Treasure trove

Chaumet is a Paris-based jewelry house with a past that is intertwined with some significant figures in French history. Kitty Go takes a peek inside its impressive collection of jewels.

Whether it is wine or the weather, one never learns to appreciate how good things are if there is no basis for comparison. For Paris-based Chaumet, which first catapulted to fame as Napoleon's jeweler, excellence lies in the details. "You only appreciate something if you can compare it with something else. We should be allowed to compare. I always believe that the little details are what make you good to very good, very good to excellent," says Beatrice de Plinval, Chaumet museum and archive curator in charge of external affairs.

The house was founded by Marie - Etienne Nitot in 1780, and is no stranger to comparison with other bigger houses. "The best time for Chaumet was at its beginning, during the golden age of French pageant high jewelry. We were born at the top together with the First Empire in the early 19th century at the coronation of Napoleon and Josephine," De Plinval says.