ANNIVERSARIES
Q & A WITH ADAM HEYMAN
HAPPY 100th, OSCAR HEYMAN! THE FAMED MAKER OF MUSEUM-QUALITY JEWELRY CELEBRATES A CENTURY. How did their experience at Fabergé influence their vision and creations? They learned many skills at Fabergé, most notably: how to work with platinum; the science of gemology; how to cut stones; and how to design with color. We were among the first jewelers to use platinum in America. Although we never made “eggs” and we have our own signature look, we, too, are known for our mosaics and for “painting with gemstones.”
Why do you work mostly with precious colored gemstones rather than diamonds? Tell us a little about Oscar Heyman, the man. Oscar, my uncle, was one of nine children, born in Latvia in the late 1800s. He and his brother Nathan were granted an apprenticeship at the legendary House of Fabergé in Russia from 1901 to ’06. They traveled to Kharkov to the Fabergé atelier. After five years, they set sail for New York. Their parents wanted them to have a new life in the United States. They arrived in 1906 and started the business in 1912. Oscar was not the oldest, but he was the star... a true impresario. All five of his brothers and two of his three sisters worked for “Oscar Heyman & Brothers.” My father, George, was the youngest.
We are known for creating “art” with gemstones and believe that colored stones give jewelry great style and character. Beyond our work with classic sapphires, emeralds and rubies, we work with many “esoteric” precious gems, including star sapphires, star rubies, catseyes, alexandrites, Australian opals and aquamarine. Our pieces are for true jewelry aficionados and collectors... connoisseurs who understand gems. About 20% of our work is with diamonds, but mostly as accent stones.
How has the company evolved over the past century? In many ways, we are “old world.” We train
our own lapidaries (stone cutters), similarly to the European model of apprenticeship, and utilize many of the techniques that my uncles learned at Fabergé, which had been around for hundreds of years, even then. But of course, we have added the newest machinery and lasers to make our stone cutting completely state-of-the-art.
Which are some of the jewelry houses you’ve created jewelry for? For most of our first hundred years, we designed for Cartier, Tiffany, Harry Winston and Van Cleef & Arpels. We didn’t start to make jewelry under our own name until the 1970s. Every piece we have ever designed has been issued a serial number and our pieces, designed for those houses, frequently come up for auction. We often have people from Sotheby’s and Christie’s coming here to authenticate a piece we created. We’ve made pieces for countless celebrities and historical figures through those houses. One of our favorite stories is from 1969, when Richard Burton bought a 69-carat diamond and we were commissioned to design a setting for it. Ms. Taylor chose a design we drew with over 50 graduated pearshaped diamonds, which we hadn’t even sourced, and we had a week to finish it for an event in Europe! We worked day and night for six days and on the seventh day, we rested!