With one obvious exception, Easter isn't thought of as a holiday for jewelry. That hasn't prevented some companies from releasing some Paschal pieces. First up is Lydia Courteille(see previous) and her Lapin Rose. These are set with pink Tourmaline and sapphires.
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Clockwork-powered automatons(see previous) were quite the rage in the late 18th Century, Jaquet Droz, both the man and the house, were quite famous for them. But fashions change and with the exception of a brief revival in the house of Faberge, they've not been made in the 200 years since. All of that has started to change in the last five years, JD commissioned a fully-functioning Time Writer (patterned on the Writer, one of the three immensely complex Android-style automata made by their namesake), and now Raul Pagés has started his own brand dedicated to them.
His first product is more along the lines of Faberge, a small tortoise which, when wound with a key, walks across a table, craning its neck from side to side. Each one will be unique, the first one has a 18kt white gold shell with blue enamel and diamonds inset as toenails.
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Since it's the diamond-jubilee year of Queen Elizabeth, some of the jewelry brands, particularly those with some, no matter how tangental, connection are putting out themed collections. To be fair, we've seen much sillier reasons for a themed collections!
The first pieces were all designed by Wendy Yue for Annoushka, all are 18kt white gold and set with diamonds, rubies, garnets and sapphires. The collection ranges in price from 11,000£ to 16500£.
| Serpent Ring | Lizard Ring |
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| Lion Ring. The coral-colored part of the crown is, in fact, cut and polished coral. | |
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From Stephen Webster (previously mentioned) and Garrard comes a more obviously-connected collection. Garrard, apart from being the oldest jewelry house in the world, has a long-standing connection with the House of Windsor, including being the maker of most of the currently used crowns. There are 12 items in the Diamond Jubilee collection, each including the eponymous birthstone. June has an additional pearl in the orb set atop the crown.
| January pendent, set with Garnet | September pendent set with blue sapphire |
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| Yellow gold and amethyst } White gold and blue sapphire | |
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| Chandelier Earrings, set with rubies and pearls | Necklace set with a large, heart-shaped briolette-cut amethyst. |
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Finally a collection from Solange Azagury-Partridge(previously mentioned), the Regalia. It's an interesing melding of a couple of traditional elements, the ribbon from the "Order of the Garter" (the highest current order of chivalry) done in guilloche enamel and surrounded with rose-cut diamonds(an antique, low-facet-count cut rarely seen since the early 20th century). In the context of enameling, guilloche refers to the engine-work done under the surface of translucent enamel. It was perfected by, and most commonly seen, Fabergé's workshops.
| Regalia Ring in white gold and blue enamel, set with brilliant-cut diamonds | Cushion ring, white-gold and blue enamel set with a large cushion-cut diamond, with brilliant-cut diamonds as accent |
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| Regalia earrings, in the usual white gold, blue enamel and diamond | |
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A second part of this collection has a series of "titled" rings, all in enamel, gold and diamonds. The Duchess is my favorite, with the deep purple-blue and the central rose-cut stone.
| Countess | Duchess |
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| Princess | |
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There are a few other brands with Jubilee-themed pieces, Backes & Strauss (the oldest diamond house still in business), Georg Jensen and even the rejuvinated East India Company(previously mentioned), but they'll have to wait
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Several months back a local jeweler hosted a display of French artisan jewelers. Since they forbade photography there, I was unable to provide anything in the way of images from the event, but I've been tracking down some secondary information on the brands on display. Here's the first, Marchak.
The original Marchak was founded in 1878 in Kiev by Joseph Marchak, and by the revolution had nearly 150 employees. Like many industries catering to the upper class, they left and by the mid 1920s has reopened on the Rue de la Paix in Paris. The brand grew and prospered through the mid 20th century, but faltered, and finally shut down in 1987 after the death of the Jacques Verger, the head designer.
In 2003 the dependents of Joseph, some still bearing the Marchak name, re-trademarked it and began working towards a reborn Marchak. A few years back they released a collection of animal-themed broaches, interesting but quite traditional in look. The following three butterfly's and octopus give a good sampling of their work. The use of unusually shaped stones for the butterfly wings is quite interesting, though somewhat common in Amber, like on the Isadora Ambre.
| Isadore: Materials unknown | Isadore Ambre: Chrysoprase and amber |
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| Flamboyant: Diamonds, sapphires and tourmalines set in white gold | Octopus: Diamonds, sapphires, acquamarine and a large Baroque pearl set in white gold |
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Nature, and animals in particular, play an important role in Marchak's collection, of the 7 pieces featured on their website at the moment, 5 are animals. The color gradient, as seen in the blue stones of the octopus, is a theme that they will continue using in their newer pieces.
From their newer pieces, some of which I've seen on display, there are a few worth noticing. Like many of the reborn watch companies, the new Marchak is trying to emphasize their connections to the historical company. One example of this is the Douze Mois (Twelve Months) collection, named after a play written by a cousin, Samuel Marchak, in 1960. This collection of twelve rings, in lacquer and diamonds set in gold,are the same, but for the hue of the lacquer, each one attempting to represent a specific month. The collection is presented in a box in a traditional Russian lacquer style, from the village of Palekh.
Drawing from the animal world again is a the Princess Grenouille (Princess Frog) in moonstone, spinel, chrysophrase, garnet, sapphire, emerald and diamonds (phew). This sort of lifelike small animal sculpture was very popular in late Czarist Russia, Faberge did a celebrated collection for Edward the VII.
The final piece is, I think, a fantastic use of an usual material for jewelry. This bear's head pin is in gold, diamonds sapphires and mink. It may not be the best example of craftsmanship in their collection, but was, at the exhibit, the most looked at and admired. A pity it retails for approx. 5,000€
(Picture sources: the first 4, the next 3)
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Sifis Stavroulakis is a Greek jeweler who has been based in Chania, Crete since 1990. He works in 18k gold (always yellow) and silver. He frequently reticulates (a process for creating a "crumpled" looking surface through the careful melting of the surface layer) the silver and oxidizes, or in other ways, colors it.
From his website, here are some samples. First some broaches, Sifis seems to be fond of animal and plant forms, so here are some of each. (For all the images below, from his website, click through for a larger version)
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The final broach is abstract, though clearly organic in form. It is set with diamonds in an old-fashioned cut known as the Rose cut, which renders the stone almost without fire.
The use of the vegetal forms is not limited to the broaches, but appears as necklace-pendents as well
The following ring is particularly interesting, it takes a common Roman form, the bezel set, barely polished aquamarine, and gives it an interesting modern twist with the square form to the body of the ring
There is also a series of small sculptures of plants in his collection, reminiscent in form of Faberge's flowers but that will have to wait for another post
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