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When New York-based jeweller Sarah Ysabel Narici was designing her take on a hoop earring for her brand Dyne, she looked to ancient Rome and Greece. “Myths about power, transformation, human desires, are preoccupations that haven’t really changed,” she says. Her Ambrosia earrings are cast from rose gold, set with cinnamon-hued diamonds in homage to Hellenistic clay pots. “I like showing how the ancient and the contemporary aren’t so far apart.”
Prounis gold Leo pendant, $3,460, and gold Duo Loop In Loop chain, $4,280
I like showing how the ancient and the contemporary aren’t so far apart
Sarah Ysabel Narici
Classical deities, mythical heroes and their adversaries are once again giving shape to jewellery. Some, like Parisian jeweller Marc Auclert, set their designs with museum-quality relics, such as a carved first-century-AD cameo or a third-century-BC silver tetradrachm coin. Auclert has made a specialism of working with broken finds: he recently extended a fragmented first-century-AD Roman agate cameo depicting a bathing Venus into a gold ring.
Maison Auclert gold and antique agate cameo ring, €12,000. BUY
Dubini gold, diamond and Roman bronze coin Empress earrings, £8,600. BUY
Tiffany & Co gold, platinum and diamond Apollo ring, £41,800. BUY
Dyne rose-gold and diamond Ambrosia earrings, POA. BUY
He is not alone in his tastes: London-based Benedetta Dubini’s Empress earrings match Roman bronze coins with diamonds, while in Los Angeles J Hannah’s made-to-order Pegasus signet ring centres on an antique intaglio-engraved carnelian. And in Manhattan, Taffin’s James de Givenchy has incorporated engraved gems once commissioned by Prince Stanisław Poniatowski in the 18th and 19th centuries, many showing mythological figures.
Hemmerle white-gold, diamond and aluminium cameo brooch, POA
J Hannah gold and engraved carnelian Pegasus signet ring, $5,800. BUY
Chaumet gold and diamond L’Épi de Blé earrings, POA. BUY
Traditional jewellery houses have long borrowed motifs from antiquity. In 1957, Jean Schlumberger took Apollo, known as the Greek god of sun and light, as his muse for a collection with sunray-like detailing at Tiffany & Co. This year, the brand presented new Apollo by Tiffany gems including a cocktail ring in gold, platinum and diamonds. At Chaumet, cuts of wheat are a legacy motif. “Ears of wheat are associated with Ceres, the Roman goddess of the harvest; wheat is a symbol of prosperity, fertility and nourishment,” explains Chaumet’s heritage director Violaine Bigot. This year, the L’Épi de Blé high-jewellery parure in brushed gold and diamonds continues the tradition.
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Then there are makers who dream up jewellery that looks like it was created thousands of years ago. Hercules Knot pendants by Greek jeweller Lalaounis (Jackie O was a fan) borrow a motif first used in jewellery made in Hellenistic times, chosen to symbolise strength, love and the binding of two people in marriage. Jean Prounis, meanwhile, has adopted the Ancient Greek practice of imbuing stone sculptures with scented oils. Her Aurathea Strand necklace features sandalwood beads “bathed in an amber scent and hand-strung on silk”.
