Inside the Jewel Vault with Eve Goldberg

INSIDE THE JEWEL VAULT WITH EVE GOLDBERG

Welcome to Inside the Jewel Vault hosted by me, jeweller and gemmologist Jessica Cadzow-Collins. In this episode, I have the honour of speaking with Eve Goldberg, one of the principals of William Goldberg Diamonds, New York's prestigious diamond jewellery house. Following in her father's legendary footsteps, she and her family continue to offer the world's most beautiful diamonds, sharing these spellbinding gems with a new generation of global contemporary customers.

I want to hear from you!  What special treasures would you put into your fantasy jewel vault, and why?  Every so often I’ll compile your stories into a podcast of their own.  So please email me: jessica@juraster.com

Produced by Lizzie Wingham. Engineered by Asa Bennett.

Welcome, Eve. I can't wait to see what treasures you have for us Inside the Jewel Vault.

Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to share everything in my jewel vault.

Great. Well, yeah, I've seen some pretty big twinkling in here and there are some spectacular things, I imagine a lot of pieces with personal stories. So can't wait to hear all about them.  So let’s just set the scene – your father was a true legend in diamonds, and he founded the business in 1952 in New York, but he sadly passed away in 2003, tell us a bit about him!

So my father, as everybody said and was very true, he was larger than life. He was one of the most respected men in our industry, not just here in New York, but around the world globally because our business was always a global business. Even though we were based here in New York, our business was everywhere else in the world and did a lot of traveling.

And no matter where he went, he would walk down the street and people would recognize him and people would, I remember walking down 47th Street in New York with him one time and it was exhausting. It was exhausting because every person had to touch him or stop him or talk to him and they would thank him and I would look, would say, thank you so much, Mr. Goldberg, but weren't for you. I never would have left the company I was with and started my own business. I never would have done this. I never would have been able to do that. Thank you for your guidance. Thank you for this.

And I would look at him and I go, Dad, who was that? And he goes, I have no idea. And I would be like, I'd be like, ‘cause there was so many people he had helped in this industry. Like he loved lifting people up. Loved helping people. He loved teaching, like teaching, he should have been a teacher. So he loved educating people about diamonds and he had such a passion for it, it literally like oozed from him.

When you were young, did he inspire you to want to work for him?

You know, growing up, I didn't, I don't think growing up I knew that I was going to come into this business. Although, I did write something, I remember we did something like when I was in eighth grade or something, we had to write up like what we thought we were gonna do in the future. And at that time I did write that I thought I was gonna go and work for my father. But after that, I didn't actually think I was gonna do it. Family businesses are complicated. Family business.

No, so there was no pressure. Yeah, well, it's good that there was no pressure. That's a testament to your parents. But yeah, so as a woman taking on the footsteps of your father and this legendary name, William Goldberg Diamonds, how is that? I mean, how do you feel?

Well, it's not me alone, obviously. It's my brother. My brother is the president of the company, then myself and my brother-in-law, Saul, and my brother-in-law Barry, and then my nephew Ben - all work together now. But yes, it's very, very much family hands-on. And really, most of our big clients are family businesses as well. It's not even like we tried that, but it just

So it's a family, very much family hands-on.  It sort of naturally happened that people who are most passionate about what they do, I feel are very invested in it and in our industry are very often family businesses.

But as a woman in this business, it's it was difficult. mean, it still has its challenges because it's kind of a male-dominated business, in our end of it anyway without a doubt. Right.

My father really, when we were younger, was like Saul was gonna come into the business. The heir apparent, the male, he was the oldest son, he was coming into the business. My sister and I would never have pushed to come into the business.

So tell us about your own pathway, what you chose to do instead of joining the business and where you grew up and studied.

So I worked as, I studied journalism when I was in university and NYU, NYU, New York University.  Grew up in New York, grew up in New York. I was born in Brooklyn and when I was about 17, my family, my parents, my father wanted to be close to the office. He wanted to walk to the office. That's what he needed to do.

So they bought an apartment in the city. We moved to the city when I was like 17. I went to NYU, which was also in New York City. Studied journalism. I loved writing. My whole life I've kept journals. So I have like, from when I am five years old, literally, I have little diaries. During COVID, I finally organize them. So one day I can write the book. But I've journaled everything in my life. So I really, I love that and I want it to work in that field. And I did, I worked actually for a jewellery magazine. I was the editor, the executive editor of a jewellery magazine, which doesn't exist anymore. And I kind of loved that. And then I went through some things in my life and I moved to Italy and I became an aerobics instructor. So that was like, yeah, totally different. Exactly.

Totally different!  So tell us what sort of stories were you covering?

So I was doing, I mean, it was really, was called Executive Jeweler Magazine. It was a big, I mean, I still have copies of it here. It was a big magazine. was like, whatever, the big size. It wasn't like a normal size. It was like this big size magazine, beautiful.

We would have all these different stories about the diamond and jewellery world. I think I even had my father write an article one time. It was fun. So I did that for like two years.

And then I worked in a for a fashion jewellery company for a short period of time also. And what else did I do? And then yeah, and then and then I got married. I got married for a very short period of time.

Then after that, then I got divorced very quickly. And then I decided to move to Italy. And that's when I became an aerobics instructor.

Amazing. Where in Italy did you live?

I lived in Florence. Yes. And it was best. I was there for a year and I would have stayed longer, but my, my sister was having a baby.  My father said, just come back while Deborah's on maternity leave. Just come back for six weeks and take her place. Here I am 38 years later, okay? This was a six weeks, that's all I was coming for was to take my sister, yeah.

That's the longest mat. Cover! So let's have a look in the the jewel vaults. We've got item one. We have a beautiful diamond shaped L here and I presume that has a family. So tell us about your L brooch. Is it a brooch or a pendant?

Okay.  L is for Lili.  It's a brooch, it's a brooch. And yeah, it's big also. I mean, yes, and it's simple. Like it really, it's simple elegance. And my mom, who's 95 years old now, really, that's who she is in a nutshell. Like simple elegance, that's who she always was. And she had the most beautiful jewellery, always.  Big and bold.

And she wore that all the time. She wore that ‘L’ just like, you know, on a simple, you know, black dress or a blouse or like whatever she was. She loved brooches, my mom loved them. Like had such a collection of them. She still has a collection of them. And that was always her thing.

And I remember her always like showing me how to put it on. And I would always put mine on the wrong side. And she would always like tell me how to put it on - the right side, maybe? Whatever I did, it was always wrong. She was always like putting it on for me and kind of like showing me how to do it.

And it just like to me, it's so she is, she's the matriarch of this family. She's the glue of this family always like kept peace no matter what. My father was always, she still does, but you my father was a tough guy, was a tough, tough boss. And she was always there by his side, like whispering in his ear, like the really the woman behind the man.

Like the ‘L’ just represents my mom and she's like amazing, a rock, like this woman, she's always been there for all of us. I just, when I see that L, I can't think of anything but her and like my childhood growing up.

Wonderful. I can hear the smile in your voice when you're talking about your mum and this special piece.

She's amazing. She's amazing. She's still amazing.

So your father started the business himself and must have worked very, very long hours to do so. And growing up with a father who was so invested, he literally was his business. Was your mum spending an equal amount of time at work or did she wish you stay at home with you guys?

She stayed at home with us until maybe I was, I don't know, 10 or 12 or something. Then she went and worked with my dad and she became our CFO. she was the one who, she was by his side. She travelled with him most places. She took care of all our finances. She dealt with the banks. She dealt with the, you know any of our vendors and she was, know, if Lili Goldberg called, you owed us money, Lili Goldberg called, you're going to pay, you know, it was like she was a force. My God.

Yeah, she's a great role model. Yeah, fantastic role model for a woman in business like yourself and your sister before she went on her mat leave.

She's honestly the best role model, even though she was like, you my dad who's this, you know, force, and she was kind of quiet in the background. But he listened to her, and she was extremely smart, great with numbers.

She was not a lady who lunches. She never went out to lunch. She was in here in the office all the time. And even after my father passed away, up until a couple of years ago, her desk is still here. We have not taken away her desk. Anytime she comes to visit, that is her desk. She got all her pictures up on the wall and everything.

So I see in here in your selection, Eve, you've got a beautiful deco brooch. when I saw the image that was sent through of this before we started talking, it really encapsulated the chic metropolitan skyline and the design of New York. Tell me why diamond set deco brooch is here.

First of all, I love that period and I love anything that's deco and my mom did also.  I mean, she loved more than anything, she loved estate pieces. So, you know, if I looked in her vault, which I do very often, most of her pieces are estate pieces that she would show, you know, she would buy herself or show my dad and he would buy for her. She wasn't into new pieces at all. And even when we made her new pieces, they always kind of had an antique feel to it.

So my mom and dad were like quintessential New Yorkers. There was no question about it. They lived in New York City and they lived on Fifth Avenue. They did everything here in the city. They were very active. They belonged to all the museums. They would take all the grandchildren to the museums, to Central Park, to the zoo, just walk downtown, walk around, go to restaurants.

My father was very proud of being a New Yorker and it really meant a lot to him. So this kind of symbolizes that.

Also, my mom, this brooch comes apart into two pieces and she used to wear these when she would go out, like, you know, for a black tie affair, she would wear a very simple black dress and she would wear these like simple black shoes and she would put the shoe clips on there. And it was just like.  You could not see them.  She would totally wear these.

What?

Yes, yes, as shoe clips. She's and like I said, she's very understated, my mom, very understated in the way she dresses and everything. But she would just wear the and people would just be looking down at her feet and going, what is that? You know, and she would dance in these and everything. And they were just these fabulous. You see what it looks like, these diamond shoe clips. And that was Lili Goldberg was like, yeah, like no big deal. You know, she's wearing shoes.

That's so amazing.

She's wearing diamond shoe clips on these like fabric shoes that she would have – a black dress and these shoe clips and nice pair of earrings and like call it a day, you know?

The ultimate, like the ultimate luxury. Yes.

Yeah, yeah, and like some people like wouldn't notice them. They wouldn't notice.  The people who knew, knew, you know?

That's just the best. Fantastic. And so tell us about this next item in here, which is so totally, it's another brooch, but it's so completely different. Tell me about this.

Yeah, it's she bought that from somebody from an estate dealer here in New York. I don't think it was signed. You know, she she did like later in life, she always wanted to buy signed pieces, but this one was not signed, but it was.

This is an antique diamond brooch designed like a long spray of vine leaves with small bunches of grapes.

Yeah, exactly. It's a very it's it looks like I can't even describe how long it is, but it probably goes from your shoulder down to like your mid chest. And it's just leaves like flat flowers and leaves in silver and diamonds. But it's very old. It has a very old feel to it. So it just looks it looks blackish, you know, grayish almost. Right.

Well, the silver is oxidised around the diamonds, but I mean, you can tell this is old, it must be 200 years old.

Probably. it's it's en tremblant, which when I went to an exhibit when I was in, I think it was in Rome years ago, in Bulgari had this exhibit there, and they had this collection of these en tremblant brooches there. And I just, when I saw them and the way they were lit, and you can see the movement in all of the leaves and everything. It's fantastic.

And then I came back here and I took a look again at this brooch my mother has and it gave me a whole different perspective on it. It's like when you move, it's hard to even describe it. It just shivers almost. It looks like they're just shivering a little bit.

Yes, that's a good word..

But also like fabulous, but understated. And you can also wear it with nothing else. It's same thing. You she always had these like simple black shoes, like a simple black dress. It would just wear that piece. Sometimes with the shoe clips also, but not always, but she would just wear that piece and it sits here in the safe. And I always take it out and look at it. And I'm like, I'm going to wear that one day. I need an occasion to wear it. Cause it, yeah, I don't know why I haven't done it yet, but I need to. I need to. Yeah.

It will shiver just like you said. The diamonds just look like they're breathing. The piece looks like it's alive. It's just wonderful. So we've got your three pieces. Half of your vault are pieces from your mum, Eve!

So that just is such a...That's a good way of explaining it.  Well, one day maybe they'll be in my vault.

But I love the stories. This is what it's so special.

Well, that's what, but I think that's what jewellery is about also.  You know, jewellery is about the stories. It's not, if it's just a piece of jewellery that doesn't have anything behind it, to me, it's just a piece of jewellery. It's not as interesting. I feel like everything, you know, when you buy yourself a piece of jewellery, you get it as a gift or you just, whatever it is, you know, you've seen it. There's always something behind it or there should be anyway, unless, you know, if it's an interesting piece of jewellery.

You’ve told us about how you left Florence to be temporary cover your sister Deborah’s maternity leave – what was it like to be back in New York working in the family business with your dad as your boss?  

You know, growing up, I was always my dad's favourite. I was the baby of the family and I could do anything I wanted. I was the one that always asked for a raise and allowance. You know, I would sit on his lap and say, Daddy, could we… like Deborah, my sister, my brother would send me in because they knew that he couldn't say no to me.

But then when I started working for him, things changed a little bit because he was a very, very, very demanding.

I was not happy. I'm not going to lie to you. All I wanted to do was go back to Florence. That was really, I was like, what am I doing here? This is not what I wanted. I have to be honest about it. It took a little time because my sister came back from maternity leave and then there was really no role for me.

My brother had a role. My sister had a role. My brother-in-law had a role. And I came into this and I was like, OK, everybody has a job to do. And I really like I don't know where I fit in. So it took it took me time. I was really not happy. And my father kind of told me I had to find my niche, like I had to find my way. So I actually worked on getting us. This was before anybody in our industry had computers. And I set up a system for us to be completely computerized back then. This was whatever, 38 years ago

Operations.  That's amazing considering you'd started out on a very creative footing with the Executive Jewelry Magazine.  Jewellery is complicated. Systems are really complicated. And then there's this additional thing that you're doing there in New York. You're taking rough and you're turning rough diamonds into multiple polished finished stones and then sending them all over the world. So it must have been crazy to have done that.

Right.  Well, it was crazy. Well, we also, at that time, I think we were probably, we probably weren't really doing jewellery yet. We were still doing just loose stones. So that was, you know, it changed later.

We would start with layouts, right? So everything was loose stones. And then we would do layouts that we would send. We'd take wax and we would lay out 50 stones on the wax and then send it out to Moussaieff in London, who is one of my father's best clients, or Graff. Those were his biggest clients. he would sell them the stones.

I like the, I definitely like the creative side of it a lot more. Definitely, you know, so when we got into jewellery, it became really even like much more fun for me.

Yeah, yeah.

So I have had the great honour of coming to visit you. It was in the very early stages of my career. So it would be at least 35 years ago. And I remember being shown the cutting workshops at your offices there in New York. And when was it that you started cutting in-house?

I mean, I, that's a very good question, but it was way before I started in this business. Always, always. don't remember. Once, I mean, once he started William Goldberg as a company, we were, he had a factory that we were, we were cutting diamonds. So I think it's, it was always, that was his love and his passion. He, he loved that end of it. He loved going into the factory and hanging out with the cutters and, you know, watching them cut the stones and be involved in every nuance, every step of the way, you know, and he always.

Like he didn't know how to cut himself. He tried cutting when he was younger and he always said he was all thumbs and that he burned all the stones. So the guy that he was cutting for basically threw him out. So that was not his thing, but he still, it's funny because he loved, he loved that someone else doing it, you know, and he loved watching and he loved the process, but he couldn't actually do it himself. But he had such a great eye. Like he was really an artist. Really, the man was very, very creative.

And he could look at a stone and he could know that it needed that extra little something, even though he couldn't verbalize it, he couldn't say, you have to put an extra facet there or you have to open this up. He would just say, there's something, it's not 100%. You have to do something to it. And then the cutters would go back and say, oh God, like I thought I finished the stone and look at it again and say, he was right. That's right. And then they'd bring it back and he'd be like, it's, it had to be perfect.

He was a perfectionist without a doubt.

Yeah, well certainly with fancy coloured diamonds, it's really, you can't cut by computer. There's no such thing as perfect proportion. You have to change the facets to optimize the incredible natural colour that the stone has plus the sparkle and so on. 

So is this why this amazing item here, this is we're onto item four now, which is just spellbinding.

Tell us what it is first, please Eve, and then tell us why you put it in here.

So that is, right. So that, okay, so that is the Lily that we have many things named for my mom. That's the fancy colour Lili bracelet. So my mom was the first one to have it. My dad loved fancy colour diamonds, know, every, you know, pinks, blues, greens, oranges, yellows, like whatever he could find. And the original story was that we had this.

This is really not a great story. We had this amazing collection called the Lily collection, and he collected these stones from mom over the years from my mom, and he them in a box in his safe. And there were like 30 stones in there of the most amazing, like purples and lime greens and oranges and red and like crazy colours that you can't imagine. And there was a story where we were having it. It was set by somebody and my mom didn't like it.

So, we were sending them to Joel Rosenthal, JAR, who was going to make a piece for my mom, right, in Paris, but they went to Geneva because he was picking them up in Geneva and the person who had them in Geneva had a robbery and they were stolen. And this, yeah, and this was like this collection was in the Museum of Natural History in New York, this collection.

No!

My dad had collected it for 30 years and they were like, I mean, it was our pride and joy, anybody that would come up, we'd pull this out of the safe and say, it was just amazing. So, you my parents were never ones to like stay upset about things. They were able to have this ability to like move on. Something was lost, it's a loss, we move on. So my father started collecting stones again and collected these stones for my mom. We turned it into this simple bracelet.

And my mom, it's got, it's beautiful stones, like the same kind of stones that he had collected. I think there are maybe 30 of them here. I'm not sure, but he made a new collection. Definitely not as good, but we created this. It's just a tennis bracelet. It's so simple. I you see it, it's just like, it's got every colour of the rainbow. And my mom wore it with a bunch of other bracelets every day. I mean, this bracelet was like half a - or a million dollars probably, today at least. No, back then, back then it wasn't as much, but I'm saying today way more than that. But she also wore it so casually that it's like, if you know you know, if you don't know, you think it's bubblegum. Know what I'm saying? Like, it just, it's most special bracelet. So since then we've made others like that and we've sold them, but she's got the original the most and it's, yeah, that's Lili.

Priceless.

That's the original Lili Bracelet,

So that is, this is the original Lili bracelet. Yeah, was, yeah, just the photo alone gives you an idea. There are some spectacular colours in here. And of course your father would have been collecting these colours when they weren't a big thing. You know, before they created this very elite craze for collecting and investing and speculating in fancy coloured diamonds would have become a thing.

He was ahead of his time for sure. Yeah. I mean, I wish we, it's, yeah, we don't, we try not to go back and think about it, but when I think about that collection, I'm like, my God, I wish, I wish.

Don't look back. You're not going that way. Don't look back. You're not going that way. I know I love that saying because whatever you can't look back. Yes.

We've got to move forward.

But she wore this every day, every day, every day. 100%.

So yeah, and that represents your father to you as well. So one of the amazing things your father did was come up with the most beautiful diamond cut, the Ashoka cut, which was just, I mean, I don't know, I just don't understand how nobody had thought of that, cut before, but it is beautiful. It's so elegant and it's effortless. It's incredibly must be maddeningly complicated to cut a good Ashoka with the proportions and make it pleasing, but it can only be cut by hand. Is that right?  Tell us about the William Goldberg Ashoka cut just to explain to anyone who hasn't had the joy of seeing a picture of one.

Sure, sure. there was an original Ashoka cut. We can't take credit for the very first one. The very first one was 41 carats, D. Flawless, Golconda. It was, Harry Winston sold the original Ashoka cut. So this was...

But this is a legendary, this is like a named gem from way, back, isn't it?

Exactly, exactly. So it was named for this Buddhist warrior Ashoka who, and the name Ashoka, the word Ashoka means ‘removal of sorrow’. So when the original Ashoka was at auction at Sotheby's, my brother and sister-in-law were there to try and buy it, but were outbid on the stone. so it went, it was sold by this guy, Roberto Polo, who basically, I don't know if you remember, it was a story and he basically had to sell everything. And it was originally owned by Maria Felix, who is this Mexican, like they called her the Mexican Elizabeth Taylor. And she's if you look her up, she's like fabulous. She wore all this big Cartier jewellery, like the big crocodile alligator necklace, like huge, huge jewellery. And she owned the Ashoka. And there are pictures. If you go online, you will see pictures of her wearing this enormous 41 carat Ashoka.

(Learn more about the history of the Ashoka on William Goldberg's website)

And then she, then it ended up belonging to Roberto Polo. He sold it. We tried to buy it, could not buy it. We don't know where it is today. We have no idea. We've tried to find the original stone, but it's nowhere.

But we just became obsessed with it. And we just did all this research and development and created an Ashoka that's a little bit more modern, definitely more brilliant than the original and patented it and trademarked it and made it our own. And when we started cutting it, we cut it a few stones here and there, a few big stones. Couldn't find the rough because you need a special long rough in order to cut the Ashoka. So was very difficult to find.

My father loved it, but my father actually don't think he ever believed we would make it into the business that we've made it into today. Cause he said, you'll never find the rough. And to my brother's credit, I mean, my brother really like put the effort into it and really, you know, has helped make this into an amazing business and very important part of our business today.

And we call it an elongated cushion cut with rounded corners. But it's got the same number of facets as a round stone. It's got a fire to it and a brilliance that's magical. You can't compare it to any other cut actually. It doesn't have the facets of a radiant cut or anything like that. So it's much more subtle, understated, and it lends itself to amazing jewellery designs. It's so much fun to design jewellery with this. You can go very Art Deco, can go very like architectural if you want to. And you know, it's we do some amazing pieces with it. It's a lot of fun.

Yeah, yes, I do drool over your Instagram feed, whether you're sharing off the latest Ashoka pieces, but there are a few jewellers here in the UK that have worked with you and stock Ashoka, Boodles is one.

But Boodles is pretty exclusive. They're exclusive now with the Ashoka in the UK. They're exclusive and they're amazing, amazing. They do some incredible designs.

Yeah, well, I mean, like you say, it has such a beautiful character, this cut, that it turns the diamond into something that really is elegant, but exciting. And it's very hard to beat, really. Once you've seen an Ashoka, you're just going to be disappointed with a cushion or a radiant or a princess. And who wants a brilliant?  And an emerald cut just hasn't the sparkle. So yeah, the Ashoka really is very, very special.

And did you ever... Is that, you trying to cut an Ashoka, cut?

Yeah, God, yes. That was me trying to cut a diamond, which requires a lot more patience, a lot more patience than I actually have. And my dad allowed me to, I said, I really want to learn how to cut. And he said to me, the guys in the factory are going to be uncomfortable with you being there. And I was like, why? said, well, they get there in the morning and they undress and they put on their, I said, whatever, they'll undress in the bed. They don't care that they didn't care that I was there. They actually loved it. And I, would come in very early in the morning and put on my jacket and learn to cut. was probably like my father, never gonna be good at it. But at least I had the experience of doing it. I did it for a couple of weeks, but it was just like a couple of hours a day, because it was needed at my death. My father was calling for me at nine o'clock already, so I didn't get much time. But it was a good experience, I have to say. I really loved it. It was really fun.

Yeah. Yeah. it is, it's such an art, isn't it? because you have to sit there and peer at some tiny, sub millimetre square patch of diamond for hours if you're cutting by hand. You know, it is just not for the faint hearted.

Yes!  And we actually just started an internship here for cutting, learning how to cut. We just had our first one. Yeah, yeah. So we're doing that now with FIT, the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. We're doing a program with them because it is an art form that's here in New York is dying because there's very few factories left. And so we're trying to like, you know, bring it back now. And we just we just had like our first intern who learned how to cut in the show.

Excellent. Excellent.  So moving on with your vault here. There's a ring here with a very, very beautiful and large, I must say, emerald.

Those are Ashokas on the side.

They look wonderful with the emerald. So is that your engagement ring? Tell us about it.

So that's my engagement ring. So my husband.  I got remarried 12 years ago and my husband was, it was crazy story, were at somebody's like black tie affair and my father's very good friend, my father had already passed away. His very, very close friend who was in the industry got to meet my husband for the first time who was not my husband, it was my boyfriend. And he gave him his business card and he said, when you're ready, give me a call.

And I looked at Neil and I said, are you kidding me? If we get engaged, you're not going to him. You can go to my family. That's ridiculous.

But he was this Holocaust survivor, old gentleman, like the most beautiful human being that you can imagine. Love this man. And my husband also went to a rabbi and the rabbi said, if you're going to get engaged to Eve, don't buy her a diamond, buy her something else.

And so he went to to Maurice, he went to this guy and Maurice showed him all these different stones and he saw this emerald, said, it's a really special emerald, it's beautiful. And my husband bought the emerald and gave it to me in an old setting with a design from our designer at the time here that had two Ashokas on the side. So he gave me the actual ring, which was with like baguettes or something on the side. And he gave me with this, you know, with this drawing with the of this ring. And we turned we turned it into this. We put Ashoka's on the side because he knew that I needed to make it like it had to have Goldberg in there, you know. But it has so much meaning to me because it comes from this amazing human being who also passed away.

So to me, it's like the perfect ring and it was genius not to give me a diamond because no diamond would have been big enough or good enough. And that is a fact. I'm sorry. No, it would have made that just would have been right. You know what I'm saying? So like to buy me an emerald was genius. And I love this ring.

It has a lot going on and there are a lot of great like feelings and memories in this ring.

Totally. That's just magic. So that was item five. We've got one last piece in here. So would you like to tell us what this is?

So, right. So this one, which I'm wearing, I wear it all the time. My husband laughs at me because I wear this huge, like it's an eight carat Ashoka that I wear around my neck. And I wear this every day. So I am my mother. I've turned into my mother. I mean, I literally wear this all the time, just hanging casually.

You don’t put it on your... Not on your shoes yet!

It's just, no, not on my shoes, but it's just hanging very casually from like… my daughter, actually, I used to hang it from this other chain. My daughter was, who's also like in the jewellery business, a different end of it, was like, Mom, you got to make it more fun, more casual, and you have to put some charms on it. So, it's this beautiful, very simply set in a bezel, eight-carat Ashoka that I love. And I can hang it from other things as well if I want.

And then I have a little R on here because I had my first grandchild. And my daughter gave this to me. Her name is Roxy. So everybody has to kind of question why you're wearing an R randomly, but it's Roxy. I don't have the other one hanging from here.

Then the other one, which shows in the picture, is a 10-point round diamond in a yellow gold ring that my father gave me when I was 10 years old. I got that, and my sister got a 12-pointer. And it's like a little baby engagement ring. And I've had that. So I've had that for over 50 years. That's been.  Right, so that was my little ring that my dad gave me and I still have that.

And then the last one I have is what we call like the Talisman. We created this collection called the Talisman collection for the 25th anniversary of Ashoka. And it's just like the sort of the, I can't think of it, like the image of what the Ashoka looks like. It has lapis on the inside of it and it hangs usually from a little stone and it's all about ‘removal of sorrow’.

So I have my four charms and yeah, kind of hanging from like a gold chain and it's very casual, I think. And I wear it all the time. And my husband always says, what, you're gonna wear the Rock of Gibraltar again? And I'm like, it's like, what am I, why not? I wear it in New York City. I'm like.

Whatever, you know what? My father always taught me like, you know, you got to, and I believe you have to wear your jewellery. There's no sense in like saving it for special occasions, keeping it in the vault, you know, it's like, you got to wear it and enjoy it. that's kind of like, this is what William Goldberg always made was very big, important pieces of jewellery in platinum. That's how we started - you know, big drippy necklaces and earrings and chandelier earrings and things like that, which we still do, by the way, because there's still clients who love that.

Well, yeah, in the Middle East for wedding sets and so on, you mean.

Exactly. I'm not doing the computer systems anymore. I'm really the creative director at William Goldberg and I'm and yeah, exactly doing what I want to do. And so I work with, you know, with our jewellery creating amazing, you know, fun, but like wearable and somewhat more casual pieces.  Contemporary and like, things that you don't have to just pull out of the vault once a year to wear. And we're working a little bit more with yellow gold now, which we really never did. And it's working. It's a lot of fun.

If you've got that sort of lifestyle and you know you're going to be safe wearing these pieces, then that's wonderful. Why not wear them? Yeah, it's a fantasy for so many women.

I mean, I haven't.  We have - I have clients who wear like big necklaces to go to the beach. You know what I’m saying? I was just I was somewhere recently and these we were playing pickleball and every woman was literally wearing a tennis bracelet. But like a real - like with significant stones hanging from them. I was like, I love this crowd like they were all wearing them. And I'm like, I love that when I see women like come with like wearing their jewellery, like with a pair of jeans, whatever, I'm like, it makes me so happy.

Yeah, well, they don't have to be eight carat diamonds either, know, whatever you've got, I think you have to wear it and enjoy it because you're right, you know, being frightened of losing a piece is such a sad reason not to wear something that brings you joy and makes you happy and reminds you of the special people who've given it to you.

Right. It's all about, like my father always said, he said, I put you in a business that only brings joy into people's lives. So we never have, we were never selling a diamond for a sad occasion. It's for a birthday and anniversary or just like whatever, just a, you want to gift somebody that you love with a piece or you feel like buying yourself something amazing because it makes you feel beautiful. Like how great is that to be in a business that is all about happiness and bringing joy into people's lives, which is why we love the Ashoka cut and why we kind of like really went all in with it because of the meaning, removal of sorrow or bringing joy into people's lives, which is what it should do.

And you, what's in your future plans?  You got any plans for handing on your mantle, or there's no succession plans there?

Well, listen, I have an amazing daughter that maybe one day she will decide that she wants to take over my role. But right now she's, she has, yeah, I mean, she's got the young, she's got a young child and she's got another one on the way and she is working and she likes doing her own thing. I'm trying to convince her, but we'll see. We'll see if that working in a family business. We have such an amazing relationship, my daughter and I, just, I'm so afraid of doing any harm to that, you know, of anything. So that's the challenge, but whatever, she's still young and we'll figure it out.

And I also, I actually spend time, I have a non-profit that I do, so I'm back and forth between the two. So that keeps me busy as well. So I'm not just about diamonds.  I have more in my life besides just this that kind of keeps me going. But I love this business. And I think we keep finding new clients and finding new parts of the world where there's a lot of wealth. That's what we're always chasing the wealth because there's always new wealth in different countries.

So, well, Eve, I have to come to the question that is the question that all guests have to face at some point or another.

We've got these six beautiful pieces in your vault. The first was the elegant Lili brooch.  Then we have your mother's deco brooch, the two clips that she would wear on her pumps.

Then item three is the antique spray, this long brooch. And then we've got item four, which is the fancy-coloured diamond Lili bracelet, the original Lili bracelet.

Then we have your own engagement ring, which is very special to you and completely unique.  And then item six again, very unique, your chain with the charms on it.

Out of these six amazing pieces, which one would you keep safe in the vault forever?

My God, that's a tough one. Which one would I keep safe in the vault forever?

Hmm, I have to pick one out of the six. I would probably say, I want to say my engagement ring, because my husband would be really happy if I said that. I kind of want to, kind of, that's probably, that's up there. That's in the top two. But I would say the, the, the, the long en tremblant brooch. That would be the one. Yeah, that would be the one.

Really? Wow. Why is that?

Because I think it's so special. I think it's, you know, it's something that could not be made today. I don't think there's any jeweller in the world that could create that piece today. And if they did, it would not be the same. It's just got this like old world feel to it. And it just like, you know, I think it's my Mom's and it makes me think of her. And I just think I would want to wear it.

And I mean, I love all the other pieces. Obviously, I chose them for a reason, but you making me pick one. I think that would be the one that I would choose, yeah.

That's the one. Fantastic. Well done. That's great. Well, thank you so much, Eve, for spending this time talking to us, showing us these beautiful pieces for the Vault. It's been really special.

It was fun. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about this because it's, you know what, you don't even realize it until you start talking about it, how meaningful these pieces are or how meaningful jewellery can be in the stories behind them. I don't think of it that much. So it really, gave me an opportunity to put that out there and that was really fun and special. So thanks, Jessica.

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