My First Jewelry Webinar: Thanks GemX

Thank you to all who joined for the #jewelrywebinar I did on Wednesday. It was my first one so I was slightly wary – used to speaking to an audience I can see! - but given travel and lectures aren’t happening any time soon, I figured it was worth a go. And it sure was – was very touched to see so many people tuning in and leaving all those comments and asking such interesting questions. And thank you also to @GemXClub for hosting me on their great platform – such a source of knowledge for #jewellerylovers all over the world.

My talk was on the Cartiers – yes there were glamorous clients and spectacular jewels on show but I also wanted to take the audience into the lives of the three brothers, #LouisCartier, #PierreCartier and #JacquesCartier, sharing untold stories and opening a window into a different world. And once I got over the whole talking to a screen lark, it seemed apt to be telling those family tales from my study, filled with my ancestors’ books, in my late grandfather’s house. Almost like they were there with me (which in a way they were, looking out from their photographs behind me). I also delved a bit into some of my research behind the book – pictures of trips to India and Sri Lanka where I (and my lucky children!) met the descendants of those my globe-trotting gem-buying great-grandfather had known. This slide shows me and him on the #Ceylonsapphire buying trail - feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to follow in his footsteps and see such incredible things like those murky stones pulled from the earth and transformed into bright #bluegems. I’m also holding up a 1927 newspaper article of Jacques on that trip that he kept carefully in that trunk of long-lost letters I discovered a decade ago.

Some of you have asked for me to do more webinars in the future – am open to it - very 2020 after all - just let me know what topics you’d like to see. A couple of ideas that came out of that talk were India and Pearls but very interested in your suggestions! #jewelhistory #cartierhistory