Van Cleef & Arpels Takes the Scenic Route with Myriad Gemstones
The Le Grand Tour High Jewellery collection journeys through luscious rubellites and verdant emeralds, fiery opals and natural coral.
The Grand Tour was an epic ramble through the cultural centres of Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries, popular among aristocrats, artists and intellectuals seeking personal odysseys and paths to enlightenment. Van Cleef & Arpels retraces this legendary itinerary spanning London, Paris and the great Italian cities in their latest High Jewellery collection, bringing to life the beautiful motifs and enchanted souvenirs encountered along this voyage.
“Like everything else that matters in life, a great voyage is a work of art: a creation.” André Suarès, writer and poet
Each of the 70 masterpiece creations is anchored in their destinations and gemstones. Necklaces, bracelets and clips form intricate landscapes and tableaus, patiently composed by the Maison’s expert gemologists using a vast and diverse selection of precious stones.
Starting off in Paris, Lucendi earrings portray chandeliers under which ladies-in-waiting conduct their private conversations. Adorned with pampilles and suspended from a triple loop of rose gold, two oval-cut rubellites are cradled within an elegant basket weave. Their brilliance is combined with that of diamonds and pale mauve sapphires, radiating pastel tones of deep pink and suffused with the opulence of the “Grand Siècle” — the great century under the reign of Louis XIV.
Onto Venice, where the Capriccio necklace recalls the splendour of ancient Rome. Two rows of diamonds line up like majestic vaults, the very essence of Roman architecture. At the ends of each arch hang five Zambian emeralds of remarkable quality, distinguished by their fineness of crystallisation, strength of colour and elegantly elongated pear-shape. In keeping with Van Cleef & Arpels’ tradition of transformable jewellery, the emeralds can be removed and worn as earrings or on a diamond-set chain called “miroir des eaux”.
Like the mythical horn of plenty from classical antiquity, the luxuriant Cornucopia clip is abundant with gemstones. A 12.38-carat rubellite forms the centrepiece, its deep red revealed through a generously proportioned cushion cut. Diamond leaves, an amethyst bunch and a pomegranate set with rubies and spessartite garnets blossom around it, the buff-topped stones suggesting the sweetness of fresh fruit. Blooms of sapphires, spessartite garnets and diamonds complete the bouquet. The chromatic interplay between the stones is a feast for the eyes, unfurling in flamboyant harmony.
The journey concludes with a bucolic detour in the gardens of Baden-Baden, where a trio of clips embody the majestic trees watching over the town. On Feuillage Rêveur, a boulder opal — still retaining bits of the rock it is hewn from — is illuminated with green, light and dark blue fires beneath a cascade of white gold leaves punctuated with round and marquis-cut sapphires of blue and pink. The branch of angel skin coral on Feuillage Enchanté is crowned with a shimmering yellow gold foliage dotted with buds of pink sapphire, while Feuillage Mystique showers a branch of red coral with luxuriant rose gold foliage adorned with blue, mauve and pink sapphires.
