For November, Hancocks London has chosen a vintage Van Cleef & Arpels Olympia necklace as its Jewel of the Month. The price is £95,000, or roughly $127,000.
The workshop of Georges Lenfant made the necklace in Paris around 1970. It’s a chain of chunky 18k gold ovals that widen toward the front. Hancocks counts 114 round brilliant-cut diamonds, adding up to roughly 3.42 cts. t.w., across the three largest ovals. A tongue-and-box closure at the back is built into the design, so nothing interrupts the line of gold. The dealer’s listing gives its length as 42.2 centimeters (16.6 inches), width as 1.4 to 2 centimeters, and weight as 147 grams.
Van Cleef’s signature appears on the piece, along with French assay marks and Lenfant’s hallmark. Hancocks has written that Lenfant’s hallmark dates to 1909 and that the workshop’s clients included Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels.
Van Cleef still makes updated Olympia jewels, which the house calls “an ode to femininity.” The original model has been discontinued, and Hancocks says collectors actively hunt for vintage examples.
Amy Burton-Totton, Hancocks’ creative director, said in a statement that the jewel “has it all. Van Cleef & Arpels have always created iconic jewels, and the Georges Lenfant workshop was among the finest goldsmiths of 20th-century French jewelery. The necklace is timeless and wearable, as suited to casual dressing as it is to a glamorous evening.”
“The fact that Van Cleef & Arpels still makes Olympia says a great deal about the strength of the original design,” she added, “but this original, vintage example carries something a new one cannot: the hand of a workshop that helped define the period.”
At top: Hancock London’s November Jewel of the Month, a vintage Van Cleef & Arpels Olympia necklace in 18k yellow gold with diamonds, £95,000 (approximately $127,000)
(Photos courtesy of Hancocks London)
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