Van Cleef & Arpels: A Collector’s Guide

Van Cleef & Arpels is the most poetic of the great Paris houses: fairies, flowers, ballerinas and four-leaf clovers, made with a technical brilliance few jewellers have matched. Its vintage pieces are some of the most sought after in the world, and we are always delighted when one comes through the door.

The beginning: a marriage and a business

The house was born of a marriage. Estelle Arpels, the daughter of a precious stone dealer, married Alfred Van Cleef, the son of a stonecutter, in 1895, and the following year they founded Van Cleef & Arpels with Estelle’s brothers. In 1906 they opened at 22 Place Vendôme in Paris, where the house remains.

Innovation: the Mystery Setting

In 1933 Van Cleef & Arpels patented the Serti Mystérieux, or Mystery Setting, in which rubies or sapphires are cut with tiny grooves and slid onto fine gold rails, so that no metal at all shows from the front. A single piece can take hundreds of hours, and it remains one of the most celebrated techniques in jewellery. The house also created the Zip necklace, an idea said to have come from the Duchess of Windsor, which fastens like a real zip and can be worn as a necklace or a bracelet.

The Alhambra: luck in the shape of jewellery

In 1968 the house introduced the Alhambra, a four-leaf clover edged with golden beads, in gold with stones such as carnelian, malachite, onyx and mother-of-pearl. It has been made ever since, and vintage Alhambra pieces, like this Alhambra carnelian pendant and this malachite Alhambra bracelet, are among the most recognisable jewels in the world.

The “Mains d’Or”

Everything depends on the house’s craftsmen, its Mains d’Or or “golden hands”: setters, polishers and lapidaries who spend years mastering a single skill. The finish on a Van Cleef piece, back as well as front, is what sets it apart.

High jewellery for royalty and icons

The house’s clients have included maharajas, film stars and royalty. When Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier in 1956, Van Cleef & Arpels provided a pearl and diamond parure among the wedding jewels, and the house became an official supplier to the court of Monaco. You can read about her engagement ring in Grace Kelly’s engagement ring.

Nature and fairy tales

From the 1940s the house produced its famous ballerina and fairy clips, and flowers, leaves and butterflies have been part of its language ever since, like this gold and tiger’s eye butterfly pendant and these Frivole flower earrings.

What we look for

Signature and numbers. Genuine pieces are signed “VCA” or “Van Cleef & Arpels” and usually numbered; French pieces carry French assay marks. Alhambra copies are everywhere, so the marks, the weight and the quality of the beaded edge all matter.

Condition. Stones such as malachite, onyx and mother-of-pearl can chip or crack, and cannot be invisibly repaired.

A legacy of luxury and innovation

More than a century after it was founded, Van Cleef & Arpels remains one of the great names of the Place Vendôme, and its vintage jewels hold their appeal, and their value, exceptionally well.

Shop Van Cleef & Arpels at AJC

Our view

For most collectors, a vintage Alhambra piece or a signed gold ring from the 1960s or 1970s is the ideal way into Van Cleef & Arpels: unmistakably the house’s work, beautifully made and wearable every day.

Explore the collection

• Mid-century jewellery
• Modern jewellery
• Antique pendants
• Antique earrings
• Latest finds

Further reading

• A guide to Art Deco jewellery
• Jewellery of the aristocracy