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Gaudy gift graces jewelry showcase
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FarkRAPID CITY — Rich Baumann doesn’t make a habit of displaying jewelry that he doesn’t expect to sell. But he made an exception for the jewel-studded walrus tusk.
“It’s not something that you’d ever wear, but it’s a real conversation piece,” Baumann, owner of Neugebauer’s Jewelery, said Sunday. “It’s so outrageously gaudy that it’s cool.”
It sells for a cool $30,000, making it the gaudiest and most expensive individual piece of jewelry in the store.
“We’ve got a $20,000 watch, and I suppose I could take some of the bigger diamonds and put them in a really nice ring worth more than $30,000,” Baumann said. “But for an individual piece, it’s probably the most expensive.”
The piece arrived last week from Thomas Henning, a gem cutter and jewelry artist from Bellevue, Iowa. Henning began work on the creation as a gift for his wife. But as it grew in size and gaudy splendor, she suggested it might be more than she cared to wear.
“She informed me that she wouldn’t be comfortable wearing such an extravagant piece of jewelry,” Henning wrote in a letter that accompanied the piece. “I understood, and that’s when things kind of got out of control. The fantasy portion of my mind kicked in, and this is what I came up with.”
It’s a carved walrus tusk decorated with an assortment of colored stones and 31 diamonds. It sits on a 14-carat-gold platform and a brass stand. Henning had help from other artists in putting together the piece, which has a Swahili name that means “gift for a prince.”
The piece is on display in the front showcase at Neugebauer’s. It has attracted some attention — but no princely purchase offers so far. Baumann isn’t expecting any, either.
“For most guys in the mood for Christmas shopping, this wouldn’t be a typical purchase,” he said. “The quality of work is just outstanding. But I don’t know that anybody would ever buy it.”
That includes Baumann, who is simply displaying the piece for Henning.
“We know this guy. He’s a gem cutter. He’s becoming very well recognized in our industry,” Baumann said. “We said we’d display it, probably for a month or so. It’s all up to him.”
Unless, of course, they hear from a prince who needs to finish his Christmas shopping.
Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com
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