Gem Pursuit: An Antique Jewellery Podcast

This episode focuses on one of Matthew's favourite gemstones, Peridot. Alyce shares some some fascinating Polynesian peridot mythology and reveals why she'll never ever be able to forget how to identify Peridot ! Matthew talks about a stunning piece containing Peridot which has mysteriously disappeared... www.courtville.ie A Tape Deck podcast

We journey deep into the gemological weeds in this episode to discuss the characteristics of this naturally colourless gemstone. We discover some of the history and lore of Topaz , the reasons why Topaz can vary wildly in value, as well as what to be mindful of when caring for your own Topaz pieces at home. As always, we will also be talking about some of the most amazing Topaz that exists in the...

Opaque, porous and relatively soft, Turquoise is an incredibly unique - and therefore highly-prized - gemstone and yes, you guessed it, it's all about the colour! www.courtville.ie A Tape Deck Podcast

The latest edition in our Gemstone saga is about one of the rarest and most diverse gemstones in the world - Tourmaline . A gem of many colours, Tourmalines have been misidentified as emeralds, rubies and diamonds down through the centuries. We discuss some of the most famous Tourmalines in history and, as always, discuss the ins and outs of identifying and valuing this gem! www.courtville.ie A Ta...

The purple gemstone - Amethyst - has long been associated with royalty, aristocracy and clergymen. In this episode we discuss the story behind its glory days as one of the big five "cardinal" gems as well as the reasons why this all changed in the 19th century. We'll also give you all the tips and tricks you need to know about this popular purple gemstone. www.courtville.ie A Tape Deck Podcast

The Gemstone Series is back with a bang! We return to our roots to discuss the incredible gemstone known as Aquamarine . As always we discuss the history & lore of this beautiful blue stone as well how to identify and value the gem. We also bring you stories of some of the most famous and interesting Aquamarines in history, as well some trade tips for you to add to your arsenal. www.courtville...

To celebrate 40 episodes of Gem Pursuit, we decided to go back to our roots and record an old school, just Matty and Alyce episode! This is a special 'jewell dual' where Matty & Alyce go head to head on their favourite female designers (outside our Unsung Heroines) and make the case for who was the best, with the final decision being left up to you, the listener! The battle royale is between A...

To round off our sixth season Golden Girls: Unsung Heroines of Jewellery, we welcome a very special guest, Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld, author of Twenty-First Century Jewelry Designers: An Inspired Style. Juliet is a Dublin native but is now based in France, so we were so lucky that she could join us in our studio when she was in town to give us some amazing insights into the women who changed...

Our fourth and final Golden Girl this season is the incredible Elsa Peretti. Described by Vogue as “arguably the most successful woman ever to work in the jewellery field", was an Italian jewellery designer and philanthropist as well as a fashion model. Joining us all the way from Boston to discuss the legendary Tiffany designer is jewellery historian Ariana Bishop. Ariana tells us about Peretti's...

In part 3 of our sixth season Golden Girls, we jet off to Finland to meet Ulla Tillander-Godenhielm and learn about the life of one of the most one-of-a-kind jewellery designers in history, the wonderful Alma Pihl. Ulla comes from a great jewellery family herself, her great-grandfather was St. Petersburg goldsmith Alexander Tillander, a supplier to the Russian imperial court, and she has been rese...

In Part 2 of our sixth season - Golden Girls - we go on another jaunt to Paris (yep that's two weeks in a row!) to find out all we can about the life of the incredible French designer Suzanne Belperron. The life of Suzanne Belperron really does read like a Hollywood movie with secret love affairs, war, scandal, intrigue, mystery and heroism galore! After a very quick pit stop at a shop window (typ...

Gem Pursuit is back with season 6, Golden Girls - Unsung Heroines of Jewellery! We jet off to Paris for our first excursion (of many) this season, to find out more about one of the first women to blaze a trail in the jewellery industry - Jeanne Toussaint! Appointed Director of Fine Jewellery by Louis Cartier in 1933, Jeanne Toussaint was the original Art Deco tastemaker who's incredible eye for st...

In this Bonus Bank Holiday Special episode, we wanted to mark the recent passing of the founder of Courtville, Catherine "Kitten" Pierse by having a chat about the history of how Courtville began and how much of what was started by Kitten so long ago and continued by her daughter Gráinne has been carried through to what we at Courtville are all about today. Producer: Ross Hannon www.courtville.ie

Part VII - Religous Symbols Our fifth season of Gem Pursuit feat. Matthew Weldon & Alyce Ketcher is called 'Treasured Tokens: the Secret Language of Jewellery' In the final part of this series, we probably bite off a bit more than we can chew by trying to cover the topic of religious symbols in one hour-long podcast… We mainly discuss symbols from Christianity such as the ichthus, the cross an...

Part VI - Serpents Our fifth season of Gem Pursuit feat. Matthew Weldon & Alyce Ketcher is called 'Treasured Tokens: the Secret Language of Jewellery' In the penultimate episode of this series, we take a look at the mysterious and often misunderstood symbol that is the serpent. The snake has been an extremely popular motif in jewellery down through the centuries, partly because of the way it n...

Part V - Mourning Motifs in Jewellery Our fifth season of Gem Pursuit feat. Matthew Weldon & Alyce Ketcher is called 'Treasured Tokens: the Secret Language of Jewellery' Long before the modern phrase 'YOLO' (you only live once) entered common parlance, a similar sentiment has been expressed since ancient times through the latin expression 'Memento Mori' which literally translates as 'remember...

Part IV - Victorian Flower Language Our fifth season of Gem Pursuit feat. Matthew Weldon & Alyce Ketcher is called 'Treasured Tokens: the Secret Language of Jewellery' The Victorian period was a time when self-expression wasn't really advised so if you wanted to show somebody how you felt, you had to get creative. One of the amazing ways they did this was by exchanging flowers that served as t...

Part III - Symbols of the Sea in Jewellery Our fifth season of Gem Pursuit feat. Matthew Weldon & Alyce Ketcher is called 'Treasured Tokens: the Secret Language of Jewellery' In this episode we do a deep dive into the unknown and the unknowable deep blue ocean. As always we talk about the origin and evolution of these motifs and then get our hands salty and briney as we sift through coral, anc...

Part II - Celestial Motifs Our fifth season of Gem Pursuit feat. Matthew Weldon & Alyce Ketcher is called 'Treasured Tokens: the Secret Language of Jewellery' This week we are looking to the skies and thanking the gods for celestial symbols that have been inspiring beautiful art & jewellery for longer than anyone can remember. Producer: Ross Hannon Additional Research: Giulia Grasseschi ww...

Part I - The Claddagh Ring Our fifth season of Gem Pursuit feat. Matthew Weldon & Alyce Ketcher is called 'Treasured Tokens: the Secret Language of Jewellery' We go back to the origins of this extremely popular Irish symbol of love, loyalty and friendship to discover that its history stretches back a little further than one might think... We try to separate fact from fiction in the story of wh...

It's a little Gem Pursuit bonus episode, featuring an interview with Matty's Dad and one of the foremost experts on antique Irish silver, Jimmy Weldon. We sat down for a lovely chat (rudely cut short by a very loud machine on the street - the perils of recording in Dublin city!) about the history of silver in Ireland, how to spot a good piece of silver and why he has been so drawn to it over the y...

It's the final instalment in our Firm Favourites series, and we're back to Paris for a bumper episode about the one and only jewellery giant that is Cartier . King Edward VII famously described Cartier as "the Jeweller of Kings and the King of Jewellers" but as you'll learn in this episode, he wasn't the only one who thought so. Among other things we discuss King Lear, the Patiala necklace, Platin...

Part 5 (or perhaps it should be part V) of our Firm Favourites series, is the Ancient Rome-inspired luxury jewellery house BVLGARI. This Italian giant led the way in so many ways during the last century of fine jewellery design. We talk serpent motifs, coin collections, chunky yellow gold, cabochon cuts and, of course, Elizabeth Taylor! As always, listen to the end to for another battle of Gem Tri...

Part 4 of our 'Firm Favourites: Jewellery Houses That Reign' series is about the King of Diamonds himself, Harry Winston. The American's love of precious gems was legendary and it would be hard to find a diamond of note that didn't pass through his hands at some stage or another. Matty and Alyce swap stories about some of his most well-known acquisitions as well as some of the ingenious marketing...

Part 3 of our 'Firm Favourites: Jewellery Houses That Reign' series has a distinctly French feel as Matty and Alyce discuss the Parisian jewellery giants Van Cleef & Arpels. VCA have a reputation for being one of the most innovative jewellery firms in history and we put some of their most remarkable designs under the microscope such as the inimitable mystery setting and the marvellous Zip neck...