189 - VAN CLEEF & ARPELS: A MALACHITE 'VINTAGE ALHAMBRA' NECKLACE Composed of twenty quatrefoil-shaped malachite plaques, within beaded gold frames and claw-setting, mounted in 18K gold, signed VCA, numbered JE******, with maker's mark 'CP', French assay mark, with maker's travelling case and outer box, accompanied by recent service papers from Van Cleef & Arpels in Japan, length approximately 84cm

VAN CLEEF & ARPELS: A MALACHITE 'VINTAGE ALHAMBRA' NECKLACE Composed of twenty quatrefoil-shaped malachite plaques, within beaded gold frames and claw-setting, mounted in 18K gold, signed VCA, numbered JE******, with maker's mark 'CP', French assay mark, with maker's travelling case and outer box, accompanied by recent service papers from Van Cleef & Arpels in Japan, length approximately 84cm Condition Report: Minor signs of wear, overall in good condition Serial number on necklace matches recent service papers from VCA - serviced for re-polishing. When retailed, retail price was €21,000.- currently unavailable in Europe - as per client services, due to scarcity of malachite. Clasp closes securely Total gross weight approx. 53g A symbol of good fortune, the four-leaf clover first appeared in the Maison's archives as early as the 1920's, adorning select creations over the years alongside other talismans and auspicious charms. The motif held personal meaning for Jacques Arpels, nephew of the founding couple, who was known to gather four-leaf clovers from his own garden and present them to his staff as tokens of luck. ‘To be lucky, you have to believe in luck,’ he would say. This enduring motif gave rise, in 1968, to the Alhambra, which has since become the instantly recognisable signature of the House of Van Cleef & Arpels and is arguably one of its most popular and wearable designs. Its name pays homage to the Alhambra Palace in Granada, whose intricate Moorish decoration includes quatrefoil forms echoed in the collection’s familiar clover motif. Flowers and clovers had long featured in the jeweller's vocabulary, but the clean, simple line of the Alhambra sautoir marked a defining moment in the history of style, both for Van Cleef & Arpels and for fine jewellery as a whole. Delicate, sophisticated and quietly luxurious, the collection is built around a slender gold chain carrying a succession of four-leaf motifs, each bordered with the House's characteristic beaded gold edge and framing a hard stone or organic material chosen from nature's finest: onyx, malachite, carnelian, lapis lazuli, tiger's eye and coral among them. Every motif passes through the hands of the Maison's lapidaries, jewellers, stone-setters and polishers, whose combined skill gives the Alhambra its characteristic fluidity and ease. The collection has attracted many devoted patrons, none more illustrious than Princess Grace of Monaco, the former Grace Kelly. A favoured muse of the House and owner of a remarkable collection of Van Cleef & Arpels jewels, she kept three Alhambra sautoirs in her everyday jewellery box. Of all the materials used by the House, malachite holds a special place. Prized since antiquity: ground into pigment by the ancient Egyptians, worn as a protective talisman across Europe and chosen as the stone of the Tsars for the celebrated Malachite Room of the Winter Palace; it has long been associated with protection, renewal and good fortune. The original malachite edition was reportedly limited to just 100 pieces owing to the scarcity of suitable material, and the stone remains as scarce today as it was then. Material of the uniform colour, fine banding and structural soundness required for jewellery is difficult to source, and the House continues to offer malachite Alhambra pieces only intermittently. Models in this material are not always available, which only adds to their desirability among collectors.