Further Details
| Condition Report | Very fine |
|---|---|
| Setting | 18ct gold signed Cartier and Dinh Van and marked 18k |
| Weight description | 6 grams |
| Dimensions | UK finger size M, US size 6.25 |
| SKU | 128136 |
Directors Notes
Born just outside Paris in 1927 to a French mother and Vietnamese father, Jean Dinh Van is regarded as something of a revolutionary in the history of 20th Century jewellery design. After studying drawing at the École des Beaux-Arts he went to work for Cartier where he spent many years at the workshop bench, first training and eventually creating jewellery for high profile clients such as the Duchess of Windsor. However, the spirit of freedom that permeated the 1960s was calling to him and he began to feel increasingly frustrated by what he perceived as the overly formal constraints placed upon jewellery design. He felt jewellery was becoming a ‘prisoner of tradition’ and he dreamt of designing bold, sleek pieces that would reflect what he saw happening in other areas of contemporary design, such as clothing, art and furniture. He wanted to redefine luxury jewellery to mean pieces that were simple and bold, pieces that women could wear all day every day, not just for special occasions. In 1965 he established his own workshop in Place Gaillon in Paris and collaborated with designers such as Pierre Cardin for whom he designed the now iconic ‘Two Pearl’ ring in 1967. The gold jewel was remarkable for its square shaped shank which housed a pair of differently colours pearls able to spin freely within their partially enclosed setting. The shape of this ring would inspire many variations over the years and is now deemed so significant that it is part of the permanent collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Further collaborations with clients as diverse as Paco Rabanne and De Beers followed and, most significantly, with his old employer Cartier. Today, pieces that carry both the Cartier and Dinh Van signatures are particularly collectable.
