Jewelry Biz - The Windsor Jewels At Auction...Again

Thank God Tabitha reminded me that today is the Sotheby's auction for the Windsor jewels...
I hadn't been paying attention.
Here's the famous 1952 Cartier onyx and diamond panther bracelet
which has estimates of 1 million to 1.5 million pounds.

That is pretty pricey for a panther...even one with provenance

Here's another view

Not only is it a great bracelet, it is iconic Cartier

But there is something, to me at least, not fresh about this collection.

In addition to the fact that the collection is so famous

haven't we seen all these items at auction before?

And would it be catty of me to say that these pretty panther pieces get around?

And what do we have here?

Oh it's a past  Beladora homepage photo with a panther bracelet.

And we have another perching panther from the past gracing the homepage of Beladora?

This one, in sapphires and diamonds sitting on a huge sapphire, had serious provenance too.

Don't get excited people, it's sold.

Now if you want to know about a woman with a jewel collection that put the Windsor's to shame

Dash has a post about the amazing Maharani Sita Devi of Baroda

Now this Baroda babe not only had an incredible life, she had some serious bling.

OK, bear with me just a little longer please because I just have to brag.

All of the photography for Beladora is done in house by the very talented Elizabeth Kollar.

Here's a link to the past homepage cover art for Beladora.

It's a good as anything that would come out of a fancy pants Madison Avenue advertising agency,

Don't you agree?

Billionaires Behaving Badly or Opulence Abounds Barry Diller Style

I've been enjoying Gawker today, so I thought I'd share with you the Monday mirth

While Barry Diller has denied raises and bonuses to his IAC staff for the third year in a row
he hasn't cut back on his own spending, at least not on decorating his office,
which apparently needed a new carpet...a $1,000,000 silk rug.

Well, we know that he's not shy about spending
Diller's luxe tastes are no secret, of course. He got dinged in the press earlier this year when it was revealed he spent $4,600 per day in IAC funds on personal travel during 2009. (It isn't cheap to hop from place to place aboard a $45 million Bombardier BD-700.) And he spent more than $200 million on the world's largest sailing vessel, the 300-foot-long Eos, which features a crew of nine as well as and two chefs. From 2000-2010, he was the second best-paid executive at a public company, right behind Oracle chief Larry Ellison.

Of course nothing can be too good for the CEO of a publicly owned company.

Note: the Diller private jet

and the Diller Yacht

Obviously, these belong to the man not the corporation.
Still it's hard not to imagine what the IAC employees feel about all of this.

I suppose that the institutional shareholders of IAC stock think that of this is all OK.

And speaking of Billionaires Behaving Badly...don't even get me started on Berlusconi...

All Things Wicki, Wacki and Wonderful

I'm sorry but I'm just not feeling the outrage over the latest Wikileaks.
Thanks to Gawker we've got some US Embassy gossip...and it has made our day.

Libyan President Mumammar al-Qadhafi apparently keeps a "voluptuous blonde" Ukranian nurse named Galyna Kolotnytska at his side at all times. According to one cable: "the Libyan Government sent a private jet to ferry her from Libya to Portugal to meet up with the Leader during his rest-stop. Some embassy contacts have claimed that Qadhafi and the 38 year-old Kolotnytska have a romantic relationship. While he did not comment on such rumors, a Ukrainian political officer recently confirmed that the Ukrainian nurses 'travel everywhere with the Leader.'" The cable says Kolotnytska is always with Qadhafi because "she alone knows his routine." Imagining this routine is the mental equivalent of the nuclear bomb Libya was trying to build in the early 2000s.

I'm always fascinated with news of my favorite Libyan as an honorary member of the Qadhafi tribe. 
Qadhafi also uses botox, which is obvious because of how beautifully taut his skin is.
And, I'm glad to read that cousin Moo is keeping up his appearance with botox.



And then we get this.

Kim Jong-Il was described by a diplomatic source as a "flabby old chap." That's mean. So the guy has curves? We're so sick of unrealistic body expectations for unhinged dictators.
Doesn't all that flab make him easier to target?

And then back to Africa, which is always funnier than a barrel full of monkeys.
Idiotic Zimbabwean dictator/president Robert Mugabe is an idiot. So says a former U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe in a cable! Mugabe sucks as a leader because of "his deep ignorance on economic issues (coupled with the belief that his 18 doctorates give him the authority to suspend the laws of economics, including supply and demand)." Oh, you did not just go there: In Zimbabwe people have been disappeared for insulting just one of Mugabe's doctorates.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing good to say about Assange, and his hacker sidekicks. And quite frankly I'm surprised to that he has gotten this far.

But our world is teaming with dictators who need to be taken down a notch or ten 
and I'm glad that the US Diplomatic officers can at least be honest about these tyrants in their internal communications because they are horny, fat and idiotic...and so much more.

Timeless Style - Renée Pearl and 1930's French Modernism

Renée Pearl photographed by Jacques-Henri Lartigue in 1930

I found this fabulous photo and story about fashion model and muse of Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Renée Pearl, on the Bluetramontana Style blog, and I couldn't help but note how modern her look was.

The big ring, the bangle bracelets...

this is how I would rock this look in 2010 Beladora style.

Lavender Jadeite and Diamond Ring in 18K $1850

Group of 25 Bangle Bracelets in 18K $4550

For more on Renée Pearl and French Modernism
regard

Having "The Talk" With Your Children

h/t  Pejman Yousefzadeh's blog A Chequer Board of Nights and Days

On Austria, Assimilation and Art - The Hare With The Amber Eyes

The Hare With The Amber Eyes: A Family's Century Of Art And Loss

I have been super busy these last few days, as I'm sure that you gathered from my lack of posting and commenting on all of your blogs. 
It is the season, after all, and the Christmas crunch is on.

Marie Antoinette - The Journey

Do you read only one book at a time or do you have several books going simultaneously?
I generally have 3 entirely different types of books going at the same time; a downloaded audio book on my iPod, a downloaded book on my nook (like a kindle) and an actual physical book.

Last week while finishing 'The Hare with the Amber Eyes' on my nook and 'Marie Antoinette' on my iPod, I was struck with the similar theme that runs through both books, the concept of being 'The Other'. 

No matter how Francais the Austrian born Marie Antoinette became, including bearing the dauphin, she was never truly accepted as the Queen of France.  She was libeled and maligned in print in Paris.  She was accused of cuckolding the King and of having numerous lovers.  She was blamed for adding to the national debt, for hoarding wheat during the low harvest and for virtually everything else that was wrong in France.  No matter what she did  for France, she remained 'The Other', an easy target and scapegoat for all that was wrong.

Stepping into the next century we have the flourishing of the Ephrussi family, a highly successful Russian Jewish Family that expanded their grain trading business in Odessa into a European banking powerhouse that rivaled the Rothchilde's. With branches of the family in London, Paris, Lucerne and Vienna, the great wealth enabled the family to become patrons of the arts and of the cultures of their respective cities.

Note the man in the top hat in Renoir's The Boating Party.  That was Charles Ephrussi, art historian, owner of the Parisian art journal La Gazette and patron of the Impressionists. 
He was also the model of Proust's character Charles Swann of 'Rememberance of Things Past'.

Amongst his vast art collection was a group of 264 netsuke which he purchased at the onset of the French fascination with all things Japonnais in 19th Century Paris.
'The Hare With The Amber Eyes' traces the journey of these netsuke from Charles'  elegantly art filled Palais Ephrussi to his nephew and niece at the Ephrussi Palais on the Ringstrasse in Vienna, to post WW2 Japan and finally to the author, British artist and Eprhussi descendant, Edmund de Waal.


As with the great nouveau riche families of 19th Century Europe, the Viennese branch of the Ephrussi were highly educated. Vicktor read history as he reluctantly took over as the head of the bank.  His daughter Elisabeth Ephrussi was the first woman to graduate with a degree in Law from the University of Vienna. All members of the family spoke Russian, French, English and German fluently.  They were full citizens of the Hapsburg Empire and loyal supporters of the Emperor.  They were titled. 
They were completely assimilated.
Or so they though.


All this of course changed with Kristallnacht.
They were 'The Other'.
But unlike Marie Antoinette, they were able to leave everything behind and survive.

This week I've been thinking about Thanksgiving, and about all of the things that I am thankful for...and there many. On this most American of holidays, I am indeed thankful that America is perhaps the only country where immigrants can indeed assimilate and become truly American. 

'The Hare With The Amber Eyes' is the best book that I have read all year and if you like History and Art History I encourage you to read it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving

If You've Got It Flaunt It - Or So They Tell Me

In the new issue of the edgy Flaunt Magazine, another gorgeous photo by Donna Trope with Beladora jewelry...or so they tell me. I can't tell anything from this photo so I'm off to buy the print edition.

Meanwhile, if you're not the type to flaunt it
please go see the beautiful pieces on the latest post of one of my favorite blogs, Amid Privilege. 
5 Pieces of Jewelry For A Wish List
Beladora has happily purchased a little ad on Privilege (our first blog ad!!)
and we feel privileged to be associated with one of the classiest blogs on the internet.

If you click through the Privilege blog and decide to purchase a little this or a little that
we will, with pleasure, send a modest referral fee to the Privilege blogstress...
as we would for anyone else who refers a client to our firm.

We have chosen not to sign up with the big affiliate marketing firms because the set up fees and monthly costs would have had to have been be incorporated into the prices of our jewelry. 

We would much rather work with bloggers, who we admire, on an individual basis, where we can compensate them in a way that will not affect our end prices to our clients.
For clarification, we don't work with the standard retail markup.  Our prices are based on what we had to pay to purchase an item.  If we bought an item particularly well, we will pass on that savings to our clients.

For example, take these earrings

They are being sold elsewhere for $18,000

Meanwhile, Beladora has the all white diamond version of the same Oscar Heyman earrings $9750.
They were purchased well, and can be sold at the right price.

So, go check out the Privilege wish list,
You might even be inspired to make your own...
you never know, with the holidays approaching fast
someone may want to know what you are wishing for.

Around Town - Sunday Afternoon Musicale

Really, this has been a weekend of music and WOW houses for me. 
Sunday afternoon I attended a small private afternoon musicale with a piano recital by Steve Hall. 
This lovely event was held at magnificent California Mediterranean home.
It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon and the hostess was so gracious to open up her exceptionally beautiful and tastefully decorated home.
Since she shared it with us, I thought that I would share it with you.
Here it is.

The recital was held in the living room, which was great because it was appropriately sized for a small group and it had rather exceptional accoutiscs.

I sat in this hallway between the living room and the library where I could admire the Second Empire furniture and the Impressionist paintings.

After the recital was finished we wandered around a bit to see more of the house.
Here is the library.

Then we went downstairs for the reception with champagne and hors d'oeuvres in the more casual entertaining areas, decorated with less formal furniture and modern art.

With our coup de champagne in hand we admired the pool and the gardens.  Everything was so green and the roses were still in full bloom.

Like all major homes it had all the accoutrement's, like his and hers gyms. 
A spa complete with hair salon set up, jacuzzi, mani-pedi set up, etc.

 And indoor lap pool, yes, with double tv's.

 A screening room, naturally...this is LA after all.

And of course a full underground garage, which I didn't see, but I did wonder where all the cars were parked.

Now, if this house appeals to you, you are in luck.

It is on the market for $50 million.

Happy Monday!

Around Town - LA Opera Lohengrin - Not Much To Love

I have to admit that I was really looking forward to the opening night of Lohengrin.
Wagnerian Score + LA Opera's Creativity + James Conlon's Conducting = Awesome Night Out
Well, not exactly.
Let's just start with set and costumes.
The classic German mythical tale of the god/knight Lohengrin arriving on a swan to champion Elsa, the noblewoman who has been wrongfully accused of fratricide, was set in a snowy field hospital in a ruined church at the eve of World War I.  The stage was dark, the costumes were dreary and we all got the reference to the Caspar David Freidrich painting of the Cloister Cemetery in the Snow.

The tale was a struggle over control, isn't it always?

Lohengrin a resurrected soldier saved Elsa, from her foes, then made it all the way to the marriage bed with her.  But in usual female fashion, she screwed everything up by her insecurity. She asked the fatal question as to his identity and after he sings the sad story he must get back on his swan and leave giving up his one chance to return to mortality. Naturally, Elsa collapses and dies.

In other words there was no ultimate redemption through love.

My problem with the opera wasn't the singing.  It was lovely.

The two sopranos sang exquisitely and the chorus was brilliant.

What I couldn't take was the lack of visual interest. 

No matter how beautiful the voices, the set was dark and visually boring after the first 20 minutes.....and the same set is a lot to have to look at for a 4 plus hour opera.  And worse, the lead characters were costumed so poorly, particularly Lohengrin, that it made it hard to accept them as hero and heroine.

It was impossible to recognize that this was the opera that inspired the Ludwig II to build Neuschwanstein.

At $250 per ticket the Los Angeles Opera needs to come up with better productions if it wants to attract a new generation of subscribers.  If the LA Opera doesn't provide more of a wow factor, the young culture vultures of LA will not fill the seats of the Dorthy Chandler Pavilion.

Soldier? Saint? Sorcerer? Savior?

Snore?

Friday Night Dinner Chez Amis

For a while now I have been thinking that, except for large holiday parties, entertaining at home was a thing of the past.  Most people I know meet for dinner with their friends at restaurants instead of hosting dinner parties.  Who has time for all that organizing, decorating, cooking and serving anymore.

Well apparently a few still do, and thank god for that.

Reggie Darling recently hosted an Autumn black tie dinner party and posted about the planning and the execution of it here and here.  Note how elegantly his table is set. 

And Privilege hosted a virtual housewarming dinner party on the patio to celebrate the launch of her new blog.

A posts about holiday table settings showed up at Greige and A Gardner's Cottage.

Am I sensing a stay at home and entertaining trend here?

 Of course the recipe for successful home entertaining calls for delicious food and charming guests. 
An awesome home is not required, but certainly adds the special je ne sais quoi to the party.

Last night I attended just such a soiree, a sit down dinner party for 25.
The Thanksgiving inspired meal, prepared by a talented young private chef was delicious and healthy, a soup course to start, a salad, turkey roulade for the main course and cold lemon souffle sided by a brownie for dessert.
The guests, friends and neighbors of the hosts, were an eclectic mix from young couples in their 30's to couples in their late 60's, or maybe even early 70's, I didn't ask.  But the mix in age and backgrounds made for lively conversation.

And the house was perfect for entertaining. 
A 1960's California ranch house, up in the hills, remodeled and decorated with perfect 1960's style.
It was uber groovy.
From the city view to the sunken bar, to the open fireplace, to the step up dining room, to the earth colors and patterns of the fabrics and wall coverings, to the palos verdes stone, to the outdoor fire pit...
it was like stepping back in time to a house from my early Southern California childhood.
Classic California architecture.
I could have imagined my parents and their friends sipping cocktails, smoking cigarettes and partying it up in such a house...because that's what they did back in the day.

Am I inspired get out my china and crystal and start entertaining?
No not really. Not only do I not have the house for it, I don't have energy with my day job and all that. 
I will leave the sit down dinner parties to the ladies and gentlemen who can host them with the proper savoir faire. 
Hopefully though, I will remain on their guest lists, because I do so appreciate being invited.
Are you inspired to entertain at home this season?

While the Trainer's Away or Dinner At Ten

Last night I decided to take advantage of the fact that my trainer was getting ready to show off her magnificent muscularity at some major national competition and my 8:00 gym appointment was cancelled.
Oh yeah I know, I could have gone to the gym anyway and given my all to the treadmill, but I just said no.
Instead, I decided to cook.

Our favorite Aussi domestic goddess Faux Fuchsia has posted about how cooking can be a de-stresser after a long day at work.  And, of course she was correct.  There is something therapeutic in the act of chopping and cooking and serving and eating that makes you forget about your daily issues.
And cooking raises your serotonin and dopamine levels....or so I tell myself.

Of course all this took time, and after getting home late from the office, then deciding on what to make, then going to the market for last minute ingredients the actual cooking process didn't get started until 8:30 last night.

Maybe it was because of Jill's current Ina Garten obsession or maybe it was because I had leftover roasted chicken the fridge, I decided to cook chicken pot pie using Garten's vegetable pot pie recipe
...with slight alterations.
I used way less butter, I left out the saffron and instead of making pastry crust, I used bisquick for the topping.
The kicker in the recipe was the chopped fennel and the pastis.

Behold the magnificence!

Yes, maybe it was 10:00 before dinner was served but it was worth it.

...but tonight it's back to the gym...

And on a different topic altogether

Faux Fuchsia, who's been traveling around England, the Isle of Jersey and Brittany has been bragging on her blog about the cuteness of Jersey cows. Sorry FF, you may be a domestic goddess and you certainly know your bromeliads from your begonias, but in terms of animal appreciation, those Jersey cows have nothing on the beautiful bovines of Switzerland and Austria. 

Voila, Austrian heifers in their Alpine floral spender.

Pictures snagged from Paradis Express, a pretty blog by a gardener from the suburbs of Paris. 

If you like landscape and floral design, check out her blog

and don't worry, it's not about cows.

Rings and Things

Well, at long last Kate Middleton finally got her man.
Sadly for her, she also got Princess Diana's sapphire engagement ring...
a symbol of a royally unhappy marriage.
I suppose that Miss Middleton had no say in the matter.
They do look like a genuinely happy couple and I hope that their marriage is a happy one.

Larry Graff has been busy with buying
Lucky Larry bought the Harry Winston 24.78 carat diamond
aka the big pink
for $46 million at Sotheby's Geneva auction
It was a bargain in my opinion...compared to that silly imperial vase.

Now known as the Graff Diamond
Of course!

Beladora Bling On The Red Carpet - Chelsea Traille - The New Beauty of Burlesque

Lots of busyness chez BHB these past few days and little time to post.
But it's all good, like lending out the bling for the red carpet to this young lady,

Chelsea Traille, a fresh faced beauty and an absolutely adorable young dancer/actress...who attended the premiere with her brother and her parents.  I am hoping that her dancing talent (she's trained in classical ballet) and her performing role in the film Burlesque, will lead her to a great career.
Here's the close up in the Beladora bling

 And in a scene with Stanley Tucci

I was going to skip the film.
But now that I've met the charming and bright Miss Traille, I want to see it, if only to watch her dance.

Kenya - From Happy Valley Hijinks to Laid Back Lamu

I was chatting with a European client this week about alternative locations to raise a family, away from the high costs and social nonsense that permeates Los Angeles.  He suggested Kenya.

And I can understand why. 
White sand beaches, laid back lifestyle, and it's got to be cheaper than the Hollywood Hills. 
But as for social nonsense.  Kenya has had it's share of it with the Happy Valley Set.

The Bolter: The Story of Idina Sackville

and

The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice de Janze

And I'm guessing that even laid back, low key, Lamu Island has a certain amount of celebrity silliness.

I probably wouldn't want to live an expat life there, but it would be nice for a holiday.

If you were going to escape from your current life, where would you go?

Estate Jewelry Look Of The Day - What to Wear For Casual Friday

You know that we like to keep things casual in the office on Fridays
So I thought that this necklace would work with my chunky sweater, skinny jeans and driving mocs.

Not bad...but a little Christmas-y with that big fat emerald, don't you think?

Here's the detail shot

I don't know about you but I would much rather have this necklace than that silly Chinese vase

and it would be something like, $69,340,000 cheaper too.

Happy Friday and Bon Weekend!

Oh Come On Now - It's a Friggin' Vase

Sometimes I just can't help but shake my head.
I mean I like vases, I like China, I like fish and pretty colors
and I like Chinese vases with fish and pretty colors

But $69.3 MILLION at auction...oh come on now.
Bainbridges, the auction house, said that the final price for the 16-inch vase — an imperially commissioned piece decorated with a fish motif — far exceeded the pre-auction estimated price, which was about 1.2 million pounds.

The final amount was thought to be among the highest ever paid for any Chinese artwork sold at auction.
Didn't I just post something about decades of pent up demand?
Obviously, it was the Chinese bidding against the Chinese for this item.

Armistice Day London 2010 - The Remembrance

 Sometimes it boggles the mind

 to think of what this generation of young men did

and how they died
in order to protect their country and their culture
where young men now do this

and this

while being cheered on by this