Van Cleef & Arpels 3.05cttw Small Model Platinum Snowflake Diamond Pendant

The diamonds in the Snowflake pendant sparkle like snow falling in an evening winter sky. A design that openly celebrates the natural world and an integration of white diamonds in high jewelry, the pendant wholly reflects the DNA of the Van Cleef & Arpels aesthetic. It was conceived at the French jewelry company during a “golden age” of couture — the postwar period when couturiers such as Christian Dior on 30 Avenue Montaigne in Paris and Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga, who’d opened a branch in France’s capital in 1937, reintroduced femininity and luxury to dress. The design of the Snowflake pendant is an homage to the era’s fashion houses as well as the impeccable standards they set during that time.

Decades before Jacques Arpels, nephew of Estelle Arpels, who founded Van Cleef & Arpels with her husband, Alfred, in 1906, introduced the four-leaf-clover-themed pieces that today are among the brand's most celebrated, nature inspired the maison’s artisans. Sketches of Jacques’s “lucky charm” have been found in Van Cleef’s archives dating back to the 1910s, while flowers were especially popular during the 1930s. The work always maintained the elegance and restraint for which the brand is known, but the new stylized designs in the ensuing years — indicative of a focus on lines and patterns — were more in tune with modern tastes. Such is the case with the Snowflake pendant.

Shortly after the end of World War II, Van Cleef’s Cristaux de neige (snowflake) motif became popular. The inaugural design was a burst of diamonds set in yellow gold. (Platinum had been classified as a strategic metal during the war and was thus expensive and in short supply.) The motif’s whimsical form was appealing to Americans, who were enjoying the largesse of the postwar boom. 

Just as the floral designs at Van Cleef & Arpels evolved over time to become more abstract than formal representations, so too did the brand’s snowflake motif, all the while retaining its sophisticated allure. Classic all-white diamond jewelry was well-suited to the polished styles of the 1950s and would remain fashionable in the 1960s. For the Snowflake pendant, its arrangement of round brilliant-cut stones lends a sense of movement to the piece while an impression of lightness owes to the openwork sections. Its appeal — with roots in nature’s wonders as well as a celebration of couture — is a continued reminder of the house’s brilliant legacy.

One of the world’s foremost jewelry houses, Van Cleef & Arpels is particularly noted for a focus on technical virtuosity, craftsmanship and artistry, evident since its beginning. Rather than create earrings, bracelets, necklaces and other adornments primarily for the aim of displaying of wealth and opulence, Van Cleef & Arpels sought to produce jewelry that projected the wearer’s taste and style.

The company was formed a year after the 1895 marriage of Alfred Van Cleef, the son of a gem cutter, to Estelle Arpels, daughter of precious-stones dealer Salomon Arpels. Ten years later, Van Cleef & Arpels opened its first boutique on the Place Vendôme in Paris, setting the march on a square now crowded with dealers in bijouterie. (The company still occupies the New York flagship store opened in 1939 at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street.)

Born from a union of expertise in both jewelry making and gem selection, Van Cleef & Arpels distinguished itself with both the consistency of the color and clarity of its stones and the creativity of its designs. In doing so, the house would win a roster of dedicated, fashion-conscious clients that included the Duchess of Windsor, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Hutton, Jacqueline Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor. In 1933, Van Cleef & Arpels patented its trademark Mystery Setting — a technique by which gems are fitted into an intricate matrix of slots and “drawers” that keep the setting hidden. Another signal innovation was the Zip necklace, introduced in 1951, which can be worn either around the neck or, with the zipper closed, as a bracelet.

But as much as to the firm’s craftsmanship, clients have been drawn by the insouciance and playfulness of Van Cleef & Arpels designers, as well as their attunement to the cultural climate. After the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, the company produced several lavish pieces featuring hieroglyphics and other Egyptian motifs to go along with the geometric Art Deco jewelry of that decade and the next. Following World War II, as symbols of freedom and rebirth, the firm focused on naturalistic forms such as birds, flowers, fruit and flying insects. High society’s 1960s fascination with the Near East and India prompted such pieces as the best-selling Alhambra necklace, popularized by Princess Grace.

Lately, attention among collectors and connoisseurs has centered on Van Cleef & Arpels’s quality of workmanship as much as its glamour. The firm was the subject of a 2012 show at the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, as well as exhibitions at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California, in 2013 and at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2014.

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