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House of Diamonds
| Article
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20204 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1992 |
2,592 Words |
| Author
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Taj Flynn
Taj Flynn is a free-lance journalist traveling in Europe. |
Like Dorothy looking for the Emerald City, I expected the Bruges Diamond House to be something big and sparkling, with bannered turrets rising above a throng of excited tourists. I almost walked right by the thin brick house wedged shoulder to shoulder between two other thin brick houses on a narrow residential street in the middle of Bruges
Something does flap overhead though: Two blue crowned lions wave from the house's third-story flagpole. A golden sturgeon hovers in a small nook above the door. Diamonds glitter in the windows. A hand-painted sign no bigger than the traditional doctor's shingle hangs by the door: Brugs Diamanthuis.
The heavy wooden door opens onto a second door made of plate glass. I rang the doorbell and was buzzed into the chandeliered showroom. From behind a desk heaped with papers, a tiny woman stood up and greeted with a warm handshake. Her name is Turkan Rosenhoj, and she and her husband, John, own, run, and live in the Bruges Diamond House.
Combined Aspects
The Rosenhjos are gracious and helpful, going out of their way to answer visitor's questions with true old-world courtesy. Their spacious showroom is elegantly appointed with antique Dutch cabinets and a sapphire blue rug. Their workshop employs the traditional tools for cutting and polishing diamonds.
Traditional diamond houses never combined cutting and retailing under one roof, let alone talking about the history of diamonds. Since the art of diamond polishing was established--in Bruges, not coincidentally--the workshops were discreet establishments often located in unremarkable houses. The separation between cutting and retailing continues today with more than half the world's diamonds cut in Antwerp. Quality demonstrations of diamond-cutting technique for the public are conducted in museums--including the living, working museum that is the Rosenhoj's home.
The Bruges Diamond House was born of enthusiasm and fate. A towering man with a hearty voice, John Rosenhoj was born in southern Denmark. He spent two and a half years making comic books, sculptures, and paintings at the Dutch Royal Academy of Arts before he decided that a career in the arts was too risky and went to work in a mine in Greenland. He became a mining engineer, completing degrees in building engineering and economical geology. He speaks Danish, English, German, and French fluently,
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