What Is Rubedo?

[Dennis]

With the price of precious metals escalating, craft jewellers are exploring a wide range of alternative materials.
Tiffany & Co have developed Rubedo™, an alloy with an undisclosed formula, of a pale rose colour. They have hallmarked it themselves, they say.
The word comes from the language of alchemy. Dennis.

[lilia]

To be totally honest, it sounds like a fad to me - similar to chocolate gold a few years ago. It looks like rose gold, however the price is too low for gold. May be an alloy of copper and silver? - although I am not an expert

[ps_bond]

...the price is too low for gold.

Even thin 9ct? If they've hallmarked it themselves, does that mean it has no hallmark in the legal sense?

The colour looks similar to what I'd expect of shibuichi (75% Cu, 25% Ag), but there's no way the price could be justified for those materials... Is there?

[lilia]

but there's no way the price could be justified for those materials... Is there?

Anything is justified with Tiffany's. They are a designer brand and there are people who would pay an arm and a leg to own a piece of their jewellery (my post lady would) . Although I wouldn't dream to charge their prices on similar pieces of my jewellery.

[lesley]

I saw this a few months ago in The Sunday Times. The blurb said it was a blend of metals including copper. £6900 seems an awful lot to charge for a plain cuff but I guess they reckon they can.

[ps_bond]

Silver, gold and copper according to the Scotsman:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/rose-ti...etal-1-2194640


...and their CEO -
http://seekingalpha.com/article/4456...all-transcript

[ps_bond]

Anything is justified with Tiffany's.

Fair point. An item is worth what people are prepared to pay for it.

[lesley]

If they've hallmarked it themselves, does that mean it has no hallmark in the legal sense?

The items I've seen have T & Co, 1837 and a signature on them. Nothing about the composition of the metal.

[medusa]

The items I've seen have T & Co, 1837 and a signature on them. Nothing about the composition of the metal.

tiffany items bought in the uk at least (real ones, that is) are hallmarked. I have one of their big cuff bangles (a gift for being a brainbox at uni ) and as well as all the decorative 'hallmarks' on the front, inside it has a hallmark of about 0.5mm by 3mm.

[medusa]

have to day it's a genius marketing ploy. Make a super cheap alloy and charge 10x the price if it were gold.