Monthly Archives: October 2010

Tavernier, Later Travels & Peter The Great

By Richard W. Wise, G.G.

Jean Baptiste Tavernier was one of the most prolific travelers and most remarkable men of the 17th Century. His adventures span forty years and 180,000 miles. My historical novel, The French Blue, tells the story of his life and adventures up until the sale of the Great Blue Diamond to Louis XIV, the Sun King of France. Though Tavernier lived to the age of eight four, we know little of the later life of after his ennoblement in 1669. For roughly a quarter of the price he received for the blue diamond, 36,750 ounces of gold, purchased the Chateau Aubonne just outside of Bern in what was then the Duchy of Savoy and with it the barony in 1670.

Chateau Aubonne with tower added by Jean Baptiste Tavernier

The next we hear of him is in 1684 in Berlin as a guest of Fredrick William of Brandenburg. The Elector, anxious to equip his own East Indian venture, offers Tavernier an ambassadorship to India and appoints him Chamberlain and Counselor of his soon to be created Navy. After six weeks in Berlin, he visits several towns in Germany and Holland and returns to Aubonne in November.

In January 1985, Tavernier, now 80 years old, sells his Barony to the Marquis Henry du Quesne for 168,000 livres, approximately three times the purchase price. Ball suggests that he did this to raise money for the Brandenburg venture. This may be true but I believe that the canny old adventurer had his nose in the wind and knew that as a Protestant his time was up in France.

Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy was the son in law of Louis XIV. Louis issued The Edict of Fontainebleau in October effectively declaring Protestantism to be illegal. This was shortly followed by the Verification of Nobility, a decree that revoked the titles on non-catholic aristocrats. At first the Duke was reluctant to honor Louis decrees but caved in once his father in law threatened to send an army to invade the duchy.

By 1686 it was clear that The Elector’s East Indian venture had come to naught. Tavernier once again begins traveling. In 1687 he is in Switzerland and he arrives in Copenhagen sometime in 1687 or 1688.

According to information uncovered by Tavernier’s biographer Charles Joret, Tavernier now age 83 commences a seventh voyage to the Indies. Joret produces a fragment of an article published in a Danish journal by Frederick Rostgaard who states that he interviewed the aging adventurer who told him of his intention to travel to Persia via Moscow. (Joret p.384).

Fredrick William of Brandenburg

On February 6, 1689, Tavernier received a passport signed by First minister Prince Vasily Gallitzin to enter Russia and to proceed from Smolensk to Moscow. Tavernier was required to report to the Bureau of Foreign Affairs once he reached the Russian capital.

The Russian Orthodox Church was rabidly anti-West and sought to curtail the influence of foreigners. In 1652 Czar Alexis decreed that all foreign nationals living in Moscow were forbidden to live or build churches within the city. They were required to reside in an area known as the German Suburb (Nemetskaya Sloboda). This quarter was located three miles northwest of the city along the Yauza river. The quarter was laid out European style with Dutch, French and English buildings including several Protestant churches. The quarter housed over 3,000 people and it is known that a number of French Huguenots (Tavernier’s co-coreligionists), fleeing the new wave of persecution in France, had taken up residence in the suburb (Massie, p.111). It is reasonable to assume that Tavernier would have been required to live in this quarter during his sojourn in Moscow.

In his biography of the French gem merchant, Charles Joret cites a letter written in 1876 by an M. I. Tokmakof claiming to have discovered Tavernier’s headstone in an old protestant cemetery in Moscow. Given the Czar’s decree it is reasonable to assume that this cemetery was located in the Nemetskaya Sloboda. Since all Protestant churches were located in the German Suburb, this provides some direct evidence that Tavernier did reside in the quarter. The headstone was intact except that the last two letters of the date had been obliterated leaving us with no exact knowledge as to the date of Tavernier’s death.

During his youth, Peter the Great befriended the British General, Patrick Gordon and several other foreigners and spent a great deal of his time in the German Suburb. This raises the interesting question of whether or not Tavernier met Peter. In his early youth, the young czar’s spiritual advisor, Patriarch Joachim, a fiercely anti-Western Orthodox cleric, controlled his access to the foreign quarter, but, according to historian Robert K. Massie (Peter The Great 1980), after the Patriarch’s sudden death on March 7, 1689, “Peter’s visits became so frequent that he seemed almost to live there.” (Massie, p.112)

Russian Czar Peter the Great as a young man

As to a meeting between Jean Baptiste Tavernier and the future Peter the Great, it is interesting to speculate. The precocious young Czar was extremely curious about foreign lands. Tavernier was a celebrated traveler and a famous man and the evidence strongly suggests that he was in residence in the German Suburb in March of 1689. It is difficult to believe that the young Peter would not have sought him out. According to Joret, Tavernier died in Moscow sometime in 1689 at the age of 84.

Notes:

Translation of letter by Dr. Lawrence Blumentrost to Prince Gallitzin (Joret Appendix p. 404), translation mine.

To Vasily Vasilyevich (Gallitzin), first Minister to their Royal Highness(s) Your Excellency, He, the noted merchant Baron Tavernier who lives in Bern, Switzerland has just arrived from the abroad in Smolensk from Stockholm with a pass port of the King of Sweden. He wishes to travel through the Persian Empire on business he asks me a letter from him to get a free pass to go to Moscow as this man is great friend of mine and I’m quite in touch with him I have a pressing need that it comes. For this reason here I humbly ask you not only his name but in my own name by any power that you possess because of our sovereign serene and kindly get him a free passage for him and all his luggage and send this Indeed a letter to Voyevoda (official??), Smolensk. It will be a new benefit (favor) added to the many benefits from your grace that I shall never cease to be grateful for your Excellency’s time.

Your humble servant, Dr Lawrence Bliimentrost.

The Reply and order:

From our Majesties the tsars the August princes Jean Pierre Alexeyevich Alexeyevich and Orthodox by His Majesty the Empress and Princess Sophia August Alexeyevna autocrat of all the Russians, Alexeyevich Ivan , Musin Pushkin and our commander in Smolensk Voyevoda in our empire and its designees to know it was reported to our Majesties that Baron Taverier arrived a Smolensk from the Swedish border with a passport from His Majesty, the King of Sweden. however, do not leave from Smolensk to Moscow ukase without an order of our Majesties But when this order from of our Majesties arrives, give the order without delay to send this stranger to Moscow. Send a report to our Majesties and give him a copy of your authority and also order the alien to appear in our August chancery offices to the Keeper of the Great Seal of the Empire and Director of Foreign Affairs of our Majesties Governor and boyar of Novgorod Prince Vasily Vasilyevich well as before and the boyar Prince Alexei Vasilyevich Gallitzin or their delegates Done in Moscow the year 7197 (1689) on February 6. Presented to Andre Viniousse.

Lecture & Book Signing; The Clark Art Institute:

I have been invited to deliver a lecture on Jean Baptiste Tavernier and the Odyssey of The Hope Diamond at the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts on November 7, 2010 at 3:00 pm. Admission is free. There will be a book signing directly after the lecture.

Book Review: Russian Alexandrites

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Schmetzer, Karl, Russian Alexandrites

2010, 140 pages. ISBN 978-3-510-65264-4 $49.95

Just received a copy of Dr. Karl Schmetzer’s new book entitled Russian Alexandrites. Schmetzer is the senior author, the book also includes contributions from George Bosshart, Marina Epelboym, Dr. Lore Kiefert and Anna-Kathrin Maisy.

The book begins with an excellent introduction written by Schmetzer and Kiefert detailing the geological setting in the Tokovaya area of the Ural Mountains. Schmetzer notes that in Russia, alexandrite has always been found associated with emerald and gives a comprehensive history of the various discoveries, specific mines and the history of mining for emerald and alexandrite in the area surrounding the Russian city of Ekaterinburg. The introduction includes a breathtakingly beautiful full page image of Russian emerald and alexandrite crystals from the Boyd Collection.

In the Fall of 1830, Maksim Stefanovich Kozhevnikov, a peasant living in the Beloyarsk district discovered the first emeralds clinging to the roots of a fallen tree on the banks of the Tokovaya River. I was immediately struck by the similarity of the description of this discovery of emerald in the Urals to that of the discovery of tourmaline by Elijah Hamlin “on the last day of Autumn” in the same year, at Mt. Mica, Maine. The tourmaline crystals were also found clinging to the roots of a tree: “a vivid gleam of green flashed from an object on the roots of a tree upturned by the wind.” (Hamlin, The Tourmaline, 1873).

Schmetzer also reproduces an entry by mineralogist Sir David Brewster in February 1935 edition of the London Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. In the entry, Brewster notes that the crystal is pink-red under candlelight that a thicker crystal would be redder and redder. This entry, read a certain way, is a misleading description and may be the actual source of largely mythical “ruby red” alexandrite. Another other possible source, a novel, The Alexandrite, written by Leskov and published in Russian in 1884 that describes alexandrite as “green by day, red by night.” This, of course, is partly due to the fact that in 1830, incandescent illumination was limited to candlelight which at 1500 kelvin is a good deal redder than the light bulb at 3200k.

Chapter 4 surveys the location of important collections of alexandrite specimens and includes photographs of some of the finest examples. Chapter 5 contains an excellent, easy to understand and beautifully illustrated using both drawings and photographs of actual specimens, discussion of alexandrite crystal morphology. Chapter 6 examines structural properties, again with excellent illustrations consisting of photomicrographs of crystal slices that show both growth patterns and pleochroism. Chapter 7 discusses the very rare cats-eyes and star stones. Chapter 8 compares growth patterns between Russian, synthetic and other natural sources of alexandrite including a suggestion about crystal habit that could be useful to gemologists and dealers in the field in doing preliminary separations of Russian versus alexandrite from other locations using magnification alone.Chapter 9 is the least satisfying though it does have an interesting discussion of color and crystal orientation that would be of interest to lapidaries.

Chapter 10 discusses origin determination. Branding is rampant in the gem trade. High dollar premiums are regularly paid for sapphires from Burma and Kashmir and tourmalines from Paraiba (Rio Grande do Norte) Brazil. Russian alexandrite, due to its very limited supply, enjoys a mythical and mostly undeserved status in the gem trade (Wise, Secrets, p.85-89). Using Laser Ablation (LA-ICP-MS) a particularly sensitive instrument that uses a laser to excise a tiny bit of material and subject it to X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF) is able to compare tiny concentrations of trace elements. Schmetzer compares alexandrite from several sources, Hematatita Brazil, India and Lake Manyara, Tanzania and Russia. The study concludes that relative concentrations of the elements; B, V, Ga, Ge, Sn and Ta are relevant in differentiating point of origin in alexandrite. The study was not exhaustive as it excludes material from Ilakaka, Madagascar as well as some other minor localities. It does, however, form a strong foundation to build upon.

The book also includes an appendix with a list of the principle Russian mines and a useful historical timetable. There is an extensive bibliography and index. Altogether a very satisfying volume and a necessary addition to every gemological library. Unfortunately like other German publications, the book is not available on Amazon or any other online easily accessible source. The book may be purchased by contacting the publisher; Schweizerbart Science Publishers. for our English readers, the book also available through the GemA bookshop.

Gold and Jewelry Prices in 2010

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As gold prices pass the $1,300 per ounce mark, it might be useful to talk about the relationship between gold prices and the price of finished jewelry. In the late 1970s, during the first gold rush I can recall, prices seemed to go up every week culminating in a peak price of $850 per ounce in early 1979. During this period, we adjusted our prices weekly and often found ourselves raising the ticket price on finished pieces to keep up with our replacement cost.

A Finished Piece of Handmade Jewelry Averages 70% labor, 30% gold:

After the peak things gradually calmed down and gold tended to trade between $350-500 for most of the next two decades. Gold is a material, in handmade jewelry it is normally 30% of the finished price. That means that 70%, on average, is the cost of the craftsman’s highly skilled labor. Paradoxically, the more handwork the less of a factor the actual materials become.

During the go-go late 70s some commercial manufactures thinking to take advantage of consumer awareness of high gold prices, began marketing gold jewelry by weight.

“Don’t worry, the gold is free!”

This was a problem for hand craftspeople. I recall be asked frequently to weigh handmade original pieces. At first I simply refused, but later I developed a standard response. “Don’t worry”, I would say smiling my most ingratiating smile, “the gold is free.” You can imagine the effect on the potential client, like a deer caught in the headlights, stunned speechless. It did provide an opening for me to launch into an explanation of the differences between commercial and handmade jewelry. Sometimes it worked, oftentimes it didn’t.

Brooch, hand constructed of gold sheet and wire.

Using the international gold price to deduce the price of a piece of handmade jewelry is a bit like comparing the price of a wooden house to the cost of a tree. The fact is, no one pays the spot gold price quoted in the morning paper. Craftsmen do not buy ingots, they buy manufactured sheet and wire of a certain size, shape and fineness.

Nobody Pays The Spot Price:

Gold: Manufactured sheet and wire stock

The price of manufactured gold differs from the spot price in the same way that the price of a board foot of lumber differs from the price of a pine tree. It is , in fact, 20-35% higher. Then there is waste. Saw a 1″ circle from a 1″ square of gold sheet and you end up with a certain amount of dust and a few tiny, unusable corners. Unless the workshop generates a great deal of scrap it is not cost efficient to melt that scrap down, make an ingot and roll it out into sheet. We can do it in our workshop, but under 5-6 ounces it doesn’t pay. So the dust and scrap is returned to the refinery for cash or credit of roughly 95% of the spot price. Net loss, 35% of the price originally paid. Polishing then reduces the rough weight by about 10% to yield the lovely hand polished piece of jewelry you see on display.

So, the next time you are tempted to ask a craftsman to weigh a piece of fine handmade jewelry, remember that gold price has a nebulous relationship to a finished piece of jewelry, particularly handmade jewelry. Remember too, craftsmanship counts.