ART

THE GREAT HOUSES OF JEWELRY ARE FALLING

or what's wrong with Cartier, Chaumet, and Bulgari

By Fran Zhang

How much would buy this for

With the development of 21st century, late-capitalist economics, the fast-speed life has pushed our desire for things to a much higher level. More and more people are buying more and more luxury goods to satisfy their desire for, well, I don’t know, luxury. This isn’t only a problem of the old and the rich, but also a type of disease of the young — they need more and more and more. In order to satisfy these needs or really stoke them for profit, the luxury jewelry industry releases tens of thousands of products every year. People are crazy for these products, especially if they have a giant logo splashed across the front of them, so that friends, family, and enemies all know how much they paid for it. Of course, a logo emblazoned across a product is not great design. These designs have little to do with creativity or artistry, but are about recycling ideas from the past in order to sell it in the present for great profit. In a word, the industry is releasing new products just in order to sell and not to create beautiful things. The fact that we don’t think this is strange is a tragedy of art and design.

The Cartier Problem

Art Deco Masterpieces

Cartier started as a family-owned business in France in the mid-19th century and became famous for its incredible craftsmanship and the way they borrowed techniques and mined cultural traditions from other countries. The image above is from a collection of Art Deco Cartier pieces from 1920s to 1930s. Cartier pieces often use a lot of differently colored gemstones, like rubies, charoites, and black oynx. These stones create a beautiful contrast of colors. They also place greater emphasis on elaborate and elegant settings, featuring less-expensive materials such as enamel, glass, horn, and ivory. They cut diamonds in less traditional shapes and forms, and were creative in how they cut stones in different shapes like fruit and flowers. And notice that they were influenced by many elements of Eastern culture, using traditional Chinese symbols and forms in their design. It’s one of the many reasons Cartier became one of the most famous design houses during the Art Deco period. They combined modern styles, elegant craftsmanship, and some of the richest materials available to create memorable pieces.

That's nice

As I mentioned before, Cartier’s unique use of stones and exceptional craftmanship created many excellent designs. The bracelet above is a good example. The braided rope twist design, each twist accentuated with applied round-cut luminous diamonds with heavy bezel setting, weighing approximately 2.40 carats, is pretty amazing for when it was made in the 1960s. Its connections use several hinges to support the bridge of the bracelet, which make it moveable with a stop on one side for the clasp. One thing that is worth noting about the hinged connection is that we don’t see any wire from between the engraved leaves. This is a very smart and neat design. We should also note that this piece was made by hand without any imperfections.

Three Bracelets

Above are three bracelets from the 2010 Love collection. They quickly became a best-seller, or as the Cartier website described them, “A love child of '70s New York, the LOVE collection is a symbol of free-spirited love. Its binding closure and screw motif give it true permanence, while diverse interpretations allow for a unique expression of feelings.” This Love bracelets came out in three different versions: platinum, 18k yellow gold, 18k rose gold. The ones with stones settings are more expensive. Whatever the case, Cartier clearly designed them to be made fast and to sell fast. This year, they squeezed out two version of this design. One is made of 18k black gold with a matte finish. Black gold is an alloy of three parts gold, and one-part other metals, such as cobalt. However, this is not a real alloy; the black is only an alloy on the surface, not like other alloys that are combined. This is basically junk materials and junk design that are made to be sold fast and quickly because of the Cartier name. If you took this bracelet to a jeweler to try to sell it, I don’t think they would bother giving you for than a dollar.

CHAUMET

You kind of have to be an emperor  to wear this

Chaumet was founded in 1780 by one of the most sought-after and world-famous jewelers, Marie-Etienne Nitot. Nitot survived the French revolution, and became Napoleon’s official jeweler in 1802. During this period, he made many unique pieces, especially tiaras for the royal family. Above is a tiara designed he and Henry Auguste designed for Napoleon. Here he places three gold crowns with continuing hoops of flower-works of wrought leaves and emeralds, rubies and sapphires surrounded by diamonds on a setting of matched pearls. It is an exquisitely crafted, great piece of jewelry.

That's a nice piece

Following the fall of the Empire, Nitot’s successors dedicated themselves to romantic jewelry inspired by the decorative arts of the Italian Renaissance and of the French 17th-century. Here is a great example, a gold and turquoise bead necklace from 1825. Notice that the inspiration of the piece clearly comes from nature and the way they utilize meander motifs for the base, topped with gold palmette and grapes made of turquoise beads. Grapes, a symbol of abundance and life, became one of the most sought-after design motifs during the Romantic era. For connections, Chaumet made holes in each meander motif, and used several jump rings to connect with gold palmette. At the very end, Chaumet used a clasp to hold the whole piece together and stabilize it so that the owner could open up the necklace with ease. And the beauty of it is that you cannot see it, just as in nature flowers and vines wind together without help. This is a great example of artistry and craftsmanship that made Chaumet such an important brand.

Is it worth it?

The above is one of the top-selling necklaces from Chaumet’s current “Jeux de Liens” collection, first released in 2017. As the name suggests, the necklace is meant to celebrate the link between two people in love. This particular piece came out in three different versions: in platinum; in 18k rose gold; and in 18k yellow gold. The necklace in the picture above is the 18k rose gold version, which is an alloy made of three-parts gold, and one-part copper. The copper gives it its pinky color. But it also reduces its value because copper, unlike gold, is not a precious metal. The necklace is pave-set with brilliant-cut diamonds. The design is quite simple and doesn’t require a great deal of technical skill. It’s just a piece of industrial casted “X” with cz diamonds. One thing that is not visible in the picture is that the designer seems to have added two jump rings at the end of the “X” which seems like a smart solution until someone tries to take it off. In other words, the design, craftmanship, and functionality is not what you would expect from such an expensive and well-known luxury brand. You might even say that it’s a cheap knock off of a Chaumet by Chaumet.

Bulgari

Look at these two

Bulgari was founded in 1884 by Sotirio Bulgari. He started with silverware and in 1905 decided to try some jewelry. That was a good move: his company became famous for its unique and creative designs and became a must have item for many celebrities. A Greek living in Rome, Bulgari’s work was an interesting melding of these two great artistic cultures. You can see in his iconic snake-themed Serpenti collection that debuted in the 1950’s. The design captures the snake's innate power of attraction and potential for danger. The style, like most of Bulgari’s handmade pieces, is innovative, modern, and distinct. These two bracelets are made of gold, set with rubies, sapphires and a few diamonds. It’s rather remarkable that they used the quite difficult Tubogas technique to put these pieces together.

Tubogas is a technique that assembles everything without soldering; it requires great skill and a lot of time to produce. You put the piece together by wrapping long bands of gold around a steel core. As they are coiled, the rounded contours of the bands interlock to completely conceal the inner structure. The flexibility of the coiled bands is what gives the Tubogas its characteristic bounce and super comfortable fit. It’s a 19th century technique that Bulgari first tried in 1948; it took the company another fifteen years before their goldsmiths fully mastered the technique. That’s the type of dedication to quality that people came to expect of the company.

Not the scariest snake

Above is a Sperenti bracelet from Bulgari’s 2016 Collection. This particular piece came out in three different versions: in platinum; in 18k rose gold; and in 18k yellow gold. The bracelet in the picture is 18k yellow gold; and the stones are emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds. The first thing you should notice is that the two-and-a-half round band employs a spring hinge design. The one spring in the middle of the connection is hiding inside of the two bands and allows for it to be easily taken on and off. The problem is that once the spring loses its tension, it’s incredibly difficult to fix, especially with such a narrow band and so many stones.

The shape of the snake tends towards the cartoonish rather than capturing the anatomy and symbolism of the snake, which is something the company brilliantly accomplished in the Sperenti collection. They also pierced the inside of the band to reduce costs. That’s the type of short cut design that diminishes both the beauty, the quality, and the value of a pieces. You should expect a lot more for the price tag than this recycling of the snake motif from one of the most respected brands in the world. But what else can you expect in this world that only values how much you sell and not what they sell. It is part of the continuing tragedy of high-end jewelry.

©Fran Zhang and the CCA Arts Review