Alhambra - Van Cleef & Arples

It’s just your luck! Here at the Vintage Jeweller, we’ve just sourced a stunning amount of vintage Van Cleef and Arples, specifically from the iconic Alhambra collection.
Full transparency: a few of our new acquisitions were sold before we even had the opportunity to list online, snapped up the moment they were teased on our Instagram.

1968 - Lightning in a Bottle 

First conceived by Jacques Arpels, the original 1968 Alhambra necklace was a breathtaking, opera-length necklace comprising of 20 beaded quatrefoil motifs. It was inspired by Jacques's fantastic penchant for tokens of luck, including four-leaf clovers. His belief that ‘to be lucky, you must believe in luck’, would gradually become a major design ethos for the house over the coming years and decades. The motif was also inspired by the Moorish architecture of the collection’s namesake - Alhambra Palace. Typical of Western Islamic architecture, the palace is covered in geometric and floral shapes and detailed plasterwork - easy to see the architecture’s influence in silhouette and the intricate fretwork that adorns the original Alhambra pieces.

The launch was a huge success. Alhambra was designed with the contemporary woman in mind, in a period where hair was wash-and-go and trousers were favoured for practicality. VCA’s innovation was a breath of fresh air, perfectly suited to reflect the changing desires of women at the time. It was easily styled, sleek and accessible, yet eternally luxurious. The Alhambra necklace quickly became synonymous with modern day opulence.