Van Cleef & Arpels advertisement featuring a couple on the place Vendôme (1958)

In addition to its creations, Van Cleef & Arpels is delighted to offer you a glimpse into its rich archives. They are composed of a diverse range of documents dating from 1906 to the present day! The archives include drawings, product cards, photographs, catalogues, administrative documents, letters as well as objects such as tools, plaster casts, and mock-ups. The Maison’s archives form a physical memory of Van Cleef & Arpels and enable us to retrace the Maison’s history as well as to understand its creative process.

The selected items from the archives shown here illustrate how Paris, its monuments and its symbols have influenced the Maison’s creations. On the right, you can see four product cards. Products cards are like an identity card for a creation. Generally, the name and design of the piece are shown on one side, with a list of materials and the fabrication date on the other. The four jewels presented here are charms – miniature objects that can be fixed to a bracelet – in the form of Parisian monuments. On the left, you can see a workshop card and drawing of two boxes decorated with views of the Champs-Élysées and Place Vendôme. These boxes are exhibited in the display case. Next to them, you can see an advertisement from 1958 showing a couple strolling in the famous Place Vendôme square. The advert is particularly interesting as it demonstrates how Place Vendôme has held a position of constant symbolic importance in the Maison’s creations and communications.