Adding to Van Cleef & Arpels’ increasingly impressive bibliotheque comes a companion publication to this year’s 'The Art & Science of Gems' exhibition at the Moshe Safdie-designed ArtScience Museum in Singapore.
Page upon sumptuous page of historical jewels display the height of the French house's rich, curious and gorgeously offbeat approach to precious metals and stones. Among the most wondrous are the objet designs of the early 20th century – a carved jade pillbox, gold champagne swizzle, and a quartz and onyx nightlight among them. They are interspersed among more recognisable Van Cleef jewellery designs, such as diamond ribbon collars, clips and cuffs, and figurative pieces.
Gold, pearls, jade, coral, emeralds, rock crystal and diamonds are just some of the rare minerals and gemstones linking natural scientific processes to over a century of exceptional creative interpretation.
Overall, The Art & Science of Gems, with the French National Museum of History as a partner, does much to illuminate the deep cultural seam that renders high jewellery design such an extraordinary art form. At the same time, it once again highlights Van Cleef & Arpels as the most cerebral of the Place Vendôme jewellers.
Global cultural influences informed early Van Cleef & Arpels jewellery designs, including this 1930s landscape powder box in gold and enamel (pictured left); and an Egyptian-inspired bracelet and brooch, in platinum, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, diamonds and onyx from 1924 (right)
Gold work became a focus for the more casual jewellery of the 1960s and 70s, as seen in this 1967 Mexican mask clip in gold, quartz and emeralds (pictured left), and a pre-Columbian inspired pendant brooch and earrings in gold, from 1971 (right)
Abstraction in Van Cleef & Arpels design is displayed in a selection of drawings. Pictured: an abstract design vanity case created in 1928; abstract gold necklace of the 1970s; and the iconic 'Pylônes' necklace from 1939
Opulent objets of the 1930s point to the contemporary desire for pleasure in everyday activities. Pictured left: nightlight in gold, lacquer, quartz, onyx and rubies. Right: set for a smoker in gold, quartz, lapis lazuli and sapphires
Pictured left: a rock of cut and polished Russian malachite from the former collection of the King’s Cabinet of Natural History. Right: early 1970s Van Cleef & Arpels chain and 'Pisces' pendant in gold, malachite, emerald and diamond
INFORMATION
The Art & Science of Gems, $75, published by Editions Xavier Barral. For more information, visit the Van Cleef & Arpels website
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