Doris Duke’s pierrot by Van Cleef & Arpels

This charming Pierrot brooch has a nice provenance, it comes  from Doris Duke’s personal jewelry collection.

It was made for Van Cleef & Arpels designed and patented by Maurice Duvalet in 1949. Duvalet worked both for Van Cleef & Arpels and John Rubel & Co. and was most famous for his ballerina brooches that he designed for both companies.

One of the masterpieces at the Rare Jewels and Objets d’Art: A Superb Collection at Christies NY in 2009 was the diamond ruby and emerald “ballerina” brooch. Several ballerina brooches had been designed in the late thirties by Maurice Duvalet for the New York branch of Van Cleef & Arpels. This particular brooch depicts Maria Camargo, a Spanish star ballet dancer from the 18th century, posed in arabesque. The use of emeralds and rubies resulted in a brilliant rendering of the flowers set on her costume as pictured by a French painting from Nicolas Lancret. Maurice Duvalet designed this particular piece in 1942 and used mainly rose-cut diamonds which are reputed to have originated from the Spanish Crown Jewels. This piece was manufactured by John Rubel & Co, the usual manufacturer for Van Cleef & Arpels New York. Estimated by Christie’s at $80,000 to $120,000, the brooch reached $350,000 (before commission). Also the Arpels had close ties with the ballet and were influenced by the great dancers and choreographers of the day. They even approached George Balanchine to produce a ballet entitled ‘Jewels’ where various countries were represented by different precious stones.

Duvalet’s,  more modest Pierrot, is in the same style. It is made from 18 carat gold, weighing 9.8 grams.  The brooch has graduated cultured pearl arms and legs that move, and a cabochon ruby head.  It measures approximately 2 inches tall, and is signed and numbered: Van Cleef & Arpels, 15838.

This pierrot brooch was originally owned by the tobacco heiress, Doris Duke  (1912 – 1993).  All Ms. Duke’s jewellery was sold by Christie’s auction house in 2004.  Per Doris Duke’s instructions in her will, all of her jewelry was temporarily on display at her home, Rough Point, in Newport, Rhode Island prior to the auction.  Her jewelry collection was overwhelming.  Duke’s 399 piece jewelry collection was catalogued in Gems From the East and the West, The Doris Duke  Jewelry Collection, by Janet Zapata, Ulysses Dietz and Zette Emmons in 2003. Page 102 of the catalogue shows our Pierrot brooch.

the Utrecht Museum of Musical Clocks presents Emperor Qianlong’s Singsongs: paste extravaganza

In Utrecht we have a unique museum: the Museum Speelklok (Museum of Musical Clocks). They house any kind of automatic  musical instrument, such as this monster of a carousel. Until 28 February a very special exhibition SingSong displays a selection of clocks representing the most important objects from the Qing dynasty. Leading European clockmakers, such as the master of the craft James Cox, produced many of these magical and mysteriously frivolous showpieces. They have never left China before.

Although they do contain proper clock movements, their main aim was not to tell the time but to amuse and impress, making them exclusive and expensive toys for prominent adults. The exotic designs went way beyond any imagination expressed in the European rococo and chinoiserie of the time. During the 18th century, the most spectacular and costly clocks were traded from the West to China. The clocks were much sought after by the Chinese emperors and were also highly desirable gifts.

Singsong

Some enchanting clocks played music every quarter of an hour, and the Chinese called this novelty ‘the clock that plays by itself’, or in Chinese: ‘zimingzhong’. This word was anglicised into ‘singsong’, the equivalent of the musical clock. Emperor Qianlong (1736-1796) accumulated a vast collection of these fascinating and imaginative clocks, which now form part of the collection of the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City (Beijing).  For three years Museum Speelklok and the Palace Museum have restored the imperial clocks together. The exhibition also gives a great insight in this complicated collaboration.

The Pagoda clock

This clock is one of a pair of identical, fire-gilded bronze pagoda clocks. The pagodas have five levels, with roofs decorated with bells, garlands and pastes: glass which has been cut into gem-like forms imitation gemstones. The paste decorations are completely over the top.  Each hour on the hour, music plays and the pagoda clocks open up telescopically (to a height of almost two metres!), only to fall back again to their original size during the hour that follows.

The Elephant & the Pavillion clock

Watch these clock play below.

Paste

Georges Frederic Strass (1701-1773) invented the much desired gem imitation in 1730 and due to the huge success of the invented technique was awarded with the title King’s Jeweler in 1743. The glass “gems” could be set in silver or gold and could have been foiled or unfoiled. The 18th century pastes demonstrated on the SingSongs were always foiled. Foiled pastes were usually seen in closed-backed settings where the foil provided added reflection and brilliance. Pastes were much easier cut and shaped than real gems, making this close-fitting pavé look achievable. You see every color imaginal, including opaline pastes that are similar to opals as in this brooch. Only two gems real are used; amethysts and  chrysolite.

Paste in the Singsongs

Paste jewels are still immensely popular, but I have never seen examples like this before! Pay attention to the bouquet on top of the Elephant clock  in the movie above. Just imagine these bouquets on your shoulder, or just a tiny one…

Gold from Georgia: Jason’s golden fleece

From June until August 2010 the Drents Museum shows treasures form ancient Georgia.

Jason was a great Thessalian hero who led the Argonauts in the quest for the Golden Fleece of king Aietes in order to place Jason on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly (the West of present Georgia). Jason succeeds with the help of Medea daughter of Aietes and his wife to be.

This classical Greek myth bears some truth. The golden fleece refers to a method of gold recovery from the streams in the Caucasus mountains. Sheep fleeces were submerged in the stream, and gold deposits would then stick to the fleece.

The beautiful treasures were made at the time of Jason quest. They are on a world tour and presently exhibited in Assen. Their home is the national Georgian Museum in Tbilisi. These 150 gold, silver and bronze objects from the Bronze age to the Roman era show high standard metal techniques. Especially the gold excavations from the temple city Vani (supposedly the city of Aietes in the 8th to 1th century BC) are made by extremely skilled goldsmiths; the tiniest granulations. This is an extremely difficult method by means of which tiny balls of solid gold are attached to a gold surface without soldering but rather through a chemical reaction between the gold and heated copper or malachite. In Greek, malachite is called chrysocolla; glue of gold.

Brilliant Impressions – Antique Paste and Other Jewellery

June 2010 – SJ Phillips of New Bond Street has a wonderful sales exhibition of paste and other jewellery dating from the golden years of the 18^th and 19^th centuries

This sale exhibition provides an overview of paste jewels between 1750 and 1900. Beautiful 18th century girandoles, but also simple  mirror or Vauxhall glass jewellery (Vauxhall glass’ name derives from a mirror glassworks in Vauxhall, London that was owned by the Duke of Buckingham. Faceted glass was applied to a metal background which was then painted black) and French jet jewellery are exhibited. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue by jewellery historian Diana Scarisbrick, with a foreword by Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue.

Paste jewellery, with its wonderful colours has not dated, lately it has risen in popularity tremendously, appealing to women today.

The catalogue can be viewed online by clicking here.

17th century blue paste bow pendant from Kunsthandel Inez Stodel

goldsmith Bartholomeus Jansz van Assendelft with octahedron diamond ring and touchstone

Bartholomeus Jansz van Assendelft

This painting by Werner van den Valckert is on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It shows a portrait of Bartholomeus Jansz van Assendelft (Leiden, 1586-1659). He is leaning out of a window, in his right hand he holds a ring with a large octahedron and in his left hand he holds a touchstone. Both objects are clues that point to his profession as a goldsmith. Van Assendelft’s left hand is brightly lit, which draws your attention to the touchstone, which also shows off his honorable function as judge of his guild. And on the touchstone the painter signed his work: We read W v Valckert fe 1617.

Werner van den Valckert

Van den Valckert was a mysterious person in history and his name is not found in the registers after 1627. He became a member of the painters Guild of St. Luke in the Hague between 1600-1605. From this we can assume that he was born around 1580-1585. We can conclude that by 1614 he had moved to Amsterdam, because his daughter was baptized there. His earliest dated prints are from 1612. His surviving paintings are historical allegories and portraits. Van den Valckert also made a prestigious schutterstuk, which features the Amsterdam major Albert Burgh. According to his biographer Arnold Houbraken, Van den Valckert was a student of Hendrik Goltzius.

Touchstone

A touchstone is a small tablet of dark siliceous stone (such as fieldstone, slate, or lydite) used for assaying precious metal alloys. It has a finely grained surface on which soft metals like gold, leave a visible trace. Assaying by touch was one of the earliest methods used to measure gold alloys. You draw a line with gold of your jewel on the stone. This can leave a scratch on the jewel if you have to remove any upper gilt layers. Alongside the drawing you make another scratch of known gold samples. Then the traces of gold are treated with acids that dissolve impurities. The trace will react differently to specific concentrations of nitric acid applied, and by this you measure the gold content of the jewel. The color of the reacted area is compared to that of the reference sample. A 14 carat (or any lower carat) gold jewel will show chemical activity and dissolve when tested with 18 carat gold acid, but when the trace is not affected it can be identified as 18 Carat gold (this means 750/1000 gold and 250/1000 other materials; copper, nickel, zinc).

A complicated detailed operation to achieve a beautiful result!

Octahedron ring and the meaning of adamas

An octahedron is one of the diamond’s natural crystal shapes. And the ring that Van Assendelft is holding clearly contains an octahedron cut stone. We see a piece of glass or a rock crystal, but most likely a diamond. Diamonds crystallize as octahedrons, cubes, or dodecahedrons. Try to scrabble that! It sometimes shows habits that contain two or more of these forms. But the octahedron is one of the rarest forms.

The word diamond originates from adamas which means invincible in Greek. The first adamas came from India and were hardly cut. Because of their beauty and strength, they were worshiped as talismans, and cutting a diamond would not benefit its strength. The Europeans changed this point of view, in order to bring out the fire and brilliance of diamonds. Symmetrical octahedrons, very rare rough crystals, were the first to be polished or cut – in a pyramidal diamond like the one in van Assendelft’s ring. One pyramid is completely hidden in the shank of the ring, the top part is shown.

Quite fantastic to look at and even more to carry! I also love this 16th century Moghul ring with a cinnamon octahedron diamond that we sold a few years ago.

Make jewellery not war!

Bullet rings

Adi Zaffran Weisler (4th year student at Bezalel academy of art and design in Jerusalem) made rings from used bullets shells that he found at a firing range in Tel Aviv by putting the bullets on a simple copper shank. Zaffran tries to find beauty in the scary reality of shootings and war.

The Gun Reclamation Project

The Gun Reclamation Project inspired Ken Leung and Dana Chin of B-Side Jewelry to make jewels from parts of firearms (triggers, firing pins, recoil lugs) recast as symbols of nonviolence: “We believe that art in all forms can tell a story. Sculpture and in particular jewelry have long been vessels of showcasing wealth and social standing, our vision is to create work that is a vessel for a deeper form of expression. Our pieces and subject matters are intended to connect with viewers on an emotional level as well as an aesthetic one. We strive to tell a story of beauty with a message – conscious sculpture“. A portion of the proceeds from each sale help fund the New York City Gun Buy-Back Program. The jewels are made from parts of these returned guns. Does it get any better? Although pretty abstract, you have to be cool to wear broken guns like this.

Ted Noten’s Superbitch bag

The Superbitch Bag; a gun casted in acrylic with a snake skin handle by Ted Noten, The Netherlands’ greatest jewellery designer. Violence is never pretty, however this bag is beautiful and very safe.

Jean Deprès’ engine ring

Jean Deprès (1889–1980) made a lot of mechanical jewellery such as this silver ring from 1933. Deprès was one of the pioneers in Art Déco jewellery. Together with Jean Fouquet, Gérard Sandoz and Raymond Templier, his roots lie in the Haute Joaillerie, because his father had a jewellery shop, but they were all part of the aesthetic revolution in the twenties. During the First World War Deprès designed military airplane engines, which inspired his work and aesthetic a great deal. He became fascinated by the mechanical world and used the engine parts and gear in his designs; rods, nuts, outlines of crankshafts, the look and form of metal.  Machinery was transformed into beautiful industrial jewellery. It’s all about aesthetics.