It was our wedding anniversary. We were dining at a restaurant on the Brooklyn waterfront, the kind of place where everyone dresses well. A river view at sunset, beautiful flowers everywhere, a pianist playing inoffensively somewhere in back. The food was disappointing, but the evening was redeemed by a woman at a nearby table. She… Continue reading Lit from Within
Category: Pearls
Trouble in Tahiti
Your blogger has been to Hawaii, where (predictably, after such a long plane ride) she contracted a massive sinus infection that knocked her down for the count. But not before a rogue wave knocked her over and made off with her vintage Persol sunglasses. Your blogger is not complaining. She—I—spent eight days in a part of the world so beautiful… Continue reading Trouble in Tahiti
Fussy, Fussy
I had a cameo that needed a gold setting, back in the olden days when the price of gold didn’t make me clutch my chest. I brought it to my jeweler friend Blanche Hess. “The Victorians used to surround cameos with seed pearls,” she said. “I’d love to try that.” I thought this was a fine idea and told her… Continue reading Fussy, Fussy
A Lurid Tale
These things always begin innocently, at a crafts fair. This particular fair was at Lincoln Center, where I normally wouldn’t think of buying pearls. But there was a vendor with pearls in colors I’d never seen before: iridescent purples, pinks, bronzes. I hated them. And then I loved them. “Those colors are so—so lurid!” I said, meaning it as a… Continue reading A Lurid Tale
The Pearl Cape
The photo above, taken sometime between 1902 and 1904, is of the Empress Dowager Cixi of China. Holding her hand is Sarah Pike Conger, wife of the American ambassador to the Qing court. The photo is extraordinary for a number of reasons, but first, let’s talk about those pearls. Cixi is wearing the famous pearl cape of her… Continue reading The Pearl Cape
The Pearl Story
The e-mail’s subject line was: “Do you love pearls?” The sender, D., a magazine crony of mine from way back, wanted to know if I’d be interested in writing a story about pearls for the Wall Street Journal’s Style section. (Yes, the business paper of record has a Style section.) I was not—am not—looking for freelance writing assignments.… Continue reading The Pearl Story
Yet More Jewelry 