“THE MAGICAL SPARKLE OF THE JEWELS BY COUNT ALEXANDER HAS COME TO AN END FOR LONDON. MY MISSION TO PRODUCE BEAUTIFUL JEWELS BY USING SWAROVSKI CRYSTALS AND CULTURED DIAMONDS (RUSSIAN CUBIC ZIRKONIA) AND NO BLOOD DIAMONDS, HAS BEEN FULFILLED. I WISH TO CONVEY A HEARTWARMING THANK YOU TO ALL MY LOVELY FRIENDS AND COSTOMERS FROM ENGLAND AND ALL OVER THE WORLD FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND THEIR APPRECIATION OF THE LITTLE “JEWEL BOX” THAT I CREATED DURING THE LAST 10 YEARS IN THE MALL ANTIQUE ARCADE. THE CLOSING DAY IS 30 SEPTEMBER, 2008. I AM VERY HAPPY THAT I WAS ABLE TO BRING SOME SPARKLE TO LONDON AND PEOPLES LIVES, EVEN TO MAKE A SAD PERSON SMILE AT MY WINDOW DISPLAY AND FOR TOURISTS TO TELL ME THAT I HAD “MADE” THEIR HOLIDAY, THAT IS WHAT I WILL MISS MOST. NOW IT IS TIME FOR ME TO SPREAD SOME OF MY OWN SPARKLE IN THE MOUNTAINS OF BAVARIA AND LIKE ALL FAERIE TALES I WILL LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER.”

COUNT ALEXANDER

My Rich, Full and Beautiful Life.

On the 21st of December 2007, I was told by a top Professor and his team of 10 doctors that I have TB. I responded:”No, I have Consumption, because that is the name they used in the 1860’s and it was a romantic painfully pale but deadly disease. There was no medicine cure. Only the rich could afford to take the fresh alpine mountain air to recover.

The 9th of January 2008 was the second date that would change my life forever and for better. This was when the new owners of The Mall Antique Arcade gave me and 39 neighbours our eviction notice. Our last day was 27 September 2008.

I cried not tears of sadness that my beautiful Royal Crown Shop was going for good. No, I cried tears of joy. For now I was free to go home to Bavaria with my Mother and our Norwegian Forest cat Romeo. I have been dreaming for many years to move back. If we were not evicted I would have worked in my Jewel Shop until I am 100 hundred. Also due to my condition in which I will be forever grateful that the medical team at the UCLH in London. I was in hospital for a hundred and ten days and 41 blood transfusions later and the many pills I have to take every day. I had to accept early but elegant retirement at the age of 44.

I am now in recovery. I lost five stones or 36 kilos, but at least I have a chiselled cheek bones and jaw bones and I am told I am looking years younger.

Looking back at my twenty five years of history in London I can only smile and I am grateful for everything. My magical Exhibitions I did with my "Perfect People" period costume mannequins. Last May my Mother and I celebrated 10 glories sparkling years of the Jewel Shop on the European Maiden Voyage on the Queen Victoria ocean liner which was another of my dreams come true.

I have had too many Grand Exhibitions to write about in details. However there have been two great dreams that I had in my life. The first was to have my Jewels in Harrods. I tried twice before to get in, but was rejected by two Jewellery Buyers. The new third Jewel Buyer phoned me up in my Jewel Shop, because she loved my Website. She asked to bring my collections of Royal Crown Jewels to her office. I explained it was impossible for I could not pack up 100 different tiaras and all the other Jewels to show her in the tiny airless office she had in Harrods. I said she must see my Jewels in their Grande Setting with my 4 feet long crystal chandelier from Buckingham Palace, and all its opulent decorated surroundings.

The buyer and her assistant came to my Jewel Shop and looked and tried on my collection. After two hours I asked what would she like to have. She wanted everything including the magic diamond Fairy Godmother Wand and one of the Diamond Cinderella Slipper, all set in Austrian Swarovski Crystals.

She explained that Butler and Wilson Costume Jewellery Company who had the most prominent section in Harrods for 14 years and which they paid £35,000.- a year will be replaced with me, at no cost. The buyer loved my Jewels, because they were special and one off pieces. Not mass produced in China or India. I sold my Jewels in Harrods for two years very successfully. After the Buyer left suddenly and the re-ordering failed with the staff, I decided to leave as well. 300% mark up of my Jewel I felt was way too much. So I ended my happy chapter with Harrods.

When I started to make my Jewels in 1982, and after my Apprenticeship to the then Royal Crown Jeweller in London, I wished some how to have a Movie star wear my Jewels on the red carpet at the Oscars. How to make this dream come true? Nothing happened until Alexandra Burns the famous Film Costume Designer come to my shop and told me, that I have the most perfect Jewels for Lord Lloyd Andrew Webber Pinewood studio film" The Phantom of the Opera”. And that I could choose all the Jewels for the film. Not only did Minnie Driver wore seven beautiful Jewels for the film. They were also worn by Beyonce while she sang for 4 Minutes, accompied by Lord Lloyd Webber on the piano, at the Oscars in 2005. This completed my dreams and made me so happy that I cried.

In 2006 I was honoured to receive a Knighthood of the Order of St, Stanislas in a private castle outside Vienna. This honour was for my contributions of the Arts and all the Jewels I donated for charity.

In 2008 coming home from the hospital, I was instantly cheered up by seeing the large poster and even a larger bill board on the London Underground. The advertising of Lavazza Coffee with a beautiful model wearing an 18th Century corset and my very important Diamond Jewelled Bodice Ornament. I also received a beautiful calendar.

There is so much more I would like to write about my 25 years on this beautiful island. Even though I have had a successful carrier in London against all odds, when I arrived from Vienna in 1982. I always had the support and encouragement from my Mother Baroness Ilse von Beregshasy and a few friends, who also believed in me and my vision to make the world a more sparkling place. And yes, I succeeded in becoming the” Queen of Diamonds”.
Most important I believe in myself and my Guardian Angel has recently confirmed, that my past present and future are also perfect.

We will relocate on "Angel wings" to small village in the Bavaria, suitable for restoring my health.

Please watch my Website, I am planning to have many Exhibitions of my "Perfect People" in the future. With Period Customs and Jewels in Swarovski Austrian Crystals and Cultured Diamonds.

My wish for all who have read my summery, believe in your desires and your dreams, they become really true, for just look at how I turned out...

Count Alexander