Earrings Van Cleef & Arpels

Alhambra earrings, luck and its many versions

The four-leaf clover, but also the other motifs of the iconic Alhambra collection such as the butterfly (Sweet Alhambra), are found on Van Cleef & Arpels earrings. The earrings are adorned with diamonds, colored with turquoise or carnelian, stand out in their guilloché yellow gold version. Magic Alhambra's clovers of different sizes are perfect for earrings, plain in green malachite, or two-tone, when the Parisian jewelry house combines, for example, mother-of-pearl and diamond, tiger eye and carnelian. Van Cleef & Arpels still offers the Pure Alhambra earrings, where the pearl surround gives way to smooth gold, Sweet Alhambra Effeuillage, where gold and mother-of-pearl patterns dance around a round diamond. Since its creation in 1968, this Alhambra collection has been a worthy ambassador for the jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels, declined since then, as we can see, in a large number of versions. The main line bears the name Vintage Alhambra, all the jewelry are symbols of luck, a theme dear to the House. "To be lucky, you have to believe in luck". These words from Jacques Arpels, nephew of Estelle Arpels whose couple with Alfred Van Cleef was behind the foundation of Van Cleef & Arpels in 1926, still resonate under the roof of 22 Place Vendôme. This collector loved to unearth four-leaf clovers from his garden and give them to his collaborators. But it was indeed with Alhambra that Van Cleef & Arpels turned this symbol into an iconic jewel. The shamrock is stylized into a Byzantine-inspired quatrefoil, reminiscent of ornamental motifs found in azulejos in the Alhambra Palace in Andalusia.

Pearl gold and color work at Van Cleef & Arpels

With the exception of the Pure Alhambra versions, the Van Cleef & Arpels earrings are also characterized by their pearl outline. Gold pearls are indeed a code for the Parisian House in the world of luxury jewelry. In fact, the brand has dedicated an entire collection to them, simply called Perlée, where the pearls form a gold ribbon around a round pattern paved with diamonds or fine stones in their colored version. For elegant women who prefer creole earrings, Van Cleef & Arpels has designed a line of beaded creations adorned with diamond-set trefoil motifs in yellow gold, rose gold and white gold versions. Nothing ostentatious, however, in these creoles as in fact in all the earrings of the House, which prefers to bet on a timeless elegance. Indeed, at Van Cleef & Arpels, even the most complex patterns, like the lotus, are worked with delicacy. Originality can come from the Two Butterflies line, which plays on two-tone, with a yellow gold and diamond buckle that responds to a paved lapis lazuli or yellow or pink sapphire buckle. The association of colors, and consequently of precious stones, fine and hard, is another Van Cleef & Arpels trademark. The most representative models in this regard are certainly the Buttercup earrings in the Couture collection. If they take up the curves of a Paillette motif imagined in the 1930s, they are adorned with diamonds, chrysoprase and onyx in their green/black version, diamonds, lapis lazuli and turquoise for a blue variation, or even diamonds, mother-of-pearl and carnelian on pink gold.