The Biennale des Antiquaires et de la Haute Joaillerie closed its doors on Sunday, September 21.
This year’s event saw an increase in attendance to 90,000, with a public of true connoisseurs and collectors. This unique event is an opportunity for art lovers like us to discover, in an incredible setting, works that we will probably never see again, as they will be sold to collectors all over the world. Exhibitors have also reported a marked increase in foreign visitors from Asia, Russia and South America.
The sales results were very good for all the specialties represented, particularly modern painting, 19th-century decorative arts and archaeology. Sales results at the Biennial are usually the barometer of the coming season. We can therefore expect sales to continue in the coming months, despite the difficult economic climate.
Jean-Gabriel Peyre, President of the Syndicat National des Antiquaires, supports the idea that buyers at the Biennale are true collectors and art lovers, not speculators.
The economic activity generated by the Biennale extends far beyond the Grand Palais. Craftsmen, restorers of objets d’art, decorators, transporters, insurers, hotels, restaurants… have been working directly or indirectly for the event for several months. In all, some 100,000 people benefit from the economic impact of the Biennale des Antiquaires. Every day, more than 800 people work on the site.
Here are our favorites and selections of these rare objects and wonderful pieces of jewelry.
Piaget’s Extremely Piaget collection dazzled us. Piaget is celebrating its 140th anniversary, and for the 27th Biennale des Antiquaires de Paris, the House has highlighted a key period in its creative history, the 1960s-70s, sublimated by the most precious materials: diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, hard stones and gold. 88 pieces of jewelry and 37 watches have been created especially for this event. The daring designs play on asymmetry, fluidity and stylization. On some of these jewels, the boundary between jewel and watch disappears completely. Color is very much in evidence, notably with the hard stone dials, the Maison’s signature. An entire section of the collection has been named “Extremely Colorful”.
Gemstones of the highest quality in terms of intensity of color and purity have rarely been used with such force, including more than 1,500 marquise diamonds, a cut that is characteristic of Piaget’s jewelry work and has been used for over half a century. The pieces on which these diamonds dominate are grouped together in the second part of the collection, named “Extremely Sparkling”. The House’s great classics – cuff watches, hard stone dials and gold mesh bracelets – are also present. These jewels showcase a series of unique savoir-faire. The collection is also characterized by great freedom of movement and multiple wearability. For further information: https: //www.luxsure.fr/2014/07/14/extremely-piaget/
To celebrate its 130th anniversary, Bulgari unveiled no fewer than 100 new Haute Joaillerie pieces. The exhibition, an exceptional encounter between the Eternal City and the City of Light, paid tribute to Bulgari’s Roman roots.
Bulgari, the only Italian jeweler present at the Biennale, was the ambassador of Italian style, heritage and craftsmanship in the sumptuous Grand Palais.
At Fashion Week Haute Couture, Boucheron presented the first models in its Biennale 2014 collection. For this collection, the illustrious house takes us to the four corners of the world to reinterpret key pieces from its history. More details here: https: //www.luxsure.fr/2014/08/05/boucheron-biennale-2014/
Chez Chanel presented “Café Society”, its new Haute Joaillerie collection, in a 150m2 space designed by American architect Peter Marino. Without nostalgia and free of all classical references to icons, “Café Society” is the most brilliant illustration of this Haute Bohemia, curious about new forms, in search of elegance and originality, of which Gabrielle Chanel was one of the protagonists, free to live, to create, to love, warding off boredom with an infinite quest for beauty. The spirit of the Café Society shines through in this new 87-piece Haute Joaillerie collection, celebrating a new aesthetic language. Avant-garde geometry and cosmopolitan tempo. The sense of purity and the audacity of skin-deep audacity. 18 never-before-seen pieces, unveiled for the first time at the Biennale, complete CHANEL’s vision of this Café Society, illustrating its taste for travel and the exotic. Ciselure, grand feu enamels, grisaille, champlevé… so many unique skills that, as if in an echo chamber, reflect, enlarged, amplified, sublimated, the sense of freedom so dear to Gabrielle Chanel. Long necklaces, bibs, brooches or head jewelry, the lightness of the lines indulges in the euphoria of 3D construction games, in a fade-in of adornments magnifying elective affinities, like so many witticisms turned into jewels. All the audacity of creation unfolds in these unprecedented combinations of stones and cuts. From checkerboards to petals, from prisms to folds paved with light, to the rhythm of celebrations and poetic dreams, the “Café Society” collection exalts, like an inspired mosaic, all worlds in the making. For further information: https: //www.luxsure.fr/2014/07/18/chanel-joaillerie-collection-cafe-society/
CARTIER’s Cartier Royal collection is a celebration of gemstones and jewelry-making expertise, with over one hundred Haute Joaillerie creations. We begin with four legendary stones, the subject of spectacular creations… Focus on the royal pearl, from the treasures of Queen Mary: a historic gem that reigns majestically at the heart of an exceptional set that can be transformed into a tiara or necklace. Finally, from design to final piece, around a sublime Mozambique ruby, a gradual revelation of a remarkable creation.
Our favorite is undoubtedly The Reine Makeda
Wallace Chan, the Master of the Orient has presented a collection of jewelry art that honors diamonds and the rarest, most extraordinary gemstones. Wallace Chan’s indisputable mastery as a sculptor and jeweler enables the stones to emit an ethereal light, a quality sometimes lacking in the purest of gems. Find out more here: https: //www.luxsure.fr/2014/07/18/wallace-chan-haute-joaillerie-presente-sa-collection-biennale-des-antiquaires/
With so much beauty, it’s going to be hard to wait two years.
At Dior, Victoire de Castellane is inspired by 50’s dresses in a desire for fluidity and femininity.
On the antiques side, the galleries vied with each other to present a selection of rare and sublime pieces.
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