Elite Traveler November-December 2015

JOANNE HARRIS

77

elite traveler NOV/DEC 2015 ISSUE 6

ON THE NATURE OF TEMPTATION

Delaire Sunrise, 118.08 carats, fancy yellow diamond by Graff Diamonds

evenings spent in secret, reading illustrated books filled with princesses and pirates and the gleam of hidden treasure. The history of gemstones suggests that a gem mirrors its owner: its facets reflecting our lives, our loves, our passions and our memories. I bought my first Graff diamond a little over six years ago. My husband and I had often lingered outside the Graff windows, with their chamber ensembles of gemstones playing arpeggios of colored light against the velvet backdrop. When I went inside to see the magic for myself, I found it was not Aladdin’s cave, but an enchanted sweetshop of gems, built of marble and crystal, in which a kind, patient and extraordinarily knowledgeable gentleman brought me beautiful things, one by one, on dishes of velvet. This was temptation in every sense. There were bracelets of jonquil diamonds like pebbles of summer sunlight. There were rings of Arctic ice and necklaces of opal fire. And I learned how every one was a story, begun a billion years ago, and fashioned by artists of breathtaking skill into pieces that sang and sparkled to their own celestial music. brilliance: a tinselly, daffodil hue that brings me back to my teenage years and smells of Eau Sauvage and citrus I’ve always been especially drawn to yellow diamonds, andmine has a special

For most of us, the concept of temptation is linked with that of risk. It is a refinement of desire, made keener by an intuitive belief that certain pleasures are dangerous, and must be kept under strict control. Adam and Eve, in the garden, are tempted by forbidden fruit. Paris succumbs to beauty – and another man’s wife, Helen of Troy. And Aladdin, in the cave of wonders, falls for the gleam of gemstones in the darkness, and is trapped by his own desire. In these stories and more, beauty, magic and sensuality lie at the heart of temptation, and its power is both irresistible, and subject to its own kind of momentum. Desire alone has no narrative. But temptation is a story that starts when desire meets possibility, overcomes all obstacles, and journeys through the senses before reaching fulfilment. And gemstones do have a special allure; something that speaks directly to the heart. For some, they are simply beautiful objects – or valuable ones. For others, a totem of rarity, craftsmanship, history, or the jeweler’s aesthetic vision. Sometimes these might all be in play. The language of desire is intensely personal, and when it comes to temptation, we all write our own stories. But for me, it begins with color and light, both of which have synesthetic associations. A beautiful gem is symphonic, like a classic perfume. Thus, the colors of gemstones reflect the textures and tastes of the sweetshops of my childhood, but with those shining glass jars magically transformed by the sun into a kaleidoscope of riches. They also bring back the colors and scents of my grandfather’s garden, with its cascading roses; exuberant chrysanthemums; apple blossom, cherries and plums and sweet, golden pears. And of course, the stories: the Arabian Nights and Grimm’s fairy tales ; and long

But when I saw my diamond, it was love at first meeting, just as it was when I was 16, and I first met my husband. It is a cube of sunlight, set in gold, and worn on a fine chain around my neck. I’ve always been especially drawn to yellow diamonds, and mine has a special brilliance: a tinselly, daffodil hue that brings me back to my teenage years, and smells of Eau Sauvage, and citrus, and pine, and walks along the seashore, with the sunlight coming off the sea in a million fragments. It is the color of happiness, of springtime and of young love – and all of this lives in a single stone, like a genie in a bottle. And so this piece of Graff jewelry has become a celebration of our life together – an adventure that began all those years ago, and that has seen us through good times and bad, but that has never lost its shine, or ceased to display new facets. For desire, temptation and love all speak the same language – the secret dialect of the heart – and that is why we choose these beautiful stones to celebrate or symbolize a love, a hope, a passion. This, I think, is why we find gems so appealing. The truth is that we do not choose them simply for their value, or even just their beauty, extraordinary though it may be. We choose them for the way they make us feel – beautiful, powerful, joyous, strong. They represent a dream of ourselves; a story written in letters of a fire that can never go out. Joanne Harris MBE is author of 15 novels, including Chocolat , which was published in more than 50 countries and was turned into an Oscar-nominated movie. This feature is extracted from Graff , published by Rizzoli International, priced at $95, with all proceeds donated to Graff’s charitable foundation, FACET. Available to buy online, in all good bookshops and at graffdiamonds.com