Links has 11 stores in the UK — including seven in London — as well as two units in Hong Kong and a store each in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. A store in Singaporeopened in late July, to be followed by a store in Hamburg, Germany, in September sweetie Bracelet .

The company also wholesales to such department stores as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Isetan in Tokyo, Selfridges and Harrods in London, Brown Thomas in Dublin, Bon Marche in Paris and Holt Renfrew in Toronto. It believes the New York store will help boost its wholesale business in the United States.

“Our closest competition in London is Tiffany’s second floor and it will be the same in New York,” Ducas said. “But Tiffany has actually helped us because it is scaling back its wholesale worldwide. That’s opened up huge possibilities for us because I don’t know of any other company that offers the breadth[of merchandise that]we do links of london sale.

 Khoo said the range of Chinese blue-and-white crockery used by the baba and nyonya was called “Kitchen Qing”. This crockery which was considered rather rough christmas gift on sale, was churned out by the millions and then packed in tea leaves for their voyage to the Malay Archipelago, where the tea was then shipped to Europe. The ceramics which arrived formed part of the Kitchen Qing collections of Straits Chinese homes. The crockery was mainly from the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, particularly from the ports of Swatow and Amoy.

 In a different class from the day-to-day crockery was a type of Chinese ceramics called “Nyonyaware”. The nyonyas themselves called this colourful china “Shanghaiware” Links Rings .

 ”The association of Shanghai with things Chinese came about because the port of Shanghai was the leader in exporting objets d’art in the 19th century,” said Khoo.

 In the household of an extended baba nyonya family, the crockery would include at least 10 sets of Chinese tableware. There were also special sets for the tea ceremony at weddings. This essentially functional crockery had traditional Chinese designs.

 The imported ceramics also included vases and jars. They were decorated with motifs of happiness and good fortune because the pieces were meant for festive occasions. Two recurrent symbolic motifs were the phoenix and the peony links of london friendship Bracelet. The colours used for these enamelled ceramics were pink, yellow, green, olive, brown and blue.

The divide between wholesalers, manufacturers and retailers is starting to blur, anyway. More manufacturers now sell diamond jewellery at discount prices over the internet. A growing number of US companies will also sell loose diamonds at discount prices. Try mondera.com, diasource.com, diamonds4u.com xmas gift , and nydex.com to get an idea of prices. Daimondring.com, which claims to be “the diamonds portal,” has links to many similar sites.

In the UK, the idea has yet to catch on. On of the pioneers is Simon Lewis, a Hatton Garden manufacturer who also runs thediamond shop.co.uk to sell stones direct to the public. He says his prices are as close as possible to wholesale. The company makes its money by turning the stones into individually-designed pieces of jewellery, though there is nothing to stop you going elsewhere for this service.

If buying loose stones sounds risky, bear in mind that cut and polished diamonds are commodity items that can be tested and graded by specialist laboratories. These issue certificates showing the stone’s weight in carats, as well as its clarity, colour and the dimensions of the cut cheap Links of london Charms .

The two main global certification schemes are run by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and the Antwerp-based Diamond High Council (HRD). Almost all of the stones on sale over the internet are certificated.

So, how much cheaper is it to buy online?

For the sake of argument, let us assume that I want to buy my nearest-and-dearest a pair of diamond stud earrings on a budget of about Pounds 10,000. I want round, brilliant cut stones (the most popular modern cut) with a colour grade of at least G to H (Links Charms ) and clarity of VS1 to VS2 (flawless, unless you examine them under a microscope).

Solange Azagury Partridge has designed a spinning diamond ring, which evokes blazing Catherine wheels on bonfire night ( Links of London Charms). Rather more grandly, Cassandra Goad’s swirling pendants, which are hung from coloured cords, were inspired by the circular stucco decorations on the ceiling of the Forum Baths in Pompeii (from pounds 1,922; 020 7730 2202).

This month, silver specialists Links of London have introduced their first diamond collection, Coquette. They have used an unusual mixture of shapes for their swirl earrings (from pounds 650, available at Sloane Street, Links of London Necklaces).

Diamond-set pieces are usually highly priced, but there are plenty of affordable alternatives. Calvin Klein’s first jewellery collection, which is made from stainless steel – rather than precious metals – and sparsely set Wesselton diamonds, is stunningly simple and features several lines. The Yo-Yo range comes with eight metres of black silk cord, which can be twisted around a set of seven different-sized yo-yo discs; Precious is composed of a chain that is dotted with small steel circles and diamonds, and Liquid is made up of sets of raindrop bubbles Links of London Bracelets, scattered with diamonds and spinning circular rings (from pounds 45, available in September nationwide; 02380 646843).