Proving Their Mettle
While platinum and titanium make an occasional appearance in high jewellery and are favoured by some maisons, they remain ever as elusive to the consumer. allyson klass sheds some light on them
THE UNBEARABLE BRIGHTNESS OF PLATINUM
Platinum landed on earth in the form of meteorites four billion years ago, and has been used by ancient civilisations ranging from the Egyptians to the Incas. The metal’s modern history only began when the Spanish conquistadors discovered it in the 16th century. Originally named platina, platinum to them was undesirable as it was harder, heavier, stronger and fire-resistant, compared to their treasured gold. It has a hardness of 4 to 4.5 on the Mohs scale, whereas gold rates 2.5 to 3.
Difficult to mine and 30 times rarer than gold, platinum was limited to industrial use in machinery before the turn of the 20th century. With a much higher melting point at 1,772˚C (700˚C more than gold), it was practically impossible to obtain a form pure enough for jewellery use. Game-changing technological advancements, however, revolutionised possibilities in gem-setting, and platinum soon became the choice metal for mounting gemstones in bespoke jewellery.
Platinum’s strengths eliminated the need for a heavy gold mount to support pieces with multiple gems. Craftsmen were able to create a less visible yet secure mount that held stones together without gaps. The metal is resistant to corrosion, rusting and tarnishing, and does not wear away like gold, making it ideal for the creation of complex designs, wedding bands and heirloom pieces. Another desirable quality is its naturally luminous greyish-white lustre.
The earliest jewellers to be drawn to bright and shiny platinum were Louis Cartier and his father, Alfred. The house had used the metal occasionally on small objects before pioneering its role in jewellery-making. The first mention in Cartier archives dates back to 1853, when the house made platinum shirt buttons. The maison’s Image, Style and Heritage Director Pierre Rainero offers this tidbit: “It was a ground-breaking Cartier innovation at the end of the 19th century to use platinum to create lighter and more intricate pieces, and also to highlight diamonds.”
The popularisation of platinum in jewellery-making had also developed in tandem with the discovery of major diamond pipes in South Africa, which were able to produce quantities never witnessed before. It was during this period that Louis created his own refined version of 18th century French Neo-classicism, although the Art Nouveau style was still very much in fashion. Using platinum, he designed very flexible, real jewellery lacework with an almost invisible setting known as serti muguet or Lily of the Valley. Its outline of a flower’s calyx (the green, leafy base) showed off every diamond’s sparkle.
Captivating royal courts worldwide, this new style of jewellery would be later named the Garland Style and become the epitome of the Belle Époque era of jewellery design. A magnificent piece that perfectly showcased the lattice-like design that could only be possible with platinum at that time is a 1912 Garland Style tiara made for Queen Elisabeth of Belgium.
Since then, platinum has given the maison’s designers free rein to their fantasy, creating a scaffold of simple or complex geometric constructions in their quest for original designs that are still sought after until today. A fine example is a 1920s bracelet in the Tutti Frutti style, one of Cartier’s most iconic, that sold for US$1.34M in an online Sotheby’s auction this April. It was the highest price for any jewel sold in an online auction, as well as for 2020 so far.
Beyond Cartier, other jewellers who feature platinum in their designs are Tiffany & Co., Van Cleef & Arpels and Fabergé. Known for its technical expertise in jewellery as evident in the maison’s emblematic mystery setting, Van Cleef & Arpels also created spectacular early pieces with platinum, including a gorgeous collaret with emeralds and diamonds made in 1929 for Her Royal Highness Princess Faiza of Egypt, as well as Marlene Dietrich’s famous Jarretière ruby and diamond bracelet from 1937.
THE TECHNICALITY AND TOUGHNESS OF TITANIUM
In the bejewelled world of luxury, titanium is the new kid on the block. It was first discovered in 1791 by British amateur scientist Reverend Willian Gregor, who had found an unidentifiable residue in black magnetic sand from Cornwall. Four years later, Austrian chemist Martin Klaproth verified that Gregor had indeed discovered a new element. It was named titanium, after the first sons of the earth in Greek mythology, the Titans.
The silvery-white metal has the highest strength to weight ratio of any structural metal, with a hardness of 6 on the Mohs scale. Its destiny was finally realised during and after WWII. Because it was feather
light, corrosion-resistant and nearly indestructible, titanium was heavily deployed in aerospace, manufacturing and defence. In the following decades, its repertoire expanded to many other industries, including medical, consumer tech, sporting goods and jewellery.
Titanium occupies a highly niche place in jewellery-making. Its toughness makes it a difficult metal to solder and carve, and it can quickly wear down tools. So, although it is relatively abundant compared to gold and platinum, the sheer effort and time required to craft titanium increases costs. However, its unique blend of strength and lightness (it is 4.5 times lighter than gold) enables jewellers to create larger, dramatic pieces that would otherwise be impossible to achieve with gold or platinum. It is particularly excellent for creating ring mountings as titanium prongs do not bend, dent or loosen easily.
Its natural silvery brilliance combines wonderfully with any gemstone, making it a favoured metal for independent avant-garde jewellers as new ways of manipulating it were discovered. In fact, titanium is able to take on a spectrum of 50 shades to light up coloured stones from within through an anodising process. The pre-eminent Joel Arthur Rosenthal (JAR), considered the most influential contemporary 21st-century jeweller, had introduced the metal in a mesmerising purple hue to the luxury world with the Mogol flower bracelet in 1987. Bedecked with diamonds and coloured stones, it sold at a 2002 Christie’s auction almost three times the estimate for a then-record price of US$556,000.
Using titanium is not without challenges, as Taiwanese contemporary high jeweller Cindy Chao points out: “Titanium metalworking requires a longer period – quadruple that of gold. Any careless mistake would force the whole crafting process to start over again. I’m fortunate to work with the finest European craftsmen; each of them has over 15 years’ experience in titanium processing.”
Described as “the Asian JAR” by the Western press, Chao’s known for her extraordinary bold, organic, sculptural pieces that are cast using a 19th-century cire perdue wax-sculpting technique. Her desire to create the lightest fine jewellery in the world has led to the use of titanium in most of her Black Label Masterpieces. She adds, “Despite the long process, I was driven to explore the three-dimensional inlay technique on titanium to the extreme. The titanium base setting was initially adapted on my Annual Butterflies – notably the Transcendence Butterfly auctioned at Christie’s Geneva in 2012 and the 2014 Ballerina Butterfly.”
Titanium has also boosted Chopard’s range in its designs as seen in its annual Red Carpet Collections. The maison’s co-president and creative director, Caroline Scheufele, says that aside from the lightweight alloy offering designers room for more extravagant designs, clients are impressed with the house’s adoption of coloured titanium. In 2016, Chopard developed a way to reproduce gemstone colours in titanium via electrolysis, a chemical treatment that fuses pigment into the pores of the metal. Once coloured, the metal seems to disappear when the gems in matching hues are set.
These stunning titanium pieces have taken centrestage in Chopard’s famed Red Carpet Collections. Among its 2020’s nature-inspired line of high jewellery is a pair of titanium-set Orchids earrings with four black cabochon-cut opals, brilliant-cut sapphires, tsavorites and tourmalines.
Boucheron’s 2018 Nature Triomphante High Jewellery Collection – a tribute to its 160th anniversary – saw nature recreated with alchemy and technology. The Lierre Givre necklace was created by scanning an actual branch of ivy, which was then translated into the language of jewellery using titanium, cacholong (a form of opal) and 14,000 micropavé diamonds. Also outstanding were the nine Eternal Flowers rings, which were crafted from real petals of the anemone, pansy, hydrangea and peony, and crowned with various precious gems. Employing an exclusive technique to preserve the petals without chemicals or pigments, these corollas were then carefully placed onto titanium to be immortalised forever.
– Cindy Chao, Taiwanese contemporary high jeweller