Sometimes someone has a set of genes, received from a parent, that are dominant. For me, these are the ‘magpie genes’, which I inherited from my father. I can’t take my eyes off beautiful jewelry and high-quality glitter. And then you’ve come to the right place at Van Cleef & Arpels.
In my previous blogs about the jewelry chains of Tiffany’s and Cartier, you must have noticed that my magpie genes are working overtime. At Van Cleef & Arpels they work overtime.
In short, I have to introduce you to this great jewelry brand, which has conquered the world. Perhaps not suitable for your (and my) budget, but you can always shout admiringly and enjoy what they have to offer. Besides, there always has to be something left to be desired, right?
In 1895, Estelle Arpels, the daughter of a gemstone sales representative, married the Dutchman Alfred van Cleef, the son of a diamond cutter—enough expertise in the family to start a jewelry brand in 1896.
Initially, founders Alfred van Cleef and his father-in-law Salomon Arpels intended to start a luxury jewelry company in Paris.
After the death of his father-in-law in 1906, Alfred expanded his business and his wife’s brothers (Charles, Julien, and later Louis) joined the company. They opened a business on the Place Vendome in Paris, which was directly opposite the chic Ritz Hotel, where the European rich and aristocrats regularly stayed.
The international hotel guests marveled at the jewelry bought everything they liked, and then showed off this jewelry to family and friends in their own country. Friends and family also became Van Cleef & Arpels customers, establishing their name as a supplier of high-quality jewelry.
They were very strategic by opening boutiques near chic hotels, but also in expensive holiday resorts in France, such as Nice and Monte Carlo. Anyone with money and an interest in jewelry could not ignore Van Cleef & Arpels.
The Van Cleef & Arpels name rose even higher when they won the top prize at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern, Industrial, and Decorative Arts (what a name) with a white and red rose bracelet made of diamonds and rubies.
In 1926, Alfred and Esther’s daughter (Renée) joined the company as artistic director.
Then things went fast. The family opened businesses all over the world where these beautiful jewelry were sold, even in Japan and China.
The company is currently owned by Richemont, which also owns the Cartier jewelry chain.
It is not very easy to answer that question. The jewelry from Van Cleef & Arpels is so special in so many facets that it takes some time to absorb them all.
To start with, their jewelry is made by very good craftsmen, who use high-quality materials and are capable of incredibly beautiful and technically perfect designs. And these features also make the jewelry pricey.
Their motifs are often flowers, animals fairies, or ballerinas whose skirt, made of gemstones, flows just as beautifully and elegantly as ‘in real life’.
Even though the designs are made from large quantities of gemstones, with a relief applied to them, the professionals at Van Cleef & Arpels still manage to give the jewelry a lightness, so that they do not appear voluminous.
The jewelry is often asymmetrical and made of the highest quality diamonds, sapphires, but also carnelians. The carnelians come from Brazil and are beautiful: slightly translucent with a deep color and shine. They then try to find the perfect combination with other gemstones, in terms of color and appearance, to make the jewelry.
In 1933, the professionals at Van Cleef & Arpels developed a technique in which you cannot see the edges or teeth (prongs) with which you attach a gemstone to or in the surface. This technique is known as the Mystery-set technique. A patent has even been applied for for this.
Several jewelry makers have tried to copy this technique, but either failed or had to settle for the inferior quality of the ‘setting work’.
Not only do you need enormous skill to set gemstones using this method, but the facet-cut gemstones used must also be perfectly harmonious in color and carefully cut. The gemstones must fit together seamlessly. The gemstones are placed on gold rails of less than 0.2 millimeters thickness. Such that you no longer see the edge, making the gemstones appear to float.
According to Van Cleef & Arpels, it can take up to 300 hours to place a few gemstones using the Mystery-set technique. That is what makes the jewelry made with this technique so expensive and rare because not so many are made each year.
But the ‘mystery set’ jewelry retains its value. In 2009, such a piece of jewelry, made in 1936, was sold at Christie’s and fetched $326,500. The original price is unknown.
Another example of technical and creative ingenuity that jewelry makers achieve is the production of so-called ‘transformable’ jewelry. Such as the Passe-Partout necklace.
This necklace consists of several separate parts that can be worn in different ways. The basis is a flexible gold snake chain and 2 clips with flowers on them. You can wear the base as a necklace or choker, but also as a bracelet or brooch.
Another example of craftsmanship is the Zip necklace, which also falls under the ‘transformable’ jewelry series. The necklace consists of a zipper, which you can zip open and close and which can be worn as a necklace when the zipper is open. But when the zipper is completely closed it becomes a bracelet.
As mentioned earlier, Van Cleef & Arpels had wealthy customers, who were often noble and who could afford their jewelry. Some very good customers placed huge orders, such as Queen Nazli of Egypt.
In 1939, Van Cleef & Arpels was commissioned by Queen Nazli to make a diamond parure. A parure is a set of jewelry, usually consisting of a tiara, necklace, earrings, and bracelet, but a brooch or hair clip can also be added.
The parure was intended to be worn during the wedding of her daughter Fawzia (Farah Diba) to the Shah Reza Pahlavi of Persia (now Iran). But she also ordered a diamond parure for her daughter from Van Cleef & Arpels. Nice assignment, isn’t it?
The tiara, as part of the parure, was made of 700 diamonds. And that included a Bib necklace in an Art Deco style, for which 600 diamonds were used. Fortunately, she wore this tiara not only at her daughter’s wedding but also on other occasions.
Van Cleef & Arpels were very good at retaining customers. In 1966, they were commissioned by Farah Pahlavi to make a crown for the coronation as empress.
The production time was 11 months to make a crown, which used 36 emeralds, 36 rubies, 105 pearls, and a whopping 1469 diamonds. No idea how heavy that crown must have been.
Not only customers from exotic places such as Persia and Egypt found Van Cleef & Arpels. Queen Sophia of Spain, Grace Kelly, Princess Diana and Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Windsor, Queen Camilla, Elizabeth Taylor, Reese Witherspoon, Eva Peron, Ava Gardner and Mariah Carey were also fans of their jewelry.
The company has designed and produced many beautiful collections of jewelry, such as ‘Between the Finger Rings’, Cadenas, Cosmos, Fleurette, etc. But the most famous is the Alhambra collection from 1968.
The basis of this collection is a four-leaf clover, which is a symbol of health, luck, and love. The clover could be decorated with mother of pearl and a variety of gemstones.
The four-leaf clover was not the source of inspiration, but those were the motifs on the Moorish tiles in the Alhambra Palace in Granada/Spain. These motifs resembled a four-leaf clover.
The first piece of jewelry, which later became the Alhambra collection, was a long necklace, consisting of 20 folded clover-shaped motifs, made of yellow gold and with a gold beaded edge. This model was so successful that eventually, the Alhambra collection consisted of necklaces, pendants, bracelets, rings, and even watches.
Grace Kelly even collected Alhambra necklaces and wore several at the same time. Always a different combination with different gemstones.
Whenever a sought-after item has a high price, you run the risk of it being counterfeited. The purchase price is then a lot lower, but the value is almost nil.
If you want to be sure that you are dealing with a real Van Cleef & Arpels piece of jewelry, you can look for the following characteristics, which only a ‘real’ piece of jewelry from this jewelry company uses.
Van Cleef & Arpels have gained their name recognition by, for example, locating their boutiques or shops in an environment where rich and noble people often stay, such as hotels and chic seaside resorts.
And there will undoubtedly be a lot of marketing activities there to convince everyone that a piece of jewelry from Van Cleef & Arpels belongs at the top.
But like Tiffany & Co, they have also attracted attention from filmmakers and authors, who used Van Cleef & Arpels in their films and books.
For example, in the book ‘To Catch a Thief’, which was later made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock, one of the people in the story buys some jewelry at Van Cleef & Arpels in Cannes.
In the James Bond film, ‘Diamonds Are Forever’, Tiffany Case tells James Bond how she got her name. She was said to have been bid (too early) in a Tiffany & Co store. Bond then replies ‘It’s a good thing it wasn’t a Van Cleef & Arpels store’.
And Emma Frost, a character from the film New X-Men, who gained her power by being able to turn into a diamond, asks a taxi driver to drive her to the Van Cleef & Arpels store on 5th Avenue in New York. She wanted to have herself appraised at its true value.
If you are near a Van Cleef & Arpels store, marvel at the window display. After all, that costs nothing. And if you can afford it, come in and see how beautifully these pieces of jewelry are made.
Then you must of course be sure which jewelry suits you and makes you even more beautiful than you already are. Completely free of charge, you can download a PDF from the FlorenceJewelshop site full of tips on which jewelry to choose, taking into account your body shape and height.
To do this, all you have to do is fill out the form below and the download will come to you.
Florence from FlorenceJewelshop
© Copyright 2019 - 2024
NL