Down the Ages

Van Cleef & Arpels’ Time, Nature, Love exhibition at the D Museum in Seoul showcases the maison’s enduring love affair with the classics while highlighting its influential role in shaping contemporary jewellery design

- Amrita Katara

It was a cold, rainy November day in Seoul when Tatler made its way to the D Museum for a journey through Van Cleef & Arpels’ 100-plus years of history. The Time, Nature, Love exhibition, on show until April, offers an opportunity to gaze upon more than 300 jewels and precious objects from the maison’s archives, which together tell the story of the brand’s origins.

Archival documents, sketches and gouache designs stand alongside pieces from the Van Cleef & Arpels patrimony collection—a collection of the maison’s important high jewellery pieces and precious objects from the 20th century—and those that have been loaned from private collectors. “The Van Cleef & Arpels archives start in 1906—the date of the maison’s creation—and [add up to] more than 1.5 linear kilometres of documents, from drawings to photographs [and] registers to manufacturing books, advertisements and family archives … They are real historical documents,” says Alexandrine Maviel-Sonet, the house’s director of patrimony and exhibitions. Curated by Alba Cappellieri, the exhibition revolves around its three titular sections, which explore jewellery’s complex relationship with time.