New to Bond Street, Australian jeweler John Calleija collects spectacular stones

One of Bond Street’s newest residents and its first Australian retailer is in an upbeat mood when we meet across the street from his tiny new boutique in the Royal Arcade. You’d never guess that in the past fortnight alone, John Calleija has traveled to San Francisco, Hong Kong, India and Singapore to meet clients. Calleija’s international client list includes seven members of an Indian family who have commissioned 25 pieces of jewelry for a five day wedding. “They were very fussy about what jewels are going to be worn. The mother of the bride, in particular, has a fine appreciation of jewelry,” Calleija says. He pulls out drawings for the collection, including a 10-carat fancy intense yellow heart-shaped diamond ring and multicolored cascading necklaces for both mothers. A bracelet cum ring will be worn by the bride at the wedding ceremony. There are lighter pieces for the mornings, but each demands an average of 200 to 300 hours to produce.

For Calleija, 45, witnessing a customer’s excitement upon seeing the jewelry that is about to become their own is his greatest joy. Born in Australia of Maltese and Italian heritage, Calleija started as an apprentice jeweler. He set up a workshop in Sydney at 22, making pieces for private clients and retailers. While supplying 130 Australian retailers, he desperately missed the satisfaction of dealing directly with clients. He opened his first store in Australia’s Gold Coast in 1992. “I love reclaiming that joy of the last four feet of a diamond’s journey from deep in the earth to the person who is going to wear and treasure it,” Calleija says. Calleija soon became an Argyle Diamond Panel Member, authorizing him to sell pink diamonds from the Rio Tinto-owned Argyle Mine, which produces 90 percent of the world’s pinks. It is estimated that the Argyle Mine will only yield pink diamonds for another decade. The opera singer Luciano Pavarotti treated his wife to one of Calleija’s pink diamonds just days before he died in 2007. Each year, Argyle invites a selected few to submit sealed bids for its rare pink and red stones. In 2007, Argyle found five red diamonds, and Calleija paid up to $4 million a stone to secure four of them. One of them, named The Lady In The Red, revealing an inclusion in the shape of a woman, was bought by an American-Australian couple. Calleija has such a passion for gems that on at least one occasion he has forgotten his client’s name while remembering the stone she bought from him. “I saw a client in Sydney recently wearing an emerald ring I made 25 years ago,” he says. “I went up to her, though I couldn’t remember who she was. I was so thrilled when she told me she wears it every day.”

From Oz with diamonds Australian jeweler John Calleija received the De Beers International Design Award for this Eros Virtual Diamond Mask, but he’s best known for pricey, handmade stunners like this 5.02-carat emerald cut diamond, platinum and gold ring, £265,000, or $524,000, and platinum ring featuring a rare, 3.16-carat, radiant orange diamond, dubbed “Here Comes The Sun,” £159,500.