About Lawrence Paul
I built this site because I got tired of seeing the same useless advice repeated everywhere: "check the quality," "look at the stamp," "buy from a reputable dealer." If you're trying to figure out whether a piece is real, that advice doesn't help. I wanted to write something actually useful.
I'm Lawrence Paul, President of Spectra Fine Jewelry (World Star Trading Corp.). I've been in the Diamond District — 44 West 47th Street, New York — for over twenty years, buying and selling signed vintage and estate jewelry. That's the day job. This site is what I do with what I know.
What I actually do
Every day I'm looking at pieces: Cartier LOVE bracelets, Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra necklaces, vintage Bulgari Serpenti, Harry Winston clusters, Tiffany硬件. I handle them, examine them under magnification, take them apart when I have to, put them back together. I buy from Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, Phillips, Heritage, and smaller European auction houses — sometimes dozens of pieces a month. I also sell to those channels and to private collectors.
The other thing I do: I recut diamonds. I buy stones that were poorly cut — uneven crowns, deep pavilions, off-center tables — and I send them to a lapidary to recut for better proportions and higher GIA grades. It's satisfying work. It also teaches you exactly how much a stone's cut affects its appearance, which informs every buying decision.
What this means for authentication
When you handle thousands of real pieces, you develop a sense for what's right. You feel the weight of a correctly weighted bracelet. You recognize the particular spring in a Cartier LOVE screw mechanism. You know the difference between genuine patina and someone who deliberately darkened a new piece to fake age.
That experience is the credential. I'm not a GIA gemologist (though I work with them). I don't have a formal art history background. What I have is twenty years of looking at the real thing, every day, and occasionally getting burned when a fake was good enough to fool me — which teaches you more than any book.
This site is me trying to transfer some of that. Not to make you an expert overnight — that's not realistic — but to give you the mental framework and specific reference points so you're not completely adrift when you're evaluating a piece.
What I know best
Cartier — Every signature variation, every era's construction style, the difference between Paris-made and London-made pieces, how to spot the fakes that circulate at every price point.
Van Cleef & Arpels — The different Minaudière closures, the various Vintage Alhambra iterations, what genuine VC&A gem-setting looks like versus the convincing fakes that exist.
Bulgari — Serpenti in particular: the differences between the early pieces and later productions, the gem-setting standards, the characteristic Bulgari gold work.
Fancy color diamonds — Natural pink, blue, orange, and red. Type IIa classification. What untreated looks like versus what has been clarity-enhanced or color-treated. This is a market where the stakes are high and the fakes are sophisticated.
Unheated sapphires and rubies — Kashmir, Ceylon, Burma. What unheated stone quality looks like. The treatment disclosure problem in the market and how to protect yourself.
Why this site is free
I sell pieces. I buy pieces. I authenticate for collectors and attorneys. This site doesn't do any of that directly. It's an educational resource.
Why give it away? Because the better-informed buyers are, the more likely they are to come to me when they need a piece they can actually trust. And because the current state of "jewelry authentication information" online is mostly garbage — either brand marketing dressed up as education, or vague advice that doesn't tell you anything actionable.
I can't fix all of that. But I can put something out there that's actually honest and specific.
Spectra Fine Jewelry
My company, Spectra Fine Jewelry, handles the commercial side: buying, selling, estate liquidations, authentication consultations. If you have a piece to sell or questions about something you're evaluating, that's where to reach me.
Contact Spectra Fine Jewelry →
No affiliate links. No sponsored content. No brand partnerships. This is what I actually think.
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