April jewels day
Pricey pieces may be out of reach for many of us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t admire them
IT’S probably frivolous of me to write about six pieces of jewellery that together a have a saleroom value of four times the UK average salary, buy hey, it never harmed anyone to dream. Sadly, I won’t be among the bidders at Woolley & Wallis’s appropriately named Fine Jewellery & Watches auction later this month, but the beautiful, full colour sale catalogue contains much to drool over and some fascinating footnotes to lot descriptions.
These notes about the history of objects and information about their makers not only bring them to life, they are also a marvellous learning tool for anyone wanting to gain more knowledge about antiques and fine art.
It’s just a pity the catalogues are so expensive – £15 by post for this one – but they must be extremely costly to produce. They might even make a loss for the auctioneer.
These days, many of the catalogues can found on the web, but it’s not quite the same.
What caught my eye in this sale was that group of six pricey pieces, four by the world renowned jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels and two by makers associated with them.
Centrepiece of the group is a stunning pair of diamond and sapphire scroll earrings dating from about 1935, the sapphires “invisiblyset” in platinum.
It was a term I’d not come across before, but fortunately, the catalogue note by the saleroom’s head of jewellery, Marielle Whiting, explains all.
How rows of gemstones could be set so perfectly together side by side with apparently no metal claws or mounts to hold them in place, or at least none that can be seen when the piece is worn, is a miracle of the maker’s skill.
“The illusion is created by a delicate lattice of rails slotting into grooves cut into the pavilion of each calibré-cut gemstone,” Marielle writes.
Calibré is a term that describes a technique using smaller, custom-cut faceted stones as the component stones in a larger design.
“The process takes hundreds of hours and could only be undertaken by a very small number of jewellers,” she writes.
She explains that had these earrings been made by Van Cleef & Arpels, they would have been described as “mystery set”, a unique technique which they patented in 1933, and one of the firm’s signature products.
“The oval-shaped sapphires in these earrings are invisibly-set, Marielle writes. “Mystery-set pieces are extremely rare. Rarer still are ‘invisibly-set’ oval stones. The sapphires in (these earrings) slot into the collet rather than a neighbouring stone, as with typical invisible settings, and use screws to their reverse enabling no fittings to be visible when worn.”
So, if not by Van Cleef & Arpels, then who? Again the catalogue footnote has the answer: John and his brother Robert Rubel, who opened their workshop on Rue Vivienne in Paris in 1915.
“The Rubel Frères (brothers) were producing jewellery that soon caught the eye of the great jewellery houses, such as Van Cleef & Arpels, Marielle wites. “The quality of their workmanship for the great houses was recognised to the extent that they were allowed to sign some of their pieces with their own maker’s mark.
“With the outbreak of the war, the brothers followed Van Cleef & Arpels to New York in 1939. They instantly took to the lavish night life.
“Tradition holds that whilst at the El Chico club, John sketched a flamenco dancer that developed into the first iconic Van Cleef & Arpels ballerina brooches. However when the rights to produce these pieces could not be agreed, the rift that ensued between the brothers and Van Cleef & Arpels was irreparable.”
The earrings are estimated to sell for £15,000 to £20,000.
Also by someone associated with the Paris jeweller is a diamond and sapphire scroll brooch by the famed William Riser, whose Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills store was frequented by such Hollywood stars as Barbara Stanwyck (who wore his jewels in the film “Sorry, Wrong Number), Ava Gardener and Joan Crawford.
Riser was born in Philadelphia and began working in Atlantic City. He eventually became vice president and general manager of Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin Jewellers, who moved him to Beverly Hills.
He opened his own business there in 1949 and Van Cleef & Arpels were among retailers of his work. The brooch is estimated at £5,000-7,000.
Alfred Van Cleef, the son of a gemstone cutter and his father-inlaw, Salomon Arpels, founded their business in Paris in 1896. The latter died in 1906, whereupon his son, Salom, joined the business, which was located in the Place Vendôme, across the road from the Hotel Ritz.
Soon the European aristocrats and American business and industry tycoons living the life at the Ritz became their customers and the makers of some of the most exquisite jewellery in the world saw their business boom.
Expansion followed quickly in such sophisticated hot-spots as Le Touquet, Monaco, Monte Carlo and Nice and the business picked up prizes at glittering exhibitions, such as the 1925 International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts. The event gave the world the term Art Deco.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, the family moved their business to New York premises, appropriately on Fifth Avenue where it remains today, along with their flagship La Boutique at 22 Place Vendôme, which opened in 1954.
Grace Kelly, Jackie Onassis, the Duchess of Windsor, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Peron and Princess Grace of Monaco were some of the company’s most iconic customers, whose purchases attract a premium if they appear at auction today.