Sapphire and Gold ‘Dentelle’ Earrings, Van Cleef and Arpels

Unique Elements
“Dentelle” means lace in French, and we selected these delicate lacy earrings for the craftsmanship that creates their lightness. These earrings add just the right amount of blue sapphire sparkle to a sophisticated day look. Wear them with your hair pulled back with a suit or sweater.

Sapphire Blue sapphire is a variety of corundum, a mineral species that also includes ruby. Sapphires can be blue, violet, green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, multicolored as well as color change, most often going from blue to purple, as well as gray, black, or brown. Blue sapphire can have both green and violet undertones, as well as the more desirable pure blue. Trace elements of iron or titanium cause sapphire’s blue color, with iron resulting in an inky, darker tone than the often vivid blue resulting from titanium. When jewelers refer to sapphire without specifying color, this refers to blue sapphire. Sapphire is the September birthstone and the stone of the 5th and 45th wedding anniversaries.

White Gold White Gold use in jewelry is first associated with Art Deco, as yellow gold was out of fashion and it is an alternative to platinum, which had become increasingly more expensive after 1915. 18K gold is softer than platinum but has more than enough strength for everyday wear in fine jewelry, particularly in earrings, bracelets and necklaces.

Van Cleef and Arpels Established in 1906, Van Cleef and Arpels has maintained its flagship in the Place Vendôme in Paris ever since. Known for iconic motifs including flowers, animals, and fairies, the house has designed for the Duchess of Windsor, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Eva Peron, among many others.  VCA won the grand prize at the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in 1925 and established itself as one of the leading houses of the Art Deco period. In 1933, VCA patented its "Mystery Setting,” a technique where each stone is faceted onto invisible gold rails less than two-tenths of a millimeter thick. Each mystery setting can require 300 hours of work per piece or more, and only a few are produced each year. Signature collections include Alhambra, created in 1968.