Van Cleef & Arpels is no stranger to the literary world.
For the past 25 years, the jeweler has plumbed the classics for the themes of its high jewelry collections, highlighting fairy tales, love stories and adventure yarns. Late last year, for example, it unveiled the first portion in a 300-jewel collection inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island.”
Now the jeweler’s L’École School of Jewelry Arts has become a partner in a new series called Dédale. Its first three books were issued in mid-May.
“For us, books are an extremely important vector of transmission,” said Lise Macdonald, president of L’École.
“Today, we live in a digital world — we can’t live without it,” she said. “But connecting with knowledge through books and the printed word is central to our strategy for developing content and bringing the culture of jewelry to a wider audience.”
The Dédale series was created with Franco Maria Ricci, or FMR, the Italian niche publisher known for producing lavishly illustrated books and magazines about art and literature. It was named for Daedalus, the mythological Greek architect said to have invented the Labyrinth, and inspired by the Library of Babel, a collection of 30 classics that the publishing house’s founder and the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges republished as collector’s editions from 1975 to 1985.
Dédale’s editorial line, Ms. Macdonald said, is to explore the concept of treasure, both natural and human-made, as well as savoir-faire, jewels, collecting and related themes.
The inaugural publications were “Treasure Island,” featuring original artwork by the comic book artist Pierre-François Beauchard, known professionally as David B.; “The Invisible Collection,” by Stefan Zweig, with reproductions of works by the 19th-century French artist Honoré Daumier; and “Laura, a Journey Into the Crystal,” by George Sand, illustrated with paintings by Wenzel Hablik, an early 20th-century German Expressionist.
Each book was issued in English, French and Italian editions and in two formats: a paperback edition, sold through FMR’s website and distributors with prices from 18 to 28 euros ($21 to $32), and a hardcover collector’s edition in a slipcase, sold exclusively at L’Escarboucle, L’École’s bookstore in Paris, with prices from €85 to €110.
A new title is expected to join the collection each spring and fall; there also are plans to issue books in more languages and to search out non-Western volumes. And while the series’ initial focus has been on classics and rare texts, Ms. Macdonald said that the door remains open to unusual or contemporary works that speak to “beauty, transmission and the labyrinth of the senses.”
“It’s all about creating bridges between the arts, humanities and science and opening the world to other perspectives through jewels,” she said. “The possibilities are endless.”
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