L’ÉCOLE Presents an Illuminating Exhibition for Jewellery Lovers

When Nicolas Luchsinger of Van Cleef & Arpels came across the privately owned Illuminata Collection, he knew immediately it should be shown to the world.

L’École, School of Jewelry Arts has long protected the heritage and craft of jewellery, and, in parallel, explored the reasons and the tastes behind why we wear – and love – jewels. A new exhibition at the Hong Kong school, An Eye for Beauty: The Illuminata Collection is a world premiere offering a rare opportunity to delve into the collecting mind of the enigmatic aesthete whose eye for the beautiful and rare in art, design and jewellery makes this show a truly wonderful treat.

Although unnamed, the collection’s owner is a leading expert in Ming furniture. Yet according to Nicolas Luchsinger, president of Van Cleef & Arpels Asia-Pacific and one of the exhibition’s curators, she didn’t consider herself a collector – although her collection spans European jewels from the 18th century to the present day, and also includes Chinese Qing court jewels. But perhaps the beauty of the exhibition is exactly this: that anyone with an eye for beauty can build a worthy collection.

We asked Luchsinger to explain why the Illuminata Jewellery Collection is so remarkable, how he met its owner and what he liked most about putting the exhibition together.

What can you tell us about the private collector and how you met her? Was it hard convincing her to exhibit her collection?

It’s a very funny story how I met the collector. A prominent jewellery historian, Diana Scarisbrick, had written about her collection and I heard about it as I collect jewellery books. But I couldn’t put my hands on it as it was impossible to buy. Later I was at a dinner party in Hong Kong sitting next to an elegant lady and spent a fun evening talking about jewellery with her. At the end of the evening, she told me there’s a book about her collection and that she’d send it to me. Guess what? It was that book! And quite by accident I met her again twice that week and we quickly became good friends. When I had the idea to put together this exhibition on her jewellery and mentioned it to her, she was immediately very supportive.

You must have seen many jewellery collections in your life. How did this one stand out?

The first interesting fact is that the owner doesn’t want to be considered a collector. She’s a world summitry in Ming furniture and owns one of the best collections in the world. What I’m trying to show with this exhibition is that if you have trained eyes for the best in a specific field, it will apply to other fields as well. She claims to know nothing about jewellery, yet she only bought the best. The collection consists of incredible examples of the last three centuries but it’s very consistent in taste and style. Another fact is that the owner lives with her pieces and wears them a lot. One characteristic of many pieces is their transformability: as an example, there’s a necklace you can wear as a tiara, choker or two bracelets and she loves to play with that and wear it in a lot of different ways according to her mood or taste. That’s the reason we included garments as well, as we wanted to show the public that all the pieces are worn. It’s very different from more classical jewellery collections, which are built more to tell a history period or a certain style.

What’s the most enjoyable part of putting together an exhibition like this?

To be able to express your ideas and dreams is very enjoyable, especially when you work with a collector who trusts you. I wanted the public to understand who she is and how she lives. So we decided to show Ming furniture, and especially the rare cabinet where she stores her jewellery in her home. I wanted to display dresses as well, so the public understands how she wears and plays with her jewellery and her great sense of fashion and style. We invited specialists in each field to contribute to the catalogue’s curation, which really helped to enrich it, and the result is stunning.

And the most difficult?

We had to select about 50 pieces from her much richer collection, and all her pieces are beautiful and of extraordinary quality. In a dream world, I’d have loved to exhibit them all. I selected the best pieces representing different time periods and which could be the best example in the timeline we wanted to show. The collector also owns an extraordinary panther brooch by Cartier, which used to belong to the Duchess of Windsor, but it’s so special and different from the rest of the collection I didn’t know how and where to display it, so regretfully we didn’t show it this time.

As a jewellery specialist, were there any discoveries in the collection that fascinated you?

It’s very rare to see pieces by JAR – Joel Arthur Rosenthal. He’s an American jeweller based in Paris with a very confidential production, and he’s one of the most famous of his generation. To have four of his creations exhibited for the first time at L’École is absolutely incredible. All four are good examples of his genius and creativity, and how he accentuates the unique beauty of each gemstone by combining them in ways that create a harmonious and breathtaking effect. It’s a privilege for me to see them and have them in my hands.

What stands out about the Illuminata exhibition?

One of the key elements of this exhibition is transformability. The antique jewellery pieces had to embrace multiple functions when attached to a garment, effectively serving as various ornaments, and the current owner loves this function and wears them in many different ways.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; how much truth do you find in this statement when it comes to jewellery?

It’s not always true, as when you wear jewellery, especially a necklace, ear pendants or brooches, the beholder isn’t you but the person you’ll meet while wearing them. Of course, the joy of taking the pieces out of their fitted box, to close the clasp, to have them in your hands make the moment magic, but it’s when they’re on you that they give you the confidence to go into the world. 

“An Eye for Beauty, the Illuminata Jewelry Collection” at K11 MUSEA runs until March 31.