On October 24, 1862, in the Bohemian town of Georgental, a boy was born destined to become one of the greatest jewelers of all time.
The greatest master of imitation jewelry. His name is Daniel. From childhood, the boy watched his glassmaker father work on his works. Bohemian glass has always been prized in the world and the tools to make it are found in almost every Czech home.
As a young man, Swarovski decided to explore the world and went to Paris, where he trained to be an engineer. There he studied chemistry, physics, mechanics and other narrow disciplines, and in 1883 he was taken to the World Exhibition of Electrical Engineering.
There the young man became acquainted with the cutting-edge achievements of the advancement of his time and thought about how wonderful it would be to treat glass with electric current in general. So, from that idea, in 8 years, the author Swarovski’s grinder was born.
His ideas made it possible to process crystals in large quantities and the quality of the work was top-notch. There, in Paris, Daniel met his future wife, Marie, and became so close to her family that he founded his own company. Initially, Swarovski made jewelry without a name to order, settling in the country of Tyrol. He correctly (and quite wisely) concluded that there was no point in competing with Bohemian craftsmen with his invention.
The venture is off to a good start. Swarovski stones are no different from real diamonds but 10 times cheaper. It must be said that Daniel Swarovski not only introduced a revolutionary method of cutting and polishing glass but also created a real revolution in the human mind.
The idea of creating synthetic diamonds or their exact replicas is mostly not new. Before Daniel, there was such an artist named Georges Frederic Strass in the 18th century. History remembers him as a man who created ingenious forged jewelry. By the way, corkscrews are called corkscrews in his honor. But Strass was an outlaw, and Swarovski not only made no secret of his counterfeiting of his “diamonds,” but made them his trump card.
Following in the footsteps of Austrian fashionistas, Swarovski’s creations (he later named the factory after himself and founded the brand) were highly regarded in Paris and St. The orders followed one after another, because now the boss’s clientele was not limited to the nobility.
All attempts to copy the work of the Czech goldsmith by other masters failed miserably. Even today, the whole world thinks that the secret of Swarovski gems lies in a special cut, but in fact it is hidden in a special glass melting recipe.
In the 20th century, Marlene Dietrich and Coco Chanel, Michael Jackson and Brian Ferry, Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent were unashamed for their love of imitation jewelry. Today, the Swarovski jewelry brand is out of competition and its stunning pieces can adorn the hands of an ordinary teacher and the neck of a movie star.
It was this man who convinced the world that form was more important than content and that glitter wasn’t necessarily gold. Some may say this is a farce and a lie, but as you know, the winners are not judged!
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education