Singapore Tatler Jewels & Time
ONCE UPON A TIME…
Van Cleef & Arpels bestowed upon us a high jewellery collection so precious and whimsical that we fell in love with it at first sight
Dream weaver and purveyor of all our bejewelled fantasies, Van Cleef & Arpels brings to life magical fairytales by the Brothers Grimm with its latest high jewellery collection, Quatres Contes de Grimm. If your first reaction is “aren’t fairytales a little juvenile?”, we counter: there is nothing childlike about the incredible savoir faire displayed by the maison, as it utilises a spellbinding array of precious stones and esoteric techniques to translate these fairytales into jewels.
The collection derives its inspiration from four tales within two anthologies by the Brothers Grimm from 1812 and 1815, namely: The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Three Feathers, The Golden Bird and Town Musicians of Bremen. Striking elements from each story have been transformed into bejewelled beauties, with a distinct focus on Van Cleef & Arpels’ Pierres de Caractères (important gemstones). A plethora of brilliant, rainbow-coloured stones have been harnessed to depict the fairytales in vivid detail, like the yellow sapphires and spessartite garnets used to portray the Golden Bird, or the warm palette of coral, sapphires and rubies that depict the Serapi carpet from The Three Feathers. Exceptional diamonds feature in the collection as well, in particular within the Rubans de princesse necklace with three DFL, Type IIA (meaning that there is no perceptible nitrogen impurities) pear-shaped diamonds weighing a total of 22.87 carats.
In The Twelve Dancing Princesses chapter, the maison’s iconic fairies and ballerinas clips are joined by these coy and mischievous royals, cloaked in precious stones. Princess Éos is depicted in soft, pastel shades of pink and mauve sapphires, while Héméra bashfully covers her face with a gold and diamond fan. Peeking from under her sapphire, emerald, diamond and tsavorite garnet gown are her gilded shoes. Given that the crux of the story is about their nightly dance and their shoes, Van Cleef & Arpels pays homage to this motif with the Souliers précieux clip, where bejewelled heels sit atop a gilded cushion that’s accented with a 6.91-carat Troidia-cut spessartite garnet.