Van Cleef & Arpels
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Van Cleef & Arpels is a famous French jewelry house; its origins in 1896 lay in the hands of Alfred Van Cleef and his father-in-law, Salomon Arpels. They occupied their first shop in the Place Vendome at number 22, where their premises are still located.
Alfred Van Cleef served as an apprentice to Messrs David et Grosgeat before becoming a salesman for the same firm. In 1898, he married his cousin, Esther Arpels. Alfred had a good understanding of the techniques of stone cutting as well as being a skilled administrator; his wife looked after the accounts in the company's infancy.
A third Arpels brother joined in 1912, and his genial personality helped woo important clients including such celebrities as Marlene Dietrich and Maurice Chevalier.
The firm's pre-1920 jewelery is characterised by fluid lines, graceful curves, color, and a poetic sense of movement, evident of the Art Nouveau style.
For the coronation of Farah Pahlavi, the former empress of Iran, Van Cleef & Arpels received the order of designing and building a crown in 1967. The 4-pound pearl, ruby, diamond and emerald crown she received at her 1967 coronation took Pierre Arpels of Van Cleef & Arpels six months to make. Although she had to leave many of her jewels behind when she left with her husband in exile in the late 1979, her crown is still in the Iranian Crown Jewels, located in the Iranian Central Bank in Tehran.
Gucci produces a line of beauty products using the Van Cleef & Arpels brand name.
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