The 2023 T&C Jewelry Awards
Who’s gonna live forever? None of us, unfortunately, though that won’t stop everyone from trying. This Cartier high jewelry necklace, however, has a pretty good shot at immortality, or at least a life span of 100,000 years. There are archaeological findings in museum vitrines to back that up. And it’s not just diamonds that live forever—also 150,000-year-old snail shell beads discovered in a cave in Morocco and a 70,000-year-old chlorite bracelet picked up in Siberia. The Hellenic gold and quartz bangles (circa 330 BC) I often visit at the Met look good enough to wear out tonight, if they’d let me. We celebrate the lasting aspect of the art of jewelry in every issue, and especially in our annual T&C Jewelry Awards. Do they glitter? Do they shine? They do, they do. They can also tell you about the times in which they were created. What did people covet? Where did they travel? Who were they fighting? Jewelry can withstand the questioning, and, believe me, it has the answers. Just listen to the siren song of these emeralds. I always hesitate to advise buying jewelry as an investment. It should be joyous and celebratory and meaningful in itself. But tangible assets are looking pretty good right now, aren’t they? I’ll leave you with that, and this: Enjoy, now and forever. —Stellene Volandes
Photograph by Horacio Salinas and styled by Noemi Bonazzi.
This was the year a wider audience was made aware of the wonders of high jewelry, one-of-a-kind masterpieces that showcase a house’s craftsmanship, stone sources, and heritage. Here, an emerald and diamond necklace with tassels (a detail that recalls the Cartier family’s history of creating jewels for maharajas) from Cartier’s Sixième Sens High Jewelry collection.
The Talk of the Year
Ten years ago—or even two—the term “high jewelry” was spoken sotto voce by a small group of jewelry artisans and the editors and clients who love them. Today this level of the market—one-of-a-kind handcrafted creations designed with expertly procured rare stones—has emerged as an area of broad desire. Red carpet appearances help (see: Cate Blanchett in a Louis Vuitton high jewelry cuff, similar to the one shown here, at the Critics Choice Awards), as do Instagram posts of the private events in faraway places orchestrated to present these collections (and perhaps even certain thoughtfully written magazine editorials). It is also evidence of the culture’s growing understanding of jewelry as decorative art, and high jewelry as the most elevated expression of that art. We could say it’s about time, but we wouldn’t want to sound judgmental.
Photographs by Don Penny • Set Design by Liz DeSousa • Styled and Produced by Will Kahn
The Mavericks of the Year
The rock crystal at De Beers was telling. So were the brilliant curves at Van Cleef & Arpels, Chanel’s homage to a 1932 masterpiece, the diamonds made to resemble lace at Dior. The renegade spirit of the Art Deco era—Imagination! Ambition! Optimism!—could be felt throughout the high jewelry collections. Couple that with haute joaillerie’s rising global profile and it’s clear: The dawn of a glittering new age is here.
The Innovation of the Year
While traveling through Uzbekistan, Silvia Furmanovich happened upon master craftsmen weaving light-as-silk carpets in the ancient city of Bukhara. Her mind went straight to jewelry. She persuaded the artisans to create tiny iterations of their intricately patterned rugs, which she then fashioned into the exquisite earrings and cuffs of her Silk Road collection. An ancient tradition reborn as jewelry and laced with diamonds: genius.
The Year’s Jewels of Pop Culture
While Girl with a Pearl Earring was the centerpiece of a blockbuster Vermeer exhibit in Amsterdam, Superstar with a Dramatic Earring turned up on red carpets, at award shows, even at the Super Bowl. Statement jewelry, in fact, was everywhere: the walls of the Met, Marc Jacobs’s spring runway, the silver screen and smaller ones, the lapels of Elvis and a Goonie. J.Lo, though, may have upstaged them all with a green diamond she most definitely did not pick up at Dunkin’.
Her Royal Brooches
Elizabeth II’s relationship with Boucheron preceded her reign, when she was given an aquamarine and diamond clip brooch for her 18th birthday. The maison’s creative director, Claire Choisne, paid tribute to the late monarch with her Like a Queen collection, which reinterprets HRH’s original keepsake 18 different ways.
The Anniversary of the Year
Two appearances on the Academy Awards red carpet is one way to celebrate your 75th birthday. An L.A. pop-up entirely devoted to you is another. Rubies? Emeralds? Diamonds and gold? Check, check, and check. But the Bulgari Serpenti party is not over yet. The iconic ophidian will be honored at a New York event in June, and Serpenti designs will be unveiled throughout the year. Meaning this seductive creature, born as an abstract snake design in 1948 before fully realizing its reptilian splendor, will continue to charm its way into jewelry vaults around the world—in 2023 and far beyond.
The Sentiment of the Year
Talismans have risen in popularity lately, but the appeal of jewelry imbued with meaning long predates our era. Queen Victoria was famous for her mourning lockets containing strands of departed loved ones’ hair. Grief also led to this year’s most touching tale. A metal detector hobbyist, out for a walk in the English countryside after losing his dog, made an amazing discovery: a gold heart engraved with the initials H and K and decorated with the Tudor rose. Turns out it belonged to Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Sure, their love didn’t last—but good jewelry is forever.
The Seeds of Greatness
Aristotle might disagree, but sometimes a masterpiece is only as good as the sum of its parts. Few understand this better than Caroline Scheufele, Chopard’s copresident and artistic director, who showcases her newest exquisite stones during the Paris couture collections. Yellow Ceylon sapphires, Brazilian green diamonds, Zambian emeralds… Who says the making of the fairy tale can’t be magic too?
The Rebirth of the Year
Are crosses the new chains? We couldn’t help wondering after a string of celebrity moments (namely, a certain wedding in Portofino last summer) seemed to signal the motif’s renaissance. Then in January Kim Kardashian paid $197,453 for a Garrard amethyst-and-diamond pendant cross once worn by Princess Diana that had surfaced at Sotheby’s London. Trend or sacrilege? You decide.
The Surprise of the Year
It’s a look reminiscent of the golden age of Hollywood. Think Joan Crawford or Marlene Dietrich. The use of yellow gold in major jewelry became prevalent during WWII, when platinum was needed elsewhere for its strength. Large gold pieces in bold sculptural shapes, often adorned with semiprecious stones like citrine and amethyst, set a trend that we now call Retro Period. There is, however, nothing backward-facing about it: After years of white gold and platinum, yellow gold reigns supreme on red carpets and in high jewelry.
The New Golden Age
The Debut of the Year
Not many metals have the same cultural impact as gold. Greek mythology has the golden fleece, the Japanese have the Golden Hall, and the ancient Egyptians had golden statues of pharaohs. Now Prada has Eternal Gold, a 48-piece debut jewelry collection. But there’s more beauty than meets the eye. Each item is made of recycled gold from salvaged electronic parts, old jewelry, and ethically procured pave diamonds—a first for a global luxury brand. The Midas touch has apparently manifested at the Italian brand: All things turn to gold in the hands of the Prada family, even sustainability.
The Investments of the Year
Of the material indulgences that are also great investments, watches have always ranked high. Lately they’re soaring. Recent market trends (recordbreaking sales, the explosion of the secondhand market) prove it. Certain timepieces are just primed for fabulous returns. Are you on the wait list?
The Jewelry Fiefdom Expansion
The Coup of the Year
Charles Lewis Tiffany was always a “just do it” kind of guy. One need only trace the early history of the house he founded in 1837 to see a theme emerge. The philosophy may be summarized thus: “What is the best there is? Let’s go out and get it.” See: the acquisition of the French crown jewels in 1887, the opening of a store in London in 1891, when the jewelry world was dominated by European houses (Paris followed in 1910), the discovery of the largest diamond in history in 1878, the unearthing and naming of a pink stone they called kunzite and a peachier specimen they called morganite, and the generous use of rare materials like Montana sapphires and Russian demantoid garnets. Oh, and tanzanite, that rich blue stone found near Mount Kilimanjaro in the 1960s? They introduced and named that, too.
It is difficult to chronicle Tiffany’s historical insistence on premier stones and materials without mentioning the name George F. Kunz, who, on one fateful day circa 1876, sold a rare tourmaline to Charles Lewis Tiffany and soon joined the firm as an executive and chief gemologist. Finding the best and the most unusual was his job, and his eye proved unparalleled. (Ask another client of his, J.P. Morgan, whose Kunz-curated stone collection is now the property of the American Museum of Natural History.) When news was unveiled in February of a suite of Tiffany Schlumberger Bird on a Rock pieces designed with the world’s rarest pearls, my first thought was: George would be proud.
Bird on a Pearl is an exclusive high jewelry capsule collection created with remarkable natural saltwater pearls from Hasan Al Fardan’s private collection. Natural pearls from the Persian Gulf region are recognized as the world’s most exquisite. They are also largely impossible to find anymore. These are the pearls so prized by royalty across the world, the kind you see draped over a queen’s bodice in a portrait hanging in a museum. They are real treasures harvested naturally from the sea, a process that has been affected so drastically by changes in the ecosystem that it almost never occurs anymore. And the ones that were discovered in the Gulf? The best. And so Tiffany, true to its tradition, went out and found them.
Included in the collection is a three-strand necklace of graduated white cream natural pearls weighing more than 316 carats in total. There is also the iconic Bird on a Rock pendant with baroque, button, and near-round natural pearls, as well as a pendant, earrings, and rings set with these beauties in dark gray, gray, light cream, light pinkish-brown, and white.
The idea of setting a gem-studded bird on a stone—hence the name—was the brainchild of Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany. His first designs included a lapis center stone and a bird with an emerald eye. The modern classics include amethyst, citrine, and tanzanite. Last year, for the first time, a bird sat on a white diamond. Could this visionary, whose imagination knew no bounds and followed no set rules, imagine this latest incarnation? Given how rare natural pearls are, even Schlumberger himself might not have believed it could happen. —Stellene Volandes
The Sale of the Year
How do we know the Christie’s Geneva auction, this month, of the late Austrian grande dame Heidi Horten’s jewels will be the sale of the year? At press time it hadn’t even happened yet. That it’s the “largest and most valuable private jewelry collection to ever come to auction” is the first clue. That it features 700 gems with a low estimate of $150 million is the second (Liz Taylor’s 400-piece sale totaled $145 million). The third: Remember when Marie Antoinette’s pearl sold at Sotheby’s for $36 million to a mystery buyer? Guess who.
What I Loved
This story appears in the May 2023 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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