Chaumet pays homage to thought

In floriography, the language and symbolism of flowers, pansy has long represented love. In Summer night Dream, Oberon and Puck use wild thoughts to romance Demetrius; In Roman mythology, Cupid hit the flower with an arrow, transforming it into a love potion. The flower also denotes memory, its name derived from the French word for thought, I thought.

During the first half of the 19th century, the flower, part of the genus Viola, enjoyed a burst of popularity when breeder William Thomson created hybrids by crossing three flowers and creating sweet tricolor “faces,” with hundreds of new varieties that, despite their delicate beauty, they bloom during winter and spring.

Its fragility is a strong messenger. it is very emotional

“It is a flower that seems so fragile, but it survives the snow and the sun,” says Jean-Marc Mansvelt, CEO of Chaumet. “This fragility is a strong messenger. It’s really very emotional.” The flower is central to the maison’s next high jewelery collection. Le Jardin Chaumetwhich takes plants from hedgerows, forests and fields and transforms them into 68 bravura jewels, including 12 unique pieces dedicated exclusively to thought.

Rings in white gold are set with a single deep yellow fancy diamond or pink sapphires and round diamonds and Padparadscha. Each piece evokes the ruffles of pansy petals or their various gradient colors, represented in the Chaumet collection with intricate pavé settings and delicately-toned stones.

A white gold mesh set with diamonds and sapphires becomes a dazzling necklace punctuated by an exquisite pansy set with a 2.5-carat oval-cut diamond. Similarly, the fine latticework spills from rings and earrings, or is worn with diamonds and sapphires as a cover for a “secret jewelry” watch that slides off to reveal a mother-of-pearl face.

Virtuous constructions that almost allow the stones to float are a signature of the house, but creative director Ehssan Moazen extends these structures beyond the naturalistic florals for a sharper, more contemporary feel. “It’s like they’re moving and evolving and growing,” he says.

Chaumet’s relationship with botany dates back to the 18th century. Founder Marie-Étienne Nitot was a noted “naturalist jeweller” who observed flowers in scientific detail. This interest in capturing nature as it really was, flaws and all, meant that all plants were easy prey and, Mansvelt adds, there was always an interest in species that were not only beautiful but also symbolic. “This has been deeply rooted in Chaumet history, particularly since the first empire,” when Nitot was a jeweler to both Napoleon and Joséphine Bonaparte.

Chaumet’s rise echoes the 19th-century fervor for flowers, both domestic species and those collected from around the world. In Paris, that obsession reached epic proportions at Malmaison, the country home of Joséphine, who transformed the property into one of the most extraordinary botanical collections in Europe, eventually spanning 1,794 acres.

He botanical pieces from the past – especially the 19th century – continues to inspire; The Pensée collection traces its roots to an extraordinary pansy tiara created during the 1850s by Jean-Baptiste Fossin, who succeeded Nitot and his son after Napoleon’s exile in 1815. The lush, voluminous flowers set with diamonds in silver, typical of the romantic period, they seem suspended in the most ethereal setting that allows light to pass through the stones. Each of the charming and signature pansies was designed to be removed and worn as a brooch or hair ornament, another Chaumet signature. In the new collection, a white gold transformable tiara with a single thought builds on this idea, transforming into a more minimalist white gold band set with a sprinkling of diamonds.

“You really feel like these thoughts just came out of the garden,” Mansvelt says. “And a flower it will die but the jewelry is eternal. She stays forever.”