The L’Arche de Noé racontée collection is the culmination of months of work under the guiding hand of Van Cleef & Arpels CEO Nicolas Bos. In an exclusive interview with Options, he says: “I always look for the stories, tales, elements we could take as a starting point for a collection. Sometimes, we go for it, sometimes there are ideas we know are wrong along the way. I never thought of Noah’s Ark as a source of inspiration.” But inspired he was when he laid eyes on a painting by Flemish painter Jan Brueghel the Elder entitled The Entry of the Animals into Noah’s Ark at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Bos thought there was great potential in doing a collection on animals using this approach. To him, the painting was all about colour, movement and vibrancy. “It tells the whole story of Noah’s ark and you can see the ark in the background. Because it is a story of the ark, all the animals are in pairs. There is this idea of couples in love; [I thought] that could really be quite interesting if we could do our own Noah’s ark in jewellery.” Bos recalled, as a child, playing with a wooden ark that stored wooden animals in pairs. To him, there is a great tradition when it comes to a story as popular as Noah’s Ark — everyone knows the story, even those who have never read the Bible. Creating such a sensorial exhibition is not new to Van Cleef & Arpels. In Les Voyages Extraordinaires, the maison paid tribute to the novels of Jules Verne. Jewellery pieces referenced nature and the incredible journeys of his protagonists and the animals they encountered as they travelled in a hot air balloon or submarine. Bos explains, “[For the exhibition], we did a kind of representation of Jules Verne’s travels. It is like entering a submarine and there you had the [jewellery] pieces. So, we had [done things like that in the past] and we thought this could be something similar, as the narrative was very strong. We wanted to share with a wider audience and not just our clients.”
It is a challenge for Van Cleef & Arpels to come up with ideas that keep the maison at the forefront of everyone’s mind. “Year after year, we try to express the creativity of the house in high jewellery, especially through collections that are anchored in a story. There are inspirations that have to do with a fairy tale, book or ballet, which is pretty much the way we create things,” says Bos. Creating more than 60 high jewellery pieces is not without its challenges. How does one do justice to a well-loved story while introducing a certain amount of playfulness into the collection? Bos answers with a question: “How do we interpret all of it in jewellery?” The challenge, according to him, was more on the design. How to create something that would not be too repetitive or boring, so that each and every piece would have its own personality? And at the same time, maintain consistency? Each piece from the collection took six to 12 months to create. Bos says, “If you are a customer, willing to buy, or a visitor, willing to look at the pieces, you would, of course, enjoy the different animals and different styles. That was probably the main thing, and then, of course, [we had] to make them nice to wear, which is probably more challenging, or less obvious, when you work with a couple, rather than with a single piece.” The brooches can be worn either individually or as a pair, Bos says. They look good both ways.
Two by two ÉLÉPHANTS CLIPS
Clad in the deep colours of lapis lazuli and malachite, these two elephants are enlivened by diamonds. Each piece of semi-precious stone was selected, cut and adjusted with extreme care to ensure that the material’s striations enhance the design. The lines of the animals are stylised, evoking the appearance of traditional wooden toys. Yet, each elephant has an individual expression, the male peacefully nodding his head and the female cheerfully raising her trunk.
White gold, diamonds, buff-topped sapphires, lapis lazuli and malachite
In this tender composition, two penguins face one another. Their wings are fringed with diamonds, thanks to the scalloped setting technique. The penguins’ bellies — mirrorpolished for added brilliance — contrast with their onyx backs, while the ice floe is suggested by an irregular play of cabochons. Two tones of coral are displayed on the base of the clip and the beaks, reflecting the maison’s expertise in selecting its materials.
White gold, pink gold, diamonds, coral and onyx
Side by side, two black-and-white raccoons are perched on dazzling and intensely coloured cabochons of spessartite garnet and pink tourmaline. Respectively weighing 36.26 and 12.70 carats, the gems suffuse this highly contrasted clip with a joyful vivacity. Combining onyx and diamonds, the animals stand out for their precise details — the nose, the mask around the eyes and the stripes of the tail, for example — while their coats are suggested by an extremely dense paving.
White gold, pink gold, diamonds, onyx, spessartite garnet and pink tourmaline
Zebras make a noteworthy appearance in the collection, thanks to a graphic combination of materials. Their striped coats are depicted by an alternation of diamonds and lapis lazuli and onyx. Their muzzles are similarly sculpted in these latter two materials, with intricately crafted details. Different diamond cuts — round, square and triangle — punctuate this duet, whose geometric lines compose an elegant harmony.
White gold; round, square and triangle, white and yellow diamonds; onyx; lapis lazuli
Forming a coloured duo, this pair of owls attracts the eye with its innovative association of hard stones. Rarely used by the maison, sugilite is here given pride of place on the wings and ears of the bird on the right, clad in its rich violet tones. Its neighbour is adorned with the lagoon green of chrysoprase, selected for its intensity and even consistency. Intricately set around the eyes, on the rounded bellies and the spread feathers, round diamonds lend a final, luminous touch to the silhouettes.
White gold, diamonds, onyx, chrysoprase and sugilite