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New must-see High Jewelry: Van Cleef & Arpels recreates Four Tales of the Brothers Grimm

Van Cleef & Arpels Golden Bird – Quatre Contes de Grimm, the new High Jewelry collection; photo: vancleefarpels.com

Van Cleef & Arpels pays a high jewellery tribute to Grimms’ Fairy Tales with a new stunning haute joaillerie collection with no more than 80 jewels. Quatre Contes de Grimm collection meaning The Four Tales of the Brothers Grimm reinterprets all-known tales such as ‘Three Feathers’, ‘The Town Musicians of Bremen’, ‘Twelve Dancing Princesses’, and ‘The Golden Bird’.

The Grimms’ Fairy Tales is a collection of fairy tales by the Grimm brothers or “Brothers Grimm”, Jacob and Wilhelm, first published on 20 December 1812. The first edition contained 86 stories, and by the seventh edition in 1857, had 211 unique fairy tales.

Ballerina brooch figurines, a timeless motif for Van Cleef & Arpels, are dancing gracefully along with earrings,bracelets, necklaces, and rings.

“The Magical nature of these tales is manifested in the possibility of uniquely transforming each piece in the collection into another, for example; the pendant of some necklaces in ‘Quatre Contes de Grimm’ can become a brooch,” commented Jewellery insider Katerina Perez, a specialist with professional knowledge and insight of the industry.

“The sense of magic is further enhanced by the techniques of ‘Mystery Set’ and ‘Vitrail Mystery Set’ – the latter was surpisingly only patented by the Van Cleef & Arpels in 2014. The ‘Vitrail Mystery Set’ renders the setting almost entirely invisible from every angle, and the light passing through the gemstones illuminates them as brightly as possible,” added Katerina Perez.

The old king blew three feathers in the air.

Witness the delicacy of the Trio Précieux clip, featuring three interlaced feathers that will determine the kingdom’s fate. The virtuoso Vitrail Mystery Set technique depicts the lightness and delicacy of feathers in the Panache Mystérieux clip.

Mystery Set refers to the unique technique associated with Van Cleef & Arpels ever since the Maison patented this dazzling invention in 1933. It consists of setting stones in such a way that no prongs are visible. The level of expertise required makes Mystery Set the exclusive realm of a very small number of master jewelers.

The technique is so intricate that producing a single clip takes no less than 300 hours work. Each faceted stone is delicately inserted onto thin gold rails less than two-tenths of a millimeter thick. Once complete, the gems appear to be entirely free-standing. Because of the complexity of the process, Mystery Set pieces are extremely rare: the Maison produces no more than a few of them each year.

 

Golden Bird

Once upon a time, there was a king who owned a tree that bore golden apples. The beauty of the intense yellow sapphire is evoking the gleaming fruit. Oiseau d’or clip is a work-of-art featuring yellow sapphires, spessartite garnets, onyx, and diamonds. “A single one of these feathers is worth more than my entire kingdom,” said the king.

Twelve Dancing Princesses

Once upon a time there was a king who had twelve beautiful daughters. Every morning, he found their shoes worn out from too much dancing. Souliers précieux clip features Troidia-cut spessartite garnet of 6.91 carats, emeralds, lapis lazuli, white cultured pearls, diamonds.

The Town Musicians of Bremen

The four friends united to triumph over the robbers. The donkey brayed, the dog barked, the cat meowed and the cockerel crowed. The Victoire earrings echo to the pyramid of animals in the Town Musicians of Bremen tale, with four yellow diamonds representing the donkey, dog, cat and, last but not least, the rooster. The earrings with detachable pendants include 14 rose-cut yellow diamonds for a total of 18.18 carats and diamonds.

The Quartet Long Necklace features cushion-cut pink sapphire of 11.39 carats (Madagascar), 10 emerald-cut fire opals for a total of 10.04 carats, pink sapphires, spessartite garnets, fire opals, pink spinels, white cultured pearls, golden mother-of-pearl, diamonds.