TIDBITS 09/27/09

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We encourage you to forward this email to friends and colleagues. ====================================== What Do They Have In Common Rod Laver, Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe, Steffi Graf, John Macinroe, Serena Williams ... etc etc etc. Stop jumping up and down. And you can lower your hands too. We all know they're tennis players. Duh.

But here's the thing of it. If you had to bestow upon one of them a perfect gift of jewelry ... what is it do you think that you would bestow?

The year is 1993. The occasion is the Kraft Women's Singles Tennis Championship. The DeBeers people have been working their collective butts off. A piece of jewelry is going to be made ... something astounding to award to the winner. It is going to be worth--in

1993--$250,000.

The diamonds are exquisite in quality. They are held in the patented, clear Carbonlokd material. This is a unique process which enhances the brilliance of diamonds by allowing light and color to shine through. Personally ... I never heard of this method ... so any and all elucidations are welcome.

When the contest is over ... the winner ... Steffi Graff ... is awarded the item. It is a life-size replica of the real thing. It contains two thousand, three hundred diamonds. Total weight is 58.80 carats. The stones are set in yellow gold.

However ... the item I am going to show you is not the original. Nay nay. It is a replica of the replica. As it turns out ... there are now two of these. The original ... commissioned by DeBeers ... and the only copy in existence which--if and when it is sold--will allow for the unique opportunity for collectors to own a piece of contemporary history.

I would like to believe that somewhere in the world there are two mantles ... both bare except for our llifesize diamond studded trophy ... a tennis ball ... in gold ... studded with diamonds ... an idealized replica of the real thing ... and an idealized replica of the replica of the real thing. How many of you can say that real quickly three times?

For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits...may I direct you to my home page at

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where you will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says Current Tidbits ... and you will see represented on our pages an image of a copy of a replica of a diamond studded tennis ball. And there ya have it. That's it for this week folks. Catch you all next week. Benjamin Mark