1930

Night light

Creation details

This piece is unique within the Van Cleef & Arpels Patrimonial Collection and illustrates a specific kind of production, that of objets d’art, developed by the Maison between 1929 and 1930.

The night light is composed of a square, pink quartz base decorated with ruby cabochon rivets rimmed with yellow gold at each corner, with a yellow-green lacquered cylindrical tube rising up at its center and covering the bulb. The tube is decorated with four geometric, pink quartz forms flanked by onyx rectangles attached with yellow gold claws that give the piece a strong sculptural presence. The whole piece is topped by a stepped circular motif in pink quartz. When the night light is turned on, the pink quartz elements allow a soft light to shine through.

Modernist objets d’art

Thanks to its stylistic features and utilitarian function, the night light can be compared to a group of works made between 1929 and 1930 including mirrors, ashtrays, and bowls. These pieces display structured volumes composed of simple geometric forms that overlap to create tiered planes. They illustrate the re-evaluation of certain ornamental stones that had been ignored by jewelers until then.

Costume Mirror

Like the night light, mirrors from the 1930s illustrate the tenets of the Union des artistes modernes (UAM) as applied to objets d’art. This example contrasts the purity of the circle of green lacquer work with the straight line of the pink quartz handle. The latter is flanked by two nephrite semi-cylinders held by yellow gold rings adorned with ruby cabochons.

Mirror, 1930. Yellow gold, rubies, onyx, quartz, jade, and lacquer, 26 × 148 mm.

Mirror, 1930. Yellow gold, rubies, agate, and lacquer, 30 × 150 mm.

Mirror, 1930. Yellow gold, rubies, agate, and lacquer, 30 × 150 mm.

Everyday luxury

These art objects designed by Van Cleef & Arpels were created for a domestic context rather than for show, adopting esthetic concepts of the period developed in the fields of architecture and interior decoration. As Blaise Cendras professed: “Volume, surface, form, line, material, angle, weight, metal, and color” are proof of “sobriety, elegance, comfort, and luxury.”¹ This was a completely revised notion of luxury in everyday life, of which this night light provides a marvelous example.