Episode 212 Part 1: Inside Appraiser Jo Ellen Cole’s Extensive Jewelry Library

What you’ll learn in this episode:

 

• Which essential jewelry books you should have in your library
• Why books are so much more reliable than internet research when it comes to gemstones and jewelry
• Why the Renaissance opened up a new world of adornment
• An overview of the periods of jewelry and how they overlapped and influenced one another
• How cultural turning points, like World War II and the South African diamond rush, influenced what materials were used during different time periods

 

About Jo Ellen Cole

Jo Ellen Cole is the owner of Cole Appraisal Services and the director of fine jewelry at Abell Auctions. She earned her Graduate Gemologist Diploma at the Gemological Institute of America in Santa Monica and successfully passed the prestigious Gemological Association of Great Britain’s FGA examinations.

 

Additional resources:

• LinkedIn

Gemological and Jewelry Books for a Professional Library:

 

GEMOLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION BOOKS

Gemstones: Their Sources, Descriptions and Identification, Webster, Robert

Gem Testing, Anderson, Basil

Handbook of Gemstone Identification, Liddicoat Jr., Richard T.

Gem and Ornamental Materials of Organic Origin, Pedersen, Maggie Campbell

Gemstones of the World, Schumann, Walter

Photoatlas of Inclusions in Gemstones, Vols. 1, 2 and 3, Gubelin, Edward and Koivula, John

Color Encyclopedia of Gemstones, Arem, Joel

The Spectroscope and Gemmology, Anderson, Basil and Payne, James, edited by Mitchell, R. Keith

 

GENERAL REFERENCE

Gemology, An Annotated Bibliography, Sinkankas, John

The Complete Handbook for Gemstone Weight Estimation, Carmona, Charles

Dictionary of Gems and Gemology, Shipley, Robert

The Jewelers Manual, Liddicoat Jr., Richard T. and Copeland, Lawrence L.

Gemstone and Mineral Data Book, Sinkankas, John

 

 

DIAMONDS

Diamonds, Bruton, Eric

Diamond Cutting: Complete Guide to Cutting Diamonds, Watermeyer, Basil

Famous Diamonds, Balfour, Ian

Hardness 10, Vleeschdrager, Eddy

Diamond Handbook, Newman, Renee

Laboratory Grown Diamonds, Simic, Dusan and Deljanin, Branko

Fluorescence as a Tool for Diamond Origin Identification – A Guide, Chapman, John, Deljanin, Branko and Spyromilios, George

PEARLS

Book of the Pearl, Kunz, George F. and Stevenson, Charles Hugh

Pearls, Strack, Elizabeth

Beyond Price, Donkin, R.A.

 

JADE

Jade, A Gemmologist’s Guide, Hughes, Richard

Jade For You, Ng, John Y. and Root, Edmund

 

COLORED STONES

Ruby and Sapphire, Hughes, Richard

Emerald and Other Beryls, Sinkankas, John

Opal Identification and Value, Downing, Paul

 

JEWELRY HISTORY

Brilliant Effects, Pointon, Marcia

Understanding Jewelry, Bennett, David, and Mascetti, Daniella

Jewelry in America, Fales, Margha Gandy

Victorian Jewellery, Flowers, Margaret

Transcript:

In appraiser Jo Ellen Cole’s opinion, the best thing a jewelry lover can have is a well-stocked library. Information on gems and jewelry abounds online today, but much of that information is incorrect. For that reason, Jo Ellen—a Graduate Gemologist who also passed Gem-A’s FGA examination—turns to books when she has a question about a specific piece, hallmark or stone. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to share which books she recommends for every jewelry interest; how jewelry trends shifted over the years due to cultural forces; and how to quickly identify the characteristics of different jewelry periods. Read the episode transcript here.

 

Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the first part of a two-part episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it’s released later this week.

 

I met Jo Ellen about six or seven years ago when I was studying for the GG, or the Graduate Gemology degree. In order to pass it, I needed to identify about 18 stones and get them all right, and I only had three chances to do that. This was daunting to me because I’m not a science person; I’m not a math person or anything. I wasn’t working with the stones. I wasn’t working in a jewelry store, so I really didn’t have the opportunity to handle the stones. I called another appraiser, Charlie Carmona, whom we’ve had on this podcast, and asked him for a recommendation for a tutor. I thought it was a pretty weird recommendation that I was asking for, but he immediately recommended Jo Ellen, and I never looked back. She’s been a great tutor. It was a few years ago, but she helped me a lot.

 

She knows a lot about jewelry, and not just jewelry, but I find her extremely knowledgeable about vintage and antique pieces. I have talked to and been to enough appraisers to know that this is its own specialty. She’s also been helpful when it comes to directing me to researchers for whatever I need. She pointed me in the right direction. Today, she’s going to share with us the books that she thinks will help us with our jewelry journey. Jo Ellen, welcome to the program.

 

Jo Ellen: Thank you so much for having me. I’m happy to be here.

 

Sharon: I’m so glad that you deigned to be on. Now, tell us, with a GG, which is part of the GIA, you can do a lot of things. So, why did you go into appraisal as opposed to other things?

 

Jo Ellen: Well, I found that I was lacking in salesmanship abilities, to say the least. I’m just not a salesperson, but I love to categorize; I love to research. Appraising seemed to fit that bill very well. Plus, when I realized that I was not good at sales, I met Charles Carmona, whom you mentioned before, at American Society of Appraisers—no, it was the AGA. I can’t remember what that stands for, but it was a meeting. I met him, and a couple of years later, he asked me to work with him and I jumped on it. It was a wonderful experience. He’s still my mentor. He’s so knowledgeable and knows so much about appraising. I always feel comfortable talking to him about any problem I might encounter. He’s been very instrumental.

 

Sharon: And a big name in the L.A. market, I would say.

 

Jo Ellen: He’s really gone worldwide. He has three laboratories in China and Thailand as well.

 

Sharon: I didn’t realize that.

 

Jo Ellen: Yeah, he’s really opened up his market. He also leads a lot of traveling groups and things. He’s very well-known.

 

Sharon: I knew he was well-known in Los Angeles, but I didn’t know he was that well-known around the world.

 

Jo Ellen: Having factories in Africa, he’s been around doing a lot of different things.

 

Sharon: I’ve stopped purchasing books when it comes to novels or something like that. I just listen to them. Why should I purchase a book as opposed to listening online when it comes to jewelry? Why should I purchase a jewelry book?

 

Jo Ellen: What I’ve noticed is that when I go online to research prices of jewelry, which I do often, I find that a lot of the information I find is not correct. I think part of the reason for that is because it’s so easy to list something online. It gets your name out there, so people do that. However, they don’t always double check their information. There’s a lot of misinformation out there.

 

Whereas in a book, it takes a lot longer to set it up, edit it, make sure everything’s proper. I’ve been able to count on the information coming from books a lot better than I have been from online sources. However, I must say there is certainly a good reason to look online as well. Some of the information is very good. It’s just that, personally, I feel more comfortable with a book form. Then, you can revisit that if you need to. It’s easier to find.

 

Sharon: Do you have to know if it’s right or wrong before you look at a book?

 

Jo Ellen: You have to figure that out on your own. But generally, if you have a good background in terms of knowledge of gems and gemology and antique jewelry from reading through books, a lot of times, you’ll find that information is incorrect when you go online.

 

Sharon: I know instances where I’ve found incorrect information about pearls or something like that. I wouldn’t say I’m any kind of expert, but I know it’s incorrect.

 

Jo Ellen: Yeah.

 

Sharon: Can you tell us quickly what you do every day? What does an appraiser do every day?

 

Jo Ellen: If I’m not reviewing a book for a gemological publication like The Gemologist or Gems & Gemology, which doesn’t do book reviews anymore—but a lot of times, I’m asked by people in the industry to review new books. So, I do that a lot, which involves going over the book line by line and figuring out what I think is proper and what isn’t, or what is clear and what is not. I do that a lot.

 

I also work at a local auctioneer two days a week, at Abell Auctions, as their fine jewelry director. I’m constantly cataloguing things and looking for prices on things, always encountering something unusual there. You get things from all over the world, and people like to use that venue as a way to sell their items. If I’m not doing that, I’m actually going to people’s localities to appraise their jewelry for them, either for insurance purposes or for estate purposes if somebody has passed or wants to set up a trust. I do that a lot, but a lot of my days are spent doing what I love, which is reading.

 

Sharon: You sound pretty conscientious to look at a book that closely when you’re writing a book review.

 

Jo Ellen: For me, it’s really important to get it right. Generally, most books, even if I don’t particularly like them, I can at least validate that their information is correct. I did have one book about a year-and-a-half ago that was just so egregious in its information I had to give it a bad review, which I’ve never done before. I called up the editor the week before it was due and said, “Why are you even covering this book? It’s so awful.” He asked why, and I started pointing out little things. He was like, “Oh,” but he published the review anyhow. I didn’t feel great about it because I don’t like to slam people for things, but it was just so awful I had to point it out.

 

Sharon: So, we should do our own reading, both online and with books.

 

Jo Ellen: Absolutely.

 

Sharon: Let’s talk about a book or books and talk about the history. If you want to learn about the history of jewelry through the ages, what would you look at?

 

Jo Ellen: There are a couple of really good books. When you write a book, it seems like the best formula is always to start at the beginning and take them through the ages. That’s what they do with jewelry history. Usually, they’ll start with prehistoric jewelry and how jewelry first came to be—it’s one of the oldest things that humans have done that marks them as humans—and then it goes through medieval times and Renaissance, and then to Georgian and Victorian and Arts and Crafts or the Aesthetic Period, and then through Art Nouveau and Art Deco and Retro and on up to modern jewelry for today. That’s usually how a book on jewelry history is set up. There are couple of really good ones out there that encapsulate what you need to know in terms of jewelry history.

 

Sharon: Before you tell us that, I wanted to tell our listeners that we will have all this information on the website. Yes, take notes, but you don’t have to write everything down; it’ll be on our website.

 

Jo Ellen: Yeah, I created a list of things that you can look for. One of the main books I recommend for overall jewelry history is a book called “Understanding Jewelry.” It’s by David Bennett and Daniela Mascetti, who were both cataloguers at Sotheby’s for many years and very knowledgeable in their field. It really helps to set up all those different ages of jewelry and gives wonderful examples and photographs. It’s a picture book as well as an informative book, but all the information they offer has always been spot-on. I’ve learned so much from that book. It’s one that I would definitely recommend.

 

Sharon: I’ve probably seen it in every jewelry office that has books. I see that book.

 

Jo Ellen: It’s a great book. It really is. Another good one that’s much simpler and has more pictures is a book called “Warman’s Jewelry.”

 

Sharon: Warman’s?

 

Jo Ellen: Yeah, W-A-R-M-A-N. The second edition was actually written by a good friend of mine, Christie Romero, who has since passed on. She used to be on the Antiques Roadshow. You’d see her on Antiques Roadshow a lot, a very knowledgeable woman. She had started her journey by traveling down to Mexico and learning all about Mexican silver and then just expanded from there. She used to give classes on jewelry at Valley College in Los Angeles. She just knew how to present things in such a way that it was very easy to assimilate that information.

 

It has tons and tons of pictures. It also has a jewelry timeline. It’s very thorough for being such an easily read book. There are even some prices in there, I think. It’s now an older book, and I think there have been other editions that have been written since hers, but I always liked hers because I’m familiar with it. So, that’s another good one that I would offer.

 

Sharon: What about a book if we want to be more specific, like Georgian or Victorian jewelry? It’s funny that when you say prehistoric, you could take many of the prehistoric pieces and wear them today and nobody would know the difference. But it seems to jump then to Renaissance.

 

Jo Ellen: Because it has to do with the Dark Ages. A lot of it is about human history and civilization. During the Dark Ages, people were in such terrible shape as a civilization, they didn’t have time to decorate themselves, so they usually used items from the past. There wasn’t a lot of information coming out between, let’s say, the 5^th and 13^th centuries. Then things started rolling again once society got more stabilized.

 

Sharon: Is there a particular book we should look at if we want to pick up where society picked up? Let’s say Georgian.

 

Jo Ellen: There’s a really good book on jewels of the Renaissance by Yvonne Hackenbroch. It’s quite a tome. It’s big, and it goes through the history of civilization as well as jewelry. It talks about the light occurring in the beginning of the Renaissance, when people started realizing there’s more to life than just eating and sleeping and staying alive. You can decorate yourself. You can show your social status by what you wear, some of it being jewelry. That’s a very good book for the Renaissance period.

 

There’s also another Renaissance book called “Renaissance Jewels and Jeweled Objects: From the Melvin Gutman Collection” by Parker Lesley. It shows wonderful examples of Renaissance-oriented jewelry. There’s one called the Hope Pearl Jewel. It’s this big, baroque pearl that’s decorated as the body of a man. It’s very well known. It demonstrates jewels like that.

 

Sharon: From there, does it continue to Georgian and Victorian?

 

Jo Ellen: Yeah, there’s a really good book, “Georgian Jewelry 1714-1830,” by Ginny Redington and Tom Dawes with Olivia Collings. It’s great because I had never seen a book specifically on Georgian jewelry. It’s not glamorous jewelry because the techniques weren’t there. It’s just that people wanted to adorn themselves to help their social status. It’s very collectable today. People collect Georgian jewelry all the time. It goes through the period before Queen Victoria took the throne and clarifies a lot of things. And, again, the information is spot-on. I’ve never had a problem with these books. When I go to confirm that information, I’ve never had a problem with it.

 

Sharon: I don’t collect Georgian jewelry, but I do know it’s very hard to find.

 

Jo Ellen: Yeah, it is, but it shows up at different auctions, sometimes in the most unusual places. Even at Abell Auctions you’ll see it. People just hold onto these things. A lot of Georgian jewelry isn’t available anymore because people would melt down those items to make new items in a newer fashion, such as a Victorian fashion. They would take the stones out, melt down the metals and then either recast them or remake them in some way into a newer-looking form. That’s why you don’t see a lot of Georgian jewelry anymore.

 

Sharon: How about Victorian jewelry? There seems to be a lot of it.

 

Jo Ellen: There’s a lot of Victorian jewelry. Even though people also did it then, where they would melt things down and make a new piece out of older pieces, there is a lot of Victorian jewelry because Queen Victoria, whom that period is named after, wore a lot of jewelry. She was a big jewelry person. She loved jewelry and she used it for sentimental reasons to give imagery, to bestow favor on people. So, there’s a lot of it around because people would want to copy her. Everybody started doing that. You’ll have mourning jewelry from Victorian times.

 

A lot of historical things happened during her reign, such as the finding of diamonds in South Africa, which changed the diamond market forever. Before then, there were diamonds from Brazil, primarily, or India, but they’re very hard to come by and very, very expensive. Once they opened up the diamond fields in South Africa, you started getting a lot more diamond jewelry.

 

Sharon: By mourning, you mean if somebody dies?

 

Jo Ellen: Yeah. A lot of times, when someone would die, they would leave a certain amount of money in their will to make mourning rings or pendants for their friends and family to remember them by. So, you have this memento mori-type jewelry which has its own collecting base. People collect their little pendants, which are like little baskets with a little enamel skeleton inside, little rings that say the man or woman’s name written around the inside of the band, all sorts of things like that. It’s kind of sweet because, when you think about it, jewelry is one of the few art forms that’s worn close to the body. It makes it more sentimental.

 

Sharon: And the diamonds from South Africa, were they different than the other diamonds, besides being less expensive?

 

Jo Ellen: The thing with Brazilian diamonds in particular is that they had what they call a lot of knots in them, where their crystals grow into crystals. You would have these harder-to-polish areas. With African diamonds, it’s such a pure form that they’re easier to polish. They didn’t take as much time to polish, and they didn’t break on the wheel the way that some of the Brazilian diamonds would break.

 

Sharon: They used those diamonds in Victorian jewelry?

 

Jo Ellen: They did.

 

Sharon: What books should we look at if we want to learn about Victorian jewelry?

 

Jo Ellen: There is a wonderful book—in fact, I used to know an antique dealer that used to give out these books to his clients because they were wonderfully organized. There’s a book called “Victorian Jewelry” by Margaret Flower, and it goes through the different phases of Victorian jewelry. There’s an early, a mid and a late phase. What she does is describe exactly what you can see during each of the phases, what types of jewelry. It’s very interesting, and it gives you an overall picture of how things came to be during that time period. It’s really nicely done.

 

There’s a much larger book I’m still reading because it’s so big. It’s called “Jewelry in the Age of Queen Victoria” by Charlotte Gere and Judy Rudoe. That also has a lot of very specific information on different types of jewelry, the makers during that time. What’s interesting is you’ll see the same authors over and over again because these people really use it. It’s their way to express themselves as a lifestyle, almost. They’re wonderful authors, and they do their research and know what they’re talking about. So, those are two Victorian jewelry books I would highly recommend. I think they’re wonderfully done.

 

Then, if you want to go into French jewelry, there’s another book called “French Jewelry of the Nineteenth Century” by Henri Vever. It’s an enormously fat book. I’m still reading that one as well, but again, it’s jewelry makers. It’s huge. It gives makers’ information and techniques, and it’s beautifully done. That’s a good book to have as well.

 

Sharon: First of all, it strikes me that you seem to look at the pictures a lot more. You read. Most people don’t read any of the book. They look at the pictures. That’s different.

 

Jo Ellen: They have pictures with jewelry; that’s sure to entice you to continue looking.

 

Sharon: Then what do you go into? Edwardian and Art Nouveau?

 

Jo Ellen: Before that, there’s actually a period called the Aesthetic Period, which is also covered in the “Jewelry in the Age of Queen Victoria” book. It was in the late 1870s through the 1900s. There were certain makers that specialized in it, like Child & Child of London. They would make these beautiful pieces that harkened back to classical times but using new techniques and materials. That was a specific period. It was a very small period, but all the jewelry that was done during that time is beautifully done. There’s a book by Geoffrey Munn called “Castellani and Giuliano,” and it talks about that specific time period. For example, Castellani was known for taking antique or ancient jewelry and refiguring it for that time period around the 1900s.

 

Sharon: He was a goldsmith?

 

Jo Ellen: He was a goldsmith. It was actually two brothers who were goldsmiths. One of the brothers was very politically active and lost an arm when they were demonstrating or something. He got put in jail, but the other brother kept on, and then their children took over after them. In Giuliano’s case, which was another manufacturer in Rome, he was known for his enamels. You will see jewelry specifically with black and white enamel accenting other colored enamels. The work is beautifully done, and it’s very detailed.

 

Sharon: We may be going back a few years. What was Berlin iron, and when was that popular?

 

Jo Ellen: Berlin ironwork, I believe, was like 1840 through 1860. It was a result of people giving up their precious metals for the Prussian Wars that were happening at that time. They would make this Berlin ironwork, which is very delicate and lacey, but it was made out of iron because they didn’t want to use precious metals for that; they wanted to use it for warfare. So, they would use ironwork as a substitute for precious metals. There are some beautifully intricate bracelets and necklaces. It looks like lace. It’s really beautiful.

 

Sharon: Is it wearable?

 

Jo Ellen: It is wearable. It’s kind of a Gothic look, so it’s a heavier look. I don’t know if you’d want to wear it every day because, again, it’s kind of—I hate to say gloomy, but it is kind of a sober look because it’s black and the tracery is so fine. But it’s certainly wearable.

 

Sharon: After the Aesthetic Period, we have Edwardian and Art Deco. What do we have?

 

Jo Ellen: What we start with is Arts and Crafts, which is actually my favorite period. I have a lot of books on it, but there are a couple that were really good in terms of pushing forward the information I knew. One is a book called “Jewelry and Metalwork in the Arts and Crafts Tradition” by Elyse Zorn Karlin, who’s a very active member of the jewelry industry. She gives lectures. It’s this wonderful book on Arts and Crafts jewelry and metalwork and leads you through the making of it with the guilds.

 

They tried to restart jewelry guilds in England where everything was made from first to last by the same person. The metal would be drawn and shaped by the person. If enamels were used, they would make the enamels themselves and apply them themselves. The stone setting was done by the same person. That was the beginning of Arts and Crafts, the person making the piece from beginning to end. Usually they’re not terribly intricate, but they’re beautifully fashioned with a lot of feeling. It’s a very comfortable look, and it’s infinitely wearable. The first part of Arts and Crafts started around 1883 through 1900. Then there was a repeat of it between around 1920 and 1935, around the same time as Art Deco.

 

What I forgot to mention during the Aesthetic Period was Carl Fabergé from Russia. He did a lot of Aesthetic pieces.

 

Sharon: He did the eggs, right?

 

Jo Ellen: He did the eggs for the Russian monarchy, but he also did jewelry for everyday people. He would make little, miniature enameled eggs for the general Russian population. Those still come up today once in a while. I saw an entire necklace of Fabergé eggs, all in different enamel colors beautifully done. Everything is so beautifully fashioned. You can tell they really took time in every single aspect of the making of that jewel. That’s what I love about it. It shows so much attention to detail.

 

Sharon: We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to the JewelryJourney.com to check them out.