The Dinner Favor
Sometimes it’s neither form nor beauty which brings a piece of
jewelry into the pages of that by now extraordinarily famous
e-zine called Tidbits, written by that devil-may-care jeweler by
the name of Benjamin–but rather it is the person who made the
piece of jewelry…and the person for whom it was made for that
brings a particular piece to the forefront. Such, my friends, is
the present case.
I’ll tell you who made this piece of Frost Jewelry right off the
bat. No mystery here folks. It was Faberg�. But who it was made
for…now that is another matter entirely. I’ll give you some
clues…I’ll tell you a bit about the man and his father…and
you see if you can figure out who he is by the end of my tale.
Immanuel was the father. It was for him the jewelry was made.
Immanuel had a genius for invention but his brilliance was not
backed by training or formal education…and he had little
success in his homeland. So he migrated to Russia where he was
able to meet with no little success. His family followed him in
1842. Alfred–Immanuel’s son–was born in 1833. Alfred spent
only two terms in school and never attended University. His
education was taken over by private tutors. Now here’s the
interesting part mes amis. The jewelry was made for the father,
who would have no fame attached to the family name were it not
for the son.
The son–Alfred–traveled and ultimately spent a year in the
United States. However…he was in poor health. So he returned to
Russia…and then back to the land of his birth. Alfred studied
explosives. He specialized in nitroglycerin. Alas…Alfred was
destined to a life of bachelorhood. No wife…no children… no
one to carry forth the family name. Though achieving fame through
his explosives and detonators…his ill health and his loneliness
made him a bitter man…imbued with pessimism and a skewed vision
of mankind. Never-the-less, Alfred must have had faith in the
future of mankind as is witnessed by the fortunes he left behind
and the instructions of what to do with them.
During the years that Immanuel lived in Russia…he held dinner
parties for friends and gave jewelry out as favors to his
guests. If you go to my home page, and scroll down the table
menu till you get to the box that says Tidbit Graphics, and click
on “Favor”, you will see a frost pendant with diamonds, created
by Faberg� exclusively for Immanuel Nobel…father of Alfred
Nobel…who left his fortune in trust in order to establish five
prizes in peace, physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, and
literature.
Jewelry…it would appear…plays a far greater role in
mankind’s development than would meet the eye. A little doo-dad
given out at a dinner party by the father of the inventor of
dynamite and the creator of the Nobel Prize. Who woulda thunk it.
And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks. Catch you all
next week. Benjamin Mark