Art Deco Diamond Talk

Well, for all the people who are following our antique and diamond blog,
we apologize that we have been a bit lax lately due to all our
traveling. However, we are now back!

Fresh from the famous antique jewelry show in miami, this is the
perfect time for us to comment on the status of the antique jewelry and
diamond business throughout the world.

Let’s first comment on who exactly showed up in miami, and who
stayed home. Our friends from the far east stayed home. Our friends
from China are still holding back, but we are starting to see them
slowly coming back. Our friends from india are also starting
to come back, but they still have a long way to go.

How about our friends from Europe? Unfortunately, we still haven’t
seen them, especially our great customers from Italy. It seems to us
that the recession is still hurting the diamond and jewelry buyers
there. We also didn’t see many friends and dealers from the Arab
countries either.

We did, however, see alot of our friends from the U.S at the miami
show. There were, of course, dealers from all across the country and
many private clients lining up to get into the show.

Diamonds are still in short supply so that has helped keep diamond
prices strong, but we do see a little bit of weakness in the price
of flawless and vvs diamonds. We think that until our friends from the
far east come back, the price of these diamonds will stay a bit
weak. Since our friends from the U.S. are still here, diamonds for
the U.S are still strong. Big diamonds and VS to SI diamonds are
very strong and very hard to find. Also still very strong are fancy
color diamonds, especially blues, pinks and fancy yellows due to
the rarity of these diamonds.

Now onto antique jewelry. As we said last year antique jewelry is
still in very short in supply. When there is a shortage in supply that
usually tells us the prices are very strong and that is exactly what we
saw.
Artdecodiamonds.com had a great show but prices for pristine
antique engagement rings and pristine jewelry (necklaces
and earrings particularly) were very strong and very hard to find.

One thing that wasn’t very hard to find was the weather, so when
we weren’t working, we were we did have gorgeous
weather! Our next blog will discuss what is going on in Hong Kong, from
the big Hong Kong diamond show and we will comment about the
jewelry at the Oscars!

With the republican and democratic political conventions underway
artdecodimaonds.com doesn’t want to talk politics we want to talk who’s
wearing antique jewelry.

Well lets start with the republican nations convention , Mitt Romneys
wife for what we can see is wearing a gorgeous antique animal brooch.
Looks like everyone is talking about michelle obamas dress but we just
loved her sweet antique drop earrings.(

http://thelook.today.com/_news/2012/09/06/13703094-tracy-reese-michelle-obamas-dnc-dress-will-hit-shelves?lite)

(http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120831/news/708319816/photos/AR/)

While former secretary of state madeline albright was sparring with Mitt
Romney over Israeli politics  we were swooning  over her  gorgeous
antique diamond brooch! We also haven’t seen any Hillary sightings but i
can guarantee you shell be wearing a beautiful diamond brooch!

With the conventions going full blast we see that antique diamond pins.

The diddy on fancy shape diamonds and antique engagement rings
Our last blog took place from the Diamond bursar in Ramat gan Israel and
we discussed how popular cushion cut diamonds, and other fancy cut
shapes are.  Now let’s try and see how it affects artdecodiamonds and
consumers.  I believe this is a three fold answer:

With the globalization of the diamond and antique business,
specifically the far east and china, this has pushed the prices of
round diamonds through the roof.  Simple economics tells us that with
more demand and less supply, prices rise.  However, with the prices
of fancy cut diamonds rising, they did not rise as much as round
diamonds.

Fancy cut diamonds have the faceting of round diamonds
(specifically princess and cushion cuts).  With big retailers
advertising fancy shapes, the demand for these have increased, the
supply tightened, and now we see the price for these shapes have risen
dramatically.

Artdecodiamonds.com is also affected with consumers wanting
antique engagement rings, antique shape diamonds, such as old antique
cushion cuts, antique asscher cuts and square cut diamonds. The
demand for these shapes have also increased which pushes the prices way
up.  What we see for the near future is with China and the far east
slowing down, there is a softening of round brilliant cut shape but
fancy cut
diamonds, antique engagement rings, and fine estate jewelry
are hot and will continue to sizzle

In our last blog we gave you the diddy, or “lowdown,” about the diamond
market in Hong Kong. However, we are now in Ramar gan buying diamonds and
antique diamonds for our web site Artdecodiamonds.com

Lets give a little lesson about the diamond exchange, or bursar, as
they call it in Ramat Gan Israel. The bursar in Israel has taken over
as the
number 1 exchange over New York. The bursar in Israel is the first stop
for all of our friends from the far east. Instead of them coming to NYC
they come to Israel, and the place is sizzling.

Lets start with the diamonds artdecodiamonds.com needs most. This
would be the modern and antique cushion cut diamonds. They are
impossible to
buy. The prices for cushion cuts are so strong, due to such high demand.
Cushion cut diamonds are bringing prices similar to round diamond
prices. Asscher cut and princess cut diamonds are very stong today as
well. And, to a lesser extent pear shape and radiant cuts seem to be a
bit stronger

Round diamond prices are still strong but have lessened a little bit
due to the weakness of the european and american markets, and of
course our friends from the Far east.

So what will happen to the prices of diamonds? Will fancy cuts
(especially antique diamonds) stay strong? Will round diamonds get
stonger or weaker? These are the big questions and, of course, we will
stay tuned and answer them!

Since our traveling is done for the month, and with Bozz Scaggs
playing in NYC this week (hopefully singing my favorite song
“Lowdown”), I want to give you the “Lowdown” about Hong Kong and the
European markets. Let me begin with the lowdown about Hong Kong.

My sources tell me that the Hong Kong show was slow. Prices for
diamonds are still extremely strong. As we have stated before, with the
European market in a state of flux and the American market slow, the
trading for this sector of the world is slow. But since the supply of
VS2-I1 diamonds is very low, the prices are staying strong.

In the past few years with the American market slow, we have turned
to our friends in the Far east to try to pull us out of these doldrums.
However, that didn’t happen. Usually our friends from India are strong
buyers, but with their currency being devalued by 20 percent they are
certainly not buying.

Next we turn to our old dependable Chinese market. With the
slowdown in their market and real estate in a state of flux they were
also slow.

As we have mentioned previously, friends in the Arab countries are
back and buying Fancy colors, especially Canary diamonds. So, in
fact, Canary diamond prices are rising.

So right now the world is in a state of flux. Supply is low,
demand is down, but the prices still stay very strong. Our next blog
will be from Israel and the world famous diamond exchange in Ramat
Gan.. see you then!

Well summer vacation is coming, and before we go away for the 4th of
July we want to tell you about the las Vegas antique and diamond show.
The Las Vegas antique show really gives diamond and antique dealers a good feel for where the jewelry business is heading. Here are our thoughts:

1). It seems the Indian market is slowing down (as we write this blog), due to their currency decreasing by approximately 20 percent, so the Indian market was quiet. The rest of the far east (specifically china) was a bit on the quiet side as well.
But, as we stated before, we see a resurgence of the Arab markets,
specifically fancy yellow diamonds and larger white fancy shape diamonds.

It also seems that the big u.s. Market is at a stand still and the
European markets are quiet due to the whole european crisis.

Pristine antique jewelry, specifically antique engagement rings and
diamonds, are still bringing very strong prices. Even though the
worlds markets have quieted down there still are many people who
want antique jewelry and diamonds. The supply of diamonds and
antique rings are very low so this is also keeping the prices very
strong. So nothing has really changed in the fact that the supply of larger white diamonds, fancy colored diamonds and antique and estate jewelry have kept the prices sizzling for the near future. However, as we know, the more things stay the same the more they change.
Our next blog will be about the upcoming hong kong jewelry show…have a good holiday