Stones & Society
Houses
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.
Houses
Mikimoto: The Man Who Cultured the Pearl
In 1893 Kokichi Mikimoto produced the first cultured pearls; by 1905 he had round ones. The GIA's account of the Japanese cultured pearl is the story of how a natural accident became an industry.
Houses
The Cartier Visual Language: From Rue de la Paix to the Panthère
Platinum construction, Art Deco geometry, Tutti Frutti, the panther. Cartier's design vocabulary survived three generations of a family and a corporate handover, largely because the house institutionalized its own archive.