The Art of High Jewelry by Van Cleef & Arpels

With this exhibition, Van Cleef & Arpels reveals all their craftsmanship to us by welcoming us into a warm, intimate and sparkling universe; making us travel back in time on an extraordinary and dreamlike journey, to the heart of the Art of High Jewelry.

For the record, Van Cleef & Arpels was the love child of Esther, known as Estelle Arpels, daughter of a gemstone trader, and Alfred Van Cleef, son of a lapidary and diamond broker. In 1906, their passion for jewelry and their entrepreneurial spirit led them to join forces with Estelle's brothers; Charles, Julien and Louis, to open a boutique at number 22 of Place Vendôme, the place to be in terms of elegance and luxury.

The exhibition brings together all the ingredients for a successful exhibition; the choice of location, the scenography, the creativity, the talent, the modernity, but above all... more than 500 exceptional pieces categorized by epoch.

First, the location to have chosen the nave of the Decorative Arts Museum pays homage to one of the prestigious pieces by Van Cleef & Arpels, a 1925 set composed of a bracelet and a brooch, which was awarded the grand prize at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris.

Indeed, the history of Van Cleef & Arpels is punctuated with technical inventions passed down from generation to generation by the Golden Hands working in the ateliers. These skills, kept secret, combined with unlimited imagination and very vast sources of inspiration are at the source of this tremendous profusion of shapes and models.

The exhibition traces back in chronological order and in a very pedagogical way, the evolution of jewelry from the 1920s to the present day. For example, the 1920s are illustrated with jewels embodying the floral theme that the Maison will extrapolate in many forms. During this time, subjects varied around flora and fauna but also with a taste for ancient Egypt, China, Japan and Persian civilizations, which in turn became a pretext for new color combinations: lapis lazuli, turquoise, onyx, jade, coral, enamel and lacquer were associated to precious stones. At the same time, "white" jewels with a focus on platinum and diamonds to create light reliefs of abstract and geometric shapes, clearly inscribes the Maison in the Art Deco wave.

The creativity and talent of the proposed scenography composed by the Agency Jouin Manku, presents the jewelry in felted cases or in glass tubes that allow you to turn the jewels around to discover all their different facets. I urge you to always look at the back side of a piece of jewelry because this is often where the true skills are revealed. Go and enter this magical universe!

Digital Modernity with this website dedicated to the exhibition and all the different communication means around it:

http://www.artdelahautejoaillerie-vancleefarpels.com

Audio-guides can be downloaded on i-tunes and Google play! Isn't this cool?

We notice that nothing has been left to chance and that everything is masterfully orchestrated to showcase more than 500 pieces against numerous archival documents and drawings.

Stanislas de Quercize and Catherine Cariou; manager for the Heritage and Patrimony, have done a fabulous job with their teams to our greatest delight!

The pieces numbered and registered pieces come from both private collections and from the Van Cleef & Arpels archives - enriched over time by acquisitions made from individuals but also at auction, notably Liz Taylor's jewels from the 2011 December 13th auction at Christie's New York. Other pieces are on loan from great collectors, such as Charlène of Monaco's tiara and a few jewels that had belonged to Princess Grace of Monaco.

These prestigious pieces retrace more than 100 years of technical innovations handed down from generation to generation by the Golden Hands of the workshops, highlighted by an extremely interesting movie that you can watch on their website describing the different trades that are regrouped in the Maison. You can also take a 360° virtual tour of the workshop.

The Mysterious Setting, transformable jewelry, the Minaudière or even pieces inspired y Couture characterize the highly recognizable style of the Maison Van Cleef & Arpels.

Among the most emblematic creations are the Zip necklace, suggested by the Duchess of Windsor and produced in 1951, since then featured in almost all the collections, as well as the Alhambra collection which has known a frank success for over forty years (1968).

This is an opportunity for me to talk to you exclusively of the limited edition 2012 Alhambra composed of five pieces in amourette wood and rose gold. The pieces are limited and numbered and have just been released! Composed of a necklace, a sautoir, a pendant, a bracelet and a pair of earrings. Amourette wood is a rare, natural and precious wood from South America that is used in particular for violin bows. Van Cleef & Arpels have used it for this new edition to place themselves under the good omen of Luck, dear to the year 2012!

Since the year 2000, the year of the acquisition of Van Cleef & Arpels by tthe Richemont group, the Maison has gone through a period of high creativity, expressed in particular through its High Jewelry collections such as Atlantide in 2007, Les Voyages Extraordinaires in 2010, Bals de Légende in 2011 and of late the Palais de la Chance in 2012.

My favorites from this exhibition, because a choice had to be made! This resolutely trendy pretzel necklace from the 60s and these two necklaces from the 2000s are of great beauty, visual and technical finesse.

Speakers made available by Van Cleef & Arpels were present every day to answer questions and help you during the guided visits. Guided tours, workshops and even activities for children are organized, but spaces are limited and the exhibition is already very popular!