Fly to the Costa Brava for a penny? You must be kidding! I wasn’t, and we did, thanks to a last-minute flight out of Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport courtesy of one of the low-cost airlines operating there.

It was a great way of setting ourselves up for the twin Christmas excesses of too much turkey and television.

Click here to see a bejewelled slideshow

In contrast, we raced around in the glorious winter sunshine seeing cities and seaside resorts, eating paella in two-hour lunches and even managing to fit in visits to a museum and an antiques fair – all without the crush of summer tourists.

The first of many revelations was Antoni Gaudi’s Temple de la Sagrada Familia – Barcelona’s astonishing "jewelled" cathedral to the Sacred Family still being built more than 120 years after it was started in 1882.

The following day, we enjoyed tapas at a pavement cafe outside one of the most striking Art Nouveau buildings in Girona, and in the same city we saw an exhibition featuring the

breathtakingly beautiful jewels illustrated here. Our low-Costa break had turned into a fascinating excursion that I would recommend to anyone interested in antiques and fine art.

The 1890s saw a renaissance in Barcelona, the Catalonian city becoming a centre for avant-garde art with its own version of Art Nouveau, which was turned Modernisme.

At around the same time, a jeweller named Lluis Masriera – the creator of these jewels – was about to burst onto the scene. The third generation of a family of jewellers – his grandfather, Josep, had founded the business in 1839 – Masriera was truly gifted.

He joined the firm as an apprentice aged 15 and began a regime of extensive training in the arts including a period at the School of Fine Arts in Geneva. There he studied the specialised skill of enamel painting, used extensively in jewelled miniature portraits which were popular keepsakes among the rich.

One of the boy’s first recorded works is an enamelled vase, presented to the President of the Exposition Universelle in Paris by the Spanish artists exhibiting there.

More importantly, the exhibition introduced Masriera to the extraordinary jewellery of René Lalique, which was receiving wide acclaim.

The experience had a dramatic affect on the young artist craftsmen who returned to Barcelona, his imagination fired by the Art Nouveau motifs of Nature and the sinuous sensual lines of the femme fleur.

Name was on everyone’s lips

Masriera’s style was transformed and still only in his late twenties, he was on the verge of huge success.

The turning point followed Masriera’s second visit to Paris to see the Centennial Exhibition of 1900.

The French Art Nouveau movement was at its climax by then and legend has it that Masriera decided to close his shop, melt down his entire stock and start again.

After working frantically on his new designs, the shop reopened a few days before Christmas in 1901 and within the week, the showcases were virtually empty. The name "Masriera" was on everyone’s lips.

Soon he was the toast of Europe and notably South America. In 1906, he was commissioned to make a tiara for Queen Victoria, which is seen as one of the major achievements of Spanish Art Nouveau, and in 1915, he joined forces with the oldest family of jewellers in Spain, the Carreras.

Founded in 1766, Carreras were top in their field but producing jewellery of more conservative design.

The merger was a boost for both companies and they moved to a new location in one of Barcelona’s finest streets.

By 1924, the new company was trading under the name Masriera y Carreras.

However, fashion is fickle and the romantic natural forms of Modernisme were seen as outdated. "Art Deco", a term derived from the title of an international exhibition in Paris in 1925 called the Exposition des Artes Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, had arrived.

In Catalonia, this new 20th century spirit was called Noucentisme and Masriera responded accordingly, producing a range of striking "Jazz Age" pieces which won a gold medal at the Paris exhibition.

A gifted painter, it is interesting to note that Masriera won a second gold medal for his decoration of the huge curving canvas hung in the circular space that his company used to mount their display. It was an indication that Masriera was preparing to move on.

Four years earlier he had founded a company to promote Catalan theatre and by the 1930s, he had pulled out of jewellery manufacture to concentrate on this other branch of the arts.

The Masriera y Carreras company continues today under the control of the Bagués family who acquired it in 1985. Production continues using many of the original moulds and meticulous methods that made the jewellery unique.

Aside from the fabulous designs and precious materials used by Masriera, his tour de force is the use of a technique known as plique à jour.

Brushstrokes of an Impressionist painting

Creating an effect like a stained-glass window, this requires the jeweller to fill a tiny skeleton made from platinum, gold or silver with coloured enamels which are held in place either by their own surface tension or a mica backplate which melts away in the firing process.

Being open backed, this allows light to pass through the enamel in varying shades and with natural striations producing effects like the brushstrokes of an Impressionist painting.

Today, such techniques have been largely forgotten. In Masriera’s day the work required incredible skill, a great deal of time and patience and because levels of wastage were high, a group of customers for whom money was no object.

The Masriera family comprised painters, musicians, sculptors, and art critics. The jewellery business was founded in 1839 by Josep Masriera following a six-year apprenticeship.

Josep had five children and his three sons, Josep, Francesc and Frederic all entered the family business, becoming apprentices at the age of 13.

By the time the father died in 1875, the firm had become well-established and successful, but hugely traditional.

In addition to fine jewellery made for Spain’s rich bankers and industrialists, the company also produced ornate religious works of art for the country’s churches.

In 1884, the brothers opened what they called a "temple of art" which was both a studio and a retreat intended to inspire them to produce new designs to replace attired product list.

Instead, Frederic found the inspiration to quit jewellery design to establish a metal foundry for the production of bronzes and monumental sculpture.

The two remaining continued alone, registering their business in 1886 as "Masriera Hermanos” – Masriera Brothers.

Josep had four sons, two of whom – Josep and Lluis – joined the family business, but it was the latter who quickly made his mark.

The first piece Lluis designed was a tiara for the bride of a marquis. He was 15.

Pictures show:

Top:  The dragonfly and the bee were favourite Art Nouveau motifs. Both insects have plique à jour enamelled wings, while the head of the dragonfly is a human face carved from ivory

Above: A diamond, sapphire, cultured pearl and enamel peacock brooch

by Christopher Proudlove©
A week in some far off foreign destination beckons. But just as important as cancelling the milk and ordering the foreign currency is finding a good guide book – it can make the difference between a holiday that is good and one that’s great.

If there’s room in your suitcase for another guide book, I have a recommendation for all those hundreds of readers who might consider buying jewellery whilst they are abroad, either as a gift for a loved one or as an investment, taking advantage of the strong pound and seemingly cheap prices. It’s called “Gemstones Understanding Identifying Buying” by Keith Wallis, just published by the Antique Collectors’ Club.

It’s a great aid to anyone contemplating buying jewellery and a chapter on gemstones from around the world makes it an ideal companion for anyone about to embark on their summer holidays. One of the few ways it could be improved would be to make it pocket-sized so that it could be carried more easily through Duty Free, souk, marketplace, tourist shop or anywhere else where the locals are likely to try to persuade you to hand over your travellers cheques for trinkets that may or may not be all they appear.

Mr Wallis is a qualified gemologist who obtained his diploma as a Fellow of the Gemological Association of Great Britain in 1978. He writes concisely and is clearly well travelled himself. His stated aim is to demystify the complex and he has succeeded in producing a book that encourages the beginner not to be put off by the minefield that awaits the buyer who is unprepared – particularly when buying abroad.

The percentage of holidaymakers travelling to the United States is sure to be high and the book points out that the US is the biggest gemstone market in the world. However, it warns that the UK Trade Descriptions Act does not apply there and nor do they have an equivalent. That said, the Gemological Institute of America is a second oldest organisation of its kind and the certificates provided by its laboratories are accepted worldwide. Buy a diamond or other gem with a GIA certificate and you know you’re in good hands.

Visit Niagara Falls and it might be worth a trip over the border into Canada which is now a front runner in the mining of high-quality diamonds. Emerald deposits had been discovered in the Yukon and “true blue” beryl – a stone similar to emerald – has also been found. Walking in the Rocky Mountains, you might find garnet, agate, amethyst and turquoise, whilst it is apparently also possible to find examples of mammoth ivory.

I can tell you from my own experience that the souks of Tunisia are intimidating places. Mr Wallis points out that the amber necklaces found their are fake, while the silver is not recommended, being generally low-grade. The best red coral is washed up along the shores of Tunisia and Algeria but strict controls apply to collecting and exporting it.

Thailand is probably the largest gem centre in the Far East and Bangkok has its own gemstone supermarkets but scams are common. A casual meeting with a local businessman who offers jewellery tax-free or at a special tourist rate is a con. Whilst the stones might be real, they will be of inferior quality and worth less than half what you paid for them.

A gem market in the centre of old Bangkok operates at weekends where dealers from all over the Far East meet to do business. However, this is the territory of the professional, so best advice is to stick to the supermarkets, many of which offer certification on the premises.

In Singapore, Mr Wallis’s advice is to do business only with a recommended jewellery shop. The Singapore Gem Factory is a tourist attraction where cutting and polishing may be witnessed, but, again from my own experience, beware the tour guides who take you there – whether you expect it or not – and encourage you to buy even though you had no intention of doing so. They are invariably working in collusion with the factory and receive a cut of sales.

Dubbed the “land of gems”, Sri Lanka offers just about every gemstone except diamond and precious opal. However, that does not mean you can take everything at face value. Mr Wallis points out that there are government-approved shops but suggests that you’re unlikely to find a bargain in them. He also warns that street sellers confuse buyers by offering synthetic and simulated stones mixed up with generally low-grade real examples, so he recommends buying only from recognised outlets. Similarly, tourists to India should not buy gems from street traders.

On a trip to Australia, I was keen to buy the Business Manager (Mrs P) a pair of opal earrings. I made the mistake of not doing my homework and now wish I had had the advantage of Mr Wallis’s book. I can vouch for his assertion that there is an amazing variety of opal is on offer – hence the problem. They include black, white, precious and a whole range of opalised wood and polished ironstone with opal inclusions. I bought a pair of the latter assuming they were black opals. I was wrong, although the BM seems happy enough with them. Mr Wallis also asserts that you should avoid buying opals displayed in water, although it would be useful to know why.

For travellers journeying to the gold honeypots of Dubai and Qatar, Mr Wallis suggests the first thing to do is ask the price of the precious metal per gram, as it varies from day to day. When you have selected the piece you want, it is weighed and you are given the price accordingly. But you should avoid buying jewellery containing many “gemstones” as they are generally not good quality and may possibly be made from glass or paste. What’s worse, there are also included in the weight of the item, which makes for very expensive glass! Silver is not of Sterling quality and is best avoided.

So-called “Saudi diamonds” are in fact quartz pebbles collected in the desert areas around Riyadh which are then cut and polished for souvenirs.

There are several fascinating places to visit in Europe too. In Belgium, Antwerp rivals Amsterdam as the diamond capital, the vast number of dealers’ shops being clustered in the Diamond District near the railway station. Tourists using Schiphol airport can buy diamonds while they wait for the next flight from traders who have concessions in the concourse. The Amsterdam Diamond Centre is open to the public and stones can also be bought there.

Simulated pearls are a popular tourist purchase on the island of Majorca. They should not be confused with cultured pearls, while Peridot, the gem variety of the olivine, is found in many of the shops throughout the Canary Islands. Mr Wallis warns that quality varies, so you should buy only the best colour, avoiding stones that are pale.

For a stay at home holidaymakers, there are few gemstones actually found in the UK. But there are some fascinating organic stones, including: Amber from North Yorkshire, jet from Whitby, Blue John and Jasper from the Peak District and, interestingly enough, slate from North Wales, which though not normally thought of as material for jewellery, can be attractive. Welsh gold from mines in Llandovery and Dolgellau is made into jewellery there, although it contains only approximately 10% of the local gold.

Sadly, the smoky or brown quartz found in the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland, and used to make highly attractive jewellery is nearly exhausted. The industry now uses heat-treated amethyst imported from Brazil, while in Cornwall, amethyst, smoky quartz and turquoise is found on the beaches around Lizard and carved into jewellery and ornaments.

If I might add some advice of my own, I recommend getting an official written valuation for any jewellery, purchased abroad. A member of my family, purchased some sapphires in Sri Lanka, and was then unfortunate enough to have them stolen in a burglary. Imagine the delight on the face of the insurance broker when the loss was reported to him. His automatic reaction was that the stones were no doubt worthless fakes, bought on impulse.

Imagine his dismay, then, when he was presented with a valuation, which revealed they were of particularly fine quality and worth approximately three times what they cost. The insurance company had no choice but to their full market value.

“Gemstones Understanding Identifying Buying” costs £14.95 and is available from the Antique Collectors’ Club, Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 4SD (telephone 01394 389950) or email info@antique-acc.com.

Pictures show © Keith Wallis
Top: A charming brooch modelled as a bouquet of flowers made from old sapphires from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and rubies and Keith Wallis’s informative guide book to understanding, identifying and buying gemstones

Below, left to right:

A lizard brooch dating from 1890 made from opal, diamonds and garnets

A gold brooch given by Queen Victoria to one of her bridesmaids. The stones are turquoise, pearls and rubies

Cupid’s arrows set with rubies and diamonds, piercing a ruby-set diamond heart. This brooch dates from circa 1900

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