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Object Timeline

	We acquired this object.
2007	Work on this object began.
2011	We photographed this object.
2015	We photographed this object.
2024	You found it!

Hanakarakusa W Brooch

This is a brooch. It was made by Van Cleef & Arpels and Junichi Hakose. It is dated 2007. Its medium is gold powder, gold beads, egg shells, mother-of-pearl, colored lacquer (support: grey mother-of-pearl on white gold, 9 round diamonds: 0.26 ct). It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

Jewelry design is a significant part of the museum’s decorative arts collection. Historically, the collection has focused on design elements that have sometimes included precious stones but more often are of stylistic interest. Jewelry acquisitions from the late 20th and early 21st century have tended to feature the work of studio designers but, as the museum’s 2011 exhibition, Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels illustrated, there are innovative designs in the world of high jewelry as well.
The butterfly has been a recurring motif for Van Cleef & Arpels, with designs ranging from realistic renderings to fanciful creatures in turquoise and rubies from the 1940s. The production of this brooch includes a combination of the art of working in gold and diamonds combined with Japanese lacquering techniques. The butterfly form is created in gold with a mother-of-pearl base in the Van Cleef & Arpels workshops in France. The pieces are then sent to Japan where the lacquering is created according to specific designs inspired by Japanese symbolism. Traditional design sources are rendered with a modern eye and enhanced with the use of materials, such as eggshell, worked into the lacquer for innovative finishes.
This brooch represents a combination of the craftsmanship associated with the decorative arts and high jewelry as well as the use of high jewelry’s precious materials. Examples of Japanese lacquering techniques can be found elsewhere in the museum’s collection, such as with inro, flattened cylindrical boxes with compartments that often held medicine.

It is credited Gift of Van Cleef and Arpels.

Diamond brooch set with a stylized bow on top. The mid-section has round and baguette diamonds in hanging longitudinal settings and there is an oblong pave bar on the bottommost section of the brooch with a watch on the reverse and a pearl at the end of the bar.

Object ID #907214171
diamonds, platinum, pearl.
Neil Lane Collection.
59.2016.4

This pill-shaped vanity case has an amber-covered snakeskin central section, with half-circle carved floral panels on black enamel at each end. The pebble-patterned snakeskin and smooth, flat orange surface contrast with the raised, cool-colored floral carvings. Centered on the snakeskin is a rectangular floral panel, matching the two floral half-circles. The smoothly-carved flowers, like anemones, have large lilac purple amethyst petals surrounding deep blue lapis lazuli centers set with purple-pink cabochon rubies. The jadeite foliage is mottled pale green and white. The stones have varying degrees of transparency and gleam softly. The central floral panel has a diamond border; the snakeskin panel has a line of diamonds separating it from the black enamel half-circles. The floral half-circles have a zigzag border of diamond triangles pointing out. There is an opening catch centered on the long left side. The case is laid flat on a white background, slightly angled with the rounded ends pointing up and down.

Vanity Case, Amber and Snakeskin, 1926
amber-covered snakeskin, amethyst, lapis lazuli, rubies, jadeite, diamonds,....
Lent by Private Collection.
13.2016.18

Brooch (USA)
metal, gilt, glass paste.
Museum purchase from Sarah Cooper Hewitt Fund.
1992-103-1

Our curators have highlighted 1 object that are related to this one.

Necklace made of irregular rectangular and trapezoidal flat silver pieces that have been patinated to a soft green color. They vary in length from about half an inch to two inches, but the width is more consistently about three quarters of an inch. Small x’s and stars made of overlapping straight lines pattern the top of these pieces. Behind the pieces, on the long sides, are many of the same star shapes that have been cut out and attached to thin, long strips. They are all slightly different lengths and reflect light slightly differently. They are the same soft green color and overlap one another a lot. The large pieces are connected by two flat, curved links of silver that connect behind the pieces. Small, flat, tiny silver studs are visible on the top of some of the large pieces.

Coldstar Necklace
silver, molded plastic, lacquer.
Promised gift to the Susan Grant Lewin Collection, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian....
7067.14.2016

Its dimensions are

L x W x D: 4.1 x 5 x 0.5 cm (1 5/8 x 1 15/16 x 3/16 in.)

It has the following markings

Stamped on reverse of clip: "VCA 750 / CL 44026" (serial number) On reverse, lower left wing, Japanese cypher(?) in red trapesoidal lozenge

Cite this object as

Hanakarakusa W Brooch; Made by Junichi Hakose (Japanese, b. 1955), Van Cleef & Arpels (France); Japan; gold powder, gold beads, egg shells, mother-of-pearl, colored lacquer (support: grey mother-of-pearl on white gold, 9 round diamonds: 0.26 ct); L x W x D: 4.1 x 5 x 0.5 cm (1 5/8 x 1 15/16 x 3/16 in.); Gift of Van Cleef and Arpels; 2011-42-2

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2Ei9Z/
Accession Number 2011-42-2
Object ID 18788461