Van Cleef & Arpels

In 1896, Esther Arpels, the daughter of Salomon Arpels, a dealer in precious stones, married Alfred Van Cleef, whose family were sheet merchants living in the 19th arrondissement of Paris.

In 1906, Alfred Van Cleef (1873-1938) and his two brothers-in laws, Charles Arpels (1880-1951) and Julien Arpels (1884-1964) registered the "Van Cleef & Arpels" trademark and opened their first boutique at 22 Place Vendôme, Paris.

They were soon joined by Esther's brothers, Salomon, Jules and Louis Arpels. Alfred Van Cleef died in 1938, leaving his daughter, Renée Rachel Puissant, behind him. From 1909 to 1939, Van Cleef & Arpels prospered and opened boutiques in holiday resorts such as Deauville, Le Touquet, Nice and Monte-Carlo.

Progressively, the second generation joined the business. In 1942, the Arpels family emigrated to America and opened their first boutique in New York, on 5th Avenue. Later, Van Cleef & Arpels became the first French jewelers to open boutiques in Japan and China. Over the years, the firm was always managed by a descendant of the Arpels family, until it was acquired by the Compagnie Financière Richemont S.A. in 1999. The company's prestige stems from a long list of prominent commissions issued by royal and imperial courts, financiers and industrial magnates, which have enabled Van Cleef & Arpels to be active today not only in Europe and the United States, but also in Asia and the Middle East.

Faithful to the spirit of their founders, each piece of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry is designed to enhance the beauty of exceptional stones. Although Van Cleef & Arpels has purchased exceptional pieces, it has also brought rare stones, such as aquamarines, mandarin garnets and rubellites, to light. Van Cleef & Arpels sometimes choose to highlight the poetry of more unexpected materials, such as mother-of-pearl, snake-wood and lacquer.

Since their inception, Van Cleef & Arpels have been associated with events that have marked the lives of princely, royal and imperial families around the world, like that of His Royal Highness Don Antonio of Orléans and Grand Duke Dmitri in the 1920s, Princess de Faucigny Lucinge, Baron Thyssen, the Duchess of Windsor and the Duke of Westminster in the 1930s, Queen Nazli and King Farouk of Egypt, Baron James de Rothschild, Countesses de Rohan Chabot and d'Harcourt, the Maharani of Baroda, Princess de Réthy, then King Baudoin of Belgium, Princess von Turn und Taxis, the Marquis of Cuevas , Queen Sirikit of Thailand in the 1950s, and then, in the following decades, Baron Guy de Rothschild, the Princess of Wales, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco, the Aga Khan family, etc. Numerous actresses have also favoured Van Cleef & Arpels jewels. Examples of faithful clients include Madeleine Carroll, Michèle Morgan, Marlene Dietrich, Ava Gardner, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Liz Taylor, Claudia Cardinale, Romy Schneider, Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Chiara Mastroianni, Sharon Stone, Kristin Scott Thomas, Julia Roberts, Uma Thurman, Zhang Ziyi, Carole Bouquet, Diane Kruger, Scarlett Johansson, Sofia Coppola, and many more. To all of these beauties can be added dancers and singers such as Mistinguett, Zizi Jeanmaire, Maria Callas, Lili Pons, and more recently, Annie Lennox, Mariah Carey, Madonna, Sheryl Crow, as well as exceptional women such as Florence Jay Gould, Barbara Hutton and Jacqueline Kennedy.