The most mysterious jeweler in the world and his $ 4 million brooches: Joel Arthur Rosenthal

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Joel Arthur Rosenthal is a world-renowned jeweler and a man of mystery. He does not sell jewelry in his company store, he does not communicate with the clientele, does not give advertisements and interviews. From those who want to buy his jewelry, he chooses only the most worthy, and the rare appearances of the simplest products with the J. A. R. at auctions become a sensation. So who is this elusive genius of jewelry design?

Mystery is perhaps the key feature of the J. A. R. brand, and there is a lot of charm in this closeness. It is almost impossible to touch Rosenthal's creations - unless someone from the Rothschild family recommends you to him. And even if you are a multi-billionaire, you cannot count on the favor of the master - he himself decides with whom to work, and is distinguished by a rare incorruptibility. Any mention of Rosenthal, any of his statements (you shouldn't even dream of appearing in public!) Is an international event. Even an album with photographs of J. A. R. in a matter of hours became a bibliophile rarity.

His jewelry cannot be found at presentations and exhibitions, and even more so - in advertising, the jeweler does not talk with journalists, does not announce the releases of collections. Few met him in person. Rumor has it that Rosenthal is still a misanthrope and does not meet with clients because he is annoyed by the vulgarity and bad taste in their appearance, behavior and speech. They say that with his titled customers, he is rude and expresses everything he thinks about their clothes and jewelry, often refuses to sell jewelry if he thinks that they are not to the customer's face. However, looking at his refined, soulful, permeated with light masterpieces, it is difficult to imagine such a reclusive grouch …

The atmosphere of strict secrecy envelops both the personality of the master and the brand itself. A small shop on the rue de Castillon, decorated in elegant purple tones, offers visitors … elite perfumery. However, in the late 70s, the first J. A. R. creations could be seen there - three luxurious diamond rings. True, they did not last long on the counter.

American Joel Arthur Rosenthal, the son of a teacher and a postman, never studied to be a jeweler - apart from six months at the Bulgari firm in New York. But he graduated from Harvard, managed to get a degree in philosophy and art history, wrote pictures and screenplays for films, worked with famous couturiers … Rosenthal is fluent in several European languages. He could have made a career in any field of art - but chose to become a great self-taught person.

In the 60s in Paris, he met his business partner Pierre Janet - and devoted the next decade to creating the very three rings that instantly made him famous. The jeweler was inspired by butterflies with their fragile and exciting beauty. Photos of the first J. A. R. immediately ordered Vogue - and Joel Arthur Rosenthal woke up as a legend in jewelry design.

Over the years of his jewelry career, Rosenthal has created a little more than a hundred pieces of jewelry - sparsely compared to famous brands that release new collections several times a year. But this only enhances the attractiveness of his products in the eyes of collectors. J. A. R. produces jewelry from a blackened alloy of gold and silver, developed by Rosenthal himself, sometimes uses titanium and even wood. There is nothing revolutionary in its design - pure, unambiguous beauty familiar to the eye. The jeweler is not inclined to experiment with new technologies, using old methods of cutting diamonds. Much of the charm of J. A. R. jewelry is its conservatism, the way it feels old. I must say that Rosenthal does not feel reverence for precious stones either - color, texture, and not status are important. Rubies are no better than opals, and other garnet is not inferior to emerald in terms of the complexity of the shade and the play of light in the facets.

Rosenthal's favorite motives are flowers and butterflies. The petals and wings seem alive, quivering, each stone seems to have the ability to breathe. Lilacs and camellias, lilies and freesias, clovers and carnations - Rosenthal, like the great jewelers of Art Nouveau, does not divide plants into noble and weedy, finding in each of them a unique character and beauty.

And even the simplest - of course, from the point of view of the "elitism" of materials - J. A. R. inaccessible to mere mortals. Sometimes J. A. R. items appear at auctions. - titanium, grenades, uncomplicated motives … And for the possession of them real battles flare up, and the cost of products rises tens, or even hundreds of times. J. A. R. titanium earrings, made without the use of precious stones, were auctioned for five thousand pounds. And the ruby Camellia brooch became one of the most expensive jewelry in history - it was sold to a private collection for almost four and a half million dollars. There are only fourteen known cases of J. A. R. at the auction.

Of course, the history of any genius is incomplete without a muse - even such a mysterious one as Arthur Joel Rosenthal. In 1981, the husband of a socialite and famous philanthropist Lily Safra (the fourth in a row) bought a rare pear-shaped diamond at an auction. However, not every jeweler, no matter how he was a master, was ready to work with such an unusual shape. And Lily turned to Rosenthal. He created a poppy-shaped brooch of stunning beauty for her, accompanying a diamond of wondrous beauty with no less beautiful tourmalines. And it was Lily Safra who managed to become a regular client of the picky genius. In her collection there are a lot of jewelry created by Rosenthal just for her - jewelry for which any collector would sell his soul to the devil. In 2012, Lily decided to put some jewelry up for auction. The money raised for their sale was spent on charity.

However, sometimes the reclusive jeweler makes public statements - praising his young colleagues. His brief approving remarks to some modern jewelers are a pass to the world of elite orders. Claire Chuan, creative director of Boucheron, carefully keeps his postcard with a single word: "Bravo."

Even today they are of great interest jewelry from the oldest jewelry house, patronized by the Medici and Josephine.