Bracelets Van Cleef & Arpels

The Alhambra bracelets, ambassadors of Van Cleef & Arpels

The four-leaf clover motif and the beaded setting technique certainly remain the signatures of the Van Cleef & Arpels bracelets, whether with or without each other. The Place Vendôme House had certainly earned its reputation by the 1930s on bracelets like Ludo, with its briquette mesh and clasp evoking a belt buckle, or Passe-Partout, a flexible snake chain adorned with floral clips that could be worn as a necklace as well as a sautoir or bracelet. But the collection that still represents Van Cleef & Arpels in the jewelry world is later, and it is Alhambra. The first sautoir adorned with four-leaf clover motifs symbolizing luck - a recurring theme for the House - was born in 1968. Half a century later, bracelets and other Alhambra Vintage jewelry are among Van Cleef & Arpels' best ambassadors. The bracelet with five motifs adorned with a delicate contour of gold beads offers many variations, diamonds and black mother-of-pearl on pink gold, blue agate or onyx on yellow gold, chalcedony on white gold... when it's not an all guilloché yellow gold version. Beyond the symbolism and the timeless elegance of the bracelets, Alhambra Vintage is a true showcase of Van Cleef & Arpels' expertise, both in the work of gold and in its association with precious, fine or hard stones. This expertise is naturally reflected in the other lines, Sweet Alhambra and its miniature motif, Magic Alhambra and its clovers of different sizes, Lucky Alhambra and its four motifs (leaf, heart, butterfly and star) colored with red carnelian, brown tiger's eye, green malachite and white mother of pearl.

The color of golds and stones, the harmony of shapes

Color, precisely, holds a prominent place in the Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry - if we except the Winter Tales line, which reveals white jewelry (white gold and diamonds). It is discreet in the Perlée Couleur line of bracelets, where the cabochon of carnelian, turquoise or malachite meets the other end paved with round diamonds. It is more ostentatious on the Golden Button bracelets in the couture collection, when chrysoprase and onyx, turquoise and lapis lazuli, or carnelian and mother-of-pearl, join gold and diamonds in the curves of the Paillette motif - imagined in the 1930s. Van Cleef & Arpels also plays with the harmonies between rose gold, white gold and diamonds on Buttercup or Perlée clover bracelets. Round diamonds illuminate the designs here. They line the gold ribbon of the Perlée Diamants line. They fade away in the Perlée perles d'or bracelets, when the Parisian House's famous contour perlé becomes a jewel in its own right, in a simple streamlined line as well as in multiple strands. With the Frivole collection, Van Cleef & Arpels unveils another goldsmithing technique, mirror-polished gold. It lends a unique sparkle to the heart-shaped petals, paved or not with diamonds, with bracelet models that accommodate one, five or seven flowers. This brings us back to the theme of nature, dear to Van Cleef & Arpels, which is again found in the Lucky Spring bracelet, with its carnelian and onyx ladybug.