Serti Mystérieux: The Invisible Architecture of Van Cleef & Arpels

High jewelry, important new collections and historic jewels: design, materials, craftsmanship and significance.

Jewels

Serti Mystérieux: The Invisible Architecture of Van Cleef & Arpels

No visible metal, rails thinner than two-tenths of a millimetre, and a patent lineage reaching back to 1933. The Mystery Set is the rare technique that collectors now price like a gemstone.

Jewels

The Patiala Necklace: Cartier's Lost Masterwork and Its Honest Ghost

2,930 diamonds at 962.25 carats around a 234.69-carat De Beers diamond, then fifty years of silence. The 1928 Patiala necklace has a documented arc, and everything outside the archive is lore.

Diamonds, colored diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, spinels, pearls and the gemological knowledge behind them.

Stones

The Last Argyle Pinks Have a New Keeper: Boodles

Rio Tinto has sold its remaining Argyle pink diamond inventory, and the Argyle Pink Diamonds brand itself, to the British jeweller Boodles. The mine closed in 2020; the stones that are left will now be released slowly, over about a decade, starting with a high jewellery collection in 2027.

Stones

The Hope Diamond: 45.52 Carats of Boron Blue

The most famous diamond in the world has been at the Smithsonian since Harry Winston donated it in 1958. Its blue comes from boron, its setting history runs through Cartier, and its paper trail starts with Tavernier in the seventeenth century.

Stones

The Black Prince's 'Ruby': The 170-Carat Spinel That Isn't a Ruby

It sits in the frontal cross of the Imperial State Crown, and it is not a ruby at all but a 170-carat red spinel. The legends of 1367 and Agincourt are reported history; the mineralogy is certain.

The great maisons, independent designers and makers: histories, visual languages and craft.

Houses

Boucheron in Focus: 168 Years, Four Ideas, One Room in New York

At Christie's Rockefeller Center galleries until 18 October, Boucheron sets out its whole history as an argument: more than 80 creations from 1858 to today, arranged not by year but by the four ideas that have always organised the maison, couture, nature, architecture and innovation.

Houses

The Bracelet That Left the Watch: Audemars Piguet's Royal Oak Joaillerie

Fifty-four years after Gérald Genta's icon made steel precious, Audemars Piguet has taken the Royal Oak's bracelet off the wrist and rebuilt it as high jewellery: nineteen pieces, three lines, no watch in sight.

Houses

Diorissima Complete: Victoire de Castellane's Garden Grows Into the Sky

The second chapter of Dior's 141-piece high jewellery collection has arrived, closing Victoire de Castellane's triptych of gardens, oceans and constellations. Behind the collage of doublets and lacquer sits a forgotten story: Christian Dior the art dealer.

Building collections with judgment: provenance, condition, documentation, care and the long view.

Collecting

The Cheapside Hoard: London's Buried Treasure

In 1912 workmen at 30-32 Cheapside uncovered more than 400 Elizabethan and Jacobean jewels, buried four centuries earlier. Most are now at the Museum of London, with pieces at the British Museum and the V&A.

Important jewelry sales, significant lots and record results, reported with precision.

Auctions

Two Tiaras and a Queen's Emeralds: Royal and Noble Jewels Return to Geneva

Sotheby's Royal and Noble Jewels sale in Geneva on 11 November is built on provenance: a Cartier black opal jewel made for a Duchess of Devonshire, a Mellerio tiara unaccounted for since 1957, and the emerald jewels of a Queen of Portugal.

Auctions

Signed Jewels Beat the Big Diamonds: Christie's New York Online Sale, Read Closely

Christie's Jewels Online in New York made $9.32 million from 266 lots between 6 and 15 October. A Graff ring led, the no reserve headline diamond fell short of its low estimate, and the sharpest bidding was reserved for Bulgari.

Auctions

November in Geneva: Christie's Bets the Month on a Single Collector

On 10 November, Christie's devotes a live sale and a simultaneous online auction to one collection: nearly 300 jewels, Art Deco cases and gold boxes assembled over four decades, expected to realize more than $25 million. A preview, plus a correction to the calendar.

Jewelry in culture: museums, exhibitions, patrons, historic collections and the arts.

Society

A Couture Repertoire: Van Cleef and Arpels Takes Its Own Measure in Geneva

Until 31 March 2027, the Van Cleef and Arpels boutique on the Rue du Rhone is showing nineteen creations from the maison's own Collection, each one an argument that jewellery begins as dressmaking: lace, belts, bows and cloth, translated into gold.

Society

The Habsburgs' Autumn: A Legendary Diamond Comes Out of the Vault

The 137-carat Florentine Diamond, missing for a century, is on public view for the first time in Quebec City. Three years ago, a separate Habsburg collection went under the hammer in Geneva. Two vaults, two cities, one family's jewels.

Society

The Divers Behind the Pearls

Before the cultured pearl there were the ama, the divers, overwhelmingly women, who freedove for oysters. Mikimoto's industry was built on their labour, and photographed by agencies like Agence Rol in its early years.

A considered editorial selection of remarkable pieces for the serious jewelry enthusiast. Objects is an editorial feature, not a shop.

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  Auctions

  Two Tiaras and a Queen's Emeralds: Royal and Noble Jewels Return to Geneva

  2026-10-19

• 

  Auctions

  Signed Jewels Beat the Big Diamonds: Christie's New York Online Sale, Read Closely

  2026-10-19

• 

  Society

  A Couture Repertoire: Van Cleef and Arpels Takes Its Own Measure in Geneva

  2026-10-19

• 

  Houses

  Boucheron in Focus: 168 Years, Four Ideas, One Room in New York

  2026-10-12

• 

  Stones

  The Last Argyle Pinks Have a New Keeper: Boodles

  2026-10-12