Results matching “Jewelry”

For spring 2012 Louis Vuitton(previously mentioned) has a new collection of haute joaillerie designed by Lorenz Baumier(previously mentioned): Escale à Paris (a stop in Paris).  Not all the pieces are announced yet, but eventually there will be 7 famous landmarks of Paris represented.  For the first three we have the Champs Elysees, the Tuilleries garden and the Place de la Concord (really the fountain at the center).

For the Champs Elysees we have a matching necklace and ring, both in white gold set with diamonds and red spinels, a red stone so close to ruby that many famous "rubies" are actually found to be spinel with proper testing. According to the press release, the necklace represents 1650 hours of work.

Addendum
I had noticed the small Arc de Triomph at the neckline, which I thought was a cute little detail, but it wasn't until I thought about it a bit that i realized that it really represents the Champs Elysee as seen from the river. The spinels on the right are the brake lights, and the diamonds on the right are the headlights of the constant traffic one sees there, any time of day or night. The loop of the necklace around the neck is the massive rotary which surrounds the Arc.

For the Tuilleries gardens we have 2 pieces in an Art Deco vein, a pair of earrings and a ring, both in white gold set with emeralds and chrysoprase. The earrings have an interesting book-matched symmetry to them, reminding me of a piece in Chanel's 2011 collection.

Finally for the Place de la Concorde, we have a overwhelming ring depicting the fountain at the middle of the circle. Unusually the press-release includes 2 pictures of it, which give a good feel for just how closely matched to the original it is. It is also of white gold, set with small diamonds and sapphires for the lower tiers, and a large sapphire on top. The support-structure is a piece of carved onyx, a clever way to "darken" the interior.

And completely unrelated collection, also from LV, was also announced, Defile (translates probably to parade). The pictured piece is the "Charm" bracelet, version XXL, in multiple colors of gold and diamond. It is only available as a custom order in gold and lapis lazulie, gold and malachite or the pictured gold and diamond. Price ranges from 50,000-60,000 Euro.

All of these pieces, one assumes, will be available at Louis Vuitton's soon-to-open jewelry boutique in Place Vendome

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Another Jules Verne, by which they really mean 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, themed piece from Louis Moinet.  This one is a single-button chronograph, a hacked 7750*, with a button-mode indicator patterened after a ship's telegraph.  The casework isn't exceptional, but not bad, with a gold-on-black patten repeated on the bezel, controls and dial.  The dial has a nice swirling guilloche pattern (reminding me of Guinel's jewelry), but the harmony is broken by the inexplicable inclusion of the date in the middle of the open space, not centered in any way, between 5 and 8 o'clock.  The hands look to be off-the-shelf steel, a pitty as the chronograph hands do a good job echoing the blue of the outer chapter ring.


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* "Movement is the Swiss automatic mono-pusher Louis Moinet caliber LM30, exclusive to the firm, with 27 jewels, 28,800 vph and a power reserve of 48 hours. " Ahh, PR speak for "we hired someone to modify a 7750 and nobody else can call it a LM30"

Unlike the usual eponymous color, the Turquoise of Turkmenistan is a deep, almost alge-like, green color. A new collection by Parisian jeweler Lydia Courteille, "Amazonia" takes full advantage of the unusual color and texture of the stone.

First a pair of flower rings with the turquoise embellished with green garnets, chrysoberyl and diamonds set in 18kt gold

Two Flowers,	One Flower

My favorite of the rings is this nameless under-sea themed piece (yes I know that hasn't been the "in" motif for several years), also using green garnet and diamonds, with the addition of ruby eyes

The collection also includes a matching trio of bracelet, necklace and earrings with the same arboreal pieces over large slabs of variegated stone.

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Wallace Chan will be the first Asian jeweler to display his work at the Paris Biennale des Antiquares this coming September 2012. He's not new to the industry, though, having won the Hong-Kong Jewelry Design Grand Award for his 1987 invention, the Wallace Cut. This is basically an intaglio cut on the reverse side of a faceted stone which is carefully calculated to appear "complete" only when seen through the facets.

In the early part of this century he caught the Titanium trend(see previous), and presented a collection in 2007 as Baselworld

He's recently pre-presented several of pieces to the press:

A pair of elegant, if somewhat severe, earrings in diamond and rock-crystal (a traditional European material that he seems to use somewhat often)	"Innocent Heart" ring. The center stone is a 25ct star-ruby, and it is surrounded by smaller star-rubies and yellow-green diamonds

A Butterfly broach in titanium set with precious and semiprecious stones. The wings are verigated rock-crystal

Necklace of aquamarine, sapphires, amethyst and diamonds set in titanium. The settings of the aquamarine deserve special note, they are titanium shells, anodized to match the color of the stones nearly exactly and set with tiny diamonds, giving them the appearance of just sticking to the outside of the large stone unsupported.

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In 1932 Gabrielle Chanel, known to all as Coco, announced her first collection of diamond jewelry. To commemorate that, the current incarnation of Chanel Joaillerie, which was formed in 1993, will be releasing a large collection (80 pieces in total) in July entitled, simply, 1932. The designs take their inspiration, so the press-release says, from the motifs and symbols held dear by the eponymous designer. The first 4 pieces released all have celestial themes.

The first three pieces are all from the same family, the Etoile Filante, or shooting star. All are 18kt white gold set with white diamonds.

	A photo by André Kertész for Vogue Paris from the original 1932 expo "Années Folles Rappelons" (roughly "remember the Roaring 20's") where the initial pieces were displayed. This motif was the inspiration for the star-themed pieces above

My favorite piece of the initial release was this broach, the Céleste, centering on a massive 79ct blueish baroque Austrailian pearl.

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Jean-Claude Sabrier has worked in the world of antique watches since 1960, first as an antiques dealer, then as a consultant for both the French government, the Musee des Arts et Metiers (previously mentioned) and the department of Justice, and the SWATCH group, notably the Breguet museum collection.  He's recently published a book on the history of the self-winding (automatic) watch , starting with it's origins in the 1760s, which will be available not-soon-enought (March, 2012).  For those interested, there's an excerpt in this month's VOX Magazine, published by Antiquorum, though the online Flash-based reader is a bit sucky, the piece begins on page 34.

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Barneys of New York is now carrying the jewelry of Sevan Bicakci (previously mentioned).  It means you no longer need to travel to Istanbul to see the pieces in person, but on the downside, you no longer get to go to Istanbul.  One of his rings, with a large Topaz back-carved with doves, is on the cover of their Christmas catalogue, and here's another piece with the same theme.

Well I'm sure I've seen worse...
In celebration of the 80th birthday of Mickey Mouse Disney has teamed-up with Chopard to release a series of jewelry and watches.  The Watches are of the usual "happy sport" style, but with a little black-and-white diamond mickey head instead of the fish. It is interesting to see them working with Chopard and not Bulgari since Disney and Gerald Genta had a long relationship for Mickey (and occasionally Goofy) themed watches.

Specs:
The Happy Mickey pendant, in white, rose and yellow
gold set with black, white, yellow and pink diamonds, rubies, onyx
cabochons eyes, with one mobile diamond; on a white gold chain set with
blue and pink sapphires, emeralds, rubies and amethysts. Retail will be £132,00

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Starting on December 13th, Christies will be auctioning off Elizabeth Taylor's collection of jewelry with proceeds to benefit her AIDS charity ETAF. The preview show has started and is making its way around the world before coming to rest for the sale in New York which means that photos of the pieces have started trickling out. I'll start with just the previewed necklaces.

First a pair of shots of an emerald and diamond necklace by Bulgari originally given to Taylor by Richard Burton

REUTERS/Fred Prouser	AP Photo/Richard Drew

More Necklaces

Sapphire and diamond necklace by Mouaward with matching earrings AP Photo/Misha Japaridze	A gold and ivory necklace which was a gift from the estate of Edith Head. The Ivory disks are 19th and 18th century opera passes. AP Photo/Richard Drew
One of a suite of Kunzite, amethyst and diamond "Triphanes" jewelry by Van Cleef & Arpels. It is estimated at $70,000 - $100,000. AP Photo/Richard Drew	"The Taj Mahal Diamond," (c. 1627), on a gold and ruby chain by Cartier, was a gift from Richard Burton for her 40th birthday in 1972. The central diamond is engraved with the words "Love is Everlasting" in Parsee. It is estimated at $300,000 - $500,000. AP Photo/Richard Drew
A ruby, diamond and pearl necklace by Cartier with the La Peregrina 60-carat natural pearl pendant The necklace is expected to bring $3 million at auction. REUTERS/Fred Prouser	The so-called "Grandmother's Necklace", with matching earrings, by Van Cleef and Arpels in front of a Warhol "Liz Taylor" screen-print (not owned by Ms Taylor). The necklace and earring set were a present from Richard Burton to commemorate the birth of Taylor's first grandchild. AP Photo/Misha Japaridze

(source note that that page is a nightmare of ads and javascript pain, and the second image in the slideshow is Hank Williams Jr.)
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Back when there was still a BNB they were working on a wristwatch version of the Antikythera mechanism, a 1st Century BCE mechanical sky map.  Now that they're Manufacture Hublot, that project has been continued and Hublot has shown off the prototype at the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris(Previously Mentioned).

The original is flattened, broken and corroded(left), so most of the understanding on the internals is based on CAT scans(right)

The watch movement is not yet finalized, but they've released a rendering (below) and over at thePurists Andrew (219) has some live pics of the protoype from the press reception last night.

I don't usually bother with the full movement specs, but these are not the usual "gear, screw and jewel count":

Hublot Antikythera - Calibre 2033-CH01

• Movement functions:
  • Hours, minutes, Seconds via the tourbillon cage
  • Flying tourbillon without ball bearing
  • Manual winding
• View of dial
  • Egyptian Calendar
  • Calendar for the Panhellenic games
  • Zodiac
  • Aperture showing moon
  • Lunar phases
  • Aperture showing sun
• View of bridges
  • Metonic cycle
  • Saros cycle
  • Callippic cycle
  • Exeligmos cycle

Main Physical Characteristics

• Dimensions of shaped movement
  • Width 30.40 mm
  • Length 38.00 mm
  • Thickness 14.14 mm (overall dimensions)
• Time-setting stem (3 o'clock) 2-position
  • Manual winding, Time setting
• Number of jewels: 69
• Number of components:495
• Hairspring:Flat for extremely accurate setting
• Frequency: 21,600 Vib/h (3 Hz)
• Power reserve: Approximately 120 hours (5 days)
• Oscillator (made in-house)
  • Balance with adjustment inertia-blocks
  • Moment of inertia: 16mg/cm2
  • Lift angle: 53°

They've also released a little introductory video (with an unpleasant narrator, but some good video)

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Cartier(mentioned before) threw a massive bash in the Villa Aurelia, a 17th century Roman palazzo built by Cardinal Girolamo Farnese, to release their new members in their Sortilège (enchantment) collection.

Some of the familiar Cartier faces were there, including actresses Monica Bellucci and Fan Bing Bing, along with the Italian actress Isabella Ferrari and Polish actress/model Kasia Smutniak. The piece Ms Ferrari is wearing is one of the older pieces in the collection, it was on display in their boutique in 2008.

Monica Bellucci	Fan Bing Bing
Isabella Ferrari	Kasia Smutniak

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There are an ocean of more pictures of the reception

Some more of the new pieces

Sapphire and diamond earrings set in platinum	Platinum ring set with diamonds and coral beads. (The PR didn't mention the material of the black accents, possibly black onyx)
Aquamarine bracelet, with a large pear shaped stone and beads in shades of blue. The main element is platinum with moonstone and diamonds accents and a single Tahatian pearl	Pearl bracelet with a platinum accent, set with a large polished Rubelite, diamonds and black onyx
Platinum ring with a faceted ruby set in the middle of a piece of rock crystal. It's an intriguing effect.	White gold ring with pink and purple sapphires and diamonds. The polished, not faceted, sapphires allow the sparkle of the underlying diamonds to be seen, an unusual effect

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While in New York a few weeks back I wandered through what has become the high-end jewelry district, Madison Ave from 55-75.  I spotted these two pieces in the windows of DeGrisogono, a brand as famous these days for managing to not go bankrupt as anything else.  Both are dolphin-motif bracelets, but I know very little else about them

Dolphin cuff - Sapphire animal set on a wide shagreen (tanned and polished stingray-skin) cuff	Hinged Dolphin Bangle - pink sapphires(?) and diamonds set on yellow gold with cabochon sapphires for eyes

The images are mine

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Earlier this month Boucheron presented their newest collection, Dolce Riviera, at their main Paris boutique, in the Place Vendome.  The collection is intended to reflect the sweetness of the French Riviera, and each of the families is named for one of the famous beaches on the Mediterranean coast: Isola Bella, Capriccioli, Beau Rivage, Paraggi and Aiguebelle. As with so many of the Haut Joaillerie collections, there's always a theme and it usually has only a tangential connection to the actual design

Bracelet from the Capriccioli family, set with cabuchoned emeralds as well as faceted sapphires and diamonds. The bracelet centers on a large cabuchoned sapphire	Aiguebelle ring, centered on a large (black?) opal and surrounded with blue and purple sapphires and emeralds.
A ring from the Isola Bella collection, several colors of sapphires set into yellow gold. This one is very reminiscent of the colors in several of the Cirque du Soliel necklaces they released in late 2009	One of a strange pair of seemingly renaissance-inspired earrings named Paraggi. It is cultured pearls, turquoise and coral (don't try to bring those outside the EU!) set in 18k Rose gold

By far my favorite pieces from the collection are these two unstructured necklaces.

First is the Isola Bella necklace from which the right side can be detached to make a shorter necklace and a matching bracelet. The press release doesn't give materials, but I would guess that at least the pink stones, and possibly the green as well, are tourmaline and the yellows are sapphires to match the ring (above) in the same family	My favorite piece is the Beau Rivage necklace. Centering on a emerald cabochon, it is 18k white gold set with blue sapphire beads and faceted diamonds. Like the Isola Bella piece and most of the other necklaces, this one is convertable, with the set emerald removable to wear as a broach

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This is just a sample of the collection, each of the families has a bracelet, necklace, ring, pair of earrings and some add in a watch. There are plenty more pictures over at The Jewelry Editor, as well as a short video from the opening party in Paris.

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Chanel has tried to cram a great deal of symobolism and story into their current jewelry collection. It is called "Contrasts" but has as a secondarytheme Orpheus in the Underworld, and I've not been able to figure out quite how the two are connected. On the other hand, some of the pieces are quite lovely, and are using some stones rarely seen in jewelry these days, including moonstone and rock crystal. The Jewelry Editor has a little video of her visit to the announcement party in Paris last week.

North Star Broach: white gold set with a 2ct brilliant cut central diamond1.5ct of pear-shaped, 4.5 ct of baguette and 399 tiny brilliant cut diamonds. Most of the large flat areas are set with moonstone, there's 43ct spread across the 6 stones and 10 white opals for the ends of the petals. 7 Pearls round out the piece.	Perle de Risée ring: The press release lists diamonds, black and gray spinel and moonstone for this piece along with pearls, but I can't actually identify most of those stones. It's always possible the caption ended up with the wrong picture
Crystal Rain Bracelet: Rock Crystal and diamonds. Both this piece and the matching necklace use Rock Crystl, a material that pretty much disappeared from jewelry by the beginning of the 20th century to represent water. Not my taste, but an interesting choice	Crystal Rain necklace
Perle de Rosée earrings. I believe this is the picture that should go with the caption from the Perle de Risée ring, diamonds, black and gray spinel and moonstone for this piece along with pearls. In any case these earrings and the matching necklace (I'm still tracking down a picture for that) are my favorite pieces of the collection.	Autumn Sun cuff bracelet in white and yelloe 18kt gold. The main stones are white and yellow diamonds of 3ct each.

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From Feb 18th until July 4th (sorry, you've probably missed it)the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (the NYC branch of the Smithsonian Institute) has had a large exhibit of jewelry by Van Cleef and Arpels (previously mentioned) entitled Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels. As I've tried once before, this will be a review of the exhibition which I was able to attend last weekend.

First of all, the collected works are fantastic, from the coronation jewels of Princess Grace through the many pieces commissioned by the Duchess of Wales to their current works, a massive cross-section of VC&A's work was on display, probably more then in any one place before. The exhibit itself was separated into 6 areas, each with a theme, a more sensible way to organize the jewels then by date or by material. The themes were somewhat vague to cover all the pieces, but useful conceptually: Inovation, Transformation, Nature, Exoticism, Fashion and Personalities (a catch-all for pieces owned by famous customers). These tied into various associated displays, including a video of the mystery setting in the innovation room, pre-production sketches in the Transformation room and photos of celebrities in the Personalities room. The entire exhibit was labeled by number, everyone got a guide book on entering which provided all relevant information, a much better solution then what would have been an excessive number of captions for the displays.

The display of the jewels was not all that satisfactory. The pieces were mostly set as a long row on a table, which made for moderately good traffic flow, but the cases were problematic. Some were single cases with the all the pieces, but most were smaller domes with a few pieces. These, for some baffling reason, appeared to be blown glass and were rife with irregularities that distorted the view of the pieces. The guards were also very insistent that one could not lean or even place the guide on the tables, which made getting a close look an excise in careful balance. The occasional nose-print testified to failures. There were also some baffling displays, like the illusionary ones based on parabolic mirrors that caused the piece to appear to float at the table surface, but also dimmed and distorted it due to the poor condition of the mirrors. As has become common with this sort of exhibit, photography was prohibited.

I don't wish these complaints to give the impression that I didn't enjoy it a great deal, it would have been worth the trip by itself, but such small changes could have made it much more enjoyable.

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ps yes it is pathetic how overrun by spammers the website is, it looks like no care was taken to secure it at all, nor has anyone from the museum bothered to look at it since it was launched.

(This is something new, for me at least, a review of a museum exhibit.)

While in New York this past weekend, I went to the oft-extended Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met, Savage Beauty.  I was impressed by the clothing and related accessories on display, having known almost nothing about the man before except the few "shocking" pieces that rose above the background noise of "who are you wearing" that surrounds big red-carpet affairs. The pieces spanned his post-college work through the last collection he did, which as presented posthumously in the past year, and gave a good evolutionary progression.  The early works show the clear influence of his prior work as a Saville Row tailor, not yet the insanity of the future, and the later pieces show the context of the great insanity that was commonly known.  Alongside the clothing were some of the usual accessories, hats, shoes and jewelry, and some unusual bits, such as laser-cut wood wings and a cast-aluminum corset in the form of a spine and ribs. 

  Where the exhibit really shown was in the displays and related settings.  Each of the rooms had a theme, with the interiors decorated to match, and these were done quite excellently.  Many of the pieces were shown alongside video of the original collection show, including a piece that was spray-painted by robots on stage and a series of chess themed works that played a game.  All of the manikins were masked in some way to hide the blank heads, and even the masks were customized to the exhibit room's theme.
  The only drawback to the exhibition was that there was no clear progression, each room opened onto the next from the middle of a wall, so you could not simply follow the sense of the exhibit to see all the works, which led to weird traffic issues.  There was also a wait to get in, about 30 min when we were there, but it was managed well enough not to be too annoying. 

  Overall I'd say it was much better then I'd thought it would be, highly recommended for anyone interested in fashion, and still recommended for those who just like a good show

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They're not the original to the core of Christianity in the way they've become, only coming into play in the 5th century and appearing in their common form in the 6th, but the Seven Deadly Sins are firmly rooted in popular culture, from Dante's Inferno to the movie Seven.  Stephen Webster(previously mentioned), who fancies himself something of a bad-boy when it comes to jewelry design, released a collection of rings on the theme late last year.

Envy, in the classic green

Gluttony, kind of a disturbing piece with your finger always going into, and out of, the grimacing teeth

Greed, using more metal then embelishments

Lust

Pride in full peacock splendor

A stone reclining on a ottoman of Sloth

Hands clenched at the throat of Wrath

Though all the designs may not be to my taste, these are impeccably executed and show a cleverness of design that, for most of them, is not at the expense of function. I can think of many contemporary designers who could have taken these concepts and done them neither so artfully nor with such technical skill.

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Though I don't particularly care that Boucheron (mentioned before) has opened a boutique in Beijing, I do wish to use that news to present the Bagha ring, from their Cabinet of Curiosities collection (mentioned before).  Constructed of rose gold and pavee set with black and yellow sapphires and white diamonds, it features cabochon emerald eyes and a large oval-cut red spinel center stone.



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See CIJ International Jewelry for the story about Beijing

Delfina Delettrez (previously mentioned) is a young somewhat avant-garde jeweler working in Paris, and she's released some new pieces for 2011. I was not a fan of many of her recent works, but these are more interesting rather then just intentionally shocking, and I am liking them more. The display models for the first earrings and necklace betray her former style

Collier necklace in gilded silver set with 2 large baroque pearls	"Roll-in-stone" earpiece in gold and pearl

Maintaining her interest in non-standard subjects, though returning from the absurd (skeletonized Michael Jackson,for eg), is this beehive necklace, with amber set in a silver hive and small worker bees.

The earrings and matching bracelet use the rather simple construction of the gimbel to create an interesting articulated design, with a pair of large irregular pearls set in the earrings

"Concentric Rings" earrings, set with large Tahitian pearls	Tourbillon (whirlwind) bracelet in silver

If you're interested, Paris Joaillerie has two short articles on her works in their back archives, from October 2008 and March 2008

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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
Flamboyant: Diamonds, sapphires and tourmalines set in white gold	Octopus: Diamonds, sapphires, acquamarine and a large Baroque pearl set in white gold

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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