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This Jewelry Book Highlights a Hot New Gemstone Exhibition
“Gems” is the fruit of a collaboration between Van Cleef & Arpels and the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris.
Out this month from Flammarion, jewelry book “Gems” accompanies a Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle exhibition in partnership with Van Cleef & Arpels. Featured in the book and museum show, this 65.04-carat Mozambican elbaite tourmaline is from the Van Cleef & Arpels collection (Prof. François Farges © MNHN/François Farges from Gems, Flammarion, 2020)
Paris—A new jewelry book allows mineral lovers to enjoy a Parisian gemstone exhibition from home.
In honor of the “Gems” exhibition opening this month at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, or National Museum of Natural History, in Paris, Rizzoli is releasing an accompanying tome of the same name.
The exhibition is the fruit of a collaboration between the museum and famed Place Vendôme jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels. It celebrates gemstones from mine to finished piece of jewelry, showing them at many stages in between.
More than 500 minerals, gems and objets d’art from the museum’s permanent collection will be on display alongside more than 200 Van Cleef & Arpels jewels, showcasing the many possibilities when stones are in the hands of expert designers and craftspeople.
Van Cleef & Arpels “Peony Clip,” 1937, in platinum and yellow gold with rubies, mystery-set rubies and diamonds, from the former collection of HRH Princess Faiza of Egypt. (Patrick Gries © Van Cleef & Arpels from Gems, Flammarion, 2020)
From the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle permanent collection, the “Larbre Aux Tourmalines” was created by Jean Vendome, Paris, in 1976 and rebuilt and restored by Thierry Vendome in 2019. It features 746.9 total carats of elbaite and liddicoatite tourmaline, beryl, quartz, and opal. (Prof. François Farges © MNHN/François Farges from Gems, Flammarion, 2020)
Four beryl crystals, Russia, from the collection of Professor René Just Haüy, in the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle’s permanent collection. (Prof. François Farges © MNHN/François Farges from Gems, Flammarion, 2020)
“Bird of Paradise Clip,” 1942, in yellow gold and platinum with rubies, sapphires and diamonds from the Van Cleef & Arpels Collection. (© Van Cleef & Arpels SA from Gems, Flammarion, 2020)
The accompanying book, published by Flammarion (a Rizzoli publishing partner), is one part gemstone reference guide, one part jewelry catalogue, bridging the gap between science and art.
Some of the specimens featured in “Gems” are published for the first time.
The book was created under the scientific supervision of François Farges, a professor of mineralogy at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, honorary professor at Stanford University, and member of the Institut Universitaire de France, specialized in environmental and heritage mineralogy.
Priced at $45, “Gems” is out in September.
The exhibition begins Sept. 16 and runs through May 4, 2021.
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