Frank’s Files: The Dazzling Heritage of Van Cleef & Arpels

[Music] hello my name is Frank Everett and welcome to Frank's files we are in Paris this is the legendary place vendôme palm to every fabulous jeweler in the world it's the epicenter of the jewelry world and I'm here today to go in and see the Heritage Collection with Van Cleef and Arpels one of the most famous houses in the world so I can't wait to get inside [Music] it's nice to see so much pleasure maybe can't wait to go upstairs welcome thank you okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to Van Cleef & Arpels it is my privilege and honor truly to be here today with my friend Nicholas luck singer Nicholas I'm gonna let you tell me exactly what your title is now oh I'm president of Asia Pacific okay nothing to do with with it today the jewels that we have here I have known you for a long time and I appreciate you so closely with the Heritage Collection what exactly is the Heritage Collection so we started 15 years ago to present to our clients in the New York store like what we call heritage pieces of piece which are secondhand or vintage so we buy back pieces we buy back pieces from our clients we buy back pieces from dealers we store them in a workshop in Paris and we offer them for sale to a client so these are not museum pieces these are all vintage things that are for sale absolutely incredible I honestly I didn't realize you had so many beautiful vintage things that were that were available thank you um and how do you decide or I guess you have to see what what comes along how do you decide what makes it into the Heritage Collection first I mean it is always like a friendly competition with a museum because obviously we have our own museum collection which we learned to museum for division we have our own exhibition but normally when it's something like a very interesting very unique with a very unique problems we keep it for the museum when it's more like everyday jewelry or it's more like a we without proven also but it's very wearable they'll keep it was a was a heritage collection so the heritage of Van Cleef and Arpels began really with the marriage of the two families is that right yes yeah 1896 like Alfreda Van Cleef and si la paz got married and in 1906 as he decided with her brother to open a store on the first model now we are very lucky VanCleave and of course because not great archives so every piece of a jewel which comes out of the salon is signed and numbered and with the number we're able to find when the piece was made - it was sold when it was sold so is that we are able to completely a guarantees authenticity of our pieces so Nicholas when I think of some of the great icons that Van Cleef is known for I see some of my favorite things that really speak to what Van Cleef and Arpels is about I see a wonderful art deco bracelet I see a couple pieces with your patented mystery setting a wonderful zip necklace here and this beautiful brooch inspired by nature this wonderful floral brooch which I think event Cleef really as being so feminine you know it just in general the designs so I'd love it or you can sort of tell me about some of the icons though it's a very feminine Brenda and we have like two source of inspiration its nature and fashion so fashion obviously you see it a visited necklace with a tassel which is exactly from a dress from a piece of clothes and nature so all kind of nature but I mean most of my jewelry about flowers we also have like little animals bought for a very famous for so nature is a big inspiration and just light and whimsical I just see so much beautiful whimsy absolutely I mean Van Cleef and a posse always want to see the positive side of life your happy life so even if you look at the animals they're very gentle when you see a lion watch you want to pet Celaya yeah we never be aggressive did you look at the rose board exactly you know of course you can hurt yourself picking your blue and this one not this one nothing this one exactly but I see two beautiful pieces here this sapphire piece can you tell me a little bit about that yes it's a mystery setting is one of the signature technique from bunny developers we started in 1933 and it's it's something called mystery setting because you don't see the mounting so as you see the stone set next to each other we do it in sapphire we do it in Ruby we do it in Emerald and they are all done on the upper floors is building the way through our workshop yes we have the stone setter and the stone cutters they work side by side under its like a sliding stones and scissor the rail at the back and it's a very incredible technique I mean for this piece and I mean we spoke about archives and here you have like exactly when it was made this is a drawing of the piece as a date of the piece so here you have it it was sold in 1963 and you have sometimes a little comment from from Jack a place he used to comment on the archives what is sort of the piece when the piece was shown to him before and he says when he said as always very pretty as always very pretty indeed this is really important piece also iconic I think to the house is the zip necklace yes says if it's still today one of our best sellers so the CPC's why it's so famous because it's a transformer so when you can wear it as a necklace and as a bracelet as well and there's a great it has a great history I mean it was a the Duchess of Windsor never owned one but it was her ID in the in the late thirties she asks Amazon to have a signal Ethernet for her as a time zip even in close but not so come on you know all our dresses are like buttons and a zipper something very avant-garde in fertilizers a war starter and we are unable to do it for her but we realize it as a 50s and from the 50s on it became a best-seller you see your girls on the case [Music] yeah so now you're gonna make a bracelet [Music] I sponsor as well and then you zip it is your bracelet speaking of the Duchess of Windsor - this reminds me of the famous brooch that she wore yes by Van Cleef and Arpels right it was only bit how was any bigger than this one but it's exactly the same steel is that what we call a Hawaiian fact yeah I love the period in the 40s of the use of these lighter colored stones as the paler yellow and blue so it was after a World War two so after World War two it was like a shortage of fabrics in France this is also elegant French woman had to wear always the same clothes so she didn't want to attract too much attention on her clothes I don't know jewelry AHA that's why we made all these big brooches so there's a shortage of fabric but no shortage of sapphires absolutely that's a good I think that's a good position to be in and what about this bracelet you were telling you this was this was a nice discovery yes a nice discovery I love this bracelet that I would swell of it because of its history yeah in in our archives we discovered that it used to belong to Barbara Hutton aha so you know about the Hutton was a huge client of an - apples which always staying at as it's in front of us is or even a very good story at the time she was not feeling well and she was in a room and Jacques apples went to duty to say hello to her in the erogenous dude sweet facing the plasma dome and all the curtains are closed and she's in her bed and because closer to the bed and she's wearing a diamond tiara well makes you feel better exactly right wow what a selection um the last thing I have to ask you about is this treasure this is really a little work of art and I've never really seen any place it's a clock it's a clock it's a clock so it's it's different I mean most of the jury the jury will buy for the Heritage Collection we want our clients to wear it yes we really think a jury's to be worn it's not to be put in a showcase or in a safe but the only exception is this clock which i think is it's it's amazing I mean it's it's really a Lisa since Chinese a work of art because obviously is that's a Chinese vase which was transforming to a chronica so so as a Chinese about the turquoise yes I guess father like yes late 18th century yeah and then remounted by vanity fan apart and a very subtle way you can see as a time here it's so yeah really for you to have on your desk I'll take it wow this has really been amazing Nicholas thank you so much for sharing these pieces I can't wait to look around at all the new collection as well I see some of the new zipper necklaces are part as fabulous as the old ones and then this has just been a rare rare special treat so thank you very much for allowing us another sign for you to come in here and I'm very happy to welcome you into bezawada great and lots more to see thank you thank you you

Channel: Sotheby's

Views: 50,181

Rating: 4.8897057 out of 5

Keywords: sothebystv, frank's files, van cleef & arpels, van cleef, Place Vendome, jewelry, luxury, brooch, zip necklace, duchess of windsor

Id: rwMARITFbnY

Length: 9min 35sec (575 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 07 2019