Inside the Jewel Vault with Josie Goodbody

  

Author, Josie Goodbody

INSIDE THE JEWEL VAULT WITH JOSIE GOODBODY

I am delighted to welcome jewellery fiction writer Josie Goodbody to the podcast.  Josie started out in the glamorous world of fashion and jewellery PR working with brands like Dior, Bulgari, Gina and Graff before writing fiction. She’s created the Jemina Fox mystery series in which the diamond sleuth, her eponymous heroine, unravels audacious jewellery thefts inspired by real life events around the world.

Welcome Josie, I can’t wait to see what you have got for us inside the Jewel Vault!

 

JG

Hello hi Jessica

 

JCC

Well Josie we’ve not seen very many books written about the diamond industry, or the diamond retail trade, they don’t just seem to be very many books that are fictionalised accounts of what it’s really like behind-the-scenes at these great brands, so why did you decide to start writing?

 

JG

Well I have always wanted to write novels and I’ve always loved reading,

yeah I’ve always loved mysteries, l used to love Agatha Christie & Ngaio Marsh, and I think it’s, my inspiration comes a lot from the books I’ve read & love just creating stories.  And then when I was at Graff there was a huge heist and it was in August 2009 and some people say 40 some people say 50 million pounds worth of diamonds - diamonds and fine jewellery - was stolen in under about 5 to 10 minutes and it was people that I knew working in the store, people that I really loved working with and obviously the jewellery - that extraordinary Graff jewellery - you start to feel very proud, you’ve been working on this jewellery for so long you start to kind of look on it as more than just… it become special to you in a different way - obviously I can ever afford it - but it became different.  Obviously you learn about, you learn about the jewels, all the men who made it, and the workshop, you know the design, as - you know what I mean it becomes quite - obviously you don’t own it - but you have quite a personal attachment to these jewels and to have them just stolen!  It was really shocking but there was also something extraordinary exciting about it and particularly when the next day, every newspaper - I mean I was head of PR and I’d spent however long trying to get Graff on the front cover of every newspaper in the world - and you know it was amazing the interest.

 

JCC

Yes

 

JG

And the absolute flabbergast of people - more that jewellery was worth that much that actually £50 million worth of jewellery could be stolen.  And there were things in the newspaper about “is it the Pink Panthers?” and I was like, oh my God the Pink Panthers who are they?  And that’s really how I started becoming fascinated with jewellery heists but most particularly historical jewellery heists & jewels, and that’s really how I started wanting to write about it.  But also the jewellery world as you know is so secretive and there are so many things that I wanted to write particularly in my first novel which is based very much when I was head of PR at Graff.

 

JCC

So it was that pivotal event, the £50m Graff diamond heist, that has inspired you to write.  So can we go back in time to when you were a little girl, were you interested in jewels as a child?

 

JG

Well my mother never really had very many jewel.  She was, when she was in living in London, a lot of the jewels that she’d inherited or been given were stolen and she became very paranoid about jewellery and she kind of would like squirrel jewellery away and in various and kind of she had one little bag of things in her sewing box. I don’t know if it was squirrelling it away from me because very early on I became quite interested in!  And they weren’t - most of the nice stuff was stolen, but some pieces she'd inherited from my grandmother or from aunts and stuff you know, latterly, I used to become quite interested in and I remember being quite little and finding various little hiding places and then trying to put them back before she found out!

 

JCC

So you are actually a jewellery detective

 

JG

Thief!

 

JCC

Or Thief

 

JCC

So talk us through the first piece in your Vault then

 

JG

Well the first piece is actually is a family piece, sadly it’s not very close family, but it is family and it’s the emerald and diamond parure - demi-parure - at the V&A which is part of the Londonderry jewellery collection.

Theresa who was my great-great-great aunt or whatever, she was quite a formidable character and she when she became the Marchioness she inherited some quite beautiful jewels, and when I was younger I used to love going to the V&A.  The Londonderry's own the jewels but they are on permanent loan to the V&A and there are some absolutely incredible jewels and out of these it was very hard to choose the ones that I really wanted!  I was actually going to choose one of the tiaras, but these emeralds are quite interesting because they were given to the  third Marchioness by Tsar Alexander III, and he actually fell in love with the Marchioness from a picture he'd seen of her, a portrait that he’d seen of her and he send these and some amethysts from Siberia, which are also in the V&A,

but I absolutely love emeralds and I think this is the most incredible necklace.

JCC

It is

 

JG

or pair of earrings

 

JCC

It is huge

 

JG

So beautiful and

 

JCC

Well, this is a necklace and matching earrings of enormous emeralds composed of very ornate clusters of pearls and diamonds. You can just imagine the dazzling effect of these sparkling in candlelight at a grand ball.  It’s a suite of jewellery from a different world isn’t it, not the sort of jewels that would be worn in modern times unless it was maybe a state occasion!

 

JG

There is an amusing story um my great aunt wore, the Londonderry Tiara which is which is called the  Londonderry Tiara, it's diamonds, she had pearls added to the top of it so it was probably bigger than the Queen’s Crown at the coronation! 

But when she went to the loo at the at the coronation, there were some loos, her tiara fell off her head into the loo and she, they had to get one of the courtiers to fish it out with a pair of forceps, so I find that a lovely story!

 

JCC

Well Josie that’s a pretty impressive first choice for your fantasy jewel vault, and amazing that these are museum quality pieces with a link to your own family heritage. Tell us what your second piece is and why you’ve chosen it?

 

JG

So I studied um, I loved French from very early on and so I decided to study French at University and I went to Exeter and I met this incredible tutor - in your third year you have to go to the country that you’re studying the language of, and that was incredible and I got to go and live in Paris, I lived just off the rue de Rivoli in the Marais, and that it was just incredible. I used to go to the Louvre all the time, on Wednesdays they were open late so I used to go on my way back from work and then when my ‘Stage’, which is what it’s called, finished, and I met this incredible woman - she was Head of Press at Christian Dior in Couture and Pret a Porter, and she gave me a job for three months as basically her assistant. And that was the most extraordinary three months of my life, I realised that I just wanted to work in fashion. I met the most amazing people. I worked on the couture show of 2000 John Galliano was the designer then, and I met Victoria de Castellane and who had only done I think one or two collections for Dior Fine Jewellery at the time.

I just thought oh my God this is a dream, and one of the things I love so much I mostly love antique jewellery, as I said like the pieces in the V&A, I just find them so interesting because they’ve got so many stories behind them, but  I found with Victoire's pieces they are so amazing, the colours you know, she uses just a plethora like a rainbow of gemstones.

 

JCC

So this is why this amazing bracelet by Victoire de Castellane is in your Vault, and it also has a wonderful name, the Parterre de Midi, can you tell us more about it?

 

JG

It is is basically it was from 2017 couture collection.  She did a few collections based around Versailles and the the gardens of Versailles and I love coloured gemstones - it’s got a large emerald in the centre, and then it’s got - it's almost got  every kind of coloured stone you can imagine - there’s  white, yellow, pink diamonds, there's emeralds, garnets, tsavorites, sapphires, pink sapphires,

 

JCC

Hahah

 

JG

tourmalines, um yellow sapphires, rubies, paraiba, purple sapphires, peridots turquoise, and I just think wow! you know managing to fit all of that into this exquisite floral bracelet.  I mean the idea of just wearing that my hand you know, it kind doesn’t matter what clothes you wear, any colour you know because no one would look at what you're wearing, they'd just look at your wrist,  and it makes me think of Paris and it makes me think of amazing 3 months at Dior.

 

JCC

Yes I love it too, thanks for choosing it, it’s exquisite and so joyful.  One of the novel things that Victoire de Castellane did for high jewellery design was to mix in elements from costume jewellery like bright, almost fluorescent blocks of enamel, and make the whole effect more playful, and you can see this effect so well in this bracelet, the one you’ve chosen. So, after your year in Paris, you completed your degree and embarked on a career in PR – where did you start out?

 

JG

I worked for a guy called Simon Astaire, he was wonderful, and he had a PR agency in Chelsea Harbour and one of their clients was Bulgari and another was Ritz Fine Jewellery, and I did a lot, I got to go on the shoots. Bulgari didn't have an in-house Press Office at that time and it was really fun. We'd go along to the store, pick up pieces of jewellery, and I'd go to fashion shoots, with all the magazines that I previously had wanted to write for, and meet all the other jewellers at these fashion shoots, and learn about them.

 

JCC

What did you do after this, did you stay in PR?

 

JG

I actually got a job working in Gina Shoes, which is was on Sloane Street and working for this amazing woman called Angie Kurdash, that was great fun because you know I could borrow the shoes, unfortunately I couldn't borrow the jewels from Bulgari!  Whilst I was at Dior in Paris I used to raid the wardrobe, this enormous sample wardrobe, it wasn't a wardrobe it was like a kind of ballroom of clothes and I’d go to meet my other student friends in a bistro for dinner completely bedecked in Dior, but I couldn’t do that when I was a Bulgari, but I could at Gina, and it was just great fun! I met some amazing people  - Kate Moss - I was 23 at a time and it was just really really great fun.  But jewellery was always you know, I just, but yeah - shoes also!

 

So, after my job at Gina, which I was in for about a year, I then suddenly had this bug to go travelling.  I when I was 12, going back to when I was 12, I read “The Burning Shore” by Wilbur Smith.  I just completely fell in love with the idea of South Africa, and so I literally got on an airplane - my parents were like WHAT are you doing? and I got on a plane and I lived in this literally at Clifton Beach - I mean I stepped outside the cottage and I was on the sand… do you know what I mean it was that close - I was just a dream. It really changed who I was at that age and gave me a lot of confidence and I actually believe that if I hadn't maybe been out there, and known the area so well and had so many great, contacts I might not have got my job at Graff.

 

JCC

Right

 

JG

Because he owned at that time when I got my job he had a vineyard that he was hoping to create into a luxury hotel

 

JCC

So talk us through the amazing experience, how did you win a job at Graff?

 

JG

I used to the walk past the windows of Graff, I became completely obsessed with yellow diamonds, I just found them so kind of exciting and so extraordinary.  Anyway basically I just sent in my CV to Lawrence Graff and I got an interview.

So anyway I went to this interview with Lawrence Graff, I did actually say to him you know I was quite surprised to get an interview with you, and he said I was fascinated by your surname, I couldn’t believe that anyone really had a Bond Girl surname!

 

JCC

Amazing!

 

JG

Absolutely the most incredible thing, I mean right from the get go Lawrence Graff  was so nice to me and I wasn’t scared of him, I wasn’t like a rabbit in the headlights that some people were and I think he probably quite like that and I kind, you know,  he used to ask me questions and I would give my - I wouldn’t say what I thought he wanted to know, if that makes sense, I would say what I thought was right even it probably wasn’t quite what he did, but he used to kind of quite respect my opinion… anyway it was just amazing working with him.

 

JCC

It must have been!

 

JG

It was and obviously I finally got to actually wear yellow diamonds - not the tiara I’ve chosen sadly I never got to try that on!

JCC

Yeah so you’ve chosen the most amazing tiara by Graff, the King of Diamonds. It looks like a sort of sunrise, it’s very very majestic.  It looks like a fantasy princess tiara!

 

JG

Doesn’t it it just looks like what Cinderella should have been wearing I was when I was reading age 6 or whatever in the ladybird book!

 

JG

I think with Lawrence Graff made yellow diamonds popular, he made fancy coloured diamonds popular in the Western World particularly in the UK.  I remember him telling me, and I’ve read interviews, that you know there’s a very different way to cutting yellow diamonds than there are to cutting white diamonds and I think he, I mean he just I mean and really is, the King of Diamonds, and you know, his, the diamonds that have gone through his hands are better than anyone else in the world.  And this to me kind of epitomises the splendour of Graff, of the slightly exaggerated over the top-ness of Graff jewellery?  It makes me feel so happy, you know it’s just not just because it’s a tiara, I’m obsessed with tiaras, it’s just amazing and it’s like having a ray of sunshine on your head!

 

JCC

Yes!  That’s beautifully put!

 

JG

You know.

 

JCC

What other memorable moments at Graff can you tell us about?

 

JG

Well the heist was very memorable - in not such…

 

JCC

Not in a good way

 

JG

But it did give me, spur me to write my stories, my books when I started working there, it it was his 70th birthday.  So we decided to build a leadership centre in Lesotho which is a little kingdom near Pretoria.

 

JCC

Mm

 

JG

I went with Graff to open this Leadership Centre in Lesotho, and it was just so nice to spend some time with this man that I had a kinda very professional crush on, and I just thought was incredible, and we flew by helicopter over Lesotho to the leadership centre and it was just amazing the king of Lesotho was there and Prince Seiso who I’d become very close with, Prince Seiso and his brother who is the king and it was such an amazing experience to go there and this country, was - is ravaged by HIV and one of the poorest actually one of the poorest countries in Africa or areas in Africa albeit  having the most unbelievable resources and some of the most amazing diamonds in the world come from there, and it’s just, it was an amazing experience.

 

JCC

Yeah

 

JG

To go there with him.

 

JCC

Very memorable.

 

JG

Oh I was amazing it really was and then the other one I just quickly wanted to talk about was I went got to go to the Cullinan Mine, and that was amazing because the Cullinan Mine actually inspired my first novel, about the other half - the mysterious other half - of the world’s largest diamond, that’s ever been found, which was found at that mine in 1905. And it was amazing to be given a tour of the mine and the mining village, and all of that.  So those were the two really extraordinary experiences I had.

 

JCC

So I’m surprised you haven’t put the Cullinan into your fantasy Vault, Josie!

 

JG

Haha, so The Queen has it, so I don’t think she’s gonna let me take it from her!

 

JCC

Hahah

 

JCC

So like your fictional heroine Jemima Fox in your novels, you spent some time living in Monaco, didn’t you Josie?  Tell us about your time there, it must have been a wonderful place to live.

 

JG

And it was like a dream to live in Monaco to be honest with you and I managed to get a job working for a gold mining firm as I their kind of financial PR, and I had great fun going out on boats at weekends you know the kind of Edmonston Company speedboat and we went out and had picnics - stop off at the restaurants along the coast towards Nice for lunch on a Saturday, and you know it was really really I mean it was amazing

 

JCC

Sounds very glamorous, I’m very envious

 

JG

It was glamorous, and there were times which were amazing, like around the Grand Prix and all those kind of stuff, and there were incredible parties which sometimes you could get into, and you know and you did see, I mean, amazing cars and things like that, and I had a lovely apartment overlooking the sea that was in an old Belle Époque building, which is the apartment that Jemima lives in in “The Monte Carlo Connection”, and I used to go down every morning before work and just swim in the sea on the Lavotto Beach, it was just amazing.

 

JCC

Sounds wonderful

 

JG

I mean that is my favourite place I think in the world.  I didn’t finish the reason why I got into writing, was that my job then didn’t work out actually with the gold miner, and so I spent a lot of time sitting on my balcony looking at the sea and that’s when I started to write my novels and when I actually had the time to put pen to paper and then when my mother died in the November if that year I kind of the writing helped me get over death – so yeah so that’s but that’s how I started writing really

 

JCC

I’m so sorry you lost your mother, Josie.  It must have helped so much to throw yourself into writing especially about the glamour and excitement of jewellery heists.  Is this why you’ve chosen your fourth piece in the Jewel Vault, the spectacular David Morris earrings, which feature in one of your novels?

 

JG

Well about last year I published my third novel, “The Monte Carlo Connection” and a friend of mine  put me in touch with the head of PR, Louise, at David Morris and because I was looking for somewhere to do a the launch party and I mean it it’s every girl’s dream to do a launch party on Bond Street particulaly if you’re writing about jewellery.  There is a scene, a chapter - a couple of chapters - set in the most - my favourite hotel ever, which is Hotel du Cap, in the South of France, & there is and I had to describe there’s a fashion show around the pool, wearing David Morris jewellery and I had to basically got a pick jewellery that I loved from David Morris which is very hard because again they're beautiful amazing coloured pieces of jewellery with extraordinary stones!

 

JCC

Yeah

 

JG

I describe this piece, jewel in the chapter, this fictional supermodel is wearing them,

and they are just dreamy, I mean, I they remind me of the sea and I think I was a mermaid in a previous life probably a French mermaid in the south of France!   

JCC

 

Yeah

 

JG

And these remind me of the sea, and I just dream to have them one day!

 

JCC

They are spectacular - describe them to us?

 

JG

so there are two very large pair shaped black opals.  The colouring is amazing it’s almost like a kind of impressionist, if you just look at that stone it's kinda like an impressionist painting in the way the colours, there's a kinda in the particular one there’s  a turquoise, there’s blue you know like a royal blue, is a kind of lime green washed over the stone, it almost looks like the stone’s actually been painted doesn’t it really? 

 

JCC

Mm

 

JG

You can’t quite, I can’t quite believe that it’s - that how it comes out of the Earth! And so there are 2 obviously a pair of earrings, two very large pear drops, pendants, surrounded by paraiba tourmaline and white diamonds and then I believe they're sapphires, around the edge, around the border, and they hang they’re suspended from another smaller oval shape opal, black opal, surrounded by white diamonds.  They’re just incredible and they also come with a necklace and a bracelet and things and it’s just - I would definitely have the whole lot!

 

JCC

Well as this is your fantasy Vault Josie of course you can have the whole lot in there!  This is such a masterful way to set black opals, really celebrating the colours of the Paraiba tourmalines as much as the black opals themselves, and I love the name, the Neptune Earrings, because as you say, all the gems sparkle and shimmer just like gazing into a tropical sea.  David Morris really have that knack of making connoisseur standard gems sing with joy I think, I love it! 

 

JCC

So please tell us about the fifth stunning jewel you’ve chosen to put into your Jewel Vault, Josie.

 

JG

So, the 5th piece I’ve chosen is this unbelievable brooch that was commissioned and created for Empress Eugenie by Mellerio.  They made jewels for all the Queens & Princess of Europe pretty much every single House of Europe whether it’s royal or whether it's an aristocratic house has a piece of jewellery from Mellerio, and they I mean it’s quite extraordinary the pieces of jewellery they've made, I mean they were the first jewellers in rue de la Paix in Paris & they’re still there.  They still got all the archives in their basement of their store on rue de la Paix, in their archives they've got signatures from the Princess Mathilde who's a cousin of Napoleon III, Empress Josephine’s signatures on ledgers, orders from Marie Antoinette I mean that's incredible!

 

JCC

It is - it sounds astonishing like a treasure trove of history.

 

 

JCG

Completely - that's the Vault!

 

JCC

It is a fantasy peacock feather.  It’s got an oval emerald in the centre of the eye, surrounded by rubies and sapphires, then the delicate super realistic plume is set all over with white diamonds, it’s an absolute masterpiece of design and craftsmanship and it’s over a century and a half old.

 

JG

Isn’t it - it is amazing isn’t it?  And actually it was sold not long ago I think it was sold at Christies last November for 900,000 dollars. It was owned at one point by the Al Thani family.

 

JCC

Again Josie, you’ve chosen a truly exquisite piece for your fantasy vault, thank you.  So now we come to the sixth and final piece, and I think you’ve saved the best til last, because this is the most astonishing gem.

 

JG

Isn't it?

 

JCC

Tell us what it is.

 

JG

So it's a red diamond - and it's the largest red diamond that's ever been found, um Red Diamonds are a real kind of anomaly in the gemstone world, as you know, there’s a lot of discussion as to whether they’re actually very dark pink diamonds and what makes them red, but no red diamonds have been found over six carats this is I can tell you this 5.11 carats.  It’s called the Moussaieff Red Diamond,  and to me it's just really interesting and really exquisite.  And so “The Paris Connection”, which is my next novel, I am using a red diamond, and I can’t say any more, because - so yes it is the main gemstone in my next novel.

 

JCC

So it’s your inspiration for your next fantasy adventure?

         

JG

Not this stone, but this is the biggest red stone that's actually really been found - the red diamond in my book is a lot bigger - obviously!

 

JCC

Because it can be!

 

JG

Exactly, and that's the whole mystery behind the story, but it involves Napoleon and it involves power in France.

 

JCC

But for now you’ve put the biggest real red diamond in the world into your fantasy vault.  This is truly an incredible diamond, I think it was originally discovered by a Brazilian farmer in the 1990s’ and it hasn’t been seen in public since an exhibition of famous diamonds in London in 2006, and it’s owned privately by the biggest gemstone connoisseur and jeweller in the industry, Mrs Alisa Moussiaeff.  I worked for her for a time and although I saw many incredible gems in her stock, I never saw this one, it’s kept well away from prying eyes - it’s not for sale, so it would be anyone’s guess how much it would be worth if it ever came onto the market, it’s probably worth tens of millions!  So, what would you do with it if you had it, how would you set it into a piece of jewellery?

 

JG

If I had it I would have it set - I mean I’ve already thought how I would have it set, I would have it set in a ring with some other stones around it - it would be an enormous cocktail ring, that I would probably only wear in the bath, you know like Princess Margaret wearing the Poltimore Tiara in the bath or Joan Collins at the beginning of Dynasty, I would just lie in the bath with this enormous ring on!

 

JCC 

Haha, brilliant that’s fabulous!  Josie looking back at your selection what’s striking is the fairy-tale quality of the pieces, there’s really something out of this world about the size, quality and design of the pieces, they are all literally fantastical really, very well suited to a fantasy jewel vault and it’s clear you are in love with gems and jewellery. Why are they so important to you?

  

JG

Um  I get a lump in my throat a lot of the time talking about things that mean a lot to me I think the thing about gemstones and it’s so cringy to use this in is that you know, a diamond in the rough and what can be made out of them,  and then what you can make of your life and I’ve had some really amazing times in my life that I’ve already talked about you, but I’ve also had some unbearably sad times and incredibly lonely times and I was very lonely living in Monaco as well as having a ball and um and things you know my mother dying which was a terrible death and some terrible things have happened but it’s always been jewellery, gemstones more than just jewellery, actually that have kind of learning about gemstones and learning about jewellery houses and jewels is something that I has taken me out of any sadness because you know it’s amazing what you can make out of out of very little or you want you can get out of sadness, and we can get out something that which looks quite dull and gemstones when they come out of the ground are pretty dull but look what they can get, to be made into, with the right person.

I think it’s the most amazing thing it’s a natural resource that man has made, has managed to kind of create into something magical, and I think that’s just wonderful really.

 

JCC

That's beautifully put Josie.

 

JCC

So in your own life how much does jewellery play a part?

 

JG

Oh god, daily - I am you know I’ve started collecting costume jewellery because I can’t afford real jewellery you know, and I love -

 

JCC

That you can indulge your love of fantasy

 

JG

But I can just put the jewels on & my friends think they’re real!

 

JCC

Well Josie you’ve chosen the most incredible fantasy vault to share your life and career in jewellery with, thank you.  It’s breathtaking looking back across this fabulous array of the most prestigious jewels, from the family Londonderry emeralds, Victoire de Castellane’s fantastical bracelet for Dior, the Graff sunray tiara, the David Morris Neptune earrings, the Mellerio peacock brooch and the Moussiaeff Red.  If you could only keep one of these safe for ever, which one would it be and why?

 

JG

It would be the Moussaieff Red.

 

JCC

Why?

 

JG

Because I - I find this really emotional actually!  I’ve learnt so much about red diamonds researching my next novel, I’ve learnt a lot about it during lockdown and it’s been one of my escapisms during lockdown - I’ve I was diagnosed with post-natal depression, and learning about the stones has really helped me get through my post-natal depression and lock-down and this particular stone - God I’m really emotional, means a lot to me actually!

 

JCC

Mmm

 

JG

I’ll have to go and chat up Mrs Moussaieff, and ask if I can borrow it!

 

JCC

Ahh!  Well, it’s been such a delight to learn more about these incredible pieces Josie thank you, and also to learn more about your wonderfully creative view of the jewellery world.  So Josie thank you very much for sharing your life and career with us through these 6 beautiful pieces in your fantasy jewel vault.

 

JG

Well thank you!