Articles

MEERA KUMAR The Taj Magazine

NIRMAL KHANNA The Khaleej Times
AMAN NATH The Delhi Times

Interview - k s d

M/s K S Durlabhji is an internationally reputed firm with a long-standing tradition of providing impeccable service to connoisseurs of jewellery – both in India as well as overseas – and merchandise to match.

Teacher by choice and a reluctant entrant into the business,
Yogendra Durlabhji of KSD, Jaipur, widely known as ‘Yogi’ amongst friends, is now in romance with this lustre-green stone called ‘Emerald’, he was persuaded to talk about this stone by –

MEERA KUMAR The Taj Magazine

NIRMAL KHANNA The Khaleej Times

AMAN NATH The Delhi Times

Mention emeralds to anyone in the jewellery trade in India, and the name that immediately comes to mind is Durlabhji Jewellers at Jaipur.
______________________________________________________________
MEERA KUMAR (MK)
profiles
YOGENDRA DURLABHJI (YD)
THE EMERALD KING
at the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai for
the TAJ MAGAZINE, March 1999
­­­­______________________________________________________________

MK: Tell us a bit about your family’s association with this magical gemstone.
YD: The Durlabhji connection with emeralds goes back several generations but it was really my father who brought the family international respect, recognition and acclaim. Though my grandfather did dabble in semi-precious jewellery, we got into emeralds in a big way with my father, and we were really launched internationally when we bagged the very prestigious order of Sandwana emeralds. Sandwana emeralds rank along with the Colombian emeralds as the finest emeralds ever mined. Primarily, because they were very, very deep-green. Sandwana emeralds were mined at a mine called Rio Tinto in what was then Rhodesia, and what is now Zimbabwe. When my father purchased the first lot of Sandwana rough, everyone was scandalised. They thought it was appalling, and it would never yield fine emeralds, but my father liked the production so much that he went back, and he told the owners of the mine and also the dealers in England that if they were willing to sell him the emerald rough, as and when it was mined, he was willing to commit himself to purchasing the entire production of Rio Tinto for as long as the mine continued to be productive. And what was interesting was that these very same jewellers in Jaipur who had been scandalised by the quality of the emeralds (they thought it was pathetic, and they thought Sandwana looked like jade) went 15-strong to London, and tried to persuade the dealers not to deal with us, and they tried to offer the dealers twice the price. They said, “Whatever Mr. Durlabhji is prepared to pay you, we will double as a consortium. There are 15 of us together.” The dealer was very sweet. He said, “No. I have had no problems with him. I would not like to deal with you, no matter how much you offer me.” Sandwana, when it was manufactured, took the world by storm because the world had never seen emeralds like these. My father and my brother then distributed Sandwana all over the world. We had a policy of dealing with one person in one country so we had one person in Japan, in New York, in San Francisco, and in Europe to ensure that there was no clash between sellers. The people kept asking for more, the stores wanted more, the suppliers wanted more, and there just wasn’t enough going. That was really our foray into fine quality. Our launch internationally, and Sandwana, are really what made the Durlabhji family the so-called emerald kings of the world.

MK: Earlier to Sandwana, which emeralds was Jaipur depending upon for this industry?
YD: We used to get rough from Colombia, Brazil and Zambia but nothing had been produced that could match the depth of green that Sandwana exhibited. Colombian was pale yellowish, Zambian was blue-green, Brazilian was flawed. Sandwana alone, of all the emeralds mined, possessed the right colour and the right lustre. That really was a revelation to everybody involved with emerald production.

MK: And how did your father come to know about the Sandwana emerald mines?
YD: He was rung up by the dealer because my father had acquired a name. One of the people that we had been doing business with for a very long time, rang up my father and said, “Khailubhai, there is something I would like you to see.” And my father flew down immediately. He recognised and brought it on instinct, not knowing anything about it because nobody had ever seen Sandwana before, leave alone produce it. So he bought it, and came back. He loved it.

MK: There are parameters that determine the quality of a diamond – do they apply to emeralds?
YD: Yes, except that we don’t have a De Beers budget to proclaim it! But certainly, the colour is much more important in coloured stones than in diamonds. Often today, people look for purity and lustre, and forget that colour is certainly, in my opinion, the strongest component when we look at a coloured stone. People always talk about stones being flawless, picture-perfect but forget that the primary requisite is the colour. You can have a beautiful deep green emerald with minor flaws and that is alright. Inclusions are a part of it, and add to it. Otherwise, the stone almost looks glassy.

MK: Which is superior, the yellowish-green tone or the bluish-green tone?
YD: The yellow-green tone is much more appreciated. The yellowish-green tone came from the Muzo and Chivor mines of Colombia which are the two finest.

MK: Jaipur is virtually the capital of the global emerald trade industry. How did that happen, considering the stones travelled across two oceans and three continents to reach Jaipur? How did this small city in Rajasthan become the global capital?
YD: Jaipur became the global capital of the world thanks to the foresight and the business acumen of Maharaja Jaisinghji, the founder. When Jaipur was founded, he wanted Jaipur to be the cultural centre of India and hence, invited jewellers from all parts of the country to settle down in Jaipur, giving them huge concessions, grants and bonuses. With the founding of Jaipur, we had hundreds and hundreds of jewellers from all parts of the country settling down, and the trade developed backwards from there. Once there was awareness that there was a huge amount of royal patronage possible for jewellers waiting to come to Jaipur and migrate to Jaipur, then people flocked to Jaipur from all parts of the world, knowing that here was a royal family that had taken up the cudgels on behalf of artisans, craftsmen, jewellers. They knew that this royal patronage would always be there, and in a court scenario that has seen jewellery flourish, nobody goes back from there. It would continue to flourish.

MK: A lot of very superior technologies, superior faceting techniques are available now. Has Jaipur kept up with that technological advancement?
YD: Certainly. What you have is automatic faceting techniques for calibrated stones. When you make squares, you make perfect squares. When you make rounds, you make perfect rounds. When you make baguettes, you make perfect baguettes. The technique remains the same, but where the technique really counts for something is when you have a fine stone. A fine stone can only be made by a human being, not by a machine, because there are so many different interpretations as to what should be done with that stone. You may think the stone needs to be cleaved, I may not. You may think the stone needs to be made one side up, I may not. You may think the stone deserves to be an octagon, and I may think it deserves to be a pear. So that is where you have huge differences, even among the top jewellers. You can put two top jewellers with a single piece of emerald between them, and they will go hammer and tongs at each other, and not come up with the result. One of the finest stones our company ever had was not manufactured owing to the fact that there were differences between the two groups that comprised the partners. For six months, they did not touch the stone. And eventually, they decided to manufacture it, and then one group said this is how you do it, and the other group said you do it some other way, and that the stone was going to be a write-off, and it was a write-off. Both of them were emerald dealers. There were five people on one side and one person alone on the other, and that one guy said, “Fine, you do it your way, but I am not responsible for the end result.” It happens that way. That is part of business.

MK: Regarding carved emeralds, is the technique still alive among craftsmen today?
YD: Yes, you get beautifully carved emeralds. Only, the world does not pay for carved emeralds. Hence, it is no longer a big deal. If there were rewards, I am sure the art would survive because for the craftsmen at the end of the day, there has to be something. If there isn’t payment commensurate with the skills involved in making beautiful carving, then there is no point in carving.
I think Old Mine emeralds are the finest emeralds, and what I have in Old Mine is what my father bought from the Nizam of Hyderabad in the1940’s.

MK: You talk with great reverence abut Old Mine emeralds. Please explain what they are.
YD: I think Old Mine emeralds are the finest emeralds, and what I have seen of the Old Mine is what my father bought from the Nizam of Hyderabad. Europeans would like us to believe that there is no such Old Mine, and the oldest ever mine was actually in Colombia but we Indians beg to differ. It is very interesting, and I have fought over this. I fought with Mr. Gueblin, our Swiss dealer. I said, “How can you say this? I mean, every Old Mine stone I send to you in Switzerland, you say is Colombian. I am sorry, this fetches me 20 percent of the prices that the Old Mine would fetch me.” And it got to a point last year when Paris was building this museum of fine emeralds from all parts of the world. France was setting up a technique of dating in stone with periodicity, and they are some of the most advanced people in the world. My old client there had not bought anything from me for fifteen years. He faxed me, asking whether I could supply an Old Mine stone. I said I knew it was Old Mine but would the Europeans accept it as Old Mine? And he said, “At least, sell it to us,” and I sold it to them, and they said, “Of course, it is Old Mine, it is definitely not Colombian.”

MK: Where would this Old Mine be, speculatively at least?
YD: Anywhere in India, because all the Maharajas wore Old Mine.

MK: So, the current belief that there were no emerald mines in India, and all the emeralds were imported via the Spanish ships from South America; do you question that?
YD: Yes, I do question that.

MK: Talking about Old Mine emeralds, when you look at a gem, what are the characteristics you look for that lead you to think that it is an Old Mine emerald?
YD: It isn’t something that is very tangible, and it is not something that can be explained very easily. If you break it down to its components, it is very difficult to define Old Mine quality. But almost all pear pairs are certainly Old Mine. For example, if you look at an Old Mine necklace of beads, it is so deep, so green, there is nothing that can stand up to it, there is not anything in any other mine that even comes close to that. It is very difficult to explain. You can sense it. How do you define art, when you see a painting? It is very difficult to quantify.

MK: The Cartier book on jewellery states that the Navanagar emeralds were unequalled in quality. It also states that the Maharajas had emeralds of 56 carats each and 39 carats each. Now, how do you explain the Indian Maharaja’s obsession with the emerald gemstone? Would it have anything to do with its magical properties?
YD: I think two things. One, emerald is non-controversial in nature unlike a ruby or sapphire. Indians would never wear sapphires because of certain properties; ruby is something that will suit, maybe, a few people. Emerald is something that is pleasant and neutral, and is considered as a safe stone. It is also supposed to have prophylactic properties.

MK: The Nizam of Hyderabad’s collection was fabled. Everybody was in awe of his collection of emeralds. Have you ever seen some of it? I mean, how did he build up this legendary collection?
YD: I have not seen the entire collection but we own part of it. My father, when he was asked to assess the Nizam’s jewellery in the 40’s, spent a few days in Hyderabad, making a total assessment, and he bought a large number of stones from the Nizam, especially the Old Mine pears which today, even if you pay money, you would not see one. Incidentally, when I talked to my father about emeralds, he used to talk about the Nizam, the Aga Khan and the Shah of Iran’s emeralds. No stone I ever showed him impressed him because what my father saw, my brother and I put together haven’t seen. A fine stone is seldom bought for re-sale. It ends up as a consumer item.

MK: You were saying that jewellery should not be seen as an investment.
YD: It is the wrong line to sell people that jewellery will appreciate in value. It is the sort of gift you would give your wife or daughter or mother or sister. You cannot put a price on these things. Tell me honestly, what is an investment today? Gold, I thought was an investment, came crashing down; property has come crashing down; stocks and shares have crashed. So, I have no idea today as to what constitutes an investment. This is the wrong line to sell people. You are conning people for the wrong reason, in order to transact a sale.

MK: What is the future of Jaipur in the world emerald trade?
YD: I think Jaipur has a terrific future. You have to be in with it, three steps ahead of the competition. In my father’s time, we used to have 20 buyers a day. Now, we don’t have 20 buyers in a year! So, it is the Durlabhji name that is trusted and counts, and we have to ensure that we give value for money.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ROMANCING THE STONE

The magnetism of gems is impossible to resist if one’s family has been in the trade for seven generations, and this certainly holds true for Yogendra Durlabhji of Jaipur, the capital of the Indian state of Rajasthan.
“I tried very hard to break away from the clan’s tradition,” said the sportsman and social activist turned businessman. “I even changed my name, calling myself Yogi Jain, and taught at Doon School. But the lure of gems was too strong. After all, it has been in the blood for seven generations.”
Durlabhji was in Dubai recently where he took the opportunity to exhibit a stunning collection of emerald jewellery.
Indeed, looking at the necklaces, bangles, earrings, rings and loose stones casually displayed on a table – the deep green stones catching and reflecting light – one understood why it’s so easy to yield to the romance of handling and working with emeralds.
Reflecting on the family’s history with emeralds, Durlabhji said, “We can trace it back to 1908 when Durlabhji Tribhuvan, one of my fore-fathers, came to Jaipur from Morvi, a centre for jewellery.”
Then, over the next few decades, while the business prospered, the family built up an international clientele. In fact, Khailshankar, Durlabhji’s father, then settled in Paris, and stayed there till the start of World War II.
Later, on his return to Jaipur, Khailshankar began to have the stones cut and polished there, and this is when the company became an international leader in the emerald trade.
Another audacious move that put the company in the limelight was when “my father capitalised on a meeting with Tiny Rowland to purchase and process the entire production of the Sandwana mine,” said Durlabhji.
Sandwana was a new mine in Southern Rhodesia in the fifties that reputedly produced some of the finest emeralds in the world.
But being in the limelight has been nothing new for the family. In fact, during the Second World War, Khailshankar went to Colombia and bought up the entire production worth $2 million, a fortune in those days. This made it to the front page of the New York Times.

Khailshankar also set up the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council of India, becoming its founder Chairman.
Durlabhji, meanwhile, tried his hardest to stay away from the family business, concentrating on his education and taking up a teacher’s job at Doon School and later, at Mayo College.
“I used to be called Jain as big names create barriers, and I wanted to be accepted for myself. Also, I wanted to achieve something on my own. I went to London and Cambridge for a few years for research, and on my return to Jaipur, I wanted to work in the rural areas and help the poor. But I got pulled into the gemstone business.
“However, despite the fact that I am now a full time businessman, I am closely involved with the various charitable trusts that we have, including a large charitable hospital which was established in 1971 and was opened by (former Indian prime minister) Indira Gandhi. We have also built a hospice for the terminally ill so that people who have been abandoned by society and are without hope can die in dignity.”
Durlabhji has also been passionately involved with sports. He captained St. Stephen’s College and Delhi University in squash, represented the College at tennis and water polo, represented Cambridge University and the county in squash and Churchill College at cricket, tennis, badminton and hockey. He captained Rajasthan at squash and tennis, and was nationally ranked in squash. He has also formed a sports trust to promote Indian sportsmen.
Regarding his own training in the gemstone trade, he says, “I sat with Nissarji, a craftsman who is considered the best in the world and learnt from him. He knows more than the top jewellers of Fifth Avenue or anywhere else.”
About his visit to Dubai, he said that he is contemplating setting up a regular outlet here.

What do you do when you want to splurge a few lakhs of rupees on an emerald of your fancy? You go to the internationally acclaimed Durlabhjis, of course. Yogi Durlabhji, whose family has been in the business for seven generations.

AMAN NATH (AN) interviews
YOGENDRA DURLABHJI (YD)
for Delhi Times, New Delhi at the Oberoi
at an exclusive private viewing of his gems
on Friday, 28th October, 1994

AN: What is it that makes emeralds unique?
YD: Emeralds are unique because of their colour, lustre, purity and cut. They also contain ‘jardin’ which, to the common man, means inclusions. The ‘jardin’ is what distinguishes the emeralds from glass, and thus contributes to its uniqueness.

AN: But why does the world make such a fuss about diamonds?
YD: Yes, everybody makes a fuss about diamonds, and for that we have to be grateful to De Beers, who have spent millions of dollars to promote and advertise diamonds. Also, De Beers have closely monitored the sale of diamonds internationally. They control the entire network, from production to sales. They can withdraw or release diamonds whenever they wish.
The coloured stones’ industry is not controlled by a monolithic group but by several competitors who are, forever, gunning for one another. There is no way that they can all come together and promote emeralds in the fashion that the De Beers group has promoted diamonds.

AN: As a Durlabhji, can you briefly tell why emeralds have always caught the fancy of emperors, and now of the rich and famous?
YD: Because emeralds possess a beauty of their own. Their uniqueness stems from their colour, and makes them worth possessing. Our family has supplied fine emeralds to the top jewellers in the world. The Durlabhji emeralds have found their way to Tiffany, Cartier, Bulgari, Boucheron, Van Cleef and Arpels, Harry Winston, etc.

AN: And what do they seek from India that the world cannot offer them?
YD: People come to India for emeralds that they cannot find anywhere else in the world. India still possesses a large reservoir of priceless emeralds which are either with the Maharajas or with the jewellers who represent the Maharaja’s interests. The craftsmanship of India is greatly appreciated all over the world. All other countries are infants compared to India. They may have the most advanced technology and the most sophisticated machines but their craftsmen do not posses the feel for emeralds that Indian craftsmen do. I can say with conviction that the best Indian craftsmen today understand emeralds much more than most top jewellers anywhere in the world.

AN: Are we competitive on prices too?
YD: Our pricing structure is extremely competitive because Jaipur is the mandi (world centre) for emeralds. Generations of craftsmen have hewn emeralds from the rough, and continue to do so today. The price varies from Re. 1 a carat to $ 100,000 a carat. Each special emerald thus created is a piece of art, very much like a fine painting or a beautiful sculpture. Human labour in India is still cheaper than the machines in Tel Aviv.

AN: Isn’t that still too expensive for the rupee earners?
YD: There is a myth that Indians cannot afford fine emeralds or fine jewellery. This is completely untrue today. If I had trusted and reliable girls to represent me in major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Madras, Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc., I would happily stop all exports. You must realise that the scenario in India has changed radically. Earlier, there were only two leading families in the country viz., Tatas and Birlas. Today, there are several hundred, with five to 10 smaller units in each family. This list is ever-expanding. Even if I pull out all the stops, and use all my resources, I will not be able to cater to all the potential buyers that exist in Indian society today.

AN: What are the hallmarks of the best emeralds?
YD: The hallmarks of the best emeralds are deep green colour (like the Sandwana emeralds) or a yellow green colour (like the Colombian emeralds) and the purity, lack of inclusion and, most importantly, the cut.

AN: Do you want to talk about the most fabulous stones your family has handled?
YD: It would not be discreet on my part to talk about them. The ethics of our trade also demands that we do not disclose the names of our buyers.

AN: Are mounted emeralds more popular in India than loose stones and cabochons?
YD: Of late, fashions have changed, and people who used to prefer loose stones earlier are no longer interested in working with designers and manufactures of jewellery. Internationally, too, people prefer mounted jewellery, and stone dealers who have made a quantum leap from gems to jewellery have stolen a march over their rivals.

AN: The Ambassador of Colombia told me of new emerald mines that they have discovered with the promise of great emeralds. What could this do to the market?
YD: For the time being, there is a tremendous drop in the prices of Colombian emeralds as they are artificially treated and hence, not respected by the business community. They are considered synthetics or artificial stones because of opticon treatment that enhances their beauty temporarily; the colour and the lustre fade after some time.