Product Highlights

Inspired by timeless fine jewelry and high-relief coin masterpieces of the ancient world, Elizabeth Locke is a Virginia-based jeweler and former editor of Town-and-Country who creates beautiful glass and gemstone intalgio pieces set in 19k gold.

Though most modern gemstones are facet- or cabochon-cut to enhance their brilliance, ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan gem cutters would often polish a flat working surface into a gemstone and then etch a portrait, figure, or motif into the surface. The light-scattering qualities in the specific gemstone give the image dimensionality, bringing the figures to life in the heart of the gemstone.

Inspired by this, and the organic hammered finish of ancient jewelry, Elizabeth Locke has left an indelible mark on the modern jewelry scene with her Venetian glass intaglio pieces. Using ancient molds, she recreates these beautiful masterpieces and sets them in hand-made 19k gold settings with diamond and gemstone accents. 

Shopping for diamonds can be intimidating both due to their value, and to the fact that small differences between stones can result in huge differences in prices. Hopefully this guide will help you understand how diamonds are valued!

Very simply, diamonds are graded and priced according to the four c's: Carat, Color, Clarity, and Cut.

Straddling the beginning of the 20th century, the Art Nouveau period was associated with long, sinuous lines, organic forms, and idealized feminine beauty as a reaction against the colder, more formal academic art that had defined the period before. Advances in technology allowed for certain enamel-manipulation techniques previously used in tableware and by Faberge for his famous eggs to be used in small pieces of jewelry. The technique, called plique-a-jour, gives the impression of illuminated stained glass designs in Gothic cathedrals on a much smaller scale.

This technique allowed jewelers to fill empty spaces in jewelry with enamel without backing required in techniques like cloisonne. This allowed transparent, colored accents to be added to pieces to imitate insect wings and vivid sunsets, common motifs during the Belle Epoque.

Leonardo di Vinci's Salvator Mundi sold for over $400 million in November 2017  Vincent van Gogh  and Andy Warhol are at the top of the list of high end selling artworks. Picasso and Warhol are two of the few artist who became wealthy in their lifetimes as artists. Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime. The Red Vineyard sold for 400 francs (approximately $2,000-2,500 in today's dollars) in 1890, to the impressionist painter and heiress Anna Boch. In recent years, nine of his paintings have sold, which add up to over $900 million in today's dollar values.

Many artworks are selling in the private art market at these values and more. Private buyers often do not wish to have their identities disclosed.

Artworks are being collected today as a way of putting cash into other assets that will hold or grow value. There are many more people discovering they have been holding onto something of tremendous value and didn't even know it. 

Diamond Limited Group has been helping people diversify their portfolios with high-end artwork and collectibles. Bring in your high-end fine art or call to talk with an expert in our Fine Art Division today. Our experts respect your privacy and will schedule private appointments to view your artworks. 

Chryselephantine sculptures were originally made with gold and ivory. These statues were all about high status in Ancient Greece.

The term "chryselephantine" is also used for a style of sculpture fairly common in European 19th-century art, especially Art Nouveau. The skin of these sculptures is represented in ivory, with clothing and other detail made of other materials, such as gold, bronze, silver or onyx. 

German sculptors Ferdinand Priess and Franz Iffland became popular in the early 20th century for their chryselephantine sculptures. A number of other European sculptors also produced chryselephantine pieces, including but not limited to Joé Descomps, Josef Lorenzi, Georges Omerth, Claire J. R. Colinet, Pierre Le Faguays, D. H. Chiparus, Bruno Zach, and Dominique Alonzo.

After the 1890s, its meaning was extended to include any statue fashioned in a combination of ivory with other materials.

We have many of the high end reproductions from the original castings of these amazing sculptures. This is just one of them. Ask us about others we have in our inventory. https://dmndlimited.com/collections/sculptures/products/signed-eternal-story-bronze-sculpture-by-chiparus

Born in 1942 in Naples, Italy, Aldo Cipullo began his jewelry career early by apprenticing in his father's costume jewelry shop. In 1959, he immigrated to America to study jewelry design in Manhattan's School of Visual Arts, and after some brief stints with famed designers David Webb and Tiffany & Co., Cipullo entered into his most prolific relationship with Cartier in 1969.