High joaillerie connoisseurs had something of a rare treat last month April when historic 1925 Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet surfaced at Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite Sale in Hong Kong.
Valued at some HK$ 6,600,000 – 8,500,000, the wide diamond bracelet came decorated with five quatrefoil motifs in rubies and onyx, alternating with Egyptian lotus motifs set with emeralds and sapphires, mounted in platinum. Serving as a tabula rasa for an avant garde design in contrasting colour schemes, the bracelet was heralded as a prime example of the bold Art Deco jewellery of the Roaring Twenties.
Casting off the gloom of World War I, the Roaring Twenties was a time of exuberant creativity, sustained economic prosperity and undoubted joie de vivre. Arguably, the most revolutionary change that this period witnessed was women winning voting rights in most Western economies – a move that, among others, revolutionised all aspects of women’s fashion.
Embracing the spirit of adventure, women found themselves drawn to exotic motifs from faraway lands, mainly Egypt, thanks in no small part, to Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. Van Cleef & Arpels, too found themselves riding the tide of Egyptomania, with archival sketches of this, jewellery revealing striking similarities with iconography from the lost Valley of Kings.