Publication Mr Stanislas de Quercize by Estelle Arielle Bouchet

Meissen Christian Kurtzke

Van Cleef&Arpels Stanislas de Quercize

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300 Years Meissen Manufactory.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends of Meissen Porcelain, In 2010, MEISSEN – Europe’s first Porcelain Manufactory – will celebrate its tercentenary.

We look back to the exceptional achievements of generations of MEISSEN manufacturists before us, who have created more than 180,000 products, in the process writing a uniquely multi-faceted history of art and culture. Over the past three centuries, MEISSEN® has introduced classics that have survived all fashion trends, crises, and political changes.

At the same time, our history is also an obligation for the future. Our goal is clear: we want to position ourselves as the leading German manufactory in the world – in the areas of Fine Living & Home Art, Fine Dining, and Fine Jewellery & Accessories.

Our Anniversary Collection 2010 is impressive proof of Meissen’s continuing outstanding achievements in terms of craftsmanship and artistry.

In a fast moving world, increasingly marked by a rational superficiality and mass production, MEISSEN – while also harbouring a spirit of genuine innovation – will continue to stand for passion, uniqueness,

and immortality and thus also for true luxury. In this spirit, I hope you will enjoy our anniversary collection 2010.

“Nothing great ever happened in this world without exaggerated hope”

which continues more than a century later to offer excellence to its clients ?

The founders of the Maison believed that Love and Beauty could transform our world.

When one falls in love, as in a dream, there is that instant of grace when love allows one transcend reality, and this Maison was created at just such a moment: two people in love who had the same vision of such a world. This love has inspired, inspires and will continue to inspire the creations of Van Cleef & Arpels. Our quest is distinguished by the constant pursuit of a paradise continually renewed by the challenge and enthusiasm that creating a work of beauty entails.

In the world of Van Cleef & Arpels, when we draw a rose in our workshops, it has no thorns, an animal is a lucky charm, whether it is a dragonfly or a butterfly…

Let’s start the journey together

Jules Verne 20 000 Leagues under the Sea

Dear Connoisseurs, Welcome to the Van Cleef & Arpels world!

Speaking of Creation, Beauty and Love in Italy, a country which is the incarnation of these artistic and spiritual values, seems to follow naturally. This Italy, which we love and admire and which, more than any other country, from Antiquity to the present day has produced artistic excellence and sublime masterpieces.

For the Maison of Van Cleef & Arpels, being “uniques” is at the core of our High Jewellery collections as each of our creations is one of a kind.

We like to think that Van Cleef & Arpels stands for Very Creative Artists!

What better place for Artists than Florence, the temple of Art and Beauty, to celebrate the first anniversary of the Italian Van Cleef & Arpels Boutique at no.

10, Via Verri in Milan.

What was the nature you may ask, of the intuition that gave life to the soul of our Maison since it was established in 1906

by Estelle Arpels and Alfred Van Cleef and

Morgan Stanley

Stefano Ricci Stefano Ricci

Morgan Stanley is pleased to sponsor uniques special ones, an international exhibition of exceptional cars and rare creations coming from all over the world, from the past and present. As main sponsor of uniques special ones, Morgan Stanley shares the unique, exclusive, exceptional and extraordinary characteristics of this prestigious event. The professional expertise that a time-honored investment bank like Morgan Stanley has acquired in the financial sector makes it the perfect partner for this high-profile event, to be held against the charming backdrop of Florence.

This year MS is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its founding, a 75-year commitment to providing its clients highly personalized solution with a focus on detail and innovation, to constantly seize the best market opportunities and generate maximum value for investors.

We are proud to have achieved success at a worldwide level serving clients through a relationship based on mutual trust and exclusiveness. For us, every client is unique, part of a special community.

In a world of great numbers and advanced technologies, “uniques” celebrates the philosophy of dreams which have become realities, translated in an exclusive design and history, only for few privileged individuals.

The concept that pervades my collections represents the essence of true Italian excellence, for a high-end customer target.

Our clients are those gentlemen around the world who have the means to purchase anything they like as long as it expresses high-quality contents. Our boutiques offer a customized and exclusive service.

For special orders, our master tailor flies to every corner of the earth, in other words something “unique”.

Uniqueness is the essence of the way I perceive fashion and for this reason I always create products for those people who have my same perception.

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Previous page: Fleur de Pommier necklace A Midsummer Night’s Dream Collection Van Cleef & Arpels workshop Below: Chardon Clip, Mistery Set rubies, diamonds Mystery Setting is a trademark of Van Cleef & Arpels

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A story of Love, Intuition and Talent Van Cleef & Arpels

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n 1896, Estelle Arpels, daughter of a dealer in precious stones, marries Alfred Van Cleef, who comes from a long line of Dutch craftsmen specialized in cutting precious stones. Both have been part of the world of fine jewellery since childhood. They have complementary qualities: Estelle and her brothers know all the secrets of precious stones, while Alfred has learnt the art of fine jewellery from his father and from his own studies.

Youthful enthusiasm, a passion for jewellery, a taste for taking on a challenge, and constant family support: all combine to promote the partnership of Alfred Van Cleef and Charles Arpels, who are soon joined

by Julien Arpels. Their new company will “serve as an enterprise to create and sell jewellery”. In 1906, they set up a boutique on Place Vendôme under the name “Van Cleef & Arpels”; over time the Place Vendôme came to symbolize a special kind of elegance, simplicity and classicism that

was supremely French – the “French touch”.

Today, Van Cleef & Arpels is still located at 22, Place Vendôme. The former private salons have been replaced by a boutique. If Van Cleef & Arpels is now ranked one of the pioneers on the Place Vendôme, it is because the Maison has always trusted its intuition. It is also because it has perpetuated that special sense of fraternity born of the union of two families who were committed to devoting their best efforts to a project that would eventually surpass even their own dreams. This is the unique spirit of Van Cleef & Arpels based on three pillars: Our Mains d’Or : the most gifted craftsmen in High Jewelry “Savoir faire”, our Pierres de Caractère, beyond their certification, also make an impression with brilliance, beauty and their individual charisma. A timeless recognizable style, defined by elegance, femininity, and a creative audacity .

The Mystery Setting TM Precious stones in a piece of jewellery with no visible setting: this is the Mystery Setting created by Van Cleef & Arpels in 1933, perfected ever since. A masterpiece of virtuosity, a piece of jewellery involving the Mystery Setting requires months of work by the Maison’s most accomplished jewelers, known in the Van Cleef & Arpels workshop as “Mains d’Or”. The lapidary chooses the stones according to very strict criteria and carefully positions each one depending on its size. Since the setting involves much less metal than traditional settings, it allows for much more light to reach the stones, thus enhancing their brilliance and showing them at their very best. Emblematic of the creativity of Van Cleef & Arpels, the Mystery Setting is employed in a number of classic pieces, including the Boule ring and the Ruban necklace, and continues to feature in new creations as a unique Van Cleef & Arpels’ signature.

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“Les Voyages Extraordinaires TM” or when dreams come true Van Cleef & Arpels

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t Van Cleef & Arpels childhood dreams become a reality in the new line of High Jewellery. We travel in the luxurious fantasy of aesthetic appeal orchestrated under the leadership of Nicolas Bos, Creative Director and Chairman of the American branch in New York and exceptional “Mains d’Or”.

The inspiration for the new line begins with an attempted voyage by the young Jules Verne at the tender age of eleven. He decided to board an ocean liner to the Indies as the ship’s boy to bring back a coral necklace for his cousin Caroline Tronson whom he was head over heals in love with. This incident earned him his father’s ire but this opposing utopia fomented in him a brilliant and prophetic literary work a few decades later. It is this work that inspired Maison Van Cleef & Arpels in creating these Collections of such rare and singular beauty.

“We have selected four of Jules Verne’s books– Five Weeks in a Balloon, Journey to the

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Centre of the Earth, From The Earth to the Moon and the renowned Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. These fantastic adventures, known the world over, are reflexive prisms that allow us to rework Van Cleef & Arpels’ codes and to make them even stronger.

Jules Verne’s dreamlike world resonates with that of a Maison whose artistic heritage built around the beauty of flora and fauna, the sky and the stars, imaginary creatures” confides Nicolas Bos. How can one not be moved by the tenderness and childlike roundness of a polar bear or not wish to adopt the Maximus elephant from Five weeks in a Balloon?

An entire cheerful and wonderful bestiary takes us on to the Noah’s Ark of our childhood memories and dreams. The Around the moon clip studded with stars suggests a good many pledges of love and passionate promises under the full round moon of a summer night at sea.

These unusual peregrinations will take us on a ship towards the hot and volcanic lands of Stromboli and we will be charmed by the majestic beauty of a necklace of yellow and purple sapphires of the same name.

Let’s be careful not to arouse on the Tyrrhenian seas the whimsical and impetuous jealousy of Olindias - half-siren half-woman - who in her Shiva’s dance could draw us to the abyssal depths Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.

Previous page: Marlins Clip, blue and yellow sapphires, diamonds This page, from above: Stromboli Necklace, purple sapphires, white and yellow diamonds Maximus Clip, pear-shaped topaze -48.13 ctssapphire, white and grey diamonds Baleine Bleue Clip, sapphires, white mother-of-pearl, white and grey diamonds Les Voyages Extraordinaires is a trademark of Van Cleef & Arpels

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