Jewellery Maker Profile: Van Cleef & Arpels

Origins and Growth

Van Cleef and Arpels was founded in 1896 by Alfred Van Cleef, and his uncle-by-marriage, Salomon Arpels. The duo opened their first shop in Paris. Today the jeweller’s flag ship can still be found in Paris at 22 Place Vendome, where the Maisons’ fine collection and elegant designs first bought delight to Parisian high society. The demand from their glamorous clientele was met by the Maison opening further shops in the glamorous locations of Nice and Cannes. In the 20th century the jeweller’s popularity spread over the Atlantic, so that a New York store opened in 1942. The designer’s popularity has not waned in recent years seeing an increased interest in both vintage pieces and their contemporary collections. For example, an 18K gold ‘Alhambra’ necklace and ear-clips selling in 2013 at Sotheby’s for 15,000 USD with an estimate of only 5,000-7.000 USD.

Alhambra Quatrefoils

3.22 carat Colombian emerald and diamond ring by Van Cleef & Arpels.
3.22 carat Colombian emerald and diamond ring by Van Cleef & Arpels.

Van Cleef and Arpels are perhaps best known for their Alhambra collection. The iconic collection was created in 1968. The four-leafed clover shape was inspired by architectural decoration from Moorish mosques but has also been much used in Northern European Gothic ecclesiastic designs, particularly cathedral cloisters. The quatrefoil was adapted by the Maison’s designers into jewellery to become their signature motif. The distinctive design of the quatrefoil is framed in gold pearls and hard-stones such as malachite, onyx, or turquoise fill the quatrefoils’ that are separated by fine gold link chains.

The quatrefoil is symbol of harmony and token of luck across the globe, from Mayan mythology which used the quatrefoil as a symbol for the crossroads between the celestial and underworld to Irish folklaw which saw the four leafed clover as a sign of luck due to its rarity. Today, however, Van Cleef and Arpels’ quatrefoils are far from rare with the iconic motif still reinvented in new designs by the jewellery house to match the popularity of the 1968 Alhambra Collection.

The collections’ name hints at its inspiration: the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain. The palaces is lavishly decorated in the Moorish style with ornate mouldings and layering of scalloped arches which Van Cleef and Arpels gold rimmed quatrefoils echo. A sense of palatial exoticism is thus imbued in Van Cleef’s chic sautoirs.

 

The Mystery Setting and Ballerina Collection

Diamond and onyx suite by Van Cleef & Arpels.
Diamond and onyx suite by Van Cleef & Arpels.

In 1933 the Jewelers working for Van Cleef and Arpels patented their innovative setting technique. Known as Serti Mysterieux (‘The Mystery Setting’), the revolutionary technique creates the illusion that gemstones are suspended in air, rather than encased in a metal-work setting of prongs. The laborious process of constructing the minuscule network of gold rails which joint the stones together takes over three hundred hours and requires a superhuman steadiness of hand. The gold rails used by Van Cleef’s jewellers were no thicker than 0.2mm, which is only two-tenths of a millimeter. Initially the technique was only possible on a flat surface and so was used to decorate elaborate minaudieres (small evening bags).

Vintage diamond and emerald brooch by Van Cleef & Arpels.
Vintage diamond and emerald brooch by Van Cleef & Arpels.

However, by 1938 Van Cleef also acquired the patents for a second mystery setting technique. In a remarkably short time the ambitious craftsmen of the Maison had developed a method for creating the mystery setting on curving and twisted surfaces. The Ballerina/Fairy clips collection (1940-44) is an example of the creative possibilities of the Mystery Setting technique. The delicacy achieved with the Mystery technique is breathtaking. The graduated rows of diamonds and coloured gemstones of the dancer’s skirts seem to shimmer not only with the light, but with the movement of her pirouette.

These ethereal dancers were created by the maison’s chief designer, Maurice Duvalet, and manufacturer John Rubel, during the chaos and conflict of the Second World War. Perhaps this seems insensitive of Van Cleef and Arpels to spend their time labouring over such tiny stones and complex structures as the Mystery Setting to create jewellery that would be sold for lavish sums and worn by socialites such as Barbara Hutton and Jessie Woolworth Donahue at parties while nations and their people were struggling in war, however the clips were intended as emblems of hope. In such a dark time it would no doubt have been a welcome relief to see the human form immortalised in the dancing light of glittering stones. The innovation of the Mystery technique as a testament to human creative abilities continuing regardless of war.