Jaw Dropping Christmas Gifts

Gem Pursuit

‘Tis the season and for our bonus episode of Season Eight Matthew and Alyce take a look at the history of gift giving from the Three Wise Men to Napoleon.

Gift giving can be traced back to 40,000 years ago, with figures made of woolly mammoth ivory.

From the thoughtful gifts of the three wise men, to one of the biggest rubies ever documented and even the classic pearls of a fashion icon, Matthew and Alyce share the fascinating stories of some unique, beautiful and sometimes terrifying gifts throughout time.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

● The Russian imperial history behind the classic pearls of a fashion icon

● A 40,000 year old gift, one of the earliest examples of figurative design in human history.

● A flamenco dancer turned Maharani with her eye on an elephant’s emerald

● The three wise men and their gifts for a newborn king

● Napoleon III’s shamed mistress and her menacing portrait

● A legendary musician’s enormous gift to his wife of 40 years

MORE INFORMATION

The photographic painting of Comtesse de Castiglione as ‘Vengeance’

https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2000/comtesse/photo-gallery

The emerald crescent brooch

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6211869

Venus of Hohles Fels

https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/venus-of-hohle-fels-the-earliest-known-depiction-of-a-human-being-in-prehistoric-art

Irving Berlin’s Ruby

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6151278

View Courtville Christmas Gift Ideas for this special episode.

For more information on Gem Pursuit or to browse the Courtville collection visit www.courtville.ie.

Gem Pursuit is produced for Courtville by Dustpod.io.

SOCIAL MEDIA

● IG - @CourtvilleAntiques

● FB - @Courtvilleantiques

● Tik Tok - @matthew.weldon

● YouTube - @courtvilleantique

● Pinterest - @courtville

QUOTES

The first gift that I chose today is a very famous gift that not a lot of people would recognise as a gift but they would recognise the actual style icon on which it sits. And this is Coco Chanel and her pearls. - Alyce Ketcher

I would wear ropes and ropes of pearls too if I was wearing Romanov pearl necklace - Alyce Ketcher

This pendant dates back over 35,000 to 40,000 years. This is one of the first ever pieces of jewellery that's actually been discovered, and even more than that, were some of the earliest examples of figurative design in human history. This is a really important one, not just in terms of jewellery, but in terms of gift giving, and also human evolution. - Matthew Weldon

A really cool piece that also has such a crazy backstory. - Alyce Ketcher

What's interesting about gold is that it started there, but it's gone everywhere. Santa’s first gift was gold, he used to throw little bags of gold into people's houses. - Matthew Weldon

I'm gonna be dreaming about that ruby for a very long time. - Alyce Ketcher

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