There are only two brands that have held jewelry exhibitions at the meridian gate of the Forbidden City, one is Cartier and the other is CHAUMET in Paris.
It is also a jewelry brand originating from Paris. /kloc-When Cartier was born in the middle of the 9th century, CHAUMET, founded in 1780, had served the French royal family for more than half a century as a "royal jeweler".
Therefore, CHAUMET is undoubtedly a palace-level existence among international jewelry brands.
The favor of Napoleon family
It is impossible to talk about Xiao Mei without mentioning Napoleon.
At the coronation ceremony of Napoleon in 1804, Nieto, the founder of Xiao Mei, created a series of symbols of imperial power for him, including a crown, a throne, a scepter, and the famous "sword of the consul" with 140 carat regent diamonds.
Napoleon in a coronation dress and holding the sword of the consul
This highlight moment makes Xiao Mei not only a witness to this epic moment, but also a participant in the subsequent historical moments in France and even Europe. (In 20021year, the French government held a series of activities to commemorate the militarist. CHAUMET, as the only commercial brand, was invited to participate in this huge state event, which shows their status in France).
As the "royal jeweler" of Napoleon and Queen Josephine, Xiao Mei created a large number of classic jewelry works for Napoleon's family. Moreover, quite a few of these jewels have been handed down through wind and rain, which is very rare.
The ear of wheat is the symbol of the goddess of agriculture and harvest in ancient Greek mythology, and it is also the favorite totem of Queen Josephine, so Xiao Mei created many works with the theme of ear of wheat. This is the most famous ear crown.
Nidok drew the outline with gold and silver, filled the wheat with diamonds, and fixed the clever moment with clever ideas. Nine ears of wheat snuggled up to each other and fell slightly, and the viewer seemed to really see the waves of wheat swaying gently in the breeze.
Besides Napoleon and Josephine, Queen Mary Louis, Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte and his Queen Eugénie also like Xiao Mei (the latter is also the famous Lu Bole).
According to legend, when Eugénie was walking in a garden in Compiè ne, he was deeply attracted by a clover with dew, and this scene happened to be seen by Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte, so he entrusted Jefferson, then the head of Xiao Mei, to build a translucent green enamel clover diamond brooch as a gift for Eugénie, and Eugénie was moved by Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte's true feelings.
Queen Eugénie was famous for her beauty and fashion at that time, and she had a large jewelry collection. However, she chose to wear this jewelry in the portrait created by Du Bofu in 1853.
Therefore, no matter how many legendary elements there are in the previous love story, this "Compiegne Clover" brooch is obviously of very special significance to Queen Eugénie.
The French Empire was the most powerful country in Europe at that time, and CHAUMET was constantly loved by the French royal family, indicating that its jewelry design and craftsmanship were the best in Europe.
A master of creating the times
It is precisely because Xiao Mei has a history of serving the royal family that Xiao Mei has a unique title-Crown Master.
As a headdress, the crown has a long history and can even be traced back to the tradition of loving laurel leaves in ancient Greece and Rome. With the establishment of the First Empire of France, Napoleon urgently needed shining jewels to reflect the glory of his country, and as the crown of the "king of jewels", he became the focus of attention. Napoleon ordered Nieto to make a soft headdress for Queen Josephine. This luxurious headdress was popular in Europe and became the "admission ticket" for important occasions and dinners of royal and upper-class women at that time.
According to statistics, from then until today, Xiao Mei has created more than 3,500 crowns of various shapes. CHAUMET frequently appears in the peak crown works in the history of jewelry.
In addition to the above-mentioned crown of wheat ears, Xiao Mei's works also have a far-reaching influence on Queen Josephine's "crown of shell carving". This crown is made of pure gold, inlaid with pearls and seven chalcedony reliefs with Cupid theme. It is a masterpiece of gorgeous and meaningful style in the jewelry industry.
Little Queen Josephine and Shell Carved Crown
Later, Queen Josephine passed this crown on to her granddaughter Josephine Jr, and when she married the Swedish royal family, she brought this crown to Sweden and became a necessary "single item" for Swedish royal women to attend important occasions. And witnessed the marriage and love of several generations of Swedish royal family members, becoming the "special wedding crown" of the Swedish royal family.
20 10 Queen Victoria's Crown Wedding, 1976 Hill
19 19, Joseph shangmei, the head of Chomet at that time (the brand of Chomet was named after him) made the most representative crown work of Chomet-"Golden Bell Flower" crown.
This is the world's first crown made of platinum, and it is also a master of CHAUMET jewelry technology.
At the top of the crown, CHAUMET uses the exclusive "magic color painting" process to splice two round bright cut diamonds into a water drop shape; Platinum base is almost invisible because of the application of "blade inlay" technology; At the same time, the "micro-spring" process gives this jewelry an amazing lightness, and the upside-down golden bell flower seems to be suspended in the air, swaying with the wearer's footsteps.
These are just the tip of the iceberg of Xiao Mei's crown. From the birth of the brand to the present more than two centuries, CHAUMET has created more than 3,500 colorful crown works. Just as Napoleon created the French Empire, it can be said that Xiao Mei also created the incomparable "Crown Universe".
Chaumet brand logo
CHAUMET is the only high-end jewelry brand that uses crown as logo, but it is actually the only brand that is qualified to do so. CHAUMET brought crown art to the forefront of fashion, aesthetics and art.
The crown is the top of the jewelry art pyramid, and this achievement alone is enough to overlook all beings in major jewelry brands.
Top museum collection
Because Xiao Mei is closely related to the history of France, Europe and even the whole world, his works are also collected by many top museums.
For example, the consul's sword mentioned above is collected in Fontainebleau Palace in France; The Louvre has a collection of miniature inlaid daytime jewels made by Nieto for Queen Maria Luise. There is a silver-plated agate goblet made by Morrel, the first of three generations, in the National Museum of Compiegne Palace. ...
In addition, Xiao Mei's works are also collected by French History Museum, Grand Palace Art Museum and Romantic Life Museum, British National Portrait Art Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, German Pforzheim Jewelry Museum and Italian Napoleon Museum.
Queen Maria Luise's miniature mosaic is the first in the daytime set.
In addition to entering the top museums in Tibet, CHAUMET often holds exhibitions all over the world. CHAUMET's jewelry exhibitions have been held in Beijing, Tokyo and Morocco.
The exhibition at the meridian gate of the Forbidden City mentioned at the beginning is where is Xiao Mei? 20 17 jointly held the "Treasure Art Exhibition with Qionghua as the Top-Beginning in18th Century" with the Forbidden City.
This exhibition was planned by Henry Lhoyer, the former curator of the Louvre, and brought together the treasures of Xiao Meizhu from more than a dozen top museums around the world. The Forbidden City also exhibited a number of precious Qing Dynasty jewels, which shows the status of Xiao Mei.
Poster of the exhibition "Taking Qionghua as an Example" in the Forbidden City in Beijing
As for the celebrities who have bought and worn CHAUMET, there are countless more.
In history, Balzac, a French writer, Picasso, a Spanish painter, and the Rothschild family, the European giants, were all fans of Xiao Mei. In recent years, many stars choose to use CHAUMET jewelry at weddings, which also makes more people know about CHAUMET.
For example, the wedding in Gianna Jun is 20 12, the wedding in Gao Yuanyuan and Mark Chao is 20 14, and the wedding in Jay Chou and Kassel, Hannah Quinlivan is 20 15.
Xiao Mei has been loved by celebrities from all walks of life for more than two centuries. In addition to its long history, it is also inseparable from its characteristics formed in the long history. I boil it down to three points:
Artistic creation
If you are careful, you can find that several generations of leaders in Xiao Mei are not father-son relations, but mentoring relations. This is because Nieto, the founder of CHAUMET, has made a rule: pass on talents, not lineages.
It ensures that CHAUMET is always in the hands of the most capable people, so the brand has more lasting vitality and creativity.
Because talent always comes first, CHAUMET's jewelry creation is artist-like, loyal to self-expression, unrestrained, indomitable to business, and does not go with the flow. The most important thing in his works is to convey feelings and philosophies about the world. Usually, he designs first, and then finds the right gem, which is absolutely subordinate to art, not carat number.
Because of this, Xiao Mei has been able to transcend many literary trends of thought for hundreds of years, always leading the trend of high-end jewelry, and even promoting jewelry creation to the height of writing art history. (This also reminds us to know Xiao Mei from the angle of art)
Lady Penny Whitney's "Wings" Crown
Exquisite craft
No matter how good the design is, it also needs craftsmanship to land. From the previous Jong-Kwan kim, it can be clearly seen that Xiao Mei not only has artistic creativity, but also has exquisite skills to make the design perfect.
Xiao Mei is the first jeweler who can make jewelry independently, so many technologies are the first in the industry, such as artificial synthesis and natural gem identification technology, which is the patent of Mr. Joseph Shangmei, and Xiao Mei is also the first person to use negative film to preserve his works, etc. (this shows that the brand attaches importance to the works or returns to the word "art") ... These have a great impact on the development of the whole jewelry industry.
Of course, Xiao Mei's most representative techniques are "illusion painting" and "blade inlay".
"Magic color painting" is to embed more than two kinds of gems with different kinds or cutting methods on the same metal base, thus bringing a layered flashing effect; "Blade inlay" is to make the base supporting the diamond as thin as possible, so that the diamond looks like floating in the air.
On June+10 last year, at the "Royal Wedding" of Russian Grand Duke George mikhailovich romanov, the bride Rebecca Bettarini wore the CHAUMET crown of "Song of Light and Shadow" and applied the "blade inlay" technology.
Inspired by the traditional Russian headdress "kokoshnik", this crown is centered on a 5-carat oval-cut diamond and a 2-carat pear-shaped diamond, with a total of 438 diamonds. Blade technology makes the crown metal bracket appear "invisible" effect, and gems are like stars floating in the sky in the night sky, dazzling and poetic.
Unique spiritual connotation
CHAUMET, which originated in Paris, witnessed the legendary love of Napoleon and Josephine's "coronation love" and opened the era of "women wearing crowns". Then, with the surging social movement in Paris, it experienced the awakening of women's modern consciousness and entered the century of "coronation of true self".
Therefore, Paris spirit and feminine spirit are deeply engraved in the soul of Xiao Mei Zhu Bao's creation.
CHAUMET is good at drawing materials from natural elements, embedding profound spirit and philosophy in the design, and pursuing the shock of strength and soul through light and color, thus creating a unique "poetic jewelry" in the jewelry industry.
This spirit and concept continues to this day, forming CHAUMET's three iconic jewelry series:
Iosefina: Love is the tenderest power.
Remember the most famous crown in Xiao Mei? The design of Joséphine series is inspired by the crown, and the name of the series is to pay tribute to Queen Josephine, the muse inspired by CHAUMET. The "Crown Ring" continues the achievements of Xiao Mei as the "Crown Master", which not only symbolizes the coronation of women to their true selves, but also contains the moving implication of "coronating love and your life" at the highlight moment of love.
Liens: Fate is a lifetime.
Liens means "contact" in French, which CHAUMET translated as "fate" in China culture. Double "X" logo and single "One”logo symbolize that all shall be well, jack shall have Jill. This simple and abstract series with a sense of the times was actually created by Xiao Mei in the 1970s. It has been going on for a long time now, and there is no sense of obsolescence at all. It also reflects the characteristics of Xiao Mei as an artist who interprets beautiful and true feelings through abstract symbols.
Bee My Love: Join hands with * * to build a "sweet love nest"
Bees are Napoleon's lucky totem, and his coronation robe is embroidered with bee patterns. CHAUMET extracts the element of "beehive", which symbolizes the sweetness of two lovers building a love nest together. At the same time, the series also has strong personality characteristics, and the hexagonal image symbolizes everyone's edges and corners; The stackable design also provides a way for each wearer to express their unique self.
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Having said that, there is actually a time thread, from CHAUMET's founding two and a half centuries ago to the three series that concentrate the essence of brand creation at present, which also talks about CHAUMET's artistic creation pursuit, personality, spiritual depth and unique craftsmanship ... There are many contents, but if I want to use one word to describe CHAUMET in the end, I still want to use its name-"top-level hidden luxury".
For more than 200 years, Xiao Mei has been an artist who insists on creating, with superb skills, but very low-key; Be loyal to self-expression, but keep it a secret. No matter how many royal family members and celebrities love them, they always keep the original intention of creating eternal beauty, and they are always waiting for their peers. I hope today's introduction will help you know more about Xiao Mei.
Compared with concubines in the palace, other jewelry brands may be powerful and eye-catching, but only CHAUMET, which may be pure yuan, will never be replaced.