Dior Fine Jewellery unveils their latest Haute Joaillerie collection “Reines et Rois”composed of 10 couples of vanities, pendants and rings, one-of-a-kind pieces in platinum, diamonds and ornamental stones.
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Left: “Roi d’Osumilie” pendant, platinum, white gold, diamonds and sugilite - Right: “Reine de Jadélénie” ring, platinum, diamonds and jadeitite jade.
“Reine et Rois”, by Eric Troney, Art critic
Ten figures of Queens and ten figures of Kings, each with names evoking the stones that make up this imaginary kingdom, comprise the extraordinary new collection by Victoire de Castellane for Dior Joaillerie.
As if returned to the living, they re-form couples without following the protocol of their prestigious family lineages: the Kings in imposing pendants and the Queens in hieratic and masterly rings join together in new, complex and libertine adventures, rather like the contemporary sentimental adventures of today.
The skulls on these festive figures – borrowed from the Vanities of the Baroque era which beckoned us to become aware of the passing of time and therefore to enjoy life to the full – are sculpted in ornamental stones traditionally attributed with their own stories and beliefs: Chrysolite or “cat’s eye” used in the Middle Ages to embellish church ornaments; Jasper, worn as an amulet in Antiquity to cure headaches and Jade, whose virtues are reportedly beneficial for the kidneys…
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Giving free rein to a powerful creativity decidedly liberated from any useless repetition, here Victoire de Castellane subjects her imagination to an extravagant constraint by not calling upon her talents as a colourist and only using platinum and diamonds. The headdresses, crowns, ruffs, necklaces and pendants on these royal figures, entangled in a meticulous platinum meshwork requiring many setting techniques – including the most ancient rediscovered by the ateliers – thus assemble myriads of diamonds, also elaborated according to extraordinarily varied cutting techniques. Sculpting the light and modelling their brilliancy, they compose a phenomenal crystalline and silvered polyphony sometimes enhanced by the sparkling iridescence of pearls.
The united and triumphant skulls of these royal figures emerge from this spectacular monochromatic opera as phantom-like and unreal as King Hamlet’s skull, named by Shakespeare as the “The Ghost”.
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Left: “Roi de Sugilie” pendant, platinum, white gold, diamonds and sugilite - Right: “Reine de Labradorie” ring, platinum, diamonds and labradorite
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Left: “Roi de Crocidolite” pendant, platinum, white gold, diamonds and blue crocidolite - Right: “Reine de Calcédonia” ring, platinum, white gold, diamonds and blue chalcedony
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