Serious Whimsy

Van Cleef & Arpels

When you are a most celebrated jewel house you can have a bit of fun. The top jewelers around the world seem to like to produce some tongue in cheek pieces that are full of whimsy yet are created with the utmost care and skill.

A Bit of Fun

The brooch shown here has a lot going on, yet it's lighthearted and charmingly fun. The butterfly, an ever present symbol of carefree new life and metamorphosis is done up in natural color diamonds on the wings. There actually seem to be 'more wings' than necessary, but who's counting when the results are so amusing.

Color Diamonds

Pink, light yellow and various shades of brown diamonds beautify the wings. Love pink, don't you? Did you know that about 90% of the world's production of natural pink diamonds originate in the Argyle mines in Australia? I know! What's up with that? Also pretty much the boatload of 'champagne' and 'brownies' you see so prevalent these days owe their origin to Australia . . .  it's geology, that's all.

Creative License

The pear shaped diamonds suspended from the bottom wing-parts  . . .  if that's what you call them are beauties.  And it's unclear if those pears are actually briolettes; which are fully orbed all the way around. There are no back-sides to briolettes.

Did you notice that the butterfly isn't exactly 'butterflied' yet? The little thing is still a wormy-like critter with a curved end. Hum-m-m-m, it's fantasy, it's frivolous, it's Van Cleef.