House of Kahn Estate Jewelers in the Press

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House of Kahn Estate Jeweler's $100,000 Diamond Earrings Featured in Fashion Column

By ROBERT JANJIGIAN
Published: Sunday, August 29, 2010
Palm Beach Daily News

Fall preview — All summer long, estate jeweler Adele Kahn has been combing the market for new pieces to offer clients at the House of Kahn, 231 Peruvian Ave.

"We’re getting ready for the season," said Kahn, who was especially pleased with a pair of chandelier earrings she recently acquired from a California collection. These earrings feature 22 pink, yellow and blue rose-cut diamonds with a total weight of 16 carats and are a rare treat, said Kahn. "I can definitely see these on a glamorous Palm Beach woman," she said. The pair of icy danglers are expected to go for a price just under $100,000.

Also in at Kahn: several pretty spectacular Art Deco bracelets and a number of the jeweler’s favorite flower pins.

Article originally from The Palm Beach Daily News. View the entire column here.

Gold Rebounds From Eight Week Low on Demand for Haven After Euro Declines

By PHAM-DUY NGUYEN
Published: Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Bloomberg News

Gold futures rebounded from the lowest price in eight weeks on demand for a haven from weakening currencies.

The euro fell as much as 0.8 percent on renewed debt concerns in Europe. Gold surged to a record $1,266.50 on June 21 and also reached all-time highs last month in euros, U.K. pounds and Swiss francs. Earlier today, the metal touched $1,175.10 an ounce, the lowest level since May 21.

"It’s a good time to buy gold while it’s on sale," said Matt Zeman, a trader at LaSalle Futures Group in Chicago. "For buy-and-hold types of people, fiscal irresponsibility is too widespread to completely trust fiat currencies."

Gold futures for August delivery rose $9.80, or 0.8 percent, to $1,191.70 on the Comex in New York, the biggest gain for a most-active contract since July 13. The metal has gained 8.7 percent this year.

European regulators are examining 91 banks to determine whether they can survive potential losses on sovereign-debt holdings. Results will be released July 23.

"Investors are nibbling at the long side of gold," said Adam Klopfenstein, a senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock, a broker in Chicago. "There’s a small degree of uncertainty heading into the bank-stress test."

Jewelry Sales Increase

Sales at the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers in Chicago were up 30 percent in June from a year earlier as customers viewed gold and precious stones as more likely to retain value, Tobina Kahn, a vice president, said in an interview last month.

Kathleen Markiewicz, a customer at the store, said that she has been buying one piece of jewelry a month and selling investments in mutual funds.

"To me, it is a safer investment," Markiewicz said.

Moody’s Investors Service cut Ireland’s credit rating one level to Aa2 yesterday, citing a "significant loss of financial strength" and the cost of bank bailouts.

Russia’s central bank added 200,000 ounces of gold to its reserves last month, increasing the stockpile to 22.8 million ounces (709.2 metric tons), the bank said today in an e-mailed statement.

Platinum futures for October delivery rose $4.70, or 0.3 percent, to $1,517.80 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Palladium futures for September delivery climbed $7.15, or 1.6 percent, to $451.05 an ounce.

----With assistance by Millie Munshi in New York, Nicholas Larkin in London and Paul Abelsky in Moscow. Editors: Michael Arndt, Daniel Enoch.

Article originally from the Bloomberg News. View the original article here.

Gems' Gleam Catches Wary Investors' Eyes

By Julie Wernau
Published: April 15, 2010
Chicago Tribune

Please click here to read the entire article on the Chicago Tribune Website.

Palm Beach Showcases Sculptures Grand and Small

By M.M. Cloutier
Published: February 20, 2010
Palm Beach Daily News

Spring, with an armload of flowers as it stands sentinel with stone comrades Fall, Winter and Summer, greets strollers in Worth Avenue's Via Parigi. Giant red, white and blue triangles punctuate a Sunday drive along South Ocean Boulevard.

You don't have to step into one of Palm Beach's galleries — although that's always a treat — to be enriched by three-dimensional visual art.

Plein-air sculptures abound — from large-scale contemporary works to bronze figures to garden statuary — in public places.

Whether they're works designed for the town or those positioned outdoors, thanks to a cultural organization's art collection or a Palm Beacher's inclination to beautify, they grace streetsides, vias and Intracoastal-side perches. One can wax philosophically about this — how these sculptural pieces add depth and character to the community and arouse our thinking - but really, aren't they fun to look at?

Diamonds are Forever

By ANGELA MILES
On Air: February 2, 2010
First Business News

Silver Surges as Sterling Investment

By DIAN VUJOVICH
Published: Friday, December 25, 2009
Palm Beach Daily News

It's that time of year when all that twinkles aren't only the lights on your tree or the returns on gold. Look at how silver has performed this year — and surprise, surprise, it sparkles, too. In fact, it has actually outperformed gold.

Who knew?

Some might say this versatile metal doesn't have the sex appeal of gold. But when it comes to making money, why care about sex appeal. That seems to follow quite naturally as one's fortunes mount. But enough about that: Let's look at the numbers.

At the beginning of 2009, silver was trading at $9.46 an ounce, according to Silvercoins.com. By the close of business on Dec. 2, it had reached $19.21 — more than doubling in price. Gold, on the other hand, was up about 60 percent.

During the past 10 years, silver's price has gone from a low of $4.02 to a high of $20.79 — an increase of more than five times. Gold's prices ranged from roughly $280 to $1200 an ounce. While impressive, silver's gain was greater.

"Both gold and silver are viewed as safe-haven assets and both have been used throughout history as mediums of exchange,"; says Nicolas Brooks, head of research and investment strategy at ETF Securities in London. "When investors are concerned about the macro economic environment, rising fiscal deficits, they look for alternatives to the U.S. dollar. Like gold and silver to act as a hedge when currencies are weakening or there are concerns about inflation.";

While silver may not carry the same cachet, it typically performs better than gold during precious-metal bull markets like the one we're experiencing, but doesn't garner the same amount of news or advertising attention as gold. That's too bad, for like gold, silver provides an alternative to a currency play and performs well in times of high inflation.

If there's one primary difference between the two metals, it's in usage: Unlike gold, most of silver's uses are industrial.

"Silver is unique in that it's a hybrid between a precious metal and an industrial metal,"; adds Brooks.

In 2008, for instance, 53 percent of silver production was used in industrial applications because of its strength, malleability electrical and thermal conductivity and reflectivity — think mirrors here; 19 percent for jewelry; and 13 percent, photography — that figure is likely to a decline going forward as the world changes from film to digital cameras; 8 percent, coins and medals; and 7 percent silverware, which includes everything from candle sticks to platters and silver-service sets to chandeliers.

Silver's presentation, therefore, may be beautiful or barely noticed.

And you'll find no shortage of mining locations for this metal. The top eight silver-producing countries last year were Peru, Mexico, China, Australia, Chile, Poland, Russia and the United States.

Although production has dropped, silver is still inexpensive, serves as a good indicator of manufacturing cycles, and historically has been used as money more than gold has.

According to CMIGS, a Web site dedicated to educating investors about the benefits and dangers of the precious metals markets, "In something like fourteen languages, the words for silver and money are the same. "

Silver tea set featured at the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers

Earlier this month, Paul Urban brought an ornate six-piece sterling tea set and 14-piece sterling buffet set to Tobina Kahn at the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers in Chicago for her to appraise and sell. Urban, who produces ice-skating shows and at one time was a professional skater himself, has traveled the world performing. Throughout his journeys, he and his wife would make purchases of gold and silver wares and bring them home.

"Being in show business, we did a lot of entertaining, "; said Urban, who is also a talented magician. "But we're not entertaining as much anymore so I'm beginning to unload a bit of what we have. ";

Reluctant to say precisely how much he paid for the either set, Urban is well aware of the profits a sale could bring. He also isn't selling all of his silver. "I have other things, like silver chargers and silver chaffing dishes. But I also own an apartment complex and my taxes are due on it."

Like every other kind of investment on the planet, no profits can be had until you sell what you own.

So given the current rise in silver prices, Urban's expecting the sale of his sterling to provide him with more than the amount needed for his taxes. No abracadabra necessary.

But investing in silver isn't without its risks. Play this precious metal and you'll be playing with volatility. On the other hand, demand for it will continue to grow as world economies do, production lags and, when there's a rally in gold, there's also likely to be one in silver.

"Silver is trading very much like an industrial metal now,"; says Brooks. "If we see an asset correction based on concerns about growth, I think silver gets hit. But, if the U.S. government debt continues to rise, its price is likely to rise. It does, however, tend to be a more volatile commodity than gold.";

Given that reality, Brooks suggests investors with a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and other assets, keep the weightings in silver in their portfolios, less than that of their gold holdings.

The Lone Ranger

If you remember the television show The Lone Ranger, you'll no doubt recall Tonto, the Native American who saved his life in the popular series that began in 1949.

Together, the Lone Ranger and Tonto performed a number of heroics, but perhaps one of the most remembered was when they saved a silver-white stallion from being gored by a buffalo. As the series showed, they nursed that horse back to health and then set him free. But the horse would have none of that and followed them. As a result, the Lone Ranger decided to keep him and name him Silver.

If you remember the series, you'll also remember hearing the Lone Ranger's hearty exclamation of ";Hi-yo, Silver, away!"; as they rode toward the golden sun set in each episode.

Investing in silver is a little bit like that, whether your investment is in silver bars, tea sets, stocks, ETFs, medallions, coins or future's contracts — at the end of the day, its price follows that golden trail.

WAYS TO INVEST IN SILVER

There is no shortage of investment choices when it comes to silver. From bullion to stocks, Exchange-Traded Funds to coins, there's something for every investor no matter how much money they have to invest.

Suggestions from The Silver Institute include:

* Bullion. Consider silver in the form of bars that are at least 99.5 percent pure.

* Official Coins and Medallions.

* Futures and/or or Forward Contracts: An agreement made on an exchange to take or make delivery of silver at a set date in the future.

* Options: The right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell silver or a financial security linked to silver on a specified date in the future.

* Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs): These represent a basket of equities linked to silver, i.e. the physical metal, producers, refiners, etc. ETFs are traded on exchanges throughout the trading day.

* Mutual Funds: An open-ended fund that holds a basket of silver-related equities that are priced once daily.

Back to the ETFs. Silver ETFs have seen enormous growth recently and while investment strategy of some is to basically reflect the price of silver, others use more intricate strategies. So, make sure to do your homework before purchasing shares.

A few ETFs that invest in silver and trade on the New York Stock Exchange include: The ETFS Silver Trust (SIVR); iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV); PowerShares DB Silver (DBS); E-TRACS UBS Bloomberg CMCI Silver ETN (USV), Ultra Silver ProShares (AGQ); and ProShares UltraShort Silver ETF (ZSL).

Learn more about investing in silver at The Silver Institute's Web site, www.silverinstitute.org/investing_in_silver.php. And at CMI Gold & Silver at www.cmi-gold-silver.com/buy-silver-bullion-coins.html.

Article originally from the Palm Beach Daily News. View the original article here.

In the Windy City, a Gold Rush Continues

By PETER A. McKAY
Published: December 21, 2009
Wall Street Journal

We figure that now is a good time to check in again with Tobina Kahn, a Chicago estate jeweler we've used previously as a highly unscientific barometer of gold demand and the economy's woes.

Through most of the post-Thanksgiving period, she said there have been more sellers than buyers passing through her shop, with many saying they need to unload family heirlooms to raise cash to pay bills, mortgages, or other expenses. In the last few days, the buyer/seller ratio has evened out, but not necessarily for a pleasant reason.

Ms. Kahn attributes some of the increase in buyers to last-minute gift shopping. But a good chunk of it — perhaps a third — consists of people looking for jewelry as an investment for themselves in lieu of stocks, bonds, or other &paper assets." One telltale sign: Ms. Kahn said she got four emails Monday seeking jewelry that incorporates gold coins — an apparent attempt to hoard the coins from a source that has been relatively untapped during gold's recent run to new records, which has exhausted the supplies of many traditional coin dealers.

"A lot of these coin pieces were made in the sixties and have been out of style for awhile," said Ms. Kahn. "A few years ago, I couldn't give them away. Now, I get four emails in one day asking for them? You can tell it's not people shopping for their grandmas and cousins."

See the whole article on WSJ.com...

Bulls, bears debate value of gold investing

Americans are beginning to wake up to grandma's valued asset

By DIAN VUJOVICH
Published: October 24th, 2009
Palm Beach Daily News

You can hardly open a newspaper or turn on the television today and not see an advertisement for places to sell your gold jewelry or suggestions how to invest in this precious metal the entire world seems to love. And why not? It's trading at all-time highs.

Adored by kings and queens, rulers and peasants, gold makes a statement whether in ring, broach, necklace, bracelet, crown, certificate, bullion, nugget or bar form. Even pooches have a statelier stride when a little golden bone dangles from their collars.

The value of gold goes up or down depending upon economic, personal or geopolitical circumstances. Right now its value is flying high; the price of gold recently traded at more than $1,058 an ounce. A decade ago, on Oct. 1, 1999, it traded at a fraction of that: $291.35 an ounce.

With debt in the United States rising and the value of the dollar diminishing, is now a good time to buy or sell gold? The answer depends upon with whom you speak.

Golden baubles

"If you believe that gold is going to go to $2,000 an ounce or even more and it's $1,000 an ounce as we speak, then yes it's a good idea to buy gold," says Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers in Chicago. "If you believe in the U.S. dollar and think that the dollar is going to rise, then no, don't buy gold."

Kahn has been in the estate jewelry business more than 15 years. Her family has been in it more than 50 years. Her parents, Edward and Adele Kahn, own the Chicago shop and the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers on Peruvian Avenue.

Selling gold jewelry through an estate jeweler is different that plopping your old rings and bracelets into an envelope and shipping them off or visiting a "we-buy-gold" store and getting a check or cash.

Estate jewelers buy jewelry to resell it. They are a part of what's considered the secondary market for gems and jewels. Companies that advertise bringing your gold jewelry directly to them typically melt it.

"I can't get this point across enough," Tobina Kahn said. "A lot of places are buying it for melting purposes. We do not melt anything down because if we were to melt it down, you'd be getting much less (for the piece). We try to keep it in its intact form because we're going to resell it."

Purchasing jewels at estate jewelers also is different than, say, shopping at fine retail jewelers. Because they are a part of the secondary market, estate jewelers offer a unique selection of jewels, often at value prices. That said, if the price of gold rises too high, even well-priced bobbles at the best estate jewelers could lose their luster.

Adele Kahn said she has concerns if the price of gold rises too high. "It could make jewelry too expensive, and we do want the consumer to be able to buy."

Golden returns

Then again, gold has always been an international currency of sorts. Just ask your grandma. If she, or any of your relatives, came to the United States from anywhere around the globe in the early to mid-20th century, she probably carried with her some gold coins or jewelry, and stashed them away for safekeeping.

"Europeans have always believed in gold," Adele Kahn said. "Gold is really an international currency and now Americans are waking up and realizing that. They have always thought it was something of a luxury, but now it's rising above housing or stocks."

Indeed, it has. The average gold-oriented mutual fund, for example, was up more than 19 percent during the third quarter of this year. Year-to-date, through Sept. 30, it is ahead 40.71 percent. The average S&P 500 index fund was up 15.42 during the third quarter of this year and 18.8 percent year-to-date, according to Lipper Inc. That's quite a spread.

Even looking back three and five years, the value of this precious metal still shines. The average gold-oriented fund had an average annual total return of 11.46 percent for the past three years, and 15.38 percent for the past five years, again ending Sept. 30. On the other hand, the average S&P 500 index fund was down 5.9 percent for the last three years and only up one-half of one percent over the past five years.

"Don't tell me that jewelry doesn't earn interest," Adele Kahn said. "When things get rough what do men do? They sell their wives' jewelry."

Gold, inflation and the dollar

"As much as people talk about gold being an inflation hedge, I think that there are a lot of choices out there that work better," says Jeff Tjornehoj, research manager for the United States and Canada at Lipper. "TIPS, for instance, would be a much better choice."

Research he's seen doesn't always show gold acting as a hedge against inflation, Tjornehoj said. And TIPS, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, are designed to protect against inflation because their values increase with inflation and decrease with deflation.

That said, Tjornehoj says there is merit in the theory that gold is responding to a lack of optimism and faith in U.S. currency.

Pierre Duga, a financial correspondent for Radio France and Le Figaro newspaper, says that because of America's huge debt and massive printing of money, he expects the value of the U.S. dollar to become weaker in the future when measured against currencies such as the Chinese yuan and Japanese yen.

"The American economy was the big engine of growth for the world," Duga said. "The American consumer was the consumer of last resort. That has collapsed. What's happening is a rebalancing of the world's economies."

Duga said he is still a fan of gold as a hedge against inflation, preferring ETFs to holding gold bullion. He also likes currency plays. "The idea is to buy something that holds its value. When you start not trusting the dollar any more, buy hard assets (such as gold)," he said.

"We keep measuring things as if the dollar was the single currency to value things by and is defined by its weight in gold. We're no longer in 1971," he said.

Golden opportunity, or not?

So where does that leave us? Right where we started: Having to make hard investment decisions regarding what we think will happen to the value of our currency, interest rates — and gold — given current economic conditions.

Then we should consider how our answers play into what's going on in the world and what the future could bring — understanding there's no such thing as a sure bet.

As for bangles, baubles and rings made of gold, why not buy them? They wear well no matter what's going on in the world.

GOLD'S UPS & DOWNS

Since President Richard Nixon took the U.S. dollar off the gold standard in 1971, its value has fluctuated.

A few examples:

* August 1971, one Troy ounce of gold was valued at $35 an ounce. A year later it was $38 an ounce. In May 1972, the U.S. devalues the dollar to $42.22 a Troy ounce.

* January 1980, gold hits a new high of $850 per ounce.

* August 1999, gold is trading at $251.70 an ounce.

* November 2005, it's $500 per ounce.

* May 2006, the price hits a high of $730. One month later, it's fallen 26 percent to $543 an ounce.

* March 2008, gold hits a high of $1,030.80.

* January 2009, gold closed the month at $919.50.

* October 2009, gold hits an all-time high of $1,058 an ounce.

Gold Rush

By ANGELA MILES
On Air: November 13, 2009
First Business News

Excerpt from video

Angela Miles: Talk about striking it rich. The price of December gold at the New York Mercantile Exchange surged to a record high of $1,119 an ounce November 11.

Tobina Kahn: Is it a good time to sell your gold jewelry? Absolutely, we recommend. Gold is at its all time high.

AM: Tobina Kahn, V.P. of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers also believes it's a time to buy gold estate jewelry as an investment.

TK: As an investment, well, it's going to increase in value if the metal itself, the gold, goes up. Then, technically the item you have you'll see your investment grow month to month and year to year.

AM: Kahn believes gold will rise to $2500 an ounce and offers insights to people who are thinking about buying gold jewelry as an investment.

TK: What we are looking for, and what is going to bring even more than what the ounce per gold is, is anything signed, anything from the 1940s and the 1950s. Any item from the retro period.

AM: Kahn adds that 22 and 24 karat gold gets top dollar. As a gemologist, Kahn is not a fan of people mailing in gold jewelry for cash back. Instead, she prefers to do a gold test in front of clients.

TK: Perhaps you are sending in a gold bracelet that has specific stones in mind. They're just going to pay you the gold content but the stones might be something very rare.

AM: Gold has been trending higher on years of inflation and the falling dollar. Over the past 5 years, gold has risen from nearly $500 to well above $1000; leaving the Dow in its dust. The Dow today is right around where it was a few years ago.

Click here to visit the First Business News website.

Cash In On Designer Bags And Jewelry

By Suzanne Le Mignot
On Air: October 31, 2009
CBS2 News

"We're seeing a ton of gold jewelry. There's no doubt about that, said Tobina Kahn, Vice President of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, located at 60 E. Walton St. in Chicago.

With the precious metal trading at an all time high, House of Kahn Estate Jewelers has been busy buying items, ranging from solid gold cuffs to woven gold evening bags.

"The fact that they would rather sell it, get the money for it and do something more with it, is really a good choice, especially if they're not wearing it," Kahn said.

Kahn also says 18-Karat gold and vintage items are the most valuable.

"Look for retro pieces. Maybe things from the 1940s, the 1950s."

Large diamonds are also in big demand right now; anything three carats and up. The experts say diamonds are like portable currency.

Housing Starts in U.S. Likely Gain; Gold Scrap Rises

By: Michelle Steele
On Air: September 17, 2009
Bloomberg Televesion

Selling Your Jewelry: What to Know Before Making a Deal

By: Suzanne Le Mignot
On Air: January 27,2009
CBS2 News

World News in the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer

By: Susan Roesgen
On Air: December 27, 2008
CNN World News

Duchess of York with House of Kahn

By: Tamron Hall
On Air: November 17, 2002
Fox News

Diamonds Are Forever?

Host: Stuart Varney
By: Ceci Rodgers
On Air: August 8, 2000
CNN World News

As Times Turn Tough, New York's Wealthy Economize: Plastic Surgeons, Jewelers, Yacht Builders Brace for Leaner Times; Saying No to Caviar

By ELLEN GAMERMAN, CHERYL LU-LIEN TAN and FRANCINE SCWADEL
Published: September 19, 2008
Wall Street Journal

A nose job in a hospital with a private nurse in attendance had been something of a rite of passage for Joan Asher's children. But when her fourth and last child was ready for her own rhinoplasty recently, Ms. Asher asked her to postpone it.

The financial markets were simply more out of whack than her 16-year-old's proboscis.

"The other noses were more prominent," the stay-at-home mother from a tony New York City suburb in Westchester County told her 16-year-old daughter. She could get hers done when things settled down.

The financial crisis on Wall Street has New York's well-to-do reeling. The people who fuel the area's economy with their spending on art, fashion, cars, restaurants, plastic surgery and other luxe goods and services are starting to cut back once-lavish budgets. As a result, those who cater to their every whim -- from nanny agencies to jewelers to yacht builders -- are seeing clients tighten their belts on expenses from the millions to the thousands.

At luxury boat builder Northrop & Johnson Yacht and Ship, headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, director Kathleen Mullen says a New York investor called this week trying to put off the purchase of a more than $25 million megayacht. The client's debating whether to back out of the deal completely. He'll still have to pay 10%, Ms. Mullen says, since he'd already signed the contract. "He's undecided about what he wants to do," she says. "People have been very shaken."

On Thursday, a New York mother of two young children asked Carol Solomon, the owner of New York Nanny Center Inc., whether she could find a good nanny willing to work for less than the $1,200 a week sought by a candidate she had found elsewhere.

"Based on everything that's been going on with the market," the mother told Ms. Solomon, "I'm concerned about committing to that kind of salary." Ms. Solomon suggested another nanny seeking a more modest salary of $750 a week.

As with Ms. Asher's daughter, cosmetic surgeons are feeling the pinch in their nips and tucks.

Disappointing Birthday

For her 50th birthday, Annette Pucci, a New York retail manager, planned to treat herself to a facelift by cashing in $15,000 in stocks. But after consulting with her husband, a manger with Consolidated Edison Inc., she realized their stock portfolio had taken such a hit that it was out of the question.

"It was a very big disappointment," Ms. Pucci said. Her consolation: a $1,200 Botox treatment she had this week instead.

Plastic surgeon Z. Paul Lorenc says one patient recently asked him to inject half a syringe of Restylane and save the rest for later to save money. He refused. "Every single patient that I have seen today so far has mentioned that there's uncertainty on Wall Street," Dr. Lorenc said this week. "Everybody's waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Ms. Asher was able to let her daughter get her nose job before school began after plastic surgeon Alan Matarasso said he could do the procedure in his office operating room on Manhattan's Upper East Side for about $2,500 less than if they went to a hospital, stayed overnight and hired a nurse. At home, Ms. Asher stayed up most of the night after the surgery, putting cold compresses on her daughter's eyes every 20 minutes. "She was fine," she says. "It came out great."

On the party circuit, many New Yorkers aren't canceling events, but some are seeking to make them less ostentatious, says Bronson van Wyck, who runs New York event firm Van Wyck & Van Wyck LLC with his mother and sister. Earlier this week, the children of a Wall Street executive who are planning his 65th birthday party contacted the firm to change the menu. Out went the caviar and truffles and in came Wagyu beef instead. The new menu won't cost any less, Mr. van Wyck says, but "it's less overt."

Bright Spot Dims

Expensive jewelry -- one of the few bright spots in the luxury-goods industry until now -- appears to be a new victim of the financial crisis. Patricia G. Hambrecht, who helps private clients buy and sell high-end jewelry, this week watched a client in the financial-services industry slash his budget for his wife's wedding anniversary present to $20,000 to $25,000 from $50,000.

Another client, a woman who had been eyeing a $30,000 pair of diamond hoop earrings, explained this week that her husband works in the financial sector, and "this isn't a good moment," Ms. Hambrecht says. "There's a reluctance to spend money right now," she says.

Jewelry designer Tina Tang said August sales were down 50% year over year and foot traffic was off 75% at her Gold Label by Tina Tang store in Greenwich Village, where she caters to professional women with items that go for as much as $16,000. She expects sales to fall more this month. To clear merchandise and generate cash flow, Ms. Tang is holding her first ever storewide sale, slashing prices on all items by 25%. "We're feeling it," she said.

Art and Money

Despite Sotheby's record-breaking auction of Damien Hirst's artworks in London this week, many galleries fear fallout from the crisis on Wall Street. Chelsea art gallery owner Nick Robinson says he expects the work of popular artists who command prices of more than $250,000 in his gallery will still sell well, because people will consider the art an investment. But mid-career artists with lower-priced pieces may suffer because the value of their work is less certain, he says.

For example, a couple just backed out of purchasing a $12,000 photograph from Mr. Robinson's gallery. When he called to finalize the sale, he says, "It was a vague, 'Well, I don't really need it anymore.' " Mr. Robinson, who thinks the problem was cash flow, says it's highly unusual for a customer to back out at the last minute. "It's the only time it's ever happened to me," says Mr. Robinson, who's been a dealer for 10 years.

The full impact of the financial crisis on those who sell to the wealthy won't be known for months since much of the big spending by folks on Wall Street is fueled by the bonuses they receive between December and February. The prospect of smaller bonuses this year has realtors, retailers and renters of villas in the Caribbean on edge. Glenn Ormiston, a reservations agent at Wimco Luxury Villa Vacations and Hotels, in Newport, R.I., says her company's villas on the island of St. Barts are all booked for Christmas but notes that clients have until mid-October to pay in full, cancel or trade down to a smaller property.

Some businesses, of course, are benefiting from the crisis. Todd Walter, chief executive officer of Red Door Spa Holdings, which operates 30 Elizabeth Arden Red Door spas in the U.S., said the spa chain has seen an uptick in foot traffic for treatments like massages and facials this week.

"There's tremendous uncertainty and a tremendous amount of stress out there. People are coming in and looking for a small amount of relief," Mr. Walter said, noting that spa revenue is up 5% to 8% this week from a year ago.

At Roundabout New and Resale Couture, a consignment shop on the Upper East Side, manager Kristjansen Villanueva says a woman came into the store for the first time on Wednesday saying the "resale" sign in the window caught her eye.

Mr. Villanueva says the customer told him she's watching her spending because her husband works at Lehman Brothers and their finances were "a little bit shaky." He says she bought an Armani pinstripe suit for $499 -- when buying it at a boutique would have cost her $2,500.

The Family Jewels

Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, which buys and sells high-end jewelry, said she's been "bombarded" with calls from people seeking to sell their jewelry and gold watches quickly since the financial headlines turned particularly dire this week. Ms. Kahn, whose company is based in Chicago and Palm Beach, Fla., said she normally gets four to five calls a day from sellers but has been getting about 40 calls each day this week from people in their 30s to those who are retired.

"I've lost my voice talking to people," she says. "We're not seeing panic, but these are items that they've inherited or perhaps bought when they had great salaries and they're thinking, 'Boy, I'd better cash out now."

New Gold Standard

By CHERYL LU-LIEN TAN
Published: April 28, 2007
Wall Street Journal

This spring, jewelry designers are nudging shoppers to think pink -- pink gold, that is.
After seeing consumers gravitate more toward colorful jewelry in recent years, retailers from Fortunoff to Tiffany and designers such as Dominique Cohen are launching more pieces made with pink gold, which is also known as rose gold and is a mix of gold and copper. Saks Fifth Avenue is carrying earrings and necklaces by Ms. Cohen featuring ice-blue or mint-green topaz stones set in rose gold. Tiffany, which had a few pieces in rose gold in its "Mesh" collection before discontinuing the color, is reintroducing the pink metal in the line next month.

At Fortunoff, where the selection of rose-gold pieces is double what it was last spring, shoppers are buying engagement and wedding rings made of the pink metal, says Ruth Fortunoff, executive vice president of jewelry merchandizing. The trend is a reaction, in part, to the popularity of gold and silver handbags and accessories in fashion this spring, she says. "If you're carrying a metallic gold bag, you're not going to want to wear a lot of shiny yellow jewelry -- it's too much," she says. "It's more subtle if you wear rose gold, which mixes well with silver as well."

Rose gold has more copper in it than yellow or white gold, but the price tag is often the same. That's because the percentage of pure gold in yellow, white and rose gold is the same. Duvall O'Steen, spokeswoman for the World Gold Council, an industry organization, says the price of gold -- no matter the color -- is largely driven by the amount of pure gold in it.

Eighteen-karat yellow and rose gold, for example, both contain 75% pure gold and 25% other metals. In rose gold, however, copper is the predominant other metal, giving it a pink tinge. There is no discernible difference in durability between these different types of gold.

The pink metal has long been used in jewelry. It became chic in the 1920s when Cartier unveiled its "Trinity" ring featuring three intertwined bands of white, yellow and rose gold and the French writer Jean Cocteau wore it, Ms. Duvall says. The metal surged in popularity in the 1940s when platinum was in short supply. Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, says rose gold jewelry holds its value as well as yellow or white gold jewelry.

High-end watchmakers are also experimenting with the metal. Responding to what it says has been a gradual increase in sales of rose-gold watches for both men and women, Patek Philippe began increasing its rose-gold offerings in 2000. It now makes 25% of its new styles available in rose-gold versions. The trend is expected to gain momentum through the fall -- at the Baselworld watch and jewelry show in Switzerland earlier this month several jewelers showed rose gold pieces that will be available at retail in six months.

The rose-gold trend dovetails with another fad -- mixing different-colored metals in stackable bangles or layered necklaces. Jewelry designer Tina Tang, who sells online and in her two Manhattan stores, says she first started dabbling in rose gold a year ago and now makes 33 charms in rose gold and introduced six necklaces in the metal.

Ms. Tang believes people like the color because its warm tone is more universally complementary. "White or yellow gold can look bad on some skin tones," she says. "But rose gold often looks good on pale or dark skin."

Quartz: A Girl's New Best Friend

By CHERYL LU-LIEN TAN
Published: January 21, 2006
Wall Street Journal

Chris Chiarella thought buying his wife a colorful necklace or bracelet for her birthday recently would be a cinch. But he had an anxiety attack when the jeweler laid out piece after piece studded with brightly colored stones he had never heard of -- all priced over $2,000.

"I felt like I do when I go to the mechanic -- that I don't know enough and I'm in over my head," says the portfolio manager from Carlsbad, Calif., who wound up choosing a plain woven gold necklace.

For years, top dollar in the jewelry world went to the four precious stones: diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires. Now jewelers are charging -- and getting -- surprisingly high prices for the gem world's also-rans: semiprecious stones that were once considered low-budget alternatives. Some are even pushing pieces featuring rocks with Geology 101 names such as sodalite that until recently were viewed as too soft or not glittery enough to bother with. Never mind that experts say many of these stones aren't likely to hold their value as well as precious stones.

The elevation of semiprecious stones will be on display for Valentine's Day shoppers this year. At Harry Winston, 10% to 15% of jewelry with colored stones contains the semiprecious variety, up from less than 2% two years ago. Links of London, with four stores in the U.S., estimates 40% of its line has semiprecious stones, up from 10% five years ago. Vera Wang has put baby pink morganites in $1,650 earrings and $4,000 rings. Tiffany has a $248,000 necklace whose main draw is a large electric-blue Paraiba tourmaline pendant.

The irony is that, because fashion is tilting toward brightly colored stones right now, these one-time B-list gems are getting more buzz than diamonds in some circles. But what's really driving the move to semiprecious stones is rising costs for other materials. Prices of rough diamonds have risen as much as 40% over the past two years, due to a change in the way DeBeers distributes them, with large diamonds seeing the biggest increases, says Martin Rapaport, who publishes a report that people in the industry use to set prices. A slightly better than average one-carat diamond now goes for $9,440, he says. And the price of gold has surged to more than $500 an ounce, rising 18% last year alone; it's now near a 25-year high. By using garnets and colored quartz instead of rubies and diamonds in her gold jewelry, designer Tina Tang says she has been able to keep prices stable.

As demand for semiprecious stones has risen, so have prices. In the three years since Ben Affleck gave Jennifer Lopez a pink diamond engagement ring, designers have snapped up so many sparkly pink morganites (a less-pricey alternative) that the wholesale price for a good quality stone has tripled to $150 a carat, according to Joseph Menzie, president of the International Colored Gemstone Association, who estimates that consumers pay two or three times that much. The wholesale price of a five-carat apatite, a sometimes murky green stone, has risen 50% in the past five years to $210, he says. (Apatite got its name from the Greek word "to deceive" because the stone can look like more-expensive gems like peridot.)

Designers, meanwhile, continue to reach for ever-more obscure stones in an effort to stand out. Prasiolite, for instance, isn't exactly known as a girl's best friend. But Terri Eagle, chief executive of jeweler John Hardy, says the company chose the grass-green stone mined in Brazil for a line of $995 rings it is about to roll out because green is supposed to be a popular color this year and "we didn't want to do something that was your common green gemstone." Designer David Yurman plans a line of cuff links and pendants featuring black stones with red streaks that the company calls dinosaur bones and describes as the mineralized remains of prehistoric animals. It introduced the stone last year in $475 to $1,875 men's rings.

The result is that it's harder for consumers to tell which stones should command top dollar and which shouldn't. "I always thought anything that wasn't a diamond, ruby or emerald was the same as cubic zirconia -- costume jewelry," says Cheryl Russo, an attorney from Hanover, Mass., who recently eyed a $150 pair of citrine earrings but didn't buy them.

Some jewelers acknowledge that stores can charge a premium for colored jewelry because consumers tend to pick these pieces based more on style than value. "The profit margins are much more elastic," says Jim Haag, managing director for high-end jeweler Jacob & Co., who suggests seeking the advice of a trusted jeweler.

Color intensity is the best way to gauge quality of these stones, experts say. The more saturated the color in both clear and milky stones, the more valuable they are. Clear stones that don't have white streaks in them also are more valuable. Peter Schneirla, vice chairman at Harry Winston, adds that colored stones should be purchased in person, rather than online, because colors vary widely. "There's no standard by which to compare and express color and quality with colored stones like there is with diamonds," he says.

Shoppers should ask whether a stone has been treated with heat to intensify the color -- and often boost the price. Tanzanite, for example, is naturally greenish brown but takes on its purplish tinge only after heating, Mr. Schneirla says. When high-end jewelers such as Tiffany, Cartier and Harry Winston provide certificates stating the value of colored stones, they note whether they have been heated because many people view treated stones as less pure.

One way to compare the dizzying array of stones popping up in jewelry today is to check how they rate on the industry-standard Mohs Scale of Hardness, which can indicate whether they might chip over time. Diamonds score a perfect 10. Many semiprecious stones are rated between 6 and 8.

Semiprecious stones aren't likely to hold their value as well as precious ones. "I see a lot of people who have bought semiprecious stones and they're very, very disappointed because when they want to resell, they're only going to get 50% or less of what they paid," says Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers in Palm Beach, Fla. "If you like semiprecious and think it's a pretty stone, great. Just don't buy it as an investment."

Hoarders Drive Up Gold Price, Despite Slump In Jewelry Sales

By PETER A. McKAY
Published: October 8, 2002
Wall Street Journal

When people stop buying jewelry, that often spells trouble for the gold market, which depends on rings, necklaces and other baubles for about 80% of industry demand.
So how is it that amid a slump in jewelry sales, gold prices are surging?

The answer fulfills one of the wildest dreams of longtime gold bugs. Even though a recession in the U.S. has tarnished sales of luxury goods such as jewelry, hoarding by wary investors, who see gold as the ultimate safe harbor, has more than offset the slump in sales. The result is that gold prices are jumping, flirting last month with a 2 1/2-year high of more than $330 a troy ounce. Monday, the run up took a pause, with Comex gold futures down 20 cents at $321.90 in afternoon trading in New York, as most stock indexes fell.

Nevertheless, the stock market's fall swoon has boosted gold most days lately, as has strong investment demand for the metal. According to the World Gold Council, a mining-industry trade group, global gold demand was almost unchanged in the second quarter, comprising $7.33 billion of metal. Jewelry demand, though, was down about 1.7%, to $5.84 billion, while investment demand rose 3.6%, to $570 million for the period.

The latest rally represents a reversal of a long-term trend, with a surprising number of investors apparently opting to squirrel gold away in bank accounts instead of wearing it on their bodies.

"Anecdotally, I think the investment that's going on may be even greater than the numbers reflect," said Joe Foster, manager of Van Eck International Investor Gold Fund. "We're seeing interest from commodity traders and hedge funds that have been taking positions in both gold bullion and mining-company shares."

Mr. Foster said his fund, with about $175 million in assets, increased its holdings of derivatives pegged to gold bullion in the first quarter of this year, to 10% from about 6%. The rest is invested in the stocks of mining firms, a common way for investors to track the gold price financially without having to physically store the metal.

Gold, of course, has long been considered a hedge at times of political or economic crisis. Its recent rally over $300 started after last year's September terrorist attacks, and the recent stock-market swoon has boosted the metal's price.

But it is also true that as often as gold has shown promise in turbulent times, the metal also has disappointed. Throughout the dot-com collapse, for instance, gold prices stayed sluggish, as investors turned to U.S. dollars, government bonds or other financial havens.

So, the recent shift toward investment, as opposed to retail, buying as a determinant of gold prices vindicates the view of gold enthusiasts who long have seen the metal's primary appeal as a financial asset.

"There's quite a nice feeling of upside potential in the market right now," says Kelvin Williams, marketing director for AngloGold, the Johannesburg, South Africa, mining concern. Mr. Williams said he is convinced jewelry and investment demand soon will get back in sync. He says jewelers in recent years have gotten used to 'buying on the dips.' This strategy has worked because, invariably, gold always has tumbled shortly after a run up.

But if the rally persists, jewelers may have to start capitulating to higher prices and buying anyway.

Jewelers in part have been able to offset the lower sales with high prices, although several companies' most recent results, which came out in August, contained cautionary notes about the jewelry market.

At Zale, fiscal fourth-quarter profit leapt 24%, to $3.65 million, or 11 cents a share. However, comparable-store sales, or sales in stores open at least a year, only rose 2%. Before the jeweler lowered its earnings expectations in July, Zale had expected a 5% increase in same-store sales.

Whitehall Jewelers reported second-quarter net income of $571 million, or 3.9 cents a share, contrasted with a loss of $643 million a year earlier. The chain attributed the return to profitability to cost-cutting, but said its same-store sales slipped 0.6%.

Even smaller outlets have noticed the jewelry slowdown. Gemologist Tobina Kahn said there has been a stream of people recently in Chicago and Palm Beach, Fla., selling gold pieces to her family's estate-jewelry business, the House of Kahn.

Such anecdotal selling helps explain why there is little demand in the broader gold market for metal to make new jewelry, because the few consumers who still want to buy pieces have a robust supply of existing jewelry from which to choose. "People who need cash are looking at the pieces they have lying around, stuff they probably never wear, that they can sell,"Ms. Kahn said. "Gold is probably the only thing they've got like that. I mean, they can't sell their stock for cash. It's worthless."

To This Jeweler's Clients, Market Rout Is Opportunity

Published: April 17, 2000
Wall Street Journal

New York - One of the telling trends throughout the stock run-up of recent years is the jewelry that many rich folks have sold to raise money to invest.

On Friday, the trend took a twist.

In Chicago, estate jeweler Tobina Kahn, who has seen a stream of sellers in her office, unloading their diamond necklaces and gold broaches for cash to invest in stocks, said that there were 10 stock related customers on Friday, up from the raising money to deal with market losses; other were eager to buy stocks at cheaper prices.

"We've got exactly half who are stock brokers coming in selling their gold Rolex watches or Cartiet money clips for cash," she said Friday. "Then we've got these rich housewives selling their heirlooms because they want to buy stocks when they're cheap."

Throughout the bull market, Ms. Kahn hasn't discouraged the latter group's premise, since their pieces won't appreciate much in investment value over time anyway. She remains baffled, though, that their bullish view of one more buying opportunity in stocks could exist side by side with the professionals' panic Friday.

"It's fascinating," she said. "I mean, who's right?"

Gold Soars on Move By Central Banks

By PETER A. McKAY and MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
Published: September 28, 1999
Wall Street Journal

It has been a long time since the phrase "good as gold" has had a ring of truth. But Monday came close.

The metal's value skyrocketed $14 an ounce to $281.80, hitting a five-month high on news that 15 European central banks won't unload extra gold onto the market for the next five years.

Analysts said the unexpected move virtually erased the biggest specter that has been scaring investors away from gold for more than a year -- a seemingly endless string of rumors or announcements that government gold sales could flood the market.

But now, after hitting several new 20-year lows over the summer, gold has made a sharp turnaround. In the past two weeks including yesterday, the metal has risen by $24.90, or almost 10%. Gold still is below the $300 level it traded at almost a year ago, but analysts and traders said Monday that the metal's price could now hit that level by year end as investors move away from their bearish futures bets.

"This is a serious change in sentiment; we haven't had anything like this in a long time," said metals analyst Matthew Ford, of the fund U.S. Global Investors Inc., San Antonio, Texas. "This has the hallmark of being a ... sustainable run, because you've effectively discounted much of what the negative speculation was."

The announcement by government banks came at a time when gold prices had become particularly politicized, analysts and traders said.

Leading the charge in support of higher prices was the World Gold Council trade group, which rallied African officials to oppose official sales, sponsored aggressive advertising campaigns and commissioned polls showing citizens' support for their governments' holding more of the metal.

Monday, council officials said the European banks' announcement could fundamentally change their strategy in the coming months.

"In light of what's occurred in the last nine months, we've been put a little on the defensive," said Michael Barlerin, the World Gold Council's chief executive for Western markets. "I don't sense that some of the programs that we've been running will need to have the same tone now. For example ... I don't think it's going to be necessary to continue the significant adversarial role we've had to the Bank of England decisions."

In the announcement late Sunday, the European Central Bank and 14 individual nations said they wouldn't sell or lease any more of their own gold holdings, beyond previously scheduled transactions such as the Bank of England's plan to gradually sell 400 tons of the metal.

Monday's price rally on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange built upon a rally that began last week when the second installment of the Bank of England's auction showed increasingly bullish producer sentiment toward the metal.

However, such government gold sales have generally been almost poisonous to gold's value. Even after Monday's rally, the metal still hasn't returned to its price level before the May announcement of the British sale. But analysts said the weekend's European announcement was unprecedented both as an affirmation of official bullishness toward gold and as a sign of consensus among a usually fractious group of national banks.

"Gold will remain an important element of global monetary reserves," the central banks said in an announcement presented by European Central Bank President Wim Duisenberg. "The current situation is characterized by uncertainty and that uncertainty by itself led to a lot of volatility and a downward trend in the gold price."

The European announcement came at a time when bank officials were gathered in Washington for the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting. The IMF itself confirmed over the weekend that it had nixed plans to sell 10 million ounces of its own 103 million ounce gold reserve on the open market to raise money to provide debt relief for poor countries.

Instead, faced with industry and congressional opposition, the U.S. Treasury and the IMF engineered a complex new plan in which the IMF will boost the book value of 14 million ounces of gold, then use those resources to help developing countries cut their debts to the IMF.

Analysts said the series of announcements generally reflected the realization by governments and producers that gold had bottomed out, perhaps artificially in an overzealous response to speculation about official sales.

Amid the general euphoria Monday, however, some analysts were cautious to warn that the latest reversal, spurred largely by a wave of new producer and fund buying, will eventually have to rely on more substantial economic developments to sustain itself.

In particular, the yen will have to remain strong against the dollar because Japan is such a large consumer of gold, said George Gero, first vice president at Prudential Securities in New York.

"As far as I'm concerned, the jury's still out on this rally," he said. "This sort of event focuses attention on gold a lot more than a short-term disaster, war or assassination. Gold is, after all, an economic haven. But its value is ultimately more tied to economic events than political ones."

The rise in gold prices buoyed several gold-mining stocks Monday, most notably Newmont Mining Corp., which rose $4.875 to $27.8125, and Anglogold Ltd., which rose $5.4375 to $34.375 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

But despite Monday's price spike, Newmont, based in Denver, for now plans to hold onto a bearish options hedge it recently opened on 2.35 million ounces of gold through 2009, said Chief Financial Officer Bruce D. Hansen.

"Right now we're definitely trying to stand back for the market and digest what this means in the short term," he said. "It's still a tough market to do anything from a producer standpoint."

Analysts Monday expected most mining companies to remain similarly cautious and said they were unlikely to launch new mines, as the latest gains may evaporate by the time the five-year to seven-year start-up time for new mining projects has passed.

One effect the price boost may have, however, is higher jewelry prices, said estate jeweler Tobina Kahn, whose family-owned firm received 10 calls at its offices in Chicago and Palm Beach, Fla., Monday from customers wanting to sell gold jewelry.

Usually, Ms. Kahn says she warns consumers that there's less correlation than they might expect between gold commodity prices and the value of finished gold items. Monday was a different story, though.

"The average gold investment is going to be worth perhaps three times more," she said, referring to the kind of family heirlooms her firm usually buys. "This affects the price of anybody who has any type of gold jewelry that has any significant weight of gold to it. We're talking about the kinds of everyday items that people have sitting in a collection somewhere."

In addition to the European Central Bank, the following individual countries agreed not to sell or lease additional gold over the next five years: Austria, Belgium, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Latest Plunge In Gold Futures Scares Buyers, Stumps Analysts

By PETER A. McKAY
Published: July 16, 1999
Wall Street Journal

A concerned customer called Chicago jeweler Tobina Kahn last week to sell a Tiffany necklace inherited from her late mother and made from six ounces of gold, plus two carats of diamonds. Her worry: Had the 50-year-old heirloom's worth diminished literally overnight?

Ms. Kahn said no -- that just doesn't happen to vintage designer jewelry. But Ms. Kahn received several such calls last week after the Bank of England's auction of 25 tons of gold slashed the metal's price on world commodity markets.

Flash to San Antonio: Portfolio manager Gil Atzmon is scratching his head. He has followed precious metals for 15 years, and can't understand the concern over the auction either, considering that 25 tons isn't much compared with the total volume of gold traded daily.

"What's been going on with gold leading up to, and since, the auction just goes against the fundamental principles of what makes markets," says Mr. Atzmon, chief investment strategist for U.S. Global Investors Inc. "But maybe the problem with me is that I've just been at this for too long. I might understand things better if I had no experience to influence the way I see things."

An Image Problem
Put mildly, gold has an image problem right now. But it is not just because of the notoriously bearish outlook for the metal's asset value. Rather, investors and consumers alike are struggling to make sense of the economics surrounding gold, which some say have deviated from the trend lines the metal has conventionally followed.

World gold demand is increasing; but its commodity value continues to plummet. Shoppers expect bargains on products made from gold, or they flock to sell the pieces they already own. Yet there hasn't been any change in those objects' worth.

Gold futures have hit several new 20-year lows in recent weeks, and the August contract closed at $254.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday.

World Demand
1998 data
	Ounces (millions)	% share
Jewelry	95.4	81.2%
Net private investment*	13.8	11.7
Electronics	4.3	3.7
Dental/medical	2.4	2.0
Other/industrial	1.6	1.4
TOTAL	117.5	-

*Includes bullion bars and coins

The metal, which traded above $600 early in the 1980s, is way past those heady days and has been declining for several years now. But the latest $34 slide began just after the Bank of England announced on May 7 its plans to eventually sell 415 tons of gold, beginning with the recent auction as its first installment.

Nuggets of Good News

Low inflation, gold's declining role as a monetary standard, and central-bank sales such as the British auction have generally been blamed for the falling value. However, nuggets of good news are to be found in the landslide of gold selling.

Asian gold demand, which fell sharply during that continent's financial crisis, has begun to improve over the past month or so, analysts say. American jewelry-manufacturers' demand, which had increased 13% last year, is measuring strong gains again, as is consumer buying of gold coins. In the first half of the year, the U.S. Mint sold almost 39 tons of gold American Eagle bullion coins -- one of the more convenient ways for small investors to own gold -- more than twice the total for the year-earlier half.

Because of those demand trends, plus the fact that the British announcement had all of June to finish pummeling gold prices, market watchers' expectations going into last week's auction were split. Ultimately, the sale was interpreted as a bearish development as much because of what it symbolized as its fundamental effect on the gold market, said analyst Philip Klapwijk of Gold Fields Mineral Services Ltd., a London metals-research firm.

"I think it's the signaling effect that's most important here, as much as anything," Mr. Klapwijk said. "The 25 tons certainly isn't a huge amount, but the fact that someone's decided to go from having 17% of their reserves to 7% is significant. This isn't a Mickey Mouse bank, after all. It's the Bank of England."

Cuts Not Seen for Jewelry Buyers

But retailing analysts say those falling commodity prices have not yet resulted in similar cuts for jewelry buyers, and most likely won't for at least three months. Frequently, they say, manufacturers simply substitute higher-quality gold -- for example 18 karats instead of 14 karats -- when commodity prices fall, thereby justifying similar prices for their jewelry.

Ms. Kahn says the effect of gold's commodity price is even more negligible on the type of designer items that her small estate-jewelry company, the House of Kahn, purchases. Nevertheless, she says she gets three to four calls from concerned sellers on any day there's significant bearish gold-commodity news, such as that of the British auction.

One of her recent customers, retired accountant Claire Fischer, said many older Americans view jewelry as an investment asset, a philosophy Ms. Khan discourages, since jewelry pieces don't appreciate much in value over time. Craftsmanship and collectible value mostly determines the worth of such jewelry.

"People my age lived through a time when money wasn't worth anything and banks were no good. For them gold -- even their jewelry -- was always something they could sell for value if they needed to," said Ms. Fischer, 75 years old, who says she has tripled the money gained from her jewelry sales on the stock market.

Gold Viewed as Important Asset

"This is a different time now, though. Money is better than gold," she continued. "The times have changed. Unfortunately, some people haven't."

Indeed, a recent poll taken by the mining-industry trade group World Gold Council showed that citizens in most industrialized countries still view gold as a valuable asset, even if their governments are busy selling it off. In the survey, 67% of British respondents and 76% of Americans said gold reserves are important to national economic strength.

Similar percentages in both countries said gold reserves are important to maintaining a strong currency.

Gold Council research has also shown public sentiment about gold to be largely uninformed, however. A 1997 poll by the organization, for example, showed that only about 7% of Americans can correctly quote the price of gold on any given day.

Season's gleamings: Indulgence just might double as investment

By SUSAN CHANDLER
Published: November 16, 2008
Chicago Tribune

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It's Time To Sell Your Bling

By MARY ELLEM PODMOLIK
Published: May 13, 2006
Chicago Tribune

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Reagan Collectibles A Free-Market Force

By LORENE YUE
Published: June 12, 2004
Chicago Tribune

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Leave No Stone Unturned

By MARILYN KENNEDY MELIA
Published: July 22, 2003
Chicago Tribune

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Auction Of Queen's Jewels To Aid Red Cross Relief Work

By OFELIA CASILLAS
Published: September 21, 2001
Chicago Tribune

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Gem Of An Idea: The Finer Points Of Selling Fine Jewelry You Never Use To Get Some Much-Needed Cash

By MARILYN KENNEDY
Published: September 4,2000
Chicago Tribune

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Guy's Guide to Valentine's Day Shopping: Whether You're A Deep-Pockets Guy Or Budget Guy, You Have Options

By LUCIO GUERRERO
Published: February 7, 2005
Chicago Sun-Times

There should really only be two ways to do Valentine's Day -- the right way and the great way. We'll start with the great way. This is the one, unfortunately, for the guys with the deep pockets. The guy who says -- and means it -- "Money is no object."
For that guy, there's plenty of options. From the $100,000 luxury night at the Swissotel to the $200,000 one-of-a-kind emerald necklace.

And then there's the other Valentine's Day, the one for the rest of us.

Don't fret. Just because your wallet may not be full of Benjamins doesn't mean that Cupid won't come calling.
Chicago is a perfect place to do Valentine's Day on a budget -- read: cheap, but not cheap looking.

Here are some suggestions for both of our guys:
JEWELRY
High end: This is what Valentine's Day is all about -- the jewelry. If you want to make it count, go for originality. With that, our choice would be a rare emerald heart-shaped necklace with diamonds. This unique piece has 19 carats of emeralds accompanied by 18 carats of white diamonds, and is on sale for $200,000. It's from an estate jewelry store, so chances are your valentine's gift will be one-of-a-kind. House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, 60 E. Walton (312-943-9937).

Reagan Collectibles Suddenly Hot Items

By LUCIO GUERRERO
Published: June 9, 2004
Chicago Sun-Times

Two months ago, Paul Linke tried to auction off a 12-inch replica doll of Ronald Reagan. He had few takers.
The same doll is back on Internet auction site eBay, and the response has been much different.

"There is definitely more interest this time," said Linke, 34, of Addison. "It's too bad that it takes a tragedy like a death to get people interested."

Since the death of former President Reagan on Saturday, the collectible market dealing with Reagan memorabilia has soared. The demand is so high that the Reagan Library can't keep up with orders for gifts bearing Reagan's signature or likeness. According to the library's Web site, there's no guarantee about when merchandise will be shipped out.

On eBay, the national barometer of popularity, there are 162 pages dedicated to Reagan memorabilia.

Among the more interesting listings from the Chicago area:

*A record album of President Reagan reading stories from the Old Testament. According to the listing, the record was recorded in 1954 as a children's record, but was not released until 1984. Starting bid, $10.
*A notecard with Reagan's signature underneath the famous phrase, "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." It's dated June 12, 1987, West Berlin, Germany. Starting bid, $500.
*A Topps baseball card of Reagan throwing out the first pitch at Wrigley Field. According to the listing, the card includes a piece of wood from a Wrigley Field seat. Starting bid, $29.

But while most of the items on eBay are novelties, there are a few Chicago collectors who are offering up high-end Reagan memorabilia.

At the House of Kahn, on East Walton in Chicago, there's a sterling silver cigarette case that was owned by former California Sen. George Murphy. The case includes the engraved signatures of more than a dozen Hollywood celebrities, including Bob Hope and Gary Cooper, but it's the Reagan scrawl that is expected to make it valuable. Asking price, more than $20,000.

The store is also selling handwritten letters from Reagan to Murphy.

Experts in the presidential collector's market said Reagan has always been a popular figure, but they expect him to really take off in the coming days.

"I was coming home from a play when I heard the news, and by the time I got home, I already had orders for Reagan stuff," said Drew Julian, who runs one of the Web's largest political collectible sites, www.djpolitical.com. "He had been idolized by so many people. He was like [John F.] Kennedy for the Democrats."

Platinum Market Has Gone Platinum

By LUCIO GUERRERO
Published: April 8, 2004
Chicago Sun-Times

Platinum has become hugely popular in recent years for wedding rings and other high-end jewelry, but skyrocketing prices are chasing some consumers away.

The price of platinum is up 35 percent in just a year, 70 percent over the last two years. It hit a 24-year high earlier this month when the price peaked to $900 an ounce.

Analysts believe this price can go even higher -- reaching $980 by the end of July or $1,000 by the end of the year.

"It's just crazy," said Mike Kelly, of Diamonds Chicago, a jeweler in Chicago's famed Wabash Jewelers Mall and Jewelry Center. "The price is so high that people are looking at ways to make rings more affordable."

A large demand in platinum -- especially in the Asian market -- is being blamed as one of the culprits for the sharp increase. The large demand for diesel cars, which use platinum in their pollution control devices, is also driving the price.

The fear of inflation, rising fuel prices and the war in Iraq have also helped bring the price up.

Kelly said he sometimes tells customers who may be on a budget to consider white gold instead of platinum as a way to keep costs down.

White gold, which costs about half as much as platinum, has been used since the 1920s as a substitute for the pricey metal.

The only drawback to white gold is that it can sometime turn yellow over time. But rhodium plating can restore the platinum look on a white gold ring for about $50.

"I tell people a lot of times that there is more bang for the buck for white gold and it looks the same," Kelly said. "Even with the plating, it will cost less in the long run."

But there are still those folks who want to have platinum -- even in these high-price times.

Many people are turning to estate jewelers to get their platinum fix because the prices are cheaper since the jewelry doesn't need to get made at today's prices.

"There's just a difference in having platinum," said Monique Djerf, of Chicago, who recently bought two antique platinum rings with her husband as fifth anniversary gifts. "We had white gold engagement rings but wanted something different -- and platinum is beautiful."

And it's still a showpiece, according to some jewelers.
"Platinum is the Rolls-Royce of metals for jewelry," said Tobina Kahn, of the House of Kahn, an estate jewelry store on East Walton where 90 percent of the jewelry is made of platinum.
Platinum has become more precious as demand and other factors boost its value.

Jewel-Studded Bracelet Of Spanish Queen On Sale Here

By LUCIO GUERRERO
Published: October 22, 2003
Chicago Sun-Times

You don't have to be of noble blood to own royal jewels.
One Chicago jewelry store is selling off a royal conversation piece: a ruby and diamond bracelet owned by Queen Isabella II of Spain.
"It's extremely rare to come across royal jewels for sale," said Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn, which is selling the piece. "They are usually passed down from generation to generation, so it's the heirs after the fourth or fifth generation -- they need the money."

"The money they get for it can help increase their lifestyle or maybe pay for a castle they are upkeeping."
The piece for sale is truly made for royalty. Stunningly crafted, the bracelet is set in 18-karat, rose colored gold. The center stone is a European-cut diamond of cushion shape weighing about 3.25 carats. Surrounding the center stone are 56 Burmese rubies, some of the rarest rubies available.

It was made in the early 1800s and the bracelet's stone weight is about 15 carats. The asking price: $55,000. The piece was acquired by Kahn's firm from heirs. One of the stipulations in the sale is that it cannot be advertised for sale in Spain.

Kahn said occasionally, when they buy royal jewels, they have to reset the stones into different pieces to make it more functional for today's society. After all, who walks around with a tiara on these days?

But some pieces do stay intact. For example, the House of Kahn acquired a tiara that belonged to the Earl of Hardwick, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II of England, and it was sold to a collector.

She said many of the royal jewels that are on the market come from heirs who don't need it or have it stored in a vault. Kahn expects that the Queen Isabella II piece will sell quickly once word gets out.

Considering how obsessed some people are over anything belonging to royalty, she may be right. Jewelry and clothing belonging to the late Princess Diana sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And, Kahn says, royal jewelry can never really be duplicated.
"Sure you can go out and try to make a similar bracelet, with the same rubies," Kahn said. "But it's never going to be the real thing; there's only one of those."

The Queen Isabella II diamond and Burmese ruby bracelet can be seen at the House of Kahn, 60 E. Walton, in Chicago. For more information, call (312) 943-9937.

Tobina Kahn of Chicago's House of Kahn holds the ruby and diamond bracelet that belonged to Spain's Queen Isabella II, who reigned in the 1800s.

Celebrity Jewels For Sale!

By BILL ZWECKER
Published: August 23, 2002
Chicago Sun-Times

There will be a Chicago auction of more than 400 lots of estate jewelry this weekend--truly a sale of royal proportions. Diamonds, emeralds, pearls and sapphires--fashioned into fabulous jewelry for actress Catherine Oxenberg (above), named for her ancestor Catherine the Great of Russia--will be included in the sale at the House of Kahn, 60 E. Walton. (Oxenberg's 26-plus carat diamond necklace and sapphire earrings, pictured, are valued at $30,000-$35,000 and $6,000-7,000, respectively). There also will be a large assortment of jewels owned by members of Palm Beach society--forced to liquidate due to the recent stock market woes. "This is truly one of the most spectacular collections of jewelry ever sold at auction in Chicago," says Tobina Kahn, vice president and auctioneer for the House of Kahn. "We also have a unique and rare green emerald ring owned by Terry Moore, star of the 1942 classic 'Meet Joe Young,' and the legal widow of Howard Hughes." A preview is noon to 5 p.m. today. The auction begins at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For details, call (312) 943-9937.

Gems From Era Of Suffrage Are Jewels Of Denial

By SARA FIEDELHOLTZ
Published: March 10, 2002
Chicago Sun-Times

At the turn of the 20th century in Great Britain, many women showed secret support for the suffrage movement and the fight for women's rights by incorporating the suffragette colors--green, white and violet--into their clothing and accessories.
They wore necklaces of green enamel, white enamel and violet amethysts to communicate their support.

One such necklace, owned by Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the National Women's Social and Political Union, is on display at a special exhibit, "Homage a la Femme," on Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, at 60 E. Walton.
Pankhurst was no secret supporter. She founded the NWSPU out of frustration with Britain's failure to grant women the right to vote. The NWSPU was responsible for such militant actions as window-breaking, hunger strikes and violent protests in support of their cause.

The suffragette necklace, priced at $30,000, is just one of the pieces of jewelry that will be on display. The special exhibit, created in conjunction with the Chicago-based Galeria Gaudi, examines the role of the female figure within art and jewelry in the 20th century.

All the jewelry and art is for sale and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Y-Me National Breast Cancer Organization--Chicago Affiliate.
The "Suffragette Necklace" is on display Thursday. Tobina Kahn, owner of Kahn Estate Jewelers, wears the necklace.

Trading In Treasures: Heirs Selling Estate Jewels To Buy Stocks

By MAURA WEBBER
Published: June 8, 2000
Chicago Sun-Times

Within a month of inheriting a gold necklace and bracelet along with a string of pearls and a diamond ring from her grandmother, Monique Djerf of Streeterville sold the pieces to an estate jewelry buyer for $6,000. The 35-year-old, an executive assistant to a Chicago neurosurgeon, plans to invest the money in health care and technology stocks rather than letting the jewels languish in a safe-deposit box.

Djerf is one of a new generation of people liquidating their heirloom jewelry to cash in on the stock market, Chicago area jewelry buyers say.

"If you're not going to wear them, I believe in selling to make the future more secure," Djerf said. "It just makes more sense financially."

Tobina Kahn, vice president of the House of Kahn estate jewelery buyers on Michigan Avenue, has seen dozens of clients like Djerf since the Dow Jones industrial average barreled past 10,000 points in March 1999. Though some jewelers say the pace of such sales has slowed recently with the volatility in technology stock prices, Kahn said the penchant to invest rather than adorn is still strong.

"We're seeing people with very good jobs, doctors and lawyers who are looking and deciding they don't really need three diamond necklaces sitting in a vault," Kahn said.

In the past most of the people Kahn saw came to her offices after a death or divorce. Now visits to Kahn often grow out of a clearer sense of financial planning, she said.

It may not be such a bad time to sell high quality jewelry. Gold prices have jumped lately, topping $294 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday, the highest price since March 8. Gold closed at $286.70 Wednesday. Although it's well below its January 1996 peak of $420, it's up 9 percent from a year ago.

More important, the value of a piece of jewelry is based not just in the metal or gems it contains, but also on its craftsmanship, its relative rarity, and who owned it, Kahn said.

The robust economy has put more disposable income into the pockets of a certain sector of buyers eager to buy heirloom quality jewelry, said Ron Geweniger, owner of Old World Jewelers in Oak Brook.

"They're selling into a fairly strong market. There are more people that have money," Geweniger said.

A number of clients have told Geweniger that they were selling jewelry because they saw buying opportunities in the stock market. In one case, a Naperville man in his 40s decided to sell two watches from his private collection to add to his holdings in biotech stocks, Geweniger said.

"This particular person owns a number of watches and thought he could raise some money and not miss them," Geweniger said. The man made about $28,000 by selling a Patek Philippe watch and a Cartier timepiece, Geweniger said.

Fidelity Loan Bank in Chicago also was seeing people selling jewelry who said they were interested in buying stock, though President Stephen Greenfield said the recent volatility in the stock market appears to have dampened some of the would-be investors' enthusiasm.

Still others caution against selling jewelry to fund stock investments because they say rings and necklaces play a different role in a person's life.
"Most jewelry is an emotional and personal issue," said Rick Bannerot of the World Gold Council in New York. "I see jewelry more as a function of success rather than a way of getting into the market."

Kahn doesn't advocate selling cherished heirlooms. She does suggest people would be wise to consider that money invested in a cache of dusty jewelry in the attic might be put to better use in the stock market. Kahn said she sells the items mostly to European collectors.

Gold and pure metals and stones are part of jewelry's value. In addition, a person curious about the worth of their jewelry should look for unusual stamped numerals or letters on pieces. The identification can help determine whether the item was made during a particular period sought after by collectors or in a country known for its craftsmanship, Kahn said.

Gold can be worth more than its weight when contained in such pieces as those made by Cartier from the 1920s to the 1950s, bold designs by American designer David Webb and articles made by Van Cleef & Arpels jewelrymakers.
But the process of finding the good items is not always easy.
On a recent Friday, Highland Park resident Phyllis Lipman sat with Kahn for more than an hour sifting through jewelry boxes containing everything from old stamps to colorful costume jewelry and a watch given to Lipman's mother for her eighth-grade graduation nearly eight decades ago.

Kahn piled a large mound of jewelry to the side that had little value. In the smaller grouping of jewelry left on a swathe of black velvet was a gold watch and two diamond rings.

Kahn plans to remove the stones from their settings to accurately determine their worth, and let Lipman know what she could pay her for them.
Lipman expects the proceeds will be much easier to divide among her three young grandchildren than rings and watches. She hopes the money can be invested to use later for their education.

"I just don't want something to happen to me and then my kids will have to deal with it," she said.

The transaction over, Lipman wasn't disappointed with the results. She looked at the pile of costume bracelets and earrings in anticipation of some priceless fun with her two young granddaughters. "Now I can let them play with it and I don't have to worry."
Maura Webber is a Chicago-based business writer.

Jewelry Business Sparkles As Sellers Unload Heirlooms

By DAVID ROEDER
Published: April 14, 1997
Chicago Sun-Times

It's the eve of April 15 and business has been brisk the last few weeks for accountants, tax preparers and maybe your local jeweler.

From the Gold Coast to the North Shore and points inland, people are cleaning out dresser drawers and safe deposit boxes of family heirlooms. Specialists in antique and estate jewelry said more people have been selling the items in recent years, sometimes to pay off the IRS but for many other reasons as well. "Lately, I've had all the business I can handle," said Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn estate jewelers, with offices at 919 N. Michigan.

She said revenues have grown at least 30 percent over the last three years as more people bring in everything from single pieces to collections. "People have realized their old jewelry can be a liquid asset," Kahn said.

"I've been in this business for 40 years and I'd say, yes, it's been picking up lately," said Charles Horberg, owner of a shop in the jewelers' complex at 5 S. Wabash.

Sellers have a catalog of motivations, dealers said. Some have to pay taxes, while others need to eliminate credit card debt. Recent losses in the stock market have forced some sales.
In other cases, an heir is peddling an unwanted treasure. "They don't want it, they don't care for it, they won't wear it, it's not their style," said Richard Matson, a veteran jeweler in Geneva. He said he branched into the estate and antique markets a dozen years ago, and they now account for almost two-thirds of his business, with much of the growth coming in the last five years.

Other jewelers describe their resale business as increasing steadily since the late 1980s. While no statistics are kept, a decade of growth also was cited by a spokeswoman for the Jewelers of America trade group based in New York.

The quest for cash hasn't extended to other possessions, such as art, experts said. Barbara Schnitzer, owner of Fine Arts Appraisers in Chicago, commented that jewelry is a far more liquid asset.

Many dealers will pay a customer almost instantly, whereas Schnitzer said a painting's owner can wait as long as four months for the proceeds. She said more art sales are occurring, but only because owners are getting out of a market that was depressed in the early 1990s.

Often, jewelry sellers are simply deciding that precious gems and metals can't outshine a college fund for the kids.
Kahn, involved in a business her father started in the 1930s, said many customers in her well-to-do clientele express fear over the next generation's economic prospects. "People wonder about the education of their children and their grandchildren, so they'd rather give them a trust fund than a diamond ring," she said.
"The standards of living are not necessarily slipping, but lifestyles are changing. People want to know they'll have enough money to retire," Kahn said.

The strategy looks particularly good now, when certain types of jewelry command a high price. "The Americans are selling and the Europeans are buying," said Kahn, who deals heavily with foreign buyers and has almost no retail trade. Europeans are "obsessed with any kind of American-made item."
Norm Milin, owner of the Leni M Inc. jewelry store on Wabash, also said the international market has grown. "The fine antique jewelry is understood more by the Europeans than by the Americans. Americans are looking for style more than quality," he said.

But even that level of taste has produced a strong domestic market, depending on the piece. Jewelers said anything in a 1920s or 1930s Art Deco-style is big, as are platinum items.
"Pocket watches are big. I have to scramble to find them and it used to be I couldn't get rid of them," said John Kozicki, owner of Glenview Coin & Collectibles Inc.

Interest in the market also has caused more jewelry to be sold through auctions, but experts said that route works best mostly for rare pieces or those in a celebrity's collection.
"Lately, I've had all the business I can handle," says Tobina Kahn of House of Kahn estate jewelers in Chicago.

Economy boosts gold's appeal, but is metal a practical investment?

By MEGAN V. WINSLOW
Published: February 28, 2009
Palm Beach Daily News

With stocks floundering and the future of the U.S. banking system uncertain, investors are increasingly looking to good, old gold as a security net.

In the past few weeks, area jewelry businesses such as Circa and House of Kahn Estate Jewelers and local financial advisers at companies such as Wachovia and Northern Trust have noted a steady influx of customers inquiring about gold values.

On Feb. 20, investment demand helped drive the price of gold to an 11- month high of more than $1,000 an ounce, but by early last week it began to slide, closing at $942.50 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday.

Only last month, gold was closing at about $885 an ounce, and this recent hike to $1,000 has caught investors' attention, said Mark Rush, University of Florida economics professor.

"People are concerned about what's going on in the financial markets, and they're looking for a place to put some money," Rush said. "They're concerned: 'Gee, I don't want to go into the stock market because look what's been going on there. I don't know if I want to go into banks because the banking system looks weak and it might get nationalized and what's that going to do for my money? And so gold's maybe a place I could put it in.'

"I think some people are thinking like that. I'm not saying that's the best thinking, but I think that's what some people are thinking."

Gold's popularity coincides with the passage of President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan, which many foresee as a cause for future inflation. Among them is Tobina Kahn, who predicts gold could climb to $2,000 an ounce — even $5,000 an ounce — in the years to come.

As vice president of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, Kahn has a vested interest in the rising price of gold, and she keeps a close eye on the commodities market each day.

Kahn said the metal's resurgence has attracted as many as three to four customers a day who pointedly eye the wares in the Palm Beach shop as much more than shiny baubles.

"The days are over when estate jewels are considered frivolous," Kahn said. "They are not considered frivolous anymore. These are going to be considered huge investments."

Tracy Sherman, buying director for Circa, has noticed more clients bringing in non-name-brand items in which the intrinsic value is in the weight of the gold.

Such pieces, such as gold chains, are easier to part with when times get tough.

"When gold is this high, it's absolutely a time to sell," Sherman said.

But financial experts are a bit more cautious when advising investors about buying gold, whether in the form of stocks, exchange-traded funds or physical commodities such as gold bars.

While investing in gold can serve as a hedge against existing portfolio exposures such as inflation and the declining U.S. dollar, it typically offers limited prospects for earnings growth, said Lydian Bank &Trust CEO James Meany.

"Gold provides diversification benefits to equity and fixed-income portfolios as it has historically demonstrated a low long-term return correlation with other portfolio assets," Meany wrote in an e-mail.

A look at the futures market also gives Sandra Fleming, Wilmington Trust Florida's president and director, reason to caution against expecting too much return from gold.

"It's only pricing in a 10 percent return for gold for the next five years, which is only 2 percent per year," Fleming said. "So the market as a whole is saying, 'This isn't going to do much for you.' "

Michael Rose, an owner and trader at Fort Lauderdale independent futures brokerage firm Angus Jackson, anticipates that the "gold bugs" feeding frenzy is slowly dying down.

Historically, when gold hits $1,000 an ounce, investors cash out their profits and the price falls back without reaching the same $1,000 benchmark for a while, he said.

"If you think of the markets as a seesaw, there's usually an ebb and a flow with a buyer and a seller," Rose said. "Everybody's kind of weighed on the one side of this market. Everybody's trying to buy it, and to me, it's a very crowded trade.

"I'm not saying it can't go to $1,200. ... I just think that in this environment, it's nearly impossible."

Instead of the "next big bubble," many financial experts consider the gold movement a natural and recurring progression that takes place when market-watchers become nervous about other asset classes.

During the economic slump of the 1980s, investors gobbled up gold in a similar fashion, Rush said.

"The inflation rate was really high," he said. "People were concerned. Well, the sky was falling again. Oil was skyrocketing up to $40 a barrel, and the U.S. was facing imminent financial collapse. And you can tell my tongue is very much in my cheek when I say that."

Part of the attraction to gold is the opportunity to possess an investment that can actually be seen and touched.

Fleming remembers how one client, just before the year 2000, called and insisted on buying gold. So Fleming began describing the trouble with testing it and paying the cost to store it.

"He said, 'No, I want to take possession of it,' " Fleming said. "He ended up, I believe, putting it in his curtains, for God's sake — in the hem. It keeps the curtains down straight because of the weight."

More recently, some Palm Beach clients have asked Wilmington Trust financial advisers to review the contents of their safety deposit boxes to determine how much the gold is worth in case they need to sell.

Having gold on hand in the form of coins or bars can be beneficial if an investor has the room and wants easy access, but buying gold jewelry as an investment doesn't make much sense because it's difficult to acquire enough to make much of a difference, Fleming said. Plus, the value of a jewelry piece is derived from much more than its weight in gold.

For investors intent on buying gold in a physical form, Rush recommends taking actual delivery of the bars or coins and storing them in a safety deposit box. He warns that some scam businesses claim to hold commodities for clients but don't do anything of the sort.

To Rose, a safer bet than gold is investing in certificates of deposits or municipal bonds because they earn interest without exposing their owners to too much risk.

And there's always the currently counter-intuitive route of returning to the stock market.

"I think people need to take a hard look at what they're trying to accomplish and whether gold's really going to do it for them," Fleming said. "I think people in general tend to make easy decisions like, 'Oh, it's moving up, let's buy it,' as opposed to taking a step back and looking more objectively at the economy and saying, 'How much farther is this market going to go down? Maybe I should just buy a couple of good quality stocks as opposed to gold, and I'll make more.' "

Upside to Down Market is Taxes

By GAIL LIBERMAN
Published: October 18, 2008
Palm Beach Daily News

There sure is a lot to talk about financially speaking when you hit this season's first cocktail parties.

But instead of talking about how much you lost in the stock market recently, you might discuss the high quality stocks and bonds you own that should perform well in the future.

Or, might a more attractive conversation revolve around large, beautiful jewels?

Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, Chicago, with an office in Palm Beach, says the tide has shifted in her shops. In September, most of the phone calls came from people looking to sell gold for cash. But since the $700-billion-plus government bailout package, private investors, flush with cash from liquidated stocks, want to invest in large jewels. Most popular: Solitaire diamond rings of three carats and up.

"I'm getting 30 to 40 calls per day," Kahn says, noting that her estate jewelry likely has less of a mark-up than chain stores.

If you haven't jumped ship from the stock market, though, congrats! You deserve a medal for fortitude. Plus, financial research definitely supports your cause.

By not timing the market, you likely will benefit more from the compounding of your investment return. Historically, almost 40 percent of the return on the S&P 500 index, a measure of large company stocks, is due to reinvestment of dividend income.

When you buy and hold for at least one year, you also benefit from the long-term capital gains tax rate, which is 15 percent. By contrast, short-term capital gains are based on your ordinary income tax bracket. So if you're in the 35 percent tax, bracket, you'd pay 35 percent on profits from stocks held less than one year.

A study by the Vanguard Group, Radnor, Pa., a few years ago compares holding a stock fund for at least five years with selling it every year for five years.

Assume that two investors are in the 35 percent tax bracket and invest $10,000, which grows at an 8 percent annual rate.

The results show:

* The investor who bought and held the $10,000 in a stock fund for five years had $13,989.

* The person, who, with an initial $10,000, bought and sold the stock fund frequently for five years, generating short-term capital gains, had just $12,885.

The buy-and-hold investor made $1,104 more because he or she did not pay short-term capital gains taxes on the profits.

Of course, not everyone can buy and hold.

If your financial condition changes, you might need to sell some securities. You also might want to sell because of bad management or poor performance.

This year's down market might be a bit unusual in that its upside is, of all things, taxes.

By selling losing securities, you can reduce your taxes, prune away unwanted securities and reposition "tax-ugly" investments, says Christopher P. Parr, senior vice president of Financial Advantage Inc., a Columbia, Md. fee-only financial adviser.

Consider removing "tax-ugly" investments, which throw off high, fully taxable dividends, from taxable accounts.

If you own, for instance, a losing bond fund or a real estate investment trust, consider selling them, and putting them in a tax-advantaged plan, such as an IRA or 401(k). Unfortunately, it won't help to sell losing securities already held in tax-advantaged accounts, like IRAs or 401(k)s.

In taxable accounts, though, you can offset your losses with corresponding gains.

So if you have, for instance, $10,000 in long-term capital gains in an energy stock, you also can take $10,000 in long-term capital losses in another security, and they'll cancel each other out. Beware, though, that you can't sell an investment at a loss and buy it back within 30 days, according to IRS "Wash sale" rules.

You can take advantage of this strategy, however, to a limit of $3,000 in net losses in any one year. Any amount above that must be carried over to the next year.

Consult with your tax adviser and be sure to plan your tax strategy carefully.

For example, it could pay to consider saving some potential tax losses for next year, Parr advises. Since the top long-term capital gains rate is 15 percent, you can write off only 15 percent of your long-term losses. But if the capital gains rate were to increase to, say, 20 percent, as presidential candidate Barack Obama proposes, those losses could become one-third more valuable.

Did you have big losses this year? If so, that's all the more reason you might wish to wait until 2009 to sell some losers, he suggests.

Gail Liberman is co-author of several books with her husband, Alan Lavine. Their latest, published by Que, is 'Quick Steps to Financial Stability.? You may e-mail her at MWliblav@aol.com.

Rising value of diamonds raises interest in estate jewelers

By ROBERT JANJIGIAN
Published: July 13, 2008
Palm Beach Daily News

Like other watering holes of the wealthy, Palm Beach is rightly perceived as a place filled with acquisitive residents who make an island location a must for the most famous names in high-end retail jewelry from around the world.

Estate jewelers and the major auction houses, too, have found the island to be a great source of supply and for their collector-buyers over many decades.

Recently, however, with the price of gold and diamonds soaring, island jewelers and firms who buy jewelry for cash are seeing more customers coming in to trade in unwanted pieces. One established Worth Avenue jeweler also has stepped up his efforts to acquire diamond and other precious-stone jewelry.

Gold prices, according to statistics posted at the Web site goldprice.org, have risen from $675 an ounce in July 2007 to more than $960 an ounce by Friday.

Suggested asking prices for diamonds were raised 25 percent alone just months ago by the Rapaport Report, the diamond industry's price-reference bible.

Pricescope.com, another Web site devoted to diamond pricing, has tracked a 40 percent to 80 percent increase in the price of high-quality diamonds over the past 20 years.

Retail jewelry sales have been on a consistent upswing over the past decade, said Helena Krodel, spokeswoman for the Jewelry Information Center, a nonprofit trade association based in New York City that is concerned with educating consumers about jewelry and watches.

Jewelry sales over the past 10 years are expected to jump from $43.9 billion to just under $70 billion, she said. The average annual increase in retail jewelry and watch sales is at least a billion dollars a year, with the only downturn coming in 2000 and 2001, with a 2002 return to growth.

Diamond jewelry and loose diamonds represent 50 percent of the retail sales as reported in a 2007 Jewelers of America Cost of Doing Business Survey on the distribution of sales that Krodel provided. The same survey noted that estate and antique jewelry sales account for only 2 percent of the total retail sales in the United States.

Upward trend

Adele and Edward Kahn, who have been buying and selling estate pieces out of their Peruvian Avenue salon for the past 37 years, have seen about 20 percent to 30 percent more sellers come through their doors over the past 12 months.

"When the economy is troubled, as it has been recently, there is always an increase in the number of people who come in to sell," said Adele Kahn, recalling that in the early 1990s there was a downturn in the economy and an upturn in the jewelry-buying aspect of her business.

"Now, I think they see that they have these old pieces sitting around, and either they don't want them or are looking for cash, maybe to buy something else, maybe even a piece of jewelry."

For Kahn, jewelry has turned out to be a "safe" currency that retains its value.

"Look at the price of gold, of diamonds, even silver," she said.

Kahn's observation: "Whenever the Middle East gets rich, the price of diamonds goes up."

"But there are always customers for big diamonds," she added.

The Kahns, who also operate a House of Kahn Estate Jewelers in Chicago, run by their daughter Tobina, have bought numerous pieces from Palm Beach estates and from royal families and Hollywood sources.

"We buy here. We buy in Chicago," said Adele Kahn. During the summer months, most pieces are shipped to Chicago for resale, she said.

The Kahns also maintain a network of dealers and collectors around the world to whom they sell some of the jewelry they purchase from customers.

"We are always looking for diamonds, but are also attracted to Art Deco, Victorian and Edwardian things, unusual pieces especially," said Adele Kahn. "If it talks to me, I'll definitely buy it."

"We never take on consignments," said Edward Kahn. "We always buy. That's how we've established a following here and in the business."

House of Kahn does not purchase "ordinary" gold chains, costume, mass-market or commercially produced jewelry or pieces featuring synthetic stones.

"We used to have an auction house in West Palm Beach, but since we got out of that business, we no longer take on china, glass, furniture, rugs or home furnishings," said Adele Kahn. "I also hate cameos."

The offers made are based on what Edward Kahn refers to as the demand for a particular type of jewelry or stone. They consult the Rapaport Report as a guideline, but say they follow no general rule in coming up with an amount to offer a seller. "We try to buy pieces at a price that allows us to make 15 to 20 percent when we resell it," said Adele Kahn.

"It's always better if a seller has an idea of what the value of the piece is, what they want to get out of it," she said. "That saves a lot of aggravation and disappointment."

Adele Kahn suggests shopping around, though her strategy is to offer a higher price if it's something she likes or knows she would have a potential buyer for.

Big diamonds — 10 carats and over — colored diamonds and Deco are hot right now," she said.

Price point

New York City-headquartered Circa, which opened a satellite buying office at the Palm Beach Towers in April 2006, is strictly focused on buying jewelry and has also seen an increase in traffic over the past six months.

"I'd say there have been about 25 percent more clients coming in since January," said Tracy Sherman, director of Circa's local operation.

Though Circa was closed for the week of July 4, the agenda of daily half-hour appointments has been full through June, with the past week especially busy.

"It's really been nonstop," she said, recalling that her firm was hesitant at first to operate on the island year-round. "Our stream of customers through the off-season has been steady since we opened."

Though unable to identify clients by name because of the promise of confidentiality to Circa customers, Sherman has seen sellers with island addresses.

Sherman credits the increase in the number of people coming in to the higher awareness of price hikes for precious metals and diamonds among the public.

"I think many people are looking at their jewelry collections and noticing things they haven't worn that might be of value," she said. "I don't think it's about need as much as it's about clearing out things that aren't necessary to them."

Lately, however, Sherman has noticed an increase in repeat customers and clients coming in on referrals.

We give them a price on the spot and write a check if they find the figure acceptable," she said.

"We don't sit with any of the pieces we buy and thus can be more aggressive with our offers," said Sherman. Circa's mission, she said, "is to make offers that clients would be hard-pressed to get anywhere else."

"Our profit margins are comparatively lower," said Sherman, explaining how the company is able to offer what she sees as better prices. "We own things on the short term and make the short-term profit."

Circa ships pieces to its Manhattan headquarters, where they are dispersed to collectors, dealers and international buyers.

The island office, one of four Circa satellites around the country (others are in Chicago, Washington and San Francisco) takes in a large number of signed jewelry pieces from such makers as David Webb, Verdura, Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany & Co., Cartier and Rolex, which Sherman views as what would be expected from the Palm Beach market.

"I also buy a lot of diamonds," said Sherman, who points out that she is not solely interested in high-end pieces. "I'm happy to look at anything — sweet 16 necklaces, what have you."

But Circa will not deal with costume pieces. "If it's real, I make an offer," she said.

Sherman said she always assumes that clients are "shopping around" their pieces, looking for the best price. "Sellers are pretty savvy customers here," she said. "Thus, our more aggressive offers, and I'd say, our increase in business."

Icing up

Kaufmann de Suisse has been a Worth Avenue presence for 15 years, with a second Avenue store that opened last season. During that time, jeweler Christopher Kaufmann has allowed clients to sell him jewelry or stones, but in the past few months, in light of the rising prices and what he sees as a more limited supply of diamonds in the marketplace, he has amplified his efforts to purchase jewelry from clients and nonclients alike.

"It was always a service we offered," he said. "Now, we want to make it a little better known and open it up to a wider audience.

"I am looking primarily for top-quality diamonds," said Kaufmann. "But I'll consider anything — rubies, emeralds, sapphires — but no fakes."

"Diamond prices are the highest they've ever been," he said. "A person selling me one can usually receive more than what they originally paid for it."

Kaufmann, a certified gemologist, gives an appraisal of a piece or stone he's interested in purchasing.

"As a buyer myself, I am aware of what the rates are for pieces of a certain quality. If it's not up to our quality standard, we won't buy it,"

Kaufmann's intention is to acquire diamonds, all of which were crystallized 50 million years ago, "so there is no such thing as a 'new' or 'old' stone," he said. He uses them for new signature creations.

But Kaufman says he is not becoming an estate jeweler. "I'm just interested in acquiring stones."

Eight Palm Beach retailers packing up for good; others cite best sales ever

By ROBERT JANJIGIAN
Published: May 04, 2008
Palm Beach Daily News

With the "season" coming to a close, there have been some noticeable closings on the island's retail front. Closed or soon to pack up and vamoose are: Rebecca Romero, Okra, Devonshire, Sub Chrono, N.P. Trent, Hollywould, Grand Armée and Brighton Pavilion. There's always change in the retail mix of Palm Beach's shopping districts, so these departures are not so surprising - or indicative of any specific ailment of the island's economic picture. In fact, when I spoke to some store owners and managers over the past few weeks, they have reported that this season, with all the talk of recession, has produced their best sales figures ever.

Mother of pearls - Adele Kahn, who has owned and operated the House of Kahn estate jewelry store, 231 Peruvian Ave., with her husband, Edward, for more than four decades, doesn't plan on going anywhere. She is expanding her reach, in fact, by bringing in hundreds of pearl necklaces this week, which she contends are an affordable and appropriate gift for Mother's Day, just a week away.

Though the focus of her business is still on the buying and selling of gemstone jewelry, Kahn noticed the higher-quality, lower-priced pearls being produced by the Chinese. Always a fan of the classic pearl necklace, Kahn couldn't resist the freshwater cultured pearl necklaces.

"Our top-priced pearl necklace with the Chinese pearls is $750," she said. Pearls featured range in size from 5.5 to 9 millimeters and are strung into necklaces of varying lengths, from 18 to 72 inches. Several colors are available as well. Kahn doesn't feel like she's competing with her established estate jewelry business with these pearl pieces, however.

"Due to the color shifts of pearls over time and with wear, we've never dealt with secondhand cultured pearl jewelry," she said. "Oriental (natural) pearls are the exception,"Kahn said.

"And necklaces of Orientals are much pricier than any cultured pearl necklace, going for $25,000 to $100,000 depending on the size and number of the pearls."

Kahn, of course, will be happy to sell one of several Oriental pearl pieces she has acquired, if the Chinese freshwater variety doesn't float your boat and you're feeling that you need to open your wallet a little wider for dear old Mom.

Rocking sensation - Fragrance house Bond No. 9 has teamed up with Swarovski to create new packaging for its Bryant Park, Bleecker Street and Nuits de Noho scents. The limited-edition 50ml flaçons, released in time for Mother's Day, are encrusted with throusands of Swarovski crystals in several color schemes. Each is $650 and available at Saks Fifth Avenue, 172 Worth Ave.

Pulitzer prize - Everybody in these parts associates the Pulitzer name with fashion, thanks to resident style icon Lilly Pulitzer and her powerful and identifiable printed apparel. So, it comes as no surprise that Kourtney Pulitzer, who married into the family several years ago, is giving the fashion business a try, but on the retail end of things. Pulitzer recently opened an eponymous boutique at 205 N. Federal Highway in Lake Worth.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, she's hosting an open house featuring on-trend clothes and accessories from the likes of Julie Brown, Karlie, Nanette Lepore, Autumn Cashmere and Lubella, as well as premium denim from Rag & Bone, J Brand, Red Engine and Kut. For information, call 233-9919.

Catching Up With PB's Next Generation

By JOYCE REINGOLD
Published: March 11, 2008
Palm Beach Daily News

OK, so on my way back from Starbucks this morning I really dated myself by telling a young mother that her daughter looked like a “Breck Girl.” She smiled politely but clearly had no idea what I was talking about.

I have to stop doing things like that. What’s next — cracking Jack Benny jokes?

The Palm Beach demographic is definitely getting younger, with one sign all the Next Gen members active in the professional arena. Like estate and tax attorney Cater Randolph, son of the town’s legal eagle Skip Randolph and wife Leslie.

Or Nick Coniglio, son of restaurateurs Frank and Gail, at the helm of the wildly popular Cucina Dell’Arte. And attorney Lisa Small, who’s a partner with father Michael in Small & Small.

While in Chicago I stopped in at House of Kahn Estate Jewelers on East Walton Street to catch up with one of PB’s farther-flung Next Gen success stories — Tobina Kahn, daughter of founders Edward and Adele. Her folks launched the business in the early 1950s and run the Palm Beach branch, though Edward travels to Chicago to visit his daughter, the vice president.

The salon was just opening when my friend Robin and I popped in, and within minutes the place was bustling: young couples looking at glittering engagement rings; a man picking up a bracelet; fresh-faced employees offering champagne and bottled water.

Tobina dropped what she was doing and gave us a tour of her almost 12,000 square feet of space and, more importantly, of the dazzling jewelry cases filled with gems like this flower-shaped brooch with just shy of 74 carats of invisibly set rubies — oh, and .95 carats of diamonds.

"Everything big comes from Palm Beach," she said, but also proudly pointed out that prices generally range between “$100 and $100,000.”

Our visit was timely — gold had just closed at 972.70 the day before — and Tobina explained that the fluctuating price of this precious metal is an estate jeweler’s advantage. While sellers receive the current gold price for their jewelry, the jeweler doesn’t raise estate-piece selling prices when gold skyrockets.

Running a business takes “a whole lot of dedication and real commitment,” she said. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, she is at work 7 days a week.

We get ready to leave and notice a vintage photo of her parents on a table. Tobina is a ringer for her mother. And come to think of it, she could have been a Breck Girl, too.

P.S. Following is a Breck Girl ad, courtesy of www.americanartarchives.com. This one is way, way older than me. Really.

Hold That Gold? Buyer-Seller Activity is Rising With Price

By STEPHANIE MURPHY
Published: May 7, 2006
Palm Beach Daily News

All that glitters is not gold. But there may be a gleam in the eyes of anyone looking at 25-year-high prices for the precious metal, which flirted with $684 an ounce at the close of business Friday.

Buying and selling abounds, based on dealers' reports of increased gold activity in Palm Beach and elsewhere.

"Gold and oil go together and are continuing to go up," said Tobina Kahn, who heads the Chicago store of Palm Beach-based House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, 231 Peruvian Ave. "The price jumped $10 from [Thursday]."

In Kahn's Chicago store near Bloomingdale's, "people are coming in every hour to sell gold jewels because they realize the price is so high, they'll get more than anytime in the last five years."

According to Ryan Denby of Austin Rare Coins in Austin, Texas, a member of the Gold Information Network, the price of gold has increased almost $95 in the past 30 days, and $253 in the last year, a jump of 59 percent.

Denby's precious metals brokerage has "never been busier," he said. "It's absolutely insane. Mainly, people are buying. Not that many are selling here - not investors," because they are convinced prices will go up more.

In Palm Beach, Adele Kahn is selling gold jewels, gold compacts, gold purses, chains and brooches "for a good deal, because we've been collecting it for years."

Tobina Kahn predicted gold will go to $1,000 an ounce, "maybe within six months. It could be $800 in two months."

Gold prices have escalated so quickly that people are taking advantage, said Ray Duclos, the owner of Rechant Precious Metals, in business in West Palm Beach for 29 years. Sellers can double their money on gold purchased in 1999, when the price was less than $300 an ounce, he said.

"The last two or three weeks are the busiest since 1980-81, when it was up to $850 and we had people lined up at the door," Duclos said.

Business is up all over the country, said Chris Del Gatto, chief executive officer of CIRCA, a jewelry-buying firm based in New York with an office in the Palm Beach Towers.

"People are reading about gold prices, so there's more awareness," Del Gatto said. "If they have items they are thinking of selling, now is the time. Gold was undervalued for a while, now it's getting to where it should have been."

He predicted "there is some room for the price to go a little higher, but not much."

Anticipating gold prices is like reading the stock market, said Evangelos Kanaris, co-founder of The Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Center at 333 S. County Road.

"It's a gamble if you're not experienced. I cannot encourage you to sell, and then the price goes much higher," Kanaris said.

It also depends on how much gold a person owns, Kanaris said, explaining, "If you have a lot, you can expect a 40 percent profit. So with large amounts, 50 kilos, yes, sell, because you can double your money."

Uncertainty in other sectors such as oil affects people's perceptions about gold, Kahn said.

"Precious metal is an old-fashioned asset, it's solid," which appeals to many investors, she said. In addition, an emerging middle class in both China and India creates new demand for jewelry, pushing prices up.

Denby of Austin Rare Coins said consumers buy gold as a hedge against their increasing disillusionment with the capital markets.

"There are a lot of inflation fears now," he said. "Everything is more expensive. . . . It's the value of the dollar going down and less purchasing power."

Still, even the wealthy "want a good deal," Tobina Kahn said. "So people are taking advantage. Wealthy people pay attention to the stock market. They don't need to sell their jewelry, so they buy."

Floral Fervor

By ROBERT JANJIGIAN
Published: March 27, 2004
Palm Beach Daily News

For several months, Palm Beach jeweler Adele Kahn has been sowing the seeds for a different kind of spring garden.

Kahn, 70, owner of the Peruvian Avenue estate jewelry business House of Kahn with her husband, Edward, since 1971, has acquired or commissioned more than 60 18-karat-gold and platinum flower brooches featuring diamonds, rubies and other precious and semiprecious gems.

There are dual reasons behind Kahn's quest for floral-themed pins, which cost anywhere from $4,500 for a newly commissioned small 18-karat-gold rosebud brooch with three carats of pave diamonds to $60,000 for an Art Deco-era rose brooch with approximately 35 carats of diamonds.

"I have always admired flower pins, from the time I started in the jewelry business," said Kahn, who began her career 48 years ago in Toronto, where she worked for her family's fashion business.

"I'm just passionate about flowers, even though I have been indoors for most of my life as a retailer," she said. "I have a great appreciation for nature and the outdoors."

Kahn also took notice of the current wave of floral motifs in women's fashions and the re-emergence of the somewhat old-fashioned brooch as the accessory of the moment.

"Many customers have been making requests for flower pins, which are very feminine and traditional," she said, adding that floral-themed jewelry first came into vogue during the Victorian era, when jeweled representations of flowers were worn in lieu of corsages.

"I see a lot of younger women collecting flower jewelry," Kahn said, remarking that she has observed a renewed taste for traditional jewelry in Palm Beach, where "women are very astute about jewels," and at the House of Kahn branch operated by daughter Tobina in Chicago.

"In the 1980s, flower pins were hard to come by," Kahn said. "It was the era of tennis bracelets and more modern styles."

But in recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest, she said.

"We haven't cornered the market, as there are so many flower-themed jewelry pieces now available, but we have put together an impressive array and some particularly beautiful and unusual designs," she said.

Some of the estate pieces in Kahn's collection are signed with the names of famous jewelers from the United States and Europe.

Others are made to Kahn's specifications by jewelry factories she works with in Asia, where she said "Workmanship is being taught at a level that's up to par with American and European makers, at a good price."

Although Kahn sells most of the flower jewelry she amasses, she has bought several brooches for herself. "I have about 15 flower pins in my personal collection," she said.

Driving Home History

By CHRISTINE DAVIS
Published: December 26, 2003
Palm Beach Daily News

Transported by television via a series of popular Buick commercials, the ghost of Harley Early has returned.

And it was to be expected and none too soon, says Richard Earl of his GM designer grandfather, who spent his final years in Palm Beach during the late 1950s and ‘60s. The legendary car designer deserves any recognition he is afforded, says his grandson, who lives in the Detroit area.

“He created Detroit’s dependency on design,” says Richard.

Known as the “DiVinci of Detroit,” Harley Earl even inspired a GM slogan that states “Our father who art in styling, Harley be thy name.”

“He was responsible for 37 one-of-a-kind car shows and experimental vehicles,” Richard says. “If he hadn’t plunked down large amounts of GM money, we might be driving Hugos today.”

Harley turned hurrying into pleasure for the masses, he says. “He created the telescopic radio antenna, the glove box, all the creature comforts. He was the first to put transistor radios in cars. He also created Oscar the crash dummy.”

Even though Richard was 10 when his grandfather died in 1969, he remembers him well. Harley and his wife, Sue, lived at 995 S. Ocean Blvd. They moved to Palm Beach fulltime after Harley retired from General Motors in 1958.

“My grandparents lived in a moderate home with a beach house next door,” Richard says.

Most of all, Richard Remembers the cars. “There are pictures of us kids in the driveway with the cars he used to drive,” he says. “Harley often drove his glacier blue LeSabre, his most expensive car. General Motors owns it now.

“The LeSabre was his creative muse where he got his idea for the Corvette,” says Richard, who drives a white Park Avenue Buick. “It had the first wraparound windshield. The first Corvettes had that. No one had ever done anything like that before. It was state-of-the-art. By 1956, all cars had the sweeping wraparound windshields.”

But even though Harley Earl was a showman when it came to cars, he was modest and unassuming, Richard Says.

“That’s probably why he didn’t have a ton of property in Palm Beach,” he says. “He was more interested in making the accomplishments. And he was publicity-shy.”

Harley Early, though, did own a piece of property on Peruvian Avenue “as an investment,” Richard says.

Which brings us to the House of Kahn.

The land where the House of Kahn sits at 231 Peruvian Ave., one block north of Worth Avenue, used to be part of the estate of Harley Early. Adele Kahn bought the property in 1971.

“The brokers were making a big fuss about the fact that property was part of Harley Earl’s estate,” Kahn says. “I didn’t know who he was.”

Kahn, of course, is very involved with design. But it’s not cars that capture her fancy. It’s fancy jewelry.

She describes the parcel as she first saw it. “I was attracted by the size of the property,” she says. “On the east side is the house where the House of Kahn is located. It was rented out. The other part (to the west) was a motel,” she recalls. “Renters were living there, too. It had patio stone statues in the front. I wish I’d taken a picture.”

She looked over, decided “it had good bones” and believed that “people would walk from Worth Avenue for beautiful jewelry at a good price.” She bought the property and set about renovating it.

She didn’t think much about the history of the property until recently.

“I always heard the name Harley Early,” She says. “But it never hit me until the last couple of years when Buick kept repeating his name in the commercials.”

What hit her was why Earl had bought the property.

“He was visionary,” she says. “Maybe he used the motel for guests.”

She thinks on this for a while. “It just struck me,” she says, laughing.

“He must have foreseen Worth Avenue’s parking problem. He bought it for the parking. The House of Kahn is the only place with parking for 16 cars,” she says, adding, “I wish he’d left a few cars on the lot.”

To learn more about Harley Early, visit his official web site: www.carofthecentury.com If you’d rather wear than drive striking designs, visit the House of Kahn at 231 Peruvian Ave., where there’s parking (and beautiful jewelry designs) aplenty.

About Harley Earl

Harley Earl was born in Hollywood, Calif., in 1983, a fitting birthplace for a larger-than-life man whose vision, sense of style and showmanship revolutionized the auto industry. The son of a custom coach-builder, Early grew up believing that personal transportation should be an extension of personal style.

By the early 1920s, he had left Stanford University to design for Earl Automotive Works, his father’s custom parts and accessories shop. There he gained notoriety as a designer of the elaborately customized “dream” cars favored by Hollywood’s elite. It took only a few years for Earl’s designs to attract the attention of General Motors, and in 1927 he moved to Detroit to head GM’s newly created Art and Color Section, later called the Design and Styling Department.

By introducing innovations such as clay modeling and the “concept car” to the design process, Earl brought styling to the force. His aesthetic – “Longer, lower, wider” – became a GM design mantra.

As the post-war era began, Earl’s fascination with performance, aerodynamics and sleek, streamlines chassis paved the way for cars unlike anything America had ever seen. Running boards fell away to reveal the tail fins of Earl’s powerful, chrome-adorned dream machines such as the 1950 LeSabre.

Source: Official Buick Web site.

Tiara Talk

By SHANNON DONNELLY
Published: January 12, 2003
Palm Beach Daily News

Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson.

Hometown girl Tobina Kahn, now living in Chicago and running the northern branch of the family jewelry business, recently appeared on the local Fox affiliate's morning news show with the Duchess of York who also knows a thing or two about jewelry . Tobina was there to tout the House of Kahn's jewelry from the collections of Raymond Burr, Howard Hughes and Catherine Oxenberg. Catching Fergies eye was a ruby and diamond bracelet (and no wonder-it once belonged to a queen) and an 84-carat diamond tiara.

When the duchess remarked that there was really no place an American would wear such an ornament, Tobina replied, "Palm Beach."

"Ah, of course," the duchess said, "Palm Beach."

Who doesn't Like Diamonds?

Fergie, Sarah Ferguson of the unfortunate toe nibbling incident, and now a spokesperson for Weight Watchers and Wedgewood China, chatted with Tobina Kahn of the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers on a recent "Fox news in the Morning" show. Tobina was showing an 83-carat diamond tiara at $250,000 and a $55,000 ruby and diamond bracelet that has attracted much interest at her salon, 60 E Walton.

Diamonds: An Explorer's Best Friend?

By CHRISTINE DAVIS
Published: October 18, 2002
Palm Beach Daily News

Did Queen Isabella the first pledge her jewels in order to finance Christopher Columbus' voyage of discovery?

Isabella-II’s 4 carat diamond and 25 carat ruby bangle bracelet.

Adele Kahn of the House of Kahn, Palm Beach, likes to think so. The House of Kahn, a family run jewelry business established in the 1950s, specializes in rare, one of a kind jewels.- such as the 4 carat diamond and 25 carat ruby bangle bracelet that once belonged to Isabella the 2nd.

According to Kahn, Isabella handed down her jewels to her don, His Majesty King Alfonso the seventh, who gave them to her daughter, Her Royal Highness, Maria Teresa Infanta de Espana, who with his Royal Highness Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria, had a daughter, Maria Baviera Bordon, who married Prince Irake-de Bagaration, the Prince soverign of Georgia.

With Columbus day celebrated earlier this week, Kahn wonders about the Isabella/ Columbus legend.

Kahn sees a close relationship between Jewels and real estate, nothing the many new homes financed through the sale of family jewels. So, for Kahn, this particular legend has a certain authentic ring to it. Perhaps Isabella did offer her jewels as a "down payment" for the New Word.

"I don't want to rewrite history," says Kahn, who envisions Isabella as an enterprising woman.

The Encyclopedia Britannica makes note of Isabella's contributions as well as her jewels in the following passages:

It is difficult to disentangle Isabella's personal responsibility for her achievements of her reign from those of Ferdinand. But, she played a large part in setting up the court as a center of influence. With her blue eyes, her fair chestnut hair and wearing jewels and magnificent dresses, she must have made a striking figure.

"Queen Isabella was very controversial," Kahn says. "It took nerve to back Christopher Columbus, but she believed in him."

"I envision Isabella taking off her tiara with its large Oriental pearls, diamonds and rubies and saying 'Okay, go buy your ships.'

"Jewelry belongs to the woman," Kahn points out. "If she doesn't wear that tiara or that rope of pearls for, say, a period of time, who wouldn't notice?"

Such an exchange would by necessity, be discreet.

"Although the story of Isabella offering to pledge her jewels in order to help finance Columbus's expedition cannot be accepted," says the Encyclopedia Britannica, "and Columbus secured only limited financial support from her, Isabella and her councilors must receive credit for making the decision to approve the momentous voyage."

Historians have no irrefutable evidence as to whether Isabella's jewels were involved or not. The Encyclopedia Britannica refuses to credit her with this great sacrifice. But, says Kahn, political decisions were made behind closed doors at that time in history- especially when women were involved.

The story of Isabella pledging her jewels has endured for centuries. It served as inspiration for artist Antonio Dergrain (1843-1924) who painted 'Isabel the Catholic bequeaths her Jewels' (c. 1878). This painting was displayed at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris, and has since disappeared, although it is presumed to still exist in either Spain or the United Sates. This painting was the basis for the $1 "Isabella pledging jewels commemorative stamp issued in 1893 and reissued in 1992 using the 100 year old die. The art work was inspired by Degrain's 1878 painting.

30 Years In Palm Beach

By STEPHANIE MURPHY
Published: February 18, 2001
Palm Beach Daily News

Peruvian Avenue didn't exactly sparkle 30 years ago, a time when most of the island's jewelers had strongholds on the more famous Worth Avenue. That didn't stop Adele and Edward Kahn from buying a modest stucco building at 231 Peruvian Ave. for the House of Kahn, the oldest family-owned jewelry establishment in town.

Now their daughter, gemologist Tobina Kahn, runs the company, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in January. Reflecting recently on the couple's prime retail gem - they also bought the building next door and have retail and professional tenants - Adele Kahn says the stories behind the stones have been as interesting as the diamonds, rubies and sapphires that crossed their threshold and departed again, sometimes on famous flesh.

As relayed to Kahn, an Arab sheik who gambled recklessly in Monte Carlo lost $3 million in a short evening. The sultan had given three of his wives elaborate diamond bracelets with a detachable starburst that could be worn separately as a brooch - each bangle worth a million bucks.

"He had to pull the bracelets off his wives' arms to pay the debt, because no one would buy the wives," joked Kahn, who later acquired one of the bracelets through a dealer.

Two dinner rings that had belonged to former Palm Beacher Jackie Levitz, each about 20 carats of yellow and white emerald-cut diamonds, entered the store's inventory several months ago - but indicated nothing behind the dramatic disappearance of the widow of furniture magnate Ralph Levitz, who was reported missing in 1995, about a month after moving from the island to Vicksburg, Miss.

The House of Kahn's most recent coup of intriguing estate jewelry dates to 1868, when Queen Isabel II of Spain handed down her jewels to her son, King Alfonso XII. He presented them to his daughter, Princess Maria Teresa Infanta de Espana, who married Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria. Their daughter, Princess Maria Baviera Bordon, married Prince Iraki-de Bagration of Georgia.

The youngest descendants of Queen Isabel II decided to sell some pieces, but not in Spain. Through a dealer in Europe, the Kahns acquired a $50,000 bracelet and a $22,000 ring, both featuring old-mine-cut Burmese rubies and cushion-cut diamonds set in gold.

A more contemporary piece stirs plenty of interest: a $300,000 copy of the Heart of the Ocean pendant that Asprey & Garrard made for Titanic singer Celine Dion, featuring 22.52 carats of diamonds and a 16-carat Kashmir sapphire.

Also Hollywood-inspired is an 18-karat gold manicure set that belonged to silver-screen siren Gloria Swanson.

House of Kahn has sold and auctioned gems from many notable estates, including those of actors Raymond Burr and Myrna Loy, broadcasting heiress Gloria Storer, and Corrine Warren, a regular at Mar-a-Lago when her friend, Marjorie Meriweather Post, hosted square dances.

This time last year, a California collector commissioned the sale of a ring featuring a 37-carat, cushion-cut yellow diamond set in platinum with several smaller diamonds - a $250,000 bauble that Kahn called "the largest diamond we've seen in Palm Beach for several years." Naturally, she was mum on the name of the buyer.

Highlights of this season have included a Bulgari 50-carat, heart-shaped, carved emerald necklace, about $175,000, and a strand of 13- to 17-millimeter South Sea pearls, tagged at $28,000.

Adele Kahn enjoys designing jewelry, and her husband assists with sales at the main salon on Peruvian Avenue and their West Palm Beach salesroom, 625 S. Olive Ave.

Tobina Kahn does the buying through her office in Chicago, where she has been interviewed by CNN and The Wall Street Journal on jewels and investments. She returns to Palm Beach every other week.

"We're really known for our signed pieces from the most coveted eras - Edwardian, Art Deco, Modern and Georgian," Tobina Kahn said.

At their champagne anniversary party for clients and dealers, the shop was brilliantly ablaze with jewels by renowned makers such as Tiffany & Co., Boucheron and Van Cleef & Arpels, featuring designs from each jeweler's most distinctive period.

"Even the wealthy want value, and many people buy diamonds as an investment, to keep in a safety deposit box, not to flaunt them," Adele Kahn said. "Most of our business is confidential. People want discretion, so if someone here needs to sell their jewels, we take it out of town. In 30 years, we've done business on a handshake and our word; millions of dollars on a handshake."

Gem dealer Donald Kaufman of Charles Kaufman Enterprises in Miami echoed her sentiments as he prepared to leave the salon after a meeting:

"A handshake is all you need with the right people," said Kaufman, who has known the Kahns since boyhood and attended their wedding in Toronto more than 45 years ago. His father, Charles, began trading gems with Edward Kahn in Europe in the 1950s. Charles Kaufman had opened shop in the 1940s on 47th Street in New York, and his father, Abraham, began the family jewelry business in 1900 in the Bowery.

"Eddie was born in Europe and seemed to have an eye for rare and historic pieces," Kaufman said. "He had knowledge and a gift for knowing style and antiquities - not just diamonds, but Alexandrites, rubies, tiaras and icons. A lot of what he bought had belonged to earls and dukes and duchesses."

The Kahns and their daughter are unusually intuitive about the goods they buy, Kaufman said.

"House of Kahn is House of Kahn . . . I've been in Palm Beach 20 years, and they've been here longer than that . . . like an institution," said designer Nelson Hernandez of Nelson Fine Jewels. He recently opened a new salon on the third floor of the Gucci Courtyard building at 256 Worth Ave.

Owning their own building for so long has paid off, Adele Kahn said, "because we don't have the same overhead that some of the other merchants do.

"Peruvian was a desert when we bought here, but I fell in love with this building," Adele Kahn said. "I would never sell this property; I'm much more sentimental than I was over our house."

The Kahns sold their three-story oceanfront home at 224 S. Ocean Blvd. in spring 2000 for $3.75 million to Down By The Sea principal Gary Ross. The house is across Seaspray Avenue from the lot where Ross has moved sections of his 1928 Mizner mansion, L'Encantada.

The Kahns bought the Dutch Colonial house in 1978, but it already had a colorful past - originally built in 1924 for cough-drop heir William Luden, who traveled to Palm Beach for the winter by private railroad car from Pennsylvania. Tom McGinty, who once owned the Stardust and Desert Inn hotels in Las Vegas, and the Hotel Nacionale in Havana, owned the 10,000-square-foot home during the 1950s.

Dazzling for Dollars: 'Diamond Necklace Affair' To Aid Homeless By Rewriting History

Published: February 16, 1989
Palm Beach Daily News

A Palm Beach estate jewelry house is planning a diamond-studded Marie Antoinette gala that would make the infamous queen eat her own words.

The House of Kahn, estate jewelers for more than 30 years, is presenting "The Diamond Necklace Affair," a March 2 extravaganza featuring a dazzling collection of diamond jewelry billed in the name of the 18th century French queen who callously uttered "let them eat cake" and agitated a revolution.

Powdered wigs and snuff boxes will be de rigueur at the affair that intends to rewrite history and offer a welcomed historical twist" Ten percent of the diamond collection's sales will go toward the Lord's Place, a shelter for the homeless in West Palm Beach.

That's because Adele Kahn, co-owner of the House of Kahn with her husband, Edward, feels the homeless problem is the most pressing issue facing Americans today.

The numbers says she's right.

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, the largest advocacy group, there are 3 million nationwide without a home. And a congressionally mandated study contends that those numbers will rocket to 19 million by about the year 2000.

"So many people turn their backs or want to pretend they don't see it," Mrs. Kahn said one afternoon in her elegant, chandeliered jewelry house of Peruvian Ave. "And despite what people assume about Palm Beach, the homeless are here too. Someone's got to do something about it."

The "Diamond" affair is what Mrs. Kahn intends to do about it. That likely will be no small contribution, as several of the jewel pieces, to be displayed by models in French aristocratic dress, are carefully crafted, elaborate collectors' items from the 1920s, '30s and '60s, periods of abundant and extravagant jewelry-making. Prices range from about $5,000 to $500,000, a price that would have impressed Marie Antoinette herself.

Director of the Lord's Place, Brother Joe Ranieri, is pleased. With a small staff and 600 unpaid volunteers, he is feeding and housing temporarily homeless families in two area shelters. One is in Boynton Beach, while the West Palm Beach shelter, which opened in 1983, has provided shelter for over 300 families, helping them find jobs and, eventually, apartments of their own.

"The point is," Mrs. Kahn explained, "What better way to spur people's awareness of the homeless problem than by figuratively showing that that horrible queen herself has had a change of heart and will sell her jewels for the homeless. If she were alive today, she wouldn't be eating cake. She'd be eating her words."

A Garden of Jewels

Published: March 6, 1988
Palm Beach Daily News

Jewelry lovers may find their enthusiasm blooming this week at The House of Kahn, 231 Peruvian Ave.

A camellia-shaped pin displays a center spread of diamond baguettes

About 25 estate jewelry pieces with a floral motif will be shown to the public from March 7 to March 12. Champagne, strawberries and tearose sandwiches will be served each afternoon.

These pieces have been collected over the years by Edward and Adele Kahn, owners of the 33-year-old firm.

Their love affair with floral pieces began 23 years ago when Edward gave his wife Adele a pair of twin diamond flower pins on the birth of their twin daughters.

Through the years as they bought and sold estate jewelry their eyes were; 'subconsciously' directed toward the floral pins.

"They're whimsical and there not as serious as big, heavy pieces." said Mrs. Kahn.

Floral pieces have been popular since Victorian times because of their beauty and because women of any age can appropriately wear them.

Mrs. Kahn believes that floral pieces as a jewelry art form evolved from the timeless gesture of offering corsages or bouquets as tokens of affection.

A Highlight in the Kahn's' quest for floral pieces came in the late 1960's when they acquired from an important English family a diamond tremblant piece, believed to have originated from royalty.

This piece containing a there carat and a four carat diamond, will be show this week.

The House of Kahn, in Palm Beach for 17 years, buys and sells estate jewelry in the United States and in Europe.

Mrs. Kahn said the estate jewelry is the most popular with auction houses and individuals who seriously collect jewelry. This, she maintained because many prominent pieces, as well as pieces with important stones, are found in estate jewelry.

Mrs. Kahn said most of the pieces in the collection to be viewed are from the 1920s, 1940s and 1960s-all periods when there was an abundance of elaborate jewelry pieces.

The real era for opulent jewelry was the late 1920s. Mrs. Kahn said that before the stock market crash, women like Mrs. Vanderbilt and Mrs. Astor wore more important pieces of jewelry and entertained more.

They also wore lavish necklaces and tiaras, as well as several bracelets, to the opera. "It was never too much in that period," Mrs. Kahn said.

During the Jazz age women continued to fashion themselves after royalty, especially England's Queen Mary who was a jewelry trend setter for her day.

In public, the Queen Mother often wore flowered brooches and necklaces, many of which were handed down to her royal descendants as wedding and birthday gifts.

Kahn Shows Rubies, Diamonds

Published: February 9, 1986
Palm Beach Daily News

"Blondes must love rubies," said House of Kahn owner Adele Kahn after a recent reception opening an exhibition of the Jewelry's houses ruby and diamond collection.

A floral leaf spray temblant has one emerald-shaped diamond and one pear shaped diamond, and is surrounded by round diamonds.

Mrs. Kahn said that many of the 50 people who attended the opening at House of Kahn were blonde-"and they loved the rubies," she gushed.

With her husband, owner Edward Kahn and daughter Tobina, Mrs. Kahn is exhibiting rubies and diamonds from the Art Deco period through the present.

Guests drank champagne and nibbled on strawberries dipped in chocolate.

Tiara Collection Draws Crowd to House of Kahn

By WENDY KEELER
Published: November 10, 1985
Palm Beach Daily News

About 180 tiara enthusiasts turned out at the House of Kahn Thursday for cocktails and a showing of the Kahn's collection of 12 tiaras.

A sample tiara that can be found at The House of Kahn Estate Jewelers.

The party was heavily guarded. One guard stood outside the estate jeweler's establishment on Peruvian Avenue.

Flanking the driveway were two statues, neither of which wore tiaras, but carried flags. The male statue wore hoop earrings. It proudly bore the American flag. A half dressed female statue bore haled a lamp in one hand, the union jack in the other.

The party was to honor the visit to Palm Beach by Princess Diana. Edward and Adele Kahn usually keep the $35,000 to $300,000 priced tiaras in a vault. But Mrs. Kahn thought the royals' visit to town was a good excuse to pull out the head gear.

Everybody talked about Princess Diana's novel use of one of the royal heirlooms-how she had worn a necklace given her by Queen Elizabeth as a headband during her trip to Australia last week.

Most people agreed it would be close to impossible to wear one of the tiaras around the forehead.

"A tiara is engineered so it really fits on the head." Mrs. Kahn explained.

"We did this as a fun thing, as a remembrance of a bygone era." Mrs. Kahn said.

A Gem Of A Collection

By MILLIE WOLFF
Published: October 28, 1985
Palm Beach Daily News

According to the November issue of Life magazine, Princess Di stands to inherit a dozen tiaras among other jewels greater and greater. Adele Kahn, owner of The House of Kahn at 231 Peruvian Ave., already has a dozen tiaras. For years, she has been collecting them, along with fabulous estate jewelry that is shown in her jewel of a Mizner-built shop.

Diamond and Oriental pearl tiara. Early nineteenth century. Once the property of English Royalty.

In honor of the upcoming visit of her royal highness, the princess of Wales, the House of Kahn has brought tiaras from the vault where such priceless possessions are sensibly kept. They will be shown for the first time at the invitation exhibition on the first week in November.

People who own a dozen tiaras made of diamonds and pearls don't necessarily hoard them. The fun is in the collection. And Adele Kahn believes it would be reasonable and not impossible for her to part with any or all of these beautiful pieces of jewelry.

Priced from $35,000 TO $300,000, the tiaras may in some instances be worn as necklaces. Several of them separate to form pins, clips and brooches.

If it all sounds trivial, it isn't. There is a possibility that one of the tiaras could have belonged to Queen Mary. Made of platinum with more than 650 full cut diamonds- the center one of which weighs five carats- the piece forms a circular crown and is beaded on each prong with natural pearls. The tiara was crated in its original box by 15 men over a year.

Just when a prince of princess decides that's the one desired, the eye is attracted by a magnificent crown of 23 aquamarines totaling 350 carats. The center stone weighs 150 carats. This was commissioned by the duke for his daughter's debut to match her blue eyes.

Another piece forms delicate flowers with the center flower surrounding a three carat diamond. This 18th century piece separated into diamond combs and has a matching pin.

But then there is another captivating tiara that looks like the one a fairy godmother wears when she comes for a visit and waves her magic wand to promise a better tomorrow.

Is there a market for this type of jewelry? Ms. Kahn believes there is "Princess Di is young and good looking," she said "She is a trend setter. Already women are wearing dog collars similar to a choker Diane has been seen photographed in."

So, why not crown you crowning glory? it sounds natural for the Red Cross Ball.

When viewing tiaras, it is a good chance to ask to see the other magnificent jewels collected and designed by the Kahn's. For those who like jewelry- and what woman doesn't? - A visual adventure is in store.

Estate Jewelry Is Showcased

Published: December 1, 1983
Palm Beach Daily News

If Diamond's are a girls best friend that the estate jewels currently showing at the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers are among the friendliest.

Unusual Pear-shaped diamond weighing 21 carats.

Highlighting the collection is an unusual golden pear-shaped diamond of 21 carats priced at $185,000.

Also included is a platinum and diamond necklace with 56 diamonds varying in weights from 1 to 2.5 carats priced at $22,000: a platinum and diamond necklace from Cartier, London at $75,000; large bow shaped clips with round baguette diamonds at $45,000 and a long granulated strand of South Sea pearls from 11.5 mm to 15.25 mm, priced at $50,000.

The 1984 collection of important Diamond and Estate jewelry also included a number of other unusual pieces which were collected over a six month period.

A champagne reception Monday night at the House of Kahn was a private viewing by invitation only.

House of Kahn Debuts Estate Jewels

Published: November 30, 1983
Palm Beach Daily News

Platinum and diamond necklace signed Cartier, London with 70 carats of fine European diamonds set in rosebud and leaf design.

A champagne reception was held at the House of Khan Estate Jewelers to show their 1984 collection of one of a kind estate jewels.

The jewels collected during a six-month period included an unusual golden pear-shaped diamond of 21 carats and platinum and diamond necklace of 56 round diamonds weighing from 1 carat to 1.25 carats each. Also shown was a platinum and diamond necklace by Cartier, London; large important diamond bow-shaped clips with round baguette diamonds; a long strand of 82 graduated South Sea pearls of 11.5 mm to 15.25 mm; as well as many other unusual pieces. These estate jewels are valued at $50,000.

The 1984 Collection of Important Diamond and Estate Jewelry champagne reception was a private viewing held by invitation only.

Memento Is Unique, Up For Sale

By THOM SMITH
Published: January 20, 2004
Palm Beach Post

He described himself simply as "an old hoofer," but for more than 20 years George Murphy was one of Palm Beach's most illustrious and popular residents. The former actor, who appeared in nearly 50 movies with such stars as Shirley Temple and Arlene Dahl, also was popular in movieland. He was president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1944 to 1946 and was given an honorary Oscar in 1950 for his work in support of the film industry. In 1964, California voters sent him to the U.S. Senate. He died in 1992.

Along with that Oscar, a few of his Hollywood friends got together and presented him with a silver cigarette case embossed with sapphires. They also signed it: Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Bob Hope, Fred MacMurray, Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Jack Benny and his wife, Mary Livingstone, Gregory Peck and Robert Montgomery. Also signing it were Lord Louis Mountbatten and former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy. Now it's for sale. Right here in Palm Beach. The House of Kahn on Peruvian Avenue has it. "It's a piece of history," Kahn Vice President Tobina Kahn said. "Never before has a jewel of this magnitude, with so many movie stars' signatures, been on the market."

Gotta have it? Call Tobina. It's yours for $20,000.

First impressions
How's this for a glittery arrival?

Friday evening at 6, a procession, said to be very British colonial in flavor and headed by a young "African prince," will move along Worth Avenue to No. 221, home of the newest jeweler on the island.

After several successful but peripatetic years in an opulent booth at the Classic Art and Antique Fair, London-based Graff has opened a salon on Worth Avenue, and for its grand opening, owner Laurence Graff is staging a gem of an evening. The "prince," borne in a litter, and escorted by pipers and dragoons, will deliver to the store a diamond.

Not just any diamond, mind you, but one of the rarest on Earth - of fancy, vivid yellow variety. Discovered last year in a South African mine (the inspiration for the pageantry), it weighs in at a monstrous 101.28 carats. The stone will remain in the store until it travels to the Classic at the Palm Beach County Convention Center a week later.

Needless to say, invitations to the opening are hard, if not impossible, to come by. Graff's international clientele ranges from royalty to movie stars, but some Palm Beach socialites are learning they didn't make the cut.

As for the value of the stone? Whatever someone will pay for it. But consider this. Already on display in Graff's window is a 3.55-carat, fancy vivid yellow diamond.
For $425,000, it's yours.
Degrees of difficulty

Three weeks ago, Brian Lawlor was working at his job at Scripps TV headquarters in Cincinnati. Thursday night he was at The Breakers, performing part of his new role as general manager at WPTV-Channel 5 by accepting an award for the station's support from the Angels of Charity.

"It really came out of the blue," said Lawlor. He's glad to be back. Four years ago, he was national sales manager at WPTV.

Lawlor, 37, is replacing Bill Peterson, who obviously made an impression in the two years he ran Channel 5. Peterson, who earlier had run WPEC-Channel 12, will be running 10 Scripps stations as its vice president of operations for the broadcast television group. He hates to leave.

So does his wife, Kathy. Without looking up from the newspaper the other day, she told him, "It's 8 degrees in Cincinnati."

Luster For Life

By STACI STURROCK

Published: December 12, 2000
Palm Beach Daily News

Diamonds may be a girls best friend but pearls are her soul mate- a peerless, perfect match, standing by her in every season, making her look good in any situation.

They’re a favorite of blushing brides and Barbara Bush. Of anchorwomen and academy award-winning actresses. Of Park Avenue socialites and soccer moms. They did as much for Josephine Baker as for June Cleaver.

They’ve never really felt the sting of being the fashion outs, but in the year 2000, they’re undeniably stylish.

Fall’s so-called ladylike look, a throwback to the extra-0femanine and ultra popular 40’s and 50’s simply isn’t fashioned without a sugar dusting of pearls at the throat.

And, in an election year, pearls get the unanimous vote of former first ladies and candidates’ wives. They’re a can’t offend classic.

“There’s a human connection that takes place with a pearl,” says Ki Hackney, who wrote the just published People and Pearls: The Magic Endures with Diana Edkins. “Over and over, people say, ‘They’re alive.’”

They make complexions look more alive, too. “They’re like a natural cosmetic,” Hackney says. “They reflect that light, they reflect your skin tone.”

And once again they reflect the fashion moment.

Famous Ladies and Their Pearls

Ki Hackney and Diana Edkins’ People and Pearls: The Magic Endures (HarperCollins, $40.00) traces the history of style through the language or pearls. Along the way, the authors toast dozens of women (and a few men) who have put a personal stamp on pearl wearing- C.Z. Guest, Audrey Hepburn, Diana Vreeland and even Rudolp Valentino.

We pose this question to Hackney: Which three women in the 20th century have most elevated the prominence of pearls. Her picks:

Grace Kelly – The daughter of a well to do Philadelphia family, Kelly wore pearls as a symbol of tradition- on movie sets, in high society circles and on the day she wed a prince.

“Grace Kelly kind of represented the upper class, but the upper class moving forward in life,” Hackney says “And pearl wearing and tradition and education and breeding at that time. They still recall those things.”

Jackie Kennedy- “She had a style that people could understand and emulate, and pearls were a part of her life.” Hackney says.

This 1951 portrait of Jackie, shot for Vogue, “is one of the most elegant photos of a very, very simple pearl necklace.” Hackney says.

“You can do this with pearls- add a pin, wear them over a tee-shirt on the tennis court… you can mix them with other jewelry. You can’t do that with diamonds.”

Princess Dianna- “She was a girl of the world, a global woman, and her pearls reflected that,” Hackney says. “They were very strong statements in her life (there) at her collar.”

Diana borrowed the idea of wearing pearls from her royal predecessors including pearl crazy, Queen Elizabeth the first and Diana’s own mother-in-law, whose wedding gown was hand embroidered with 10,000 pearls.

Tech-Hungry Sellers Dumping Old Jewels

By JEFF OSTROWISKI
Published: January 10, 2000
Palm Beach Post

The Internet gold rush is leading to its own mini-stampede here.
Wealthy Palm Beachers are selling diamonds and using the proceeds to buy tech stocks, says Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn jewelers in Palm Beach. Kahn says she has bought $100,000 in jewelry in the past few weeks from customers who don't want to miss out on the technology-driven bull market.

House of Kahn paid one grandmother $37,000 for a pair of four-carat diamond earrings. The jeweler paid another seller $20,000 for a diamond bracelet made in the 1920s.

The owners typically wore the items only once a year, Kahn says. The jewels spent the other 364 days in safe deposit boxes.

"Yes, these are beautiful works of art, and you can't deny that," Kahn says. "But what else can you do with the money?"

House of Kahn, which also has a store in Chicago, sells to dealers and collectors.

Cuff Couture

By ROBERT JANJIGIAN
Published: December 1, 2007
Palm Beach Life Magazine

The cuff has been a favorite bracelet style for thousands of years. Its current vogue would give famous cuff fans, such as Cleopatra, Coco Chanel, the Duchess of Windsor and Diana Vreeland, plenty of shapes and styles to choose from in a wide range of materials, from leather and precious and even nonprecious metals to wood. The larger scale transforms a mere bangle into wrist-wrapping, statementmaking cuff.

Is Silver The Glitter Of Yesterday? Or is it the new ingredient of the reasonably prudent portfolio?

By JONATHAN FUERBRINGER
Published: February 19, 1998
New York Times

Please click here to read the entire article on the New York Times Website.

Gold Adds Weight To Its Worth Investors Take Notice Of Spike

By THOMAS A. FOGARTY
Published: September 29, 1999
USA Today

Tobina Kahn spent most of her morning Tuesday in Chicago bank vaults, appraising the personal treasures of potential sellers eager to cash in on the spike in gold prices.

"We've been bombarded. It's a fascinating phenomenon," Kahn says of the increase in customers since the dramatic upturn in gold prices over the past two days.

The boom in Kahn's business is one element in the fallout from this week's sharp increase in gold prices, which had been languishing near 20-year lows since July.

The increase in gold prices also has prompted a wave of investor interest in owning the metal itself, gold-oriented mutual funds and stock in gold-mining companies. Financial professionals urge caution.

Gold and related investments have been notoriously hazardous for investors. The price of gold, even with the recent spike, remains far below its historic peak of more than $800 an ounce in 1980.

Gold-oriented funds, over five years ended June 30, have had the worst performance among 35 fund categories tracked by Lipper. Gold funds lost about half their value.

The price of gold rose Tuesday to $308 an ounce, up 9% from Monday. In two days, the price has risen about 15%.

At the urging of European Central Bank President Wim Duisenberg, the central banks of Europe agreed to limit their gold sales over the next five years. Investors' anticipation of constricted supplies of the precious metal, coupled with uncertainty about interest rates, inflation, the dollar and the Y2K bug are cited as reasons for the rally in gold prices.

Bill Wilby, a portfolio manager at Oppenheimer mutual fund group, expects a "very short, very powerful" rally in gold prices. He says the effect of the capped sales by European banks will constrict supplies only slightly. The market may also be boosted by skittishness over the effect of the Y2K bug on more conventional investments, he says. But central banks around the world could kill the rally by deciding to cash in on the higher prices that the European banks helped create.

"We could get a significant rally possibly through the end of the year," Wilby says. "But I think all this is a short- term, two- to three-month phenomenon."

The price of the Oppenheimer Gold and Special Minerals Fund has risen more than 15% since Friday.

Mark Bass, a financial planner from Lubbock, Texas, says the higher prices of the past two days could be the beginning of a relatively long-term gold market change. This would be a good time for investors to consider gold funds or investing in the metal itself, he says. "It would be a good time for those folks who can stomach that kind of volatility." He would caution clients to keep gold investments to less than 5% of their portfolio.

Kahn, the Chicago jewelry appraiser, says her company has been paying a premium for gold jewelry this week.

For example, Kahn says she paid $8,400 Tuesday for an evening purse made with 6 ounces of gold, an inheritance of a woman she described as "a soccer mother." The same item would have fetched $1,000 less just last week, Kahn says.

Horizon Hospice's Silver Milestone

Published: July 31, 2003
Pioneer Press

Horizon Hospice, Chicago's first hospice, celebrated its 25th anniversary in grand style in the Cultural Center. Honored were founder Ada Addington and president Dr. Michael Preodor. 400 friends of the organization came in from coast to coast. Tobina Kahn of the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers and Auctioneers conducted a live auction and the event raised a record-breaking $200,000 in support of the Horizon's mission to provide comfort care to the dying and promote dignity at the end of life.

A Jewel Of A Fundraiser

By FELICIA DECHTER
Published: September 8, 2005
Pioneer Press

Tobina Kahn, vice president of the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, 60 E. Walton St., can clearly remember lugging paintings down from the walls of her Florida home when she was younger, to salvage them from possible hurricane destruction. She also recalled how the family would work to save their beautiful antiques when news of a hurricane hit.

"House of Kahn is based in Palm Beach, right on the ocean, and I know what hurricanes can do," Kahn said. "A lot of people in the Midwest don't know what to do."

That's why House of Kahn, one of the oldest estate jewelry houses in the city whose Palm Beach headquarters has been through "many hurricanes," will be donating 10 percent of all its jewelry sales proceeds to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund for Katrina victims. According to Kahn, both the Palm Beach and Chicago stores are participating in the effort.

Kahn said when she heard about Katrina, "I knew it was going to be bad." She immediately called the Red Cross and told them, "I want to help."

Kahn said she wanted to get the word out t hat she will donate the money, which will be used to help victims who have lost their homes and even their livelihoods.

As of press time, Kahn had raised $1,250 and said the response has been overwhelming.

"These people need so much help," she said. "Here, someone can buy something and they can feel good too. I hope other people will follow."

Chicagoans: Memories Of The Pope Will Always Live On

By FELICIA DECHTER
Published: April 7, 2005
Pioneer Press

It was a magnificent evening in Rome, Italy, as North Sider Mary McDermott sat waiting for Pope John Paul II to appear on the steps of the legendary Coliseum for an early may, 200, Jubilee celebration.

Although McDemott had been in the pontiff's audience at least 10 times before, for some reason, this time was more spectacular than the others. As the sun set over the crowd, and John Paul II appeared, there was an excitement and a thrill that felt almost as if God himself was coming to address the thousands.

"He was like a star," said McDermott, an Uptown resident and retired professor of nursing from Loyola University. "And when people anticipated him coming into sight, there was this huge cheering and clapping.

"It's always a pageant," she added. "And to bring people who've never seen him always resurrects how special this is, to Catholics, and non-Catholics."

There were many things about John Paul that McDermott admired enough to keep her coming back for more, and she often brought her Loyola students to see, and be recognized by, the pontiff.

"He always spoke four to five minutes in English," McDermott said. "And when he'd say, 'And to Loyola University..." the students would go crazy."

McDermott was impressed that the pope was a poet, an actor in college in Poland, a man who spoke many languages , and a skier, hiker, and walker. He would bless those getting married, and prospective brides and grooms showed up to his Masses in wedding dresses and tuxedos.

John Paul II was also a man who brought the disabled onto the podium with him, and he spoke out against capital punishment, the war in Iraq, and during a trip to Israel, he asked Jews for forgiveness for the Catholic's reaction to the Holocaust.

"He was a real Renaissance man," McDermott said. "He was a person of the people, anybody. You wouldn't call him overly joyous, yet he had that twinkle. To see him be with so many people who shared his enthusiasm - whether Catholic or not - brought peace and hope."

One family who might agree with McDermott is the Kahn family, owners of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, 60 E. Walton St. In 1963, Edward and Adele Kahn, who are Jewish, acquired a beautiful, jewel-encrusted icon that sat in their collection for nearly 40 years.

In December 2000, the Kahns donated the 16th century portrait of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus encrusted in jewels to the Rev. John Mericantante. Of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Pahokee, Fla., one of the state's poorest parishes.

The Kahn's daughter, Tobina, said the parish's priest was so happy with the valuable gift that he wrote to the Vatican, and he found it remarkable that an Orthodox Jew would give such a gift to the Catholic Church.

The pope responded by giving the Kahns an Apostolic Blessing, which Tobina Kahn said is very rarely given to a Jew, and which hangs on display in their Walton Street shop.

"Because of this blessing, my parents and I feel a special bond to the pope," Kahn said. "Pope John Paul II went out of his way to reach out to members of the Jewish Faith and we are forever grateful."

Lake View resident Pat Brickhouse recalled the time that she and her late husband, Jack, had a one-on-one audience with the pope at the Vatican. After the meeting was unexpectedly arranged during a vacation to Italy, Brickhouse found she had only one suit - a bright orange color - to wear for the occasion.

When she headed to the Vatican in it, she was told that it would not be proper to wear for an audience with the pope. So she went back to the hotel, threw a black raincoat on over the suit, and made her way to see the pope.

"This man was positively mesmerizing. He had such an impact on us," Brickhouse said.
"He was so warm and gracious that you wanted to hug and embrace him. I shall carry this to my grave, the memories."

"He reached out to the people of the world and they responded to him. And it wasn't only the Catholics...he didn't care. You were a human being, and he reached out to humanity."

Other Chicagoans, too, say that John Paul II's kind spirit will continue to live on in their hearts and memories.

Peter Pierga, who works downtown, attended a 1993 World Youth Day gathering in Denver, Colo., where 750,000 young people sat in awe as the pontiff delivered Mass in 22 languages.

"It was a very big experience, unbelievable, and just incredible," Pierga said. For Pierga, who is Polish, the pontiff's death is "very, very sad."

"It's a very big loss especially since I'm Polish and it kind of hits home," he said. "I don't remember any other Pope, and this is a huge loss."

Chicagoans: Memories Of The Pope Will Always Live On

By FELICIA DECHTER
Published: March 11, 2004
Pioneer Press

Fergie, Duchess of York's charity, Chances for Children, focuses on their safety and well being, as many are forgotten by their families or social agencies, During March, Tobina Kahn, of the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, 60 E. Walton, is offering Sara's special little Red Doll, a winsome, large stuffed toy, with every purchase more than $1,000. A portion of the sale goes to the charity. Kahn is the only way to get the doll in Chicago.

Kahn Sells One-of-a-kind Cigarette Case

Published: December 11, 2003
Pioneer Press

This Thursday, Dec. 11, at the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, 60 e. Walton St., a sterling silver cigarette case (pictured right) give to the honorable George Murphy in 1951 as a special Academy Award for humanitarian services will be one of the items up for sale. With a price tag of $20,000 the case was signed by former President Ronald Reagan, first lady Nancy Reagan, Bob Hope, Fred McMurray, Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Jack Benny, Gregory Peck, and others. Also for sale will be a pearl brooch with diamonds given by Murphy to his wife, Bette, and a gold compact, also given by Murphy to Bette. Above: The honorable Senator George Murphy with former President Ronald Regan and first lady, Nancy Reagan.

Hearts For Sale

Published: January 23, 2003
Pioneer Press

If a diamond is forever, then a heart-shaped diamond is eternal. Valentine's Day at the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, 60 E. Walton St., is a special even featuring exquisite jewels for the holiday. Among them: A Heart-Shaped Diamond Necklace weighing 35.46 carats of white diamonds set in platinum ($150,000); a unique Bangle Bracelet weighing 3.10 carats of white diamonds set in 18 karat white gold ($6.500); or a beautiful pair of Heart-Shaped Earrings of white diamonds set in 18 karat white and yellow gold ($7,950). For more information, call (312) 943-9937.

Diamonds are Still the Favorite Gem

By SARA BURROWS
Published: February 13, 2003
Skyline News

Some 2,500 years ago a love affair began. That was about the time human beings discovered diamonds, and ever since they have been infatuated with those bits of crystallized carbon.

Once dead plant and animal matter buried 90 to 125 miles beneath the earth's surface, the stones are brought to the surface, cut, fauceted, polished and encased in precious metals. Rare and beautiful as they are, these gems were once reserved for kings.

Far more available today, diamonds are still the gem of choice up and down the income sale. "Diamonds are still number one for engagement rings," says Tobina Kahn, gemologist and vice president of House of Kahn, 60 E. Walton St. and estate jewelry business founded by her parents, Adele and Edward Kahn, dome 50 years ago in the gold coast.

For most people, it's the symbolism, the crystal purity and durability of the stones as well as the history that's important. "I like colored stones, but for an engagement ring, a diamond is more traditional,” says Carrie Armetta of Norwood Park.

"A diamond just goes better with a wedding band," agrees Pam Golden of Rogers Park. "It's traditional."

Even when it's not in an engagement ring, diamond is an ideal token for Valentines Day. So it's no surprise to Rick Chavez, owner of Detalles in North Center that "The most popular gifts we're selling are the diamond stud earrings."

"The popularity of diamonds never changes. For engagement rings and special occasion gifts, we still sell more diamond pieces than anything else," says Nannette Best, employee at Hoffman Jewelers in Skokie.

That popularity translates into something more these days says Kahn, "A diamond is always going to be in fashion. In the last year or so, because of the economy, people have been looking at jewels as much for an investment as they are for a gift. Especially from the men's point of view, the attitude toward jewelry has completely changed. It's not just, 'Oh, I'm getting married so I have to get my fiancée a diamond.' A lot of people really got hurt through their stocks, you don't see that with jewelry." she says.

Despite the current political upheavals in Africa, Kahn believes there will always be a market for good diamonds. "I've never heard of anyone loosing money on a diamond if it was purchased the right ways." she says.

She says estate, or used diamond jewelry can be the best value because the seller does not have to include a standard retail markup.

Over the centuries diamonds have acquired a mystique that is a potpourri of history, science, business, politics, poetry. First mentioned in Sanskrit writings of 2,400 B.C. from what is now India, diamonds made their way east slowly. Small ones arrive in Europe in the 13th century and Louis the fourth of France decrees that small or not because they were so rare, these gems would be reserved for royalty. A century later, both men and women with royal status were wearing diamond jewelry and in 1477, the Hapsburg Emperor Maximillian the first, commissioned the first diamond engagement ring for his royal fiancés, Mary Duchess of Burgundy.

In 1492, another royal lady, Isabella the second of Spain, sole many of her diamonds and gems to finance a daring, exploratory scheme headed by an Italian, Christopher Columbus. One of her bracelets, a band of Burmese rubies and diamonds is now in the collection of the House of Kahn, "We bought is from Isabella's heirs." says Kahn.

By the 19th century, even middle class citizens wore diamond jewelry, and a major lode of diamonds discovered in South Africa, made the stones even more affordable. At the same time, engineering advances of the Industrial Revolution created tools and techniques for cutting and polishing that revealed an innate brilliance of the gems, unknown to earlier times. "Cutting a diamond can get rid of some flaws." says Phillip Janney, manager of the Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory in the Field Museum's department of Geology. "A big flawed stone will be worth much more than a small flawless one.

The Kohinoor diamond, for example, today in the British crown jewels, was worn as an uncut diamond by a princes and kings of India for centuries." says Janney "The British had it cut and faceted, which got rid of some flaws, so it is smaller now, but more brilliant."

That's because a flaw, usually some impurity like nitrogen, boron, or other gas, affects the light moving through the gem. "Diamonds have the highest refractive index of all materials," says Janney which means they slow down and bend light passing through them. They refract of bend some color waves more than others which is what we call the diamond's sparkle and see as tiny rainbows. "The jewelers call it a diamond's fire." he says.

And even a diamond with a large flaw enough to see with the unaided eye, can, through the jewelers arts, be turned into a piece of fine jewelry. Diamonds can be cut in several shapes in addition to the classic round- emerald, a rectangle, oval, pear shape, marquise, an oval pointed at the small ends and brilliant, a square-shape.

"Much depends on the way the diamond is cut and mounted. There are ways to camouflage flaws- ways tat can save thousands of dollars. When the flaw is hidden by the mounting you can still have a really nice look." says Kahn, and besides, she says "There aren't many flawless stones out there."

The Gemological Institute of America, grades clarity or degree of flawlessness from: internally flawless, or perfect to VVS1 AND VVS2, very very slightly included (flawed) through VS1 and VS2 very slightly included, ST1 AND ST2, slightly included through I1, I2 and I3, imperfect.

Color is another element of a diamond's value. "You want it to be as colorless as possible," says Kahn. "For a lot of people, the color is more important than the clarity."

White diamonds are graded by color which, according to the standards of the American Gemological Institute, ranges from completely colorless or D-grade, on through the alphabet to visibly yellow, or Z-grade. "Most diamonds re in the market of F,G,H and I grade," says Kahn. The color variation between consecutive letters is quite minimal. "With the unaided eye, it's hard to tell the difference between a D diamond and an E-color stone. I tell people the difference is going to cost people thousands of dollars and the people won't see it unless their highly trained in gemology."

Diamonds come in just about every color-the Hope Diamond, in the Smithsonian Institute is blue- but those are a whole different category of diamond. However, right now, Chavez notes, "There's a fashion for 'fancy yellow or champagne-colored diamonds."

Size counts too. "I have one diamond solitaire that's only an I-color but it costs $100,000 dollars because it's 6 and a half carats," says Kahn. One carat, a unit of diamond weight is about 1/5 gram, the same weight as a paper clip. "The biggest diamonds are fist sized and weigh about 1,000 carats." says Janney.

After considering these four c's – carats, cut, clarity and color.- the decision to buy a diamond is simply a matter of what the buyer likes and can afford, says Kahn. "I'm not going to say one diamond is better than another because for every person it depends on what you like and what your look is."

Getting the right ring

Buying a diamond ring for an engagement token, which folks have been doing since 1477, is something a man wants to do right.

His lady will be wearing that ring the rest of her life, so she'll be much happier with one she likes. And is she's happy, he will be too.

So what's a guy to do? Boldly go alone?

Better to go shopping with the lady first, or at least window shopping, as Carrie Armetta of Morwood Park and her fiancée did. "I didn't have a sister I could take along to ask about what I like." she says, "So we just went shopping to look around one day. He wanted to get an idea of what kind of stone I'd like- there are so many shapes. But he went and bought the actual ring himself." she says. They've been happily married seven years now.

"Men mostly come in having an idea of what the woman wants" says Rick Chavez, owner of Detalles, 3059 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago. He says many of those men have, like Armetta's husband, done a pre-sopping trip. "We do custom engagement rings, so I ask a series of questions and show the men catalogs with pictures of various designs. I want to help them as much as I can."

"Men do come in alone," says Tobina Kahn, gemologist and vice president of the House of Kahn, 60 E. Walton ST., Chicago. And when they do, the problem is often more the ring size then anything else. She believes men pay more attention to their beloved's taste in jewelry then women might think.

But everyone buying a diamond ought to do their homework. Jewelers like Chavez and Kahn are happy to share their experience and information on the four c's of diamonds.-cut, clarity, color and carats- to help buyers.

The Gemological institute of America web site, http://www.gia.org offers an interactive tutorial on "How to Buy a Diamond." Alexander Angelle spokesman for the Carlsbad, California –based organization, suggests that those who don't have internet view the web site at a public library. "Even a small diamond is a good sized investment." he says "You wouldn't buy a dishwasher or clothes dryer without doing some research and a diamond costs a lot more."

Father's Day Memories

Guest Author: TOBINA KAHN
Published: June 8, 2000
Skyline News

A vice president of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, I often encounter men and women seeking to sell jeweled heirlooms. While there are many reasons to part with such valuable items, none is as worthwhile as that of a woman I recently had the good fortune to meet. Soft-spoken but articulate, this special woman is truly genuine and appreciative of life.

When she was very young, her mother passed away. This left her father, a doctor, to raise her and the two grew to be very close. Although he worked long hours at the local community hospital, he worked equally hard to be an attentive parent. He made a point of attending her dance recitals and school plays; he tried to arrange his schedule so that he could have dinner with her every night; he helped her with her homework. If he had to work late certain evenings, he would sometimes allow her to accompany him on his rounds. It was during this time spent with him at the hospital, watching him administer to the needs of both the rich and the poor, that she decided to pursue a career in medicine.

Sadly, her father died last year at age 76. He had encouraged her desire to become a doctor, but he died on the verge of realizing her dream. When I met her, she had on acceptance to medical school and was waiting to hear from several others. She already had plans to return to her community work and work in the neighborhood, if not the hospital where her father practiced. The only question remaining was how to fun her education.

Among her personal belongings left to her by her father, she was surprised to discover an exquisite diamond and sapphire necklace wit matching brooch and bracelet. It had been a gift from her father to her mother many years ago but sat untouched in a safety deposit box for more than 30 years. The jewels had been all but forgotten and she admits to having not known of them until her father’s death. Although the rediscovered jewels had significant sentimental value, they also were the financial godsend she had been looking for to supplement her tuition. When I told her the value of the pieces, she was ecstatic.

As an adult, she now realizes how difficult it was for her father both to raise her singlehandedly and provide for her financially. Because the day we met in my office to finalize the sale was so close to Father’s Day, she could not help but lovingly enumerate her father’s virtues and kindness. Watching her leave my office, I could not help noting how refreshing this kind of woman is. I know her father would be proud of the woman he raised her to be, and is smiling down from heaven.

Jewelry Of Yesterday Funds Tomorrow

Guest Author: TOBINA KAHN
Published: March 23, 2000
Skyline News

Everyone's life has become increasingly dominated by the frantic dictates of the working calendar. Cell Phones, fax machines, e-mails, and the quest for quicker internet connections only seem to emphasize the fast paced millennium. In fact, technology developments of recent years underscore the idea that faster is better and this attitude has profoundly affected the average person's approach to living.

Jewel heirlooms, like these, are being cashed in.

A generation ago, greater consideration was given to seemingly minute details such as entertaining and how one dressed for it. The everyday woman was much more formally attired. A luncheon suit and hat were considered common place. Jewels, opulent, sparkling bracelets and necklaces were worn to cocktail parties or nights our dancing.

Today, formal clothing and big bold jewelry has been left by the wayside. Many adhere to an easier to maintain pared down style. With commitments to home and work, the modern woman's life is fast paces and intersects different public and private spheres. Consequently, her style has become simpler and more streamlined. Working women and busy mothers alike prefer chic, low maintenance fashion when it comes to dress or jewelry that both works from the office and out to dinner, emphasis is on practicality.

Though appreciation for the fine jewelry is still widespread, people no longer wear overstated showpieces on a regular basis. As a result, individuals have decided increasingly to trade in their mother and grandmother's jewels. Likewise, antique items such as sterling tea sets and tureen are now being sold for cash. While life has become more hectic, people have found ways to simplify it and make it more manageable. This included taking inventory of what is and is not necessary or useful.

I don't get out the way I used to." says an older customer, "And I don't entertain like before, if my children had a use for my type of jewelry, I might give it to them, but they don't. Instead of letting those beautiful pieces accumulate dust, cluttering my closet in boxes or on my dresser, I decided to get rid of what I no longer use."

The money paid for estate jewelry and antique items can be considerable. If brought to a private buying office such as the House of Kahn in downtown Chicago and in Palm Beach, Fla. a check can be issued the same day for an exchange.

People choose to liquidate their assets for a variety of reasons. Most commonly they want to fund ventures in the stock market or invest in their children's education. On the other hand, individuals may simply want to empty their closet or safety deposit box. Whatever the reason, people often discover there is quite a market for older jeweled pieces that no longer serve a purpose in everyday life, except to cash it in and watch the investments grow.

Outing the Old can make for a Better New Year

Guest Author: TOBINA KAHN
Published: February 25, 1999
Skyline News

Inherited jewels are often sold to pay for a more promising future.

When Champagne bottles are uncorked and "Auld Lang Syne" ushers the New Year in, many will pull their loved ones in for the last kiss of the century- and the first of the new millennium. While the turning of every year fosters expectations of and hope for change, this year anticipates a beginning and a realization of a new era, another century of growth with all its highs and lows.

However, a certain amount of nostalgia has already set in. Mixed among the New Year paraphernalia and celebration plans, there are books of photographs highlighting the past century, video collections and even a U.S. line o stamps featuring every decade since 1900. We are in fact sorting through the memories at the same time we plan for the future. As always we are faced with the dilemma of what to keep- the most valuable mementos, the hardest learned lesions- and what to let go.

Looking back, there is much to applaud and cherish. It is not hard to revel in the past. Looking forward though, we see that many of our problems and concerns follow us into the years to come. Will baby boomers have enough money to comfortably retire? Will heath care costs continue to plague older Americans? And, in the worst case scenario, what can we do to ensure a more stable future for ourselves? For nearly half a century, The House of Kahn Estate Jewelers in both Chicago, Illinois and Palm Beach, Florida, has helped individuals meet the ever increasing cost of living and secure a brighter future. We meet many people who need to cash in on investments because we pay the highest prices for antique and estate jewels.

With the recent boom in technology stocks, including the successes of IBM, AOL and Yahoo!, many businessmen and professionals parted with little used family jewels in order to take advantage of this valuable opportunity. Equally, we have bought pieces from parents and grandparents who believe that their children's education is their primary and most important investment.

Weighing the possibilities of the future against the keepsakes of the past is often a difficult task. However, as most jeweled pieces remain in the safe deposit boxes or go years unworn, many chose to let go of those items, so that they can more confidently and securely move forward in life.

As we look over the past century we must take stock of the memories, lessons and mementos. We must also ready ourselves for the years ahead. I hope we embrace the future with the same courage as the women joining the work force in the 40's, the same adventurous spirit as Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, and the same unquenchable desire for a better future.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year.

Are Diamonds Still a Girl's Best Friend?

Guest Author: TOBINA KAHN
Published: December 23, 1999
Skyline News

In Howard Hawks 1953 film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," Marilyn Monroe sexily and memorably sings her way to mega stardom with "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend."

Since first seeing the movie and then becoming the vice president of the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, I have often laughingly remembered that seemingly antiquated refrain so removed from the present.

However, with the approach of the spring season set aside for change and rebirth, I've noticed this notion is still alive n our culture. There is no gift more symbolic and valuable than a diamond.

A short while ago, I had the good fortune to meet a very stylish and knowledgeable woman who had made an appointment to visit my office at 919 N. Michigan Ave, for the possible sale of her jewelry. A few minutes into our conversation, I realized she was an expert in and had lived through the "retro period of the 1950s"- the days of Marilyn Monroe, old Hollywood, swing bands, Latin Jazz and mambo in New York. These were also the days when big, bold jewelry was in fashion and every night seemed to be a party.

We spoke at length and I was fascinated by the stories this woman told, when my guest finally turned her thoughts to the present, "I almost regretted it. However, opening a large box she showed me a 1950s diamond brooch. These pieces had been given to her by her late husband and she had not worn them since his death 15 years earlier. The memories, she told ne were too painful.

"It was easier to let these sit in a safe deposit box," she said "Where memories can be put aside."

Then one day a friend suggested she take a cruise. After seeing the movie "Titanic," a cruise did not readily appeal to her, but the ideal of experiencing new cultures and visiting other countries did. With some persuasion from her friends, she decided a trip on the state of the art QE2 was just what she needed.

However, the price tag for this adventure would not be cheap. Her friends planned to help with the cost, but she still needed more.

"My Husband always said that these diamonds would be a girl's best friend," She laughed. And rather than dip into her savings or sell some stock, she sold these gifts for an amount of money that would be last beyond a world cruise.

"Selling these had put a new lease on my life." She said, "I will always have my memories and I can neither enshrine them in a safe deposit box, nor keep them locked away forever. The money from these jewels will be used to enjoy the rest of my life and allow me to experience what I may not have been able to had my husband no left me these."

After my customer left, I looked at the jewelry perhaps more nostalgically then she did. I know for a fact that that when the QE2 set sail on Jan. 5 for its yearly cruise around the world, she was on board. I am anxiously awaiting a post card.

Put Family Jewels to Work

Guest Author: TOBINA KAHN
Published: August 13, 1998
Skyline News

Heirlooms finance Ivy League college educations

Late on a Friday afternoon, a locate Chicago matron arrives at House of Kahn Estate Jewelers buying office at 919 N. Michigan Ave. She is well dressed and easily recognizable from a number of organizations with which she is associated. She is a woman who owns jeweled heirlooms to rival the Queen of England. When asked why she has come to The House of Kahn Estate Jewelers or why she would chose to part with her family treasures, she points to the rising cost of college tuition.

Sought-after family heirlooms like these can help pay for the next generation’s education at an Ivy League school.

"I belong to Many Chicago associations, I have been involved in fund-raisers and have donated generously to many charities," She says.

"Now I would like to do something for my family. With the cost of education being what it is these days, I can thinking of nothing better then to plan a head and set up a trust for that."

In order to fund that trust, this grandmother and Gold Coast resident has elected to sell some of her prized jewels. From the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers she will receive $120,000 for three items; a diamond necklace, a brooch and a small ring. The money she receives is specifically marketed for the education of her grandchildren. Considering tuition costs, this is no small gift.

Presently most Ivy League schools cost more than $35,000 a year. What she has made from the sale of a few of her jewelers will almost pay for one grandchildren's four years of college.

"It's not like the old days," she says "When one could live on one income. In this upcoming millennium, families will absolutely need two incomes and education is key."

Years ago, it was highly unusual for one to sell family jewelry or heirlooms. Recently, this out look has changed and the House of Kahn Estate Jewelers, where many older society people have sold their jewelry, has noted this turnaround. In business for over half a century, we've noticed that more people than ever before have decided to sell their heirlooms.

Today, the older generation is rethinking what to lever their grandchildren and great grandchildren. More often, you will find they are willing to part with family jewels of significant sentimental as well as monetary worth if in return they are receiving something greater. And that is not simply money but an opportunity to invest in the future.

Our most recent client, the grandmother who lives on the Gold Coat agrees wholeheartedly.

"A college degree is far more useful that a diamond ring." She states "My grandmother was correct in advising me to let go of the past- even selling something from the past-if it will pay for the future. That is what I've done."

Heirlooms Can Be Liquid Assets

By ELLEN PRITSKER
Published: August 13, 1998
Skyline News

If you’ve read any national periodicals lately, you’ve probably seen Chicago’s Tobina Kahn, of House of Kahn, quoted in connection with the trend of selling family heirlooms as liquid assets. Here, Kahn explains this emerging financial phenomenon.

-Interview by Ellen Pritsker

Q: What is the state of the antique and estate-jewelry market now?

A: Business is up at least 30 percent in the past four years. People now see their family heirlooms as a liquid asset. They are bringing them in for cash to make other kinds of investments. We pay cash for the things we buy and my clients appreciate that. A diamond necklace that has been in a safe deposit box for years can be sold and the money invested in stocks, bonds, or CDs. And we have lots of buyers for the things Americans are selling. Europeans are buying, they love the American-made items, and they also want to reclaim the wonderful pieces originally created in their own countries.

Q: What were some great periods in the history of jewelry?

A: Jewelry has an illustrious history: during the Georgian period-the reigns of King George the first through the fourth, men and women wore lavish jewelry featuring gemstones mounted in silver, and set in gold. This period began in late 1714 and ended in 1830 with Victoria’s reign which in jewelry inspired “the language of flowers”. Romance and sentiment were reflected in elaborate settings featuring amethyst, opals, garnets, ivory, diamonds and even human hair. At the turn of the century, art nouvea’s flowing sensual lines were translates into sculptural shapes such as butterflies, dragons, and swans mead in unusual materials like glass, ivory and enamels. The Edwardian Period- 1905-15- heralded the Industrial revolution and great prosperity for a growing middle class. Jewelry boasted excellent materials and workmanship ad we find many diamond pieces, exquisitely mounted, along with pearl dog collars, bangle bracelets and bar pins.

Next came Art Deco- the Roaring ‘20s- with colorful pieces combining diamonds with carved rubies or emeralds. This was the era in which Boucheron and Cartier first worked their magic. From 1935 until 1950 we find that the Hollywood glamour look replaced delicate workmanship-think of the heavy dramatic pieces worn by movie queens like Greta Garbo or Joan Crawford. The period from 1950 to the present I describe as “Estate Jewelry” that is, all previously owned jewelry. A major designer of this period was David Webb.

Q: When someone comes in to Sell a Piece, how do you set a price?

A: There are some mathematical formulas. The price reflects the carat weight of the stones, the hallmark, or signature – French is particularity valuable – and also the type of metal that is involved. A platinum setting and large, good diamonds are very desirable. The formulas for value are affected by the market for a piece as well- for example, we just purchased an Art Deco diamond bracelet for $10,200 that we will offer as part of a collection of similar bracelets. I consult with my family before deciding what something is worth. I test the metal, examine the stones and even take a photo and fax it to them in Palm Beach.

Q: What is your Background?

A: My parents opened two shops on North Michigan Avenue in the 1960s and they concentrated in fine estate jewelry. In 1972, they moved to Palm Beach and established their main location there, although they kept a Chicago presence. I adored the shop, I would come home from school and watch my mother helping the people that came in. In my teens, I loved to work there, meeting people, absorbing everything. I love jewelry and hold a degree in Gemology. It was inevitable that I would stay in the family business and I continue to learn from my parents.

Q: What is your role now in the Chicago office?

A: I came back here from Florida several years ago, and I serve as a resource for many Midwestern clients. But when someone comes in with a piece, after I appraise and study it, I will still confer with my family before setting a price. I’m responsible for making the assessment and luckily, I’ve never been wrong, never thought a stone or metal was real or precious that later turned out not to be real.

Q: Again, what is Estate Jewelry?

A: The owner does not have to be deceased. The term refers to pieces that are sold by the owner rather than by a store. It can be sold by the heirs, by the original owner, or by a bank or trust attorney.

Q: Do you do a lot of business with Banks?

A: We work with banks a lot, when they are closing on an estate. Also, many clients as me to come to their safe deposit box at the bank to appraise a piece because they don’t want to move it around. I can work with them on-site, if necessary.

Q: How do you decide if a diamond is really a diamond or platinum is really platinum?

A: I have a very skilled eye, along with the ability to use tools. In fact, on client brought in what she thought was a synthetic sapphire, expecting to sell it for around $100. I studied and appraised it and told her it was genuine and worth $20,000. She was thrilled and thanked me over and over for my candor. But our business is built on integrity and I would never conceal that kind of information from a client.

Q: Do you only purchase large, expensive jewelry?

A: Absolutely not. We buy things under $500, 00. Last week I bought a small pair of gold earrings with a diamond in them. We also have been buying sterling silver serving pieces and flatware. The older silver pieces are very valuable. The market price of raw silver has been rising, it valued at $3.80 an ounce last summer and now it is selling over $6 dollars an ounce. In Palm Beach, we have a huge collection of silver, which we are amassing to offer to a large collector- perhaps even to Warren Buffet. There are Europeans interested in a lavish entertaining style as well, who are showing interest in the very ornate pieces.