Restoring a golden touch

Two collections featuring a clover-leaf motif revive the painstaking procedure of gold beading, a technique originating in Mesopotamia. Kitty Go reports in Hong Kong.

The use of gold beads as a decorating technique called granulation dates back to 2500 BC as evident in royal tombs from Ur in Mesopotamia (known today as Iraq).

It then spread throughout the Middle East. This ancient art was embraced in Egypt during the Twelfth Dynasty (1991-1783 BC) when jewelry making reached its peak, particularly in gold-smithing.

This beautiful effect of minute spheres made of precious metal decorating jewelry inspired Van Cleef and Arpels to recreate this ancient craft in the 1920s. A painstaking procedure then and now, it can only be done using at least 18K gold.

The 1920s, which coincided with the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb, was the second phase of a period in art and design called "Egyptian Revival". The first phase occurred around 1870, around the time the Suez Canal opened. "Egyptian Revival" was a time when all things Egyptian - furniture, art, architecture, clothing and jewelry - came into fashion particularly in Europe and America.

For what is now called gold beading, VCA workshops take a thin textured metal to line stones and motifs of jewels to create an elegant and luminous beaded border that acts as a setting. The texture is achieved by maneuvering tools onto the metal to shape a line of minute balls in the ancient Egyptian style.

Many pieces by French jewelers inspired by Egyptian Revival epitomize the gold bead setting of VCA's contemporary Alhambra and Perlee collections is not an exception.

What makes it special, however, is that its style and handcrafted method have become very much a part of the brand's heritage.

The two collections with the cloverleaf motif, are contemporary and completely different from each other. Gold beading unites their simple and practical yet eye-catching style.

Different models can be combined in infinite combinations to express each wearer's unique and personal style.

Pieces from both collections can be thrown on over casual jeans and T-shirts but will be equally appropriate accessories for dressier settings.

"To be lucky, you have to believe in luck," says founder Estelle Arpels' nephew Jacques, who helps his relatives in the business.

What better way to express this than to wear a lucky charm as jewelry? The birth of the Maison's Alhambra collection in 1968 was originally inspired by four-leaf clovers from the Arpels garden.

The motif recalls the Moorish architecture of Islamic Spain in the Alhambra, a palace and walled city in Granada. At its launch, the original designs were of sautoirs (long necklaces) in yellow-gold peppered with the quatrefoil motifs set in gold beading or a plain, linear border.

The necklaces quickly became a beacon of privilege and were most identified with Grace Kelly, who owned them in malachite, coral and lapis lazuli. Throughout its existence as one of VCA's most popular and emblematic collections, the distinctive four-leaf clover shape is filled with various precious materials, such as a rare, finely grained letterwood from South America; chalcedony from Namibia; carnelian and onyx from Brazil; lapis lazuli from Afghanistan; malachite and tiger's eye from Australia; mother of pearl from Indonesia and Japan; turquoise from the Americas; and of course, top-quality diamonds.

Today, lucky clients have the choice of settings and chains in white, yellow and pink gold.

The current Alhambra collection has evolved into several interpretations - namely, Vintage, which is true to the 1968 style; Alhambra, where the motifs are bordered in plain gold; Magic, where motifs are made in different sizes and placed asymmetrically on chains; Byzantine, which renders open work or solid motifs in gold; Lucky, where other symbols of luck, namely leaves, butterflies, hearts and stars, are combined with the clover motif; and Sweet, which are miniatures of contemporary symbols of luck from the Lucky group.

In the Perlee collection, which launched in 2008, instead of having charms hanging from a chain, the motifs lie on a ribbon of gold edged with gold beads.

The beading effect also recalls the Couscous collection inspired by an Arpels voyage toMorocco. The piece de resistance of that collection was the Marguerite watch made in 1949 with a completely flexible wristband of gold beads and rubies.

Both collections bear the same high standards and attention to detail that has earned VCA its reputation for excellence.

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