FD Gallery

10/13/2026

This pair of crescent‑shaped Van Cleef & Arpels earrings from 1936 sits at a really interesting crossroads in jewelry history. It connects the long‑loved moon motif of the 19th century with the sharp modernism and cinematic glamour of the Art Deco age.

Celestial motifs—stars, moons, shooting stars—were a recognizable trend of the 1930s in both fine and costume jewelry, strongly tied to Hollywood and the idea of the “modern woman.” Designers working in fashion and couture popularized starry, space‑inspired pieces, and those ideas filtered down into sparkling rhinestone and paste earrings that echoed high‑jewelry silhouettes.

Van Cleef & Arpels was at the forefront of Art Deco innovation in this period, known for platinum diamond work, transformable jewels, and highly refined geometric design. While the archives highlight technical creations like double clips, Mystery Set pieces, and transformable jewels, crescent‑like and comet‑inspired forms appear within this broader language of clean lines, brilliant pavé, and face‑framing movement.

10/12/2026

Retro Star Sapphire, Diamond And Rose Gold Tassel Pendant Necklace, Designed as a long chain necklace suspending an articulated stylized diamond set gold tassel featuring a large star sapphire, engraved NOEL 1945, RODOLFHE, circa 1945

Size/Dimensions:
Necklace 23 inches, pendant drop 5 1/4 inches

Sapphires:
One round cabochon weighing approximately 120 carats

Diamonds:
Approximately 420 round cuts with total weight of 5 carats

Marked:
750

Gross Weight:
87 grams

REF No.
NCK-10992

10/12/2026

Emerald fireworks. Vintage Cartier emerald and diamond cluster earrings, each centering a vivid round green framed by a brilliant halo of diamonds

10/12/2026

Cartier, 1962. Vivid turquoise cabochons meet the brilliance of diamonds in these pendant earrings, with flower-shaped tops suspending generous drops framed by curling, leaf-like goldwork. Their sculptural forms reflect a creative chapter in Cartier’s history shaped by Jeanne Toussaint’s taste for bold color, yellow gold and an increasingly expressive interpretation of nature. Turquoise became a fashionable favorite during the 1960s, often paired with diamonds for the striking contrast between its smooth, opaque surface and their sparkle.

10/11/2026

Georgian Rose-Cut Diamond Girandole Earrings, c. 1800, designed as a pair of articulated girandole earrings, each designed as a bezel-set round rose-cut diamond surmount suspending a three-lobed motif set with three further rose-cut diamonds, from which cascade three pear-shaped rose-cut diamond drops — the central larger than its flanking pair. Set throughout in silver-topped gold with closed-back, foil-backed collets and fitted with French-wire hooks.

Every element here is characteristically Georgian. The diamonds are rose cuts — flat-bottomed, domed crowns of triangular facets first developed in the 16th century and perfected in the Amsterdam and Antwerp cutting houses — prized because their broad facets “glowed from within” under candlelight rather than flashing under modern electric light. The stones are set in closed-back collets over foil, a technique dating to antiquity but adopted as standard Georgian practice to reflect light back through stones whose early cuts could not return brilliance on their own. Silver was chosen for the visible setting because 18th-century goldsmiths believed only a white metal could render a diamond’s true beauty, while a gold backing prevented the tarnishing silver from marking the skin.

The arrival of abundant Brazilian diamonds after 1725 — just as India’s Golconda mines were failing — flooded Europe with stones and transformed jewels into delicate metal frameworks holding as many diamonds as the surface would allow. Girandoles were the dazzling result. So heavy were the grandest examples that wearers threaded ribbons through the hooks and bound them into the hair to spare the earlobe. Their impracticality proved their undoing: in the 19th century, many were broken down into smaller earring and pendant sets, making intact pairs genuinely rare survivals.

10/11/2026

Van Cleef & Arpels Sapphire Ring, circa 1940s, in yellow gold and set with richly saturated blue sapphires, the ring reflects Van Cleef’s wartime and immediate postwar design vocabulary, when French jewelry increasingly favored sculptural gold mounts, dimensional forms, and strong chromatic contrasts over the platinum based aesthetics of the 1920s and 1930s.

This piece belongs to a period in which Van Cleef & Arpels emphasized refined craftsmanship and the expressive use of colored stones and reflects this shift with an emphasis on couture-inspired form, fluid metalwork, and gemstone accents that enliven the surface like fabric, bows, knots, and drapery.

10/10/2026

Van Cleef & Arpels Gold Necklace, circa 1950, formed as a continuous series of articulated corded links, each meticulously engineered from multiple strands of twisted gold to evoke a tightly woven rope. The links are looped into sculptural, triangular knots and joined by polished oval connectors, creating a fluid line that sits gracefully along the collarbones and follows the neckline with a soft, fabric‑like drape.

This necklace belongs to post war period when Van Cleef translated couture trimmings—braids, cords and tassels—into modern yellow gold jewels. Initially conceived as simple twisted cords, the line quickly evolved into more elaborate compositions tying knots and bows in three dimensions, echoing the cinched waists, draped jerseys and tailored suits of 1950s Paris fashion.

Daytime jewels in rich, textured gold were intended to accompany elegant city dressing, offering a warm, wearable alternative to the diamond evening suites that had defined pre‑war luxury. With its rhythmic repetition of knot motifs and its tactile, almost textile surface, this necklace is a quintessential expression of Van Cleef & Arpels’ mid‑century style: luxurious yet understated, rigorously constructed yet effortlessly chic.

10/10/2026

10/10/2026

A French Belle Époque sapphire and diamond cluster ring, the rectangular-cut sapphire weighing approximately 3.25 carats, set within a stepped diamond set surround of old-cut diamonds, mounted in platinum.

This ring reflects the jewelry of the French Belle Époque, roughly 1880–1913, a period when Paris’s grand jewelry houses embraced platinum as a new working metal. Platinum’s strength allowed craftsmen to set stones with barely there metal supports, producing the airy, lace-like openwork galleries and millegrain edges — a technique gold could never achieve at the same scale.

10/09/2026

Cartier ‘Love Letter’ Gold And Diamond Pendant Necklace, Designed as a chain necklace suspending a stylized envelope pendant with a removable letter engraved “the best”, circa 1980

Size/Dimensions:
Pendant 1 inch drop, chain 18 inches in length

Diamonds:
3 circular cuts

Signed:
Cartier

Marks:
18k, 750, chain numbered

Gross Weight:
8 grams

REF No.
PEN-10809