Van Cleef & Arpels Jewelry’ Biennale Balloon

In Jules Verne’s 1863 novel Five Weeks in a Balloon, three voyagers set out to discover Africa. This one-of-a-kind Maximus clip from Les Voyages Extraordinaires, a new high jewelry collection from Van Cleef & Arpels, renders their dreamlike journey—including a tangle with a giant elephant—in a blaze of diamonds that affirms Van Cleef’s singular mastery of setting. The venerable French house chose mid-September’s 25th Paris Biennale des Antiquaires to unveil the most spectacular examples of the 175-piece collection—minus one. The Maximus clip sold for a whopping $580,000 days before the exhibition began.

At le Bal Proust—held on the centenary of the novelist’s birth—guests were asked to come as one of the 2,000 characters in his À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time). Yet the Cantacrice was not outfitted so literally. “Proust was a lover of Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra Bracelet—Wagner especially,” says Bos. “So we worked on an opera atmosphere, costumes from that late-19th-century, early-20th-century period with a bit of a Wagnerian vision.” The singer is set against a cloudy mist and setting sun of yellow sapphires (4.43 cts. t.w.) and mandarin garnets (2.92 cts. t.w.), evoking a “romantic, nostalgic” vibe. Very Proustian…and pricey. This lady retails for ­approximately $290,000.

Van Cleef loves to design bracelet featuring “feminine characters,” says Bos. Fairies, mermaids, ballerinas, nymphs…“It’s one of the very specific styles of the house.” He likens the process to sculpting: “It’s first created in wax, exactly like in traditional sculpture. We use the old tradition of lost-wax casting. Then we cast the wax in [18 karat] white gold. From that we create the whole Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry, the setting and everything.”

“Most of these characters,” says Bos of the brand’s beloved bejeweled women, “don’t have a face with eyes and nose and mouth.” The Cantacrice’s face is represented by a single 0.44 ct. rose-cut diamond. “The décor is really in the dress—in the folds and gradations from white diamonds to pink and red spinel.” Some 300 spinels (2.98 cts. t.w.) adorn her evening gown.