Gold

HISTORY


"Gold, the most excellent of nature’s products is begotten of the sun, in as much as it has more resemblance to it than anything else—nor is any created thing more enduring than this gold" - Leonard de Vinci

In many ways, gold is the ideal metal for jewellery. Its natural colour is appealing, it is sufficiently rare to be valuable and it does not tarnish or rust. Mankind thus valued and used this metal since the dawn of civilization. The most ancient documentary evidence of gold mining is a papyrus map of Egyptian gold mines dating from the fourteenth century B.C. Today it is also treasured as a basic form of saving in many countries,

The discovery of the “New World” by Portuguese explorers resulted in the establishment of new gold mines in Mexico and South America. In 1848 gold discoveries were made in California and in 1851 in Australia. These sources paled in comparison to the gold discoveries that were made in 1886, when rich deposits of gold were discovered in the rocks of the Witwatersrand in Transvaal.

Pure gold (24 karat) is too soft to be useable and is thus alloyed by the addition of various metals such as copper, silver, palladium, nickel and iron. The amount and the type of metal added will cause the gold alloy to vary in hardness and in colour. The most widely used alloys for jewellery in Europe are 18 and 14 carat, although 9 carat is popular in Britain and South Africa, especially if the item is mass produced.

Most custom made jewellery is normally made by hand in an 18k alloy or in platinum. Such pieces are labour intensive, unique and more expensive than mass produced items. Gold is normally rolled into either bars, sheet or drawn into wire from which an item is made by sawing and filing pieces and then soldering them together. Polishing or the addition of a special texture finally finishes the item. 18K white gold items are normally electroplated with Rhodium to render a whiter surface.

All fine jewellery manufactured by us is stamped with our maker’s mark (P&P) and a mark indicating the “fineness” of the precious metal (18K). As soon as legislation is passed we will also stamp our products with a “made in South Africa” mark (ZA)

Pindar wrote nearly 2,500 years ago, ‘Gold is the child of Zeus, neither moth nor rust devoureth it.’ Prins & Prins