Mia Kirshner Visits Toronto Antiques on King: And a Story About January’s Birthstone

Mia Kirshner came into Toronto Antiques on King before Christmas (our hearts have not yet returned to a normal pulse). In addition to being a classic beauty, Kirshner is modest, understated and unassuming. She seemed full of wonderful paradoxes that only made us like her more—In spite of her endorsement from Maxim and many other main-stream publications as one of the sexiest women alive, Mia was too modest to let us take her picture (She thought she was having a bad hair day…If my bad hair days could only be so good…). She did, however, generously encourage us to blog about her visit.

Kirshner admired “modest” jewellery preferring workmanship to gems, quality to quantity. She didn’t like any piece of jewellery that she deemed “noisy” and instead preferred our collection of delicate Georgian and Victorian rings. She settled on a lovely Edwardian ring that featured white-gold filigree work. She also loved this Georgian garnet ring. Like Kirshner, this ring is paradoxically delicate and bold.

In addition to being an exquisite example of period jewellery (circa 1850), this ring is special because it features January’s birthstone, garnet (also Kirshner’s birthstone). Although garnet comes in all the colours, deep burgundy is most common. Mythically, the garnet is the stone of protection. Many courageous discoverers wore garnets because of their purported protection against disease and predators. Today, people believe that garnets ward against diseases ranging from arthritis to toenail trouble. Perhaps the most famous 20th century garnet was Jaqueline Kennedy-Onassis’ cabochon garnet flower brooch that sold at Sotheby’s for $145, 000.

Soon the Cynthia Findlay Collection will have a sample of its garnet selection online. Check it out at www.cynthiafindlay.com

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