MILLION dinar necklaces are among the glittering collection of jewels and gold on display at this year’s Jewellery Arabia.
Held under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the five-day exhibition is being held at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre, Sanabis.
The Premier opened the show yesterday and took a tour of the stands as the exhibition celebrated its 25th anniversary.
Jewellery Arabia features 600 exhibitors from 30 countries and is being held over 21,000 square metres of exhibition space.
Italian-based company Maria Gaspari, who have set up in the Bahrain Jewellery Centre (BJC) pavilion, displayed a BD1 million necklace among their collection.
“This necklace is all between two and five carat diamonds, for a total of 160 carats, all D colour,” sales accounting head Matthew Sgarbi told the GDN.
“It’s in the BD1m price range.
“We have been at Jewellery Arabia for 25 years, since the very first show, and we find it’s a very important show for us to be able to showcase our collection.
“Bahrain is a very good market for our products and Jewellery Arabia in particular is a very important exhibition.
“We attend a lot of exhibitions every year, but this is the best organised and (it helps) that we like Bahrainis a lot.”
Italy-based RCM, also taking part in the BJC pavilion, has pieces worth over half a million dinars, expert manager Mirella Francia told the GDN.
“This is a unique piece, made of titanium because if a broach of this size was made in gold it would be too heavy for any woman to wear,” she said as she displayed a titanium broach.
“It’s set with pink sapphires and diamonds, which is difficult to do with titanium so you need a very skilled worker.
“We only use titanium for broaches and some earrings because those are the hardest to wear when they’re heavy.
“This piece costs BD95,000.”
Another piece, two unique yellow diamond rings, retailed for close to BD760,000 each.
“These are unique because of the colour of the stone, called fancy intense yellow,” said Ms Francia.
“The pear-shaped diamond is 16.74 carats and costs BD760,000, with the cushion-cut 16.93 carats and costs just a little less.
“All of our jewellery is made in Valenza in Italy.”
Devji managing director Mahesh Devji told the GDN that their pieces were created to fill a niche.
“We started in the 1960s creating bridal jewellery in Bahrain and we have to constantly evolve as what people want for wedding jewellery changes,” he said.
“One piece (displayed at the exhibition) is a choker
made up of 102 carats of sapphires, and the whole set is BD16,000.
“We manufacture everything here in Bahrain and are actually opening a new factory soon in Hidd.”
The exhibition is free of charge to the public and is open daily from 4pm to 10pm until Friday and from noon to 10pm on Saturday.
laala@gdn.com.bh
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