No trip to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York is complete without a visit to the Gems and Minerals Halls. But there is now a green glow emanating from one of its exhibition spaces that makes exploring even more fascinating.
One has to pass exquisite rough specimens like the massive 632-carat Emerald Patricia to get to “Garden of Green: exquisite jewelry from the Van Cleef & Arpels collection.” It is a journey from science to art and the combination thereof. And yes, a lot of green is involved – from apple to evergreen, roughly the value of an entire Pantone pound. Gemstone jewelry and objects span a century of the 117-year heritage home’s history.
“Garden of Green: Exquisite Jewelry from the Collection of Van Cleef & Arpels” is exhibited at the Melissa and Keith Meister Gallery. Photo: Alvaro Keding, courtesy of AMNH.
According to Alexandrine Maviel-Sonet, exhibition director at the heritage jeweler, “green symbolizes hope and of course inspiration from nature”. She worked with AMNH’s Dr. George E. Harlow to shape “Garden of Green”.
The show, which opened last month and will run until January 2024, is made up of 44 pieces from the French fine jewelry house’s history. Most come from the Van Cleef & Arpels archives, but some pieces are on loan from private collections. Thirty-two items have never been exhibited in the United States. Emerald and jade reign supreme in mass consciousness, but viewers might come away falling in love with a gemstone they were previously unfamiliar with. The exhibition is divided into sections: emerald, green chalcedony, chrysoprase, malachite, peridot and jadeite, while Variations of Green presents a mixture of stones in pieces inspired by the natural world.
A peridot bracelet from 1967. Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels.
Maviel-Sonet insists on the primordial importance of stones in the Van Cleef process. “Rocks come first,” she says. “We have to select the best stones. Once we have the stones, we proceed to design and create. »
More than a selection of gems in myriad hues of green, the show is a tale of style building. An elegant modernist bracelet is contrasted with a playful 1950s mouse pendant, then a brutalist necklace with seemingly unpolished and roughly cut emeralds. “Garden of Green” is an intimate, cave-like transition into the grand halls of gems and minerals, yet it manages to make a dazzling statement about the very human creative impulse toward aesthetics and innovation: that any rough gem is selected, polished and is the reason why it sits in a jeweler’s display case rather than a museum display case.
Here are some of the stunning pieces from the collection.
The Quatre Chemins necklace showcases white gold, platinum, sapphires and 16 emerald-cut Zambian emeralds. It is inspired by the fairy tale popularized by the German folklorists Brothers Grimm, “City Musicians of Bremen”, where four animals meet at the “Four Paths” which gives its name to the necklace. Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels.
Bracelet (1925) in platinum with three cabochon-cut emeralds totaling 71.33 carats and diamonds. Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels.
Jade and lapis necklace (1973). Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels.
In the 1950s, Van Cleef & Arpels created a series of playful animal pins such as these whimsical mouse and bird clips with green chrysoprase. Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels.
From the Les Jardins Collection, the green curves of the Cydonia necklace (2009) evoke the branches of the quince tree.
This convertible necklace and bracelet set, commissioned by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV for his wife in 1971, has 477.58 carats of Colombian emeralds. Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels.
“Garden of Green: exquisite jewelry from the Van Cleef & Arpels collectionis on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York through
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