Results tagged “jewelry”
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. | |
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 |
From Theo Fennell comes a collection of rather bland, if nice, pieces. I think the rings, particularly the white-gold one, are nicer then either the earrings or the necklace.
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. |
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.
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 | |
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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In the middle of May, Sotheby's auctioned off 60 lots, part of a collection of jewelry by Suzanne Belperron (1900-1983). This is one of the largest collections of her designs in private hands. She worked continuously from 1930 until about 1970, a rare female designer in a predominantly male business, selling to all the usual celebrities of the day, from the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to Colette, Jean Cocteau and Gary Cooper.
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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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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 |
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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 Butterfly broach in titanium set with precious and semiprecious stones. The wings are verigated rock-crystal |
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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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24k yellow gold and sterling silver ring with double dove carving in smoky topaz surrounded by white and yellow diamonds. 2.41ct.
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