The year 2021 has only further strengthened the impact of L’ÉCOLE School of Jewelry Arts on the jewellery sector. After opening a permanent campus in Hong Kong in 2019, supported by Van Cleef & Arpels, the institute has geared up the year with an exciting selection of jewellery-centred virtual courses and activities to cope with the lockdowns around the world. What better way to reach a wider, global audience than to share the knowledge and culture of the jewellery world through online platforms?
The interactive series of talks features a host of L’ÉCOLE’s expert jewellers, gemologists and art historians from Hong Kong and Paris, as well as private art collectors and museum curators hailing from all parts of Asia. While the talks will mainly be conducted in English, simultaneous interpretations are available during the evening sessions dedicated to the Asia-Pacific time zones, to aid Cantonese, Mandarin and French speakers.
Silver Through Time
In conjunction with the opening of the Liang Yi Museum‘s latest exhibition, Family Silver: Highlights from the Liang Yi Collection in Hong Kong, this talk explores the history behind silver. The audience will get a chance to get a peek behind the curtain of the career paths of silversmiths, see how ornamental silver that decorated houses in the past became a universal symbol of affluence, and experience a virtual tour of select galleries of the museum. Led by Daniel Roberts, the Project Director of Silver Archiving at the Ling Yi Museum, and Mathilde Rongouin, art historian and lecturer at L’ÉCOLE, this discussion will guide viewers from the mythical mines of Laurium in Greece to the grand banquet halls of the Victorian age.
The Taste of Marie-Antoinette: Fashion, Jewels and Precious Furniture
While she was considered one of the most major historical figures, Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France, was more famously known for her decadent and refined lifestyle. Her inclination towards luxury and splendour earned her the nickname ‘Madame Deficit’ that, although played into her downfall at the dawn of the French Revolution, allow us to admire and examine the riches she accumulated, today. This discussion, featuring lecturer and researcher, Cécile Lugand, and art historian and lecturer, Gislain Aucremanne, allows audiences to dive deep into the fascinating character of the sovereign, who, behind a contested figure of her time, was a fragile and sensitive woman – with a great taste to match.
Through the Eyes of a Connoisseur: The Mengdiexuan Collection
The Mengdiexuan Collection is finally unveiled to all in this discussion, having previously been kept hidden from public view due to the pandemic. It’s hard to believe that its assembly all began when third-generation collectors, Betty Lo and Kenneth Chu, were gifted a bronze mirror from Lo’s father on their wedding day in the early 1980s. The collection has since grown into a stunning visual feast of gold jewels and masterpieces of ancient Chinese goldsmithing techniques – a remarkable example of the art of collecting. Join Chu and Catherin Maudsley, an award-winning art historian, advisor, and curator, as they walk through the introduction of gold craftsmanship to China and how its techniques have developed throughout its rich 3000-year-old history.
L’ÉCOLE School of Jewelry Arts
This discussion takes place at 7 pm on 22 July. Register here. Sign up for the live Zoom sessions here. If you’ve missed out on the live sessions, recordings are available here and on their YouTube page.
Photos: L’ÉCOLE School of Jewelry Arts
