What makes jewelry a work of art is that it is endowed with a creative soul and an emotional attachment. Either the raw materials for their creation originate in nature, as in the case of certain particularly rare stones, which themselves can be called natural art from the earth and have grown over billions of years, or the inspiration for their design originates in the living beings, who bring exotic and mythical creatures into the world of jewelry design and create them. Especially after the 1950s, a large number of fine animal jewelry, such as gold inlaid with a variety of gemstones made of lions, owls, monkeys, giraffes, etc., are quite popular in the market; or its creative concepts from cultural history, such as art trends or artistic expression applied to jewelry design, as in the history of jewelry, Egyptian art, Art Deco, Romanticism, etc. These artistic trends and design, resulting in the combination of design, design and art. In the history of jewelry, Egyptian Art, Art Deco, Romanticism, etc., these artistic trends are combined with design to form a design artwork; or the rarity/prospect of the craftsmanship, which is realized by the exquisite craftsmen after breaking through the limitations of the technology to achieve some particularly classic and even unrepeatable craft techniques, such as the hidden inlay technology; or in the fact that the works are full of touching emotions, such as being endowed with the owner's life experience, emotional experience. In the jewelry world, this kind of emotional story is very much, these jewels not only convey the modern love story, but also in the inheritance of the history of the story.

And with all these qualities, one of the most impressive and unmissable in the art of jewelry is Van Cleef & Arpels, a family of jewelers. This is why I believe that Van Cleef & Arpels' works can be passed on as works of art, and can be as infectious and moving as works of art.

1. The Mysterious Egyptian World of Van Cleef & Arpels

Women in the 1920s, fresh from their fight for the right to vote, were more independent than ever before and proved themselves capable of taking on previously male-dominated jobs. They were fearless, wild-eyed and eager to escape the stereotypes of the past. They like to dress up in white powder, bright red lipstick and deep black eyeliner, exuding a mysterious, exotic flavor. It was during this period that Van Cleef & Arpels took the freedom that came with having the same social and economic status as men and fused exotic cultures with simple lines to enable women of this era to express themselves and their attitudes through the design of jewelry.

In 1922, the British explorer Howard Carter discovered the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutank hamunfa, showing the world a great number of Egyptian aesthetic styles of great artistic value. This style was adopted by Van Cleef & Arpels for use in its jewelry designs, and Van Cleef & Arpels created a large number of high-caliber pieces in the language of Egyptian art, and these jewelry designs inspired by ancient Egyptian art became popular in the 1920s.

From the point of view of the auction market, Van Cleef & Arpels' Egyptian art style works, has always been the favorite of major auctions, especially in Sotheby's and Christie's, such as the old auction house, these classics are quite popular with collectors, over the years have maintained a very good turnover results, and in the collection of the world has an extraordinary value of the collection.

 

For example, this Van Cleef & Arpels Egyptian art-themed necklace, auctioned at Christie's Geneva on November 13, 2018, made in 1924, is set with old European and rose-faceted diamonds, curved and follow-the-rail cut rubies and emeralds, and onyx, and the designer adorned with figures, buildings, sacred beetles, and sacred birds from Egyptian frescoes. With an estimate of 2 to 3 million Swiss francs, it fetched 4.33 million Swiss francs, selling for more than double the low estimate and 1/3 of the high estimate, making it an extremely rare Van Cleef & Arpels treasure.

In the same year's Sotheby's jewelry auction, another gold collar from Van Cleef & Arpels in the estimate of 10,000 to 15,000 pounds, and finally sold for more than 20,000 pounds, it can be seen that Van Cleef & Arpels of these Egyptian art of the classic works of art, is very collectible. And in top auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's, they are very sought-after and popular lots, not to mention other auction houses. To be able to own a Van Cleef & Arpels Egyptian art style piece is also really extremely lucky people.

Counting all the Egyptian Art pieces from Van Cleef & Arpels, this bracelet, born in 1924, is arguably the piece of jewelry that most captures my heart. On closer inspection, this piece has the typical design elements of Van Cleef & Arpels' Egyptian art, with rubies, onyx, emeralds and sapphires set in ritual scenes and hieroglyphics, depicting the sacred beetle, sphinx, amphora, bull, ostrich feathers, lotus and bees, among other imagery from ancient Egyptian paintings. What's more, with natural gemstones, it is very difficult to achieve uniformity in these aspects of color and clarity. And Van Cleef & Arpels, in order to express the top human works of art, attach importance to the design, restore the art of cutting out extremely high-quality precious stones to produce such an extremely precious work, but also inseparable from the two founders of the love of jewelry.

We often go to say that jewelry in history, in addition to the symbols of royalty, but also a lot of love stories expressed. In Van Cleef & Arpels' Ancient Egyptian works of art, there are also very many love stories that have influenced the design of Van Cleef & Arpels' jewelry collection. In the archaeological work of the ancient Egyptian culture, the love story of the pharaoh and queen of the 18th dynasty of ancient Egypt, Ehenaten and Nefertiti, was found to be quite admirable. Naftiti seems to be Ehenaten's "wise helper" and "supporter", she adored Ehenaten all her life, and when Ehenaten's religious reforms led to a mass defection, only Naftiti was still by his side. And Ehnatun gave all his love to Naftiti, he always brought Naftiti with him and had painters depict their romantic moments together. As well as Ehenaten's son Tutankhamun was also influenced by this love and experienced similar love stories in his life as well.

When these love stories were discovered archaeologically, with the development of information transfer technology, they were spread to the world in the 1920s and became part of Egyptian art as a whole. Jewelry designers at that time in the application of art, will also see the similarities between modern love stories and ancient times, and then use their own design language to express their hearts to the feelings of modern love, with jewelry to infect the crowd.

 

2. Unparalleled Creation Level Inlay Craftsmanship

In 1933, Van Cleef & Arpels obtained a patent for a revolutionary gemstone setting method - the hidden setting, which is an extremely special setting method that requires a very high level of craftsmanship on the part of the gemstone cutter and the setting master, in order to realize the decorative effect of being able to expose the top of the gemstone and set it at the bottom without revealing any metal. In the 1930s, in order to achieve this effect, the stone had to be cut in a rectangular or square shape, with a track cut at the bottom to hide the metal. The difficulty of realizing this technique was unimaginable, and only a handful of master craftsmen with extensive experience in gemstone cutting were able to master it. This technique was copied by many other jewelers after Van Cleef & Arpels to create jewelry with a floral effect, but there has never been a breakthrough from Van Cleef & Arpels, and contemporary jewelry designers continue to use this technique to this day.

The first step is to choose the right material for the stone, cut it out according to the design, then cut and grind the concave grooves in the pavilion of the stone, ensuring that the stone is undamaged, that the view from the table is excellent, and that each stone fits perfectly in the track. At least a few hours of precision work are required behind the scenes to achieve the cuts needed for this extraordinary craftsmanship.

Craftsman setting a cut stone into a rail.

Mystery Set Peony brooch, rubies and diamonds in platinum and yellow gold, made in 1937, Van Cleef & Arpels' collection, originally owned by Her Serene Highness Princess Fawzia of Egypt.

Of all the works created by Van Cleef & Arpels in this type of pavé setting, in the context of the second half of the Art Deco period, in the 1930s, the most brilliant, in my opinion, is the Peony brooch, which utilizes Van Cleef & Arpels' passion for floral motifs and the pavé setting technique that is a hallmark of the Maison's savoir-faire.

Set with 640 rubies totaling more than 100 carats, the peony brooch features 640 rubies and diamonds of the highest quality selected by Van Cleef & Arpels' gemmologists, the petals of the flower are outlined in a pavé setting, and the stamens are composed of six oval-cut rubies. The leaves are set with 45 baguette-cut diamonds and 196 round-cut diamonds, creating a vivid and magnificent peony. Van Cleef & Arpels also presented this Peony brooch as part of the family collection in its first retrospective in 1992. It was also featured in the Today Art Museum's "The Beauty of Elegant Art" exhibition in 2018, which I went to several times that year, and every time I went, I would stop in front of the peony and take my time to look at the setting of each stone. I especially liked the feeling of the light gliding over the surface of each stone, so perfect and silky that the beauty of the stone could be completely revealed.

According to the design manuscript drawn up around 1937, the peony brooch was originally conceived as a double-flower motif, one in bloom and the other withering, symbolizing renewal, transmission, and reappearance. In terms of structural design, the two peonies can be worn together or separately, a design style that was also very typical of the Art Deco period, with a strong emphasis on the wearable function of the jewelry piece as well as the wearable effect.

 

This heirloom, originally owned by Princess Faisal, daughter of King Fouad I and Queen Nasri of Egypt, is a cherished private collection, which was subsequently turned over to Mr. Jacques Arpels, who purchased one of the brooches at an auction held by Christie's on November 14th, 1985, thus adding another treasure to the Van Cleef & Arpels' collection. The remaining flower was never seen again after being collected by Princess Faisal. And this is precisely the Art Deco period Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry works of another great charm, this extremely rare jewelry works, to be able to forever preserved in Van Cleef & Arpels, visible this work of art in Van Cleef & Arpels, is extremely valuable works of art, whether as a historical memory, or to the world's display, have far more than its economic value of the emotional location; for us, to see such a lone work of art For us, it is also very fortunate to be able to see such a unique piece of art, and to be able to peek into the story behind it.

The Breakthrough of Hidden Inlay

At the beginning of the invention of pavé, ruby and sapphire were mainly used as two kinds of gemstone materials with good stability, while emerald was seldom seen in pavé because of its brittleness. As jewelry technology evolved, so did the choice of shapes and varieties of gemstones used in the pavé setting. In 2006, Van Cleef & Arpels presented the breakthrough marquise pavé setting; in 2014, the stained glass pavé.

Marquise and stained-glass pavé settings

Using polished horse-eye cut stones, the marquise pavé technique combines a three-dimensional structural design with a natural romanticism of form to bring each piece to life.In 2018, Van Cleef & Arpels applied this technique to emeralds and diamonds to create the Pomme de pin brooch, an unusual piece depicting a cluster of of precious pine cones. There are currently only seven marquise pave settings available.

 

The stained-glass pavé conceals the settings on either side of the piece, emphasizing the crystal-clear design of the stones. On the Panache Mystérieux High Jewelry brooch, the carefully polished gemstones are brought to life with refracted light and delicate colors.

By 2018, Van Cleef & Arpels had realized the application of this invisible setting process on emeralds, an extremely difficult craft. First of all, the hardness of emeralds is only about 5, and secondly, emeralds are still a certain brittle gemstone, most emeralds have a variety of internal inclusions, these natural attributes make emeralds in the cutting must be very careful, and can be applied to emeralds in the cryptic inlay of this very high degree of difficulty inlaid on top of the emeralds, for one thing, on the emerald stones used in the color, clarity, and other aspects of the high demand for the stone itself! For one thing, the color and clarity of the emerald gemstones used are very demanding; for another, the experience and craftsmanship of the jeweler, as well as the fineness of the processing equipment, are even more demanding.

 

For example, the above Pomme de pin brooch, is the emerald cut into marquise shape, and then the pinecone design structure, coupled with hidden inlay method, to create a more difficult jewelry works.

3、 Classic jewelry originating from the founder's nickname

Around 1934, Van Cleef & Arpels launched their very famous Ludo or called the "honeycomb" series of bracelets, Ludo the structure of this honeycomb modeling to express the spirit of the snake scales of the mesh design modeling, the design of the buckle to strengthen the function, and more to decorate the performance of the hidden type.

Ludo's designs cover a wide range of jewelry models, the most complex of which is the Ludo Secret watch and jewelry, introduced in 1949. The rectangular dial, hidden under the cover, is made entirely of honeycomb shapes that blend the watch with the jewelry. These practical and decorative watches were mass-produced in the 1940s and were a favorite among fashionable women of the time.

This ludo bracelet also sold at auction for more than its high estimate.

This style of styling was also often used in the design of women's watches, and Van Cleef & Arpels brought a number of more elegant and classic options to women's attire. This is because at the time of the invention of the wristwatch, for cultural and social reasons, it would have been impolite for a lady to check the time with a very visible movement. Van Cleef & Arpels, on the other hand, used its creativity and expertise to combine the expression of jewelry with the timekeeping function of a wristwatch, so that a lady could look at the displayed time in an elegant way and with a much less conspicuous movement, in order to remain classy. And so it was that decades later, the Ludo Secret Watch became one of Van Cleef & Arpels' iconic brand pieces. The history of Van Cleef & Arpels dates back to 1895, and it all started with a romantic love story: Estelle Arpels, daughter of a gemstone merchant, and Alfred Van Cleef, son of a gemstone cutter, tied the knot in Paris, and but for anyone in the jewelry business, such a dreamy pairing is a perfect match. In particular, the "&" symbol in the name of the Van Cleef & Arpels family symbolizes the union of individuality and expertise, the harmony of craftsmanship and poetic creativity, which makes Van Cleef & Arpels' creations unique. In "The Hive", the hexagonal structure, the shape, the gemstones and the settings, all of which are closely intertwined, demonstrate the heritage and the union of Estelle and Alfred, which was made possible by the power of the founders' love.

The history of a brand is a testament to its existence and what we can see of its future. From its founding to the present, Van Cleef & Arpels, in addition to craftsmanship and design, has also attached importance to the relationship between jewelry and women, a relationship that lies particularly in emphasizing how jewelry can be used to express women's charms, and how jewelry can be used to keep women elegant.