Van Cleef & Arpels

For clips of similar design, see Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels, by Sarah D. Coffin, page 39.

Iconic and instantly recognizable, Van Cleef & Arpels’ mystery-set jewels are prized the world over for their exemplary design and craftsmanship. The renowned maison was granted the French patent for its “serti mystérieux” in 1933, a technique originally limited to flat, inflexible surfaces using square and rectangular-cut stones. The process was further developed to incorporate a variety of cuts to fill in spaces and create curved areas with graceful transitions, most evident in lots 66 and 70. In addition to the implied movement of these undulating surfaces, the technique has also been employed to produce bracelets of extraordinary fluidity (lots 71 and 75).

It takes hundreds of hours by a crew of artisanal craftsmen to produce a single mystery-set jewel. The stones, typically sapphires and rubies, are selected for their uniformity of color with many falling victim to the cutting wheel, making it a particularly costly process. The secret to the “mystery setting” technique is the precision with which the stones are cut so they may be slotted into a wire framework that is visible only from the underside. The result is a monochromatic mosaic of pure color, held together without any noticeable metal.