Van Cleef & Arpels Zip necklace tops Phillips Geneva sale
A 2012 Van Cleef & Arpels Zip necklace-bracelet sold for CHF619,200 in Geneva, far above estimate and proof that signed jewels still draw instant collector confidence.
Van Cleef & Arpels’ coral, chrysoprase and diamond Zip necklace-bracelet surged past its CHF260,000 to 480,000 estimate at Phillips’ Geneva Jewels Auction: VI, where the 2012 jewel realized CHF619,200. The result was the clearest signal of the sale: even in a crowded auction week, a signed design with a recognizable silhouette, transformable wearability and a strong house story still commands immediate bidding.
Phillips said the Geneva sale totaled CHF5,469,471 across 85 lots sold from 99 offered, with 93 percent of signed jewels finding buyers and 80 percent of sold lots topping their high estimates. The inaugural Collections & Provenance section was 97 percent sold, and more than 3,000 visitors came through the preview and sale. Benoît Repellin, Phillips’ Worldwide Head of Jewellery, pointed to the “global appeal of signed jewels and pieces of distinguished provenance,” a reading backed by the broad strength of the room. A Chaumet ruby and diamond pendent necklace from around 1902, for instance, brought CHF451,500, more than ten times its low estimate.
The Zip remains one of Van Cleef & Arpels’ most distinctive ideas because it is not just decorative, it is mechanical. The house says the concept began in the late 1930s under artistic director Renée Puissant, daughter of Estelle Arpels and Alfred Van Cleef, and that the first Zip necklace was created in 1950 after more than 10 years of research and development. Inspired by the zipper, whose jewelry form was patented in 1938, the piece was engineered to open as a necklace and close fully into a bracelet, a transformable trick that required flexibility and an invisible sliding mechanism without compromising the stones.
Phillips’ catalog note says the idea is widely believed to have been suggested by Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, adding another layer of society lore to a design already loaded with heritage. The lot itself came with a Van Cleef & Arpels certificate of authenticity, the original invoice, two fitted cases and a pouch stamped Van Cleef & Arpels, along with maker’s marks for Péry & Fils and French assay marks for gold. In Geneva, that combination of pedigree, documentation and engineering did what it so often does at the top end of the market: it turned a jewel into a certainty.
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