, bluish, purplish color and the contrast with the blue, the more royal blue of the Sapphires is what really brings this earring to life. And that earring is six thousand dollars and it’s set in eighteen karat white gold.

Let’s look at another layered look. This time we’ll layer some gold and diamonds, some antique styling with some real antique pieces. Tell me about what we see here.

Well, we have three wonderful necklaces creating this look. The chain is an early 19th century chain. It’s Georgian, beautiful gold links, hammered, thinly hammered, finely hammered links. And it’s worn tripled, worn three times around.

That’s fifty one inches.

Oh yeah!

A fifty one inch chain and that that piece is eleven thousand dollars.

And resting on that gold chain is our demi-riviera. Again Fred Leighton rounds beautifully graduated in this Demi-Riviera and just catching all the light and set in these antique style collets.

And that has over eight carats of diamonds. That is forty three thousand dollars. Set in, as you said, silver topped eighteen karat yellow gold.

And the final note, pear shaped citrine, again, collet set on the gold chain.

What I love about that necklace is the rich color of the citrine in the way it pops off of the background of that antique style collet setting. The pear shape is such a classic shape for a pendant. I love this piece. I think it’s a really wonderful, everyday wearable piece of jewelry.

So our last theme is sentimental and sentimental works for me.

Look I mean, jewelry has been around for thousands of years and it’s nothing if not sentimental. Keepsakes and markers of the time of your life. And for the romantics out there, for the people who see in jewelry sentimental tokens of love, this section is for you, these pieces are right up your alley.

So flowers have great meaning and in jewelry in particular, are sentimental and used in sentimental jewelry. So we will start with our wonderful 19th century sapphire and diamond three petal clover brooch, which is so lovely. And I love brooches.

This is such a little jewel because the sapphires are so bright. The piece is so lovely. You’re seeing brooches come back in a more meaningful way. We’re seeing it certainly in fashion magazines and on the red carpet. But in real life, too, we’re seeing women and men, by the way, being very comfortable wearing a brooch as an accent to an outfit. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, this brooch did walk the Oscar red carpet at some point, didn’t it?

It was worn by Common.

It was worn by Common who, little known fact was really the first of the recent group of men to wear a brooch on the red carpet. And that’s about two or three years ago. I think he won an Oscar wearing that piece. And that is French antique from the Victorian era. Middle of the eighteen hundreds and a beautiful piece.

Here, this is truly sentimental. Two hearts, the double heart pendant in ruby and Diamond in 18 karat yellow gold. This piece is four thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. This is just a classic vintage charm.

When does this piece date from?

So this piece is going to be from the 1940s or 50s, it’s the sentimental moment where people were using gold in bolder ways and the hearts just make for a truly sentimental expression. And I have to say that if that doesn’t get sold soon, I am myself going to buy that piece because I love that piece.

And here we talked about Newark, New Jersey. This takes us back to exactly that moment. This is the kind of work that was happening at the turn of the century. The enamel work. This is an American piece, an antique pansy brooch in purple and pink enamel,

Beautiful. And pansies, the name pansy is derived from the French pensée moi, which means remember me. So again, something very sentimental and beautiful.

And you see a lot of these flower, enamel flower brooches. We’ve loved collecting and selling these over the years and we’ve done a lot of creative things and thought about great creative ways to wear them. And so this is a wonderful piece. This piece is four thousand eight hundred dollars, a truly fine example of the work of the early nineteen hundreds. And we’ve talked a little bit about snakes. So tell me about the sentimental meaning of snakes.

We love to talk about, we love snakes and we love to talk about snakes because snakes are the great romantic motif of the 19th century. Queen Victoria’s engagement ring was a snake, a gold snake ring with an emerald in its head because that was her, that’s her birthstone. So she greatly influenced jewelry. She’s the great jewelry influencer of all time. And snakes were very popular. So here we have a wonderful 19th century enamel and gold snake ring, which is quite unusual because of the openness of it and how it’s its entwining and wrapping around the finger. It’s absolutely gorgeous.

And as we often see with antique jewelry, the excitement can even be in the details. It’s the blue enamel and also the ruby eyes of the snake that make this piece really come to life and kind of demonstrate why we think it’s a fine example of the work of the Victorian era. And then, on the other finger.

Well, this is a ring that brings old and new together because this is a beautiful ruby band that we have made and suspended from it is a Victorian gold heart locket.

Yes, and so at Fred Leighton, one of the things we love to do is take old elements, bring them back to life. That antique heart charm on that ring is a perfect marriage of a piece from one hundred and fifty years ago, combined with something that is contemporary today. And of course, the red rubies speak to love, the heart speaks to love. If you have someone you love in your life, this is a perfect gift.

And continuing with snakes, this is a wonderful snake necklace. This is a gold and garnet snake necklace from the late Victorian period. The head and heart of the snake are in garnet. Garnet is a truly regal stone, the dark color red, very rich, beautiful tone.

Well, this is romantic messaging in this necklace. Not only do you have the snake, but you have the heart suspended from it, and it is a locket. It is crystal backed and it is a locket.

Now, today, we would put a picture, an engraving in a locket. In the Victorian period, they often put portraits. Sometimes they put mementos of loved ones like a lock of hair, but always with the most romantic intentions. And this is really romance in jewelry form right here. This is a wonderful piece. This is a twenty four thousand dollar necklace.

And then…

For anyone who loves a beautiful heart. This is how we will conclude the sentimental section of our evening. This is a six carat diamond surrounded by two halos, an emerald halo and an onyx halo. Calibre, very detailed, calibre cut, very detailed, very delicate and thin. A wonderful and important necklace. This is one hundred eighteen thousand dollars set in platinum. A wonderful piece of jewelry. Bold, romantic. What can you say about a piece like this? I guess nothing? Perfect. So that’s what we have to show you tonight. We could go on for hours, but we want to appreciate you and your time that you’ve given to us to be here. Before I forget though, tell me about what you’re wearing this evening.

Well, I selected vintage silver to wear. These both my bracelet and this necklace that I’m wearing are French early 20th century silver pieces.

Thank you again. We hope you enjoyed the pieces we showed you tonight, we made a selection of jewelry to show you that was imbued with meaning, with value, with sentimentality. As you consider the loved ones in your life this Mother’s Day and on your anniversaries and birthdays to come. Please think of Kwiat and Fred Leighton. We are thrilled to be here.