Today is my last full day in Salvador. I'm feeling a throat infection coming on, so I decided to meet Sinead for a lovely lunch at a kilo place that has a nice patio down the block.
She says, "My pousada owner recommended this secret place just across the way from your hostel. I want to look at some at the imperial topaz that are only mined in Brasil."
We ring a bell. We have to pass through three different locked doors. We are met by this lovely woman who speaks perfect English. She brings us through this very exclusive looking showroom and says, "Do you have some time, or would you like to just see the stones?"
It's Brasil. Of course we have time.
She orders one of the workers in the store to bring us cafezinhos. Proper espressos. They brought it to us on a tray.
She goes through a half-hour presentation of the history of mining of emeralds in Brasil. She shows us pictures, on her ginormous flat-screen computer monitor, of their particular mine and their workers, searching for emeralds. The shows us rocks that have emeralds in it. Rocks that don't. She explains that you need very specific conditions to produce an emerald. The black volcanic rock and the white quartz must press together to form the emerald. It was like "the miracle of birth." The birth of an emerald.
She then rings for Francois. He is the gem expert.
Sinead says something about not being sure if she is actually going to buy something. I said I was only there to accompany her. He says something about not being a salesperson, really. The gems sell themselves. Sometimes you have a stone that's been in your family for 17 generations, and one day the owner walks in. Most people come in not having any intent to buy anything. Usually they walk out with something. Or maybe they don't. No bother.
He brings out a tray of quartz, organized in a grid. He turns on his electronic scale, which is attached to the computer, and the weight and conversion chart to dollars and euros appears. The quartz is, well, quartz. Practically glass. Unremarkable.
Followed by topaz. Blue topaz, the only stone they carry that's not mined in Brazil, and whose color is not natural.
Then a tray of tourmalines.
Amethysts.
Followed by aquamarines.
Traysandtraysandtrays.
He has a tray with nothing on it save a piece of white butcher paper that lines the tray. From each tray of stones that emerge, he takes a stone that elicite an "ooh," weighs it, places it on the blank tray and writes the price next to it. By the time we're done, we have a tray in front of us of the prices and varieties of all the stones we really liked.
He works his way through the trays, from the basic quartz to the ultimate... the emerald. He showed us emeralds that costs 1700 dollars a carat. He showed us topaz that cost $5 a carat. He put some of the more expensive varieties next to less expensive. Sometimes there seemed to be a difference. Sometimes there did not. He emphasized that if you cannot tell the difference, get the cheaper one. He says that for most people, the sentiment of the gift is much more valuable than the cost of the stone.
He is the anti-salesman.
He is witty, funny, charming. He knows his shit. In a tray full of stones, if one gets out of place, he can look at it and just know where it belongs. He doesn't pressure us in the least. He speaks 6 languages. He has been doing this his whole life. I can't imagine EVER BUYING JEWELRY IN ANY OTHER FASHION.
I needed a bathroom break and a second espresso.
Sinead couldn't decide. She had an appointment, leaving me there alone, enchanted, poorer than I was yesterday. She's be back, though, ad I know she's at her dance class, dreaming of pink kunzite.
Oh, did I mention that they can make the setting of your choice, in silver or gold, in less than a day?
I must have something.
This kind of personal attention, in New York, is unheard of. Not that I have ever BEEN in a store in New York like this, but I imagine if the owner spent TWO AND A HALF hours of his time educating you, browsing with you, letting you go back and forth... Once you've picked a stone type, he calls his worker in the back to bring packages of the stone in the same shape, different sizes and qualities... We saw millions of dollars worth of jewels. I would imagine that if you didn't buy something, they would be quite annoyed.
I'll never know if Francois would get annoyed, as I did not walk out empty handed.
In the end, I practically apologized for not being able to afford more. I fell in love with a bicolor green/pink tourmaline that I could just not justify for myself. It's ridiculous that my last day in Salvador I spent shopping for jewels indoors, but it was one of the most fun days I've had here.
D.Klay Gems and Arts
Largo da Cruz do Pascoal #27
St. Antonio alem do Carmo
0055-71 32428188 or 3241-2320
Salvador - Bahia - Brazil CEP 40301-405
www.brazilgems.com.br
dklay@terra.com.br
2 comments:
So much for the secret location. Francois has spent years and years and years protecting his secret location and in one fell swoop, you out him. Sounds like lots of fun. The NYC diamond exchange is a bit like what you describe, at least with the stones being laid out, if not the time and history lesson. I think you get it all at Tiffany's if you have enough money to spend. They will spend as much time as you want if they smell a good sale. I had no idea that an emerald was quartz. BTW Brazilian blue topaz is a unique and gorgeous shade of blue. Glad you had fun. Nothing like going to a secret place.
Wow, what a nice present for your boyfriend!
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