A LEGACY CARVED IN STONES
Swiss jeweller Boghossian has perfected an array of innovative gem-setting techniques
GENEVA-BASED JEWELLER Boghossian has a long history of producing exquisitely crafted pieces using the finest in rare coloured gems. It was started by Ovannes Boghossian in 1868 in the city of Mardin in southeastern Turkey, which used to be an important town for Armenians on the Silk Road. His descendants, including eldest son Robert and Robert’s son Albert, carried on and expanded the family business, eventually moving it to Switzerland.
In recent decades, Boghossian has experimented with innovative jewellery-crafting techniques as seen in its Merveilles and Kissing collections. The Merveilles technique involves the near-invisible setting of gemstones on all surfaces. A signature of the collection is the Merveilles Icicle, now offered in limited-edition versions in a myriad of colours in a spiral or gradient style.
The Merveilles Icicle Sapphire Spiral Pendant (opposite page), for example, features varying tones of round-shaped sapphires set in white gold while the Merveilles Icicle Pink Sapphire Spiral Earrings (opposite page) use pink sapphires set in rose gold.
Boghossian’s Kissing Collection, as the name implies, is based on an entirely new jewellerysetting technique in which two gems “embrace one another to create the pefect light”. Each piece is crafted using a minimal and delicate design, in order to allow the beauty and simplicity of the stones – a combination of better-known gems such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds with the more unusual kunzites, beryls, rubellites and tanzanites – to shine through.
Highlights include the Kissing SquareShaped Emerald-Cut Diamond and Kunzite
Earrings (above right) with six of the eight diamonds set over square-shaped kunzites. The Kissing Cushion-Shaped Diamond and Rubelite Pendant (above left) has a diamond of SI2 clarity set in an oval-shaped rubelite, and the Kissing Oval-Shaped Diamond and Opal Ring (above) incorporates four kite-shaped diamonds on the contour of the oval-shaped blue opal. Both the diamonds and opal are set in white gold.