Enchanting Imagination

Enchanting Imagination

The Objets d’Art of André Chervin and Carvin French Jewelers

Edited by Debra Schmidt Bach

New-York Historical Society in association with D Giles Limited

A Lifetime of Work

André Chervin

lazuli, or rock crystal, for instance. When the material has beauty, it inspires the creation. It takes a lot of time. Sometimes I put the stone away for years even, until it dawns on me what I want to make with it. Then I start doodling and sketching. Or sometimes I just go immediately to the jeweler in the shop and describe what I have in mind.

Design is a central component, but I did not usually have a formal design. Sometimes I had designers work with me on many different possible ideas, and sometimes we would start out manufacturing without finally deciding. And sometimes I asked the designer to draw the design after the object itself was made, as a sort of documentation, not the other way around.

This collection represents a lifetime of work. I always found something to love in each piece, whether that was the material, the fabrication, the humor, or the challenge.

One thing is for certain: This collection would be nothing without the efforts of a large number of extraordinarily talented people I had the good fortune to employ at Carvin French across the decades—jewelers, setters, lapidaries, designers, polishers, enamelists, and multitalented craftspeople. I set them to work on new techniques, in new materials, often challenging them to try things they had never done before. It was a veritable “symphony” of talent. It was not without its frustrations, but ultimately it was an immense amount of fun.

How did I come up with the concepts and the designs? For me, it generally starts with the material. I admire a piece of jadeite jade, or lapis

The real creativity occurs along the way, during the process of fabrication. Each piece was produced through a painstaking and continuous dialogue between the original idea and what comes up in the crafting of it into an object. I was constantly in the shop, standing there examining what the jeweler was doing at every stage, and discussing any problems and the direction the piece was taking. The result was that often, at the end of the day I realized I had not sat down. That’s when I learned to eat standing up.

Making these objets d’art posed new challenges that went beyond what I normally deal with in jewelry. For example, in the lamps, we had to consider how the light would appear once it came through the materials—such as the refraction effects through the rock crystal pieces. We also had to consider practical things like the fact that light bulbs, even as small as these, produce heat. How would that affect the materials, and how could we fabricate them to reduce the heat, if possible?

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Cat. 15

Minerals and other raw materials (left to right): Coral, mother-of-pearl, fluorite, lapis lazuli, onyx, jasper, hematite, rock crystal quartz, agate, psilomelane, obsidian, chrysoprase, rose quartz, aventurine. Carvin French Jewelers

38 Marvels from Minerals: André Chervin’s Enchanted Objets d’Art

Fig. 26

Discovering exceptionally fine stones is the goal of many great jewelers. Chervin attended the popular gem shows held each winter in Tucson, Arizona, and traveled to the fabled city of IdarOberstein in Germany, a center of hardstone carving since the Middle Ages. Always ready to

discover something extraordinary, he assembled minerals like the colors on an artist’s palette (figs. 26 and 27).

Carvin French’s lapidary skills were on full display when Chervin created a pair of boudoir lamps, called L’Opulence , whose shades were

39 Jeannine Falino

Student Lamp

Agate, obsidian, enamel, rubies, diamonds, 18K yellow gold

5 × 8 3/8 × 5 1/8 in. (12.8 × 21.5 × 13 cm)

Lamp with carved agate abat-jour (shade) and obsidian base supported on nine enameled frogs, all with cabochon ruby eyes; swiveling arm set with 88 Frenchbuffed and cabochon rubies, and 72 diamonds. Switch is cut flush at back edge of base.

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Cat. 2 Cat. 2a Design drawing for Student Lamp . Carvin French Jewelers

On Broadway boudoir lamp

Coral, rock crystal quartz, agate, 18K yellow gold, sterling silver

5 3/8 × 4 5/8 × 2 5/8 in. (13.6 × 11.9 × 6.7 cm)

Lamp with carved coral figurine and oxidized gold dog with coral tongue, standing under gold street light with hanging crystal quartz globe, on agate base secured on gold and silver mount. Switch activated by wagging the dog’s tail.

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Cat. 9 Cat. 9a Design sketch for On Broadway boudoir lamp. Carvin French Jewelers

“I always had at least one cat in my family growing up and I have always found cats to be fabulously graceful and artistic in their every move, their every pose. They make a house a home.

Black Cat on Eggshells Pendulette (table clock) Rock crystal quartz, eggshell mosaic, fluorite, diamonds, mother-of-pearl, semiprecious stones, 18K yellow gold

4 1/8 × 4 × 1 1/2 in. (10.5 × 10.3 × 4 cm)

Octagonal clock with inlaid semiprecious stones and mother-of-pearl scene of black cat in rustic kitchen, clock face covered with rock crystal quartz and framed with gold bezel set with 80 baguette diamonds, and clock case of eggshell mosaic and gold.