PAD London, Schlumberger and a 1997 Talisman: The Top Jewellery News This Week
With October comes one of London’s busiest moments for art and collecting. Frieze and Frieze Masters are almost here, PAD London is preparing for its 18th edition, and elsewhere the week brings jewellery news that moves from an extraordinary archive in Paris to a Milanese talisman first conceived nearly 30 years ago.
For more of what is happening day to day, the Katerina Perez Club follows new launches, exhibitions, appointments and industry news, alongside original features from editors with different voices and areas of interest. Updated daily, it is a place to keep up with the jewellery news as it unfolds.
PAD London: The Latest Art Jewellery Comes to Berkeley Square
PAD London takes over Berkeley Square from 13 to 18 October, bringing 67 exhibitors from 18 countries to Mayfair. Its roots are in PAD Paris, launched in 1998, but the London edition has since become a fixture of Frieze Week, particularly for collectors with eclectic tastes in furniture, decorative arts, sculpture and jewellery.
Elie Top offers the unexpected to create enchantment, by building hybrid universes
that combine complementary techniques and materials. By crossing antagonistic
aesthetics and temporalities, the designer creates unique pieces and signature
collections of contemporary French jewellery.
Several familiar jewellery names are returning this year, including Glenn Spiro, Hemmerle, Fernando Jorge and Elie Top, alongside Karry Berreby, Second Pétale and Carpenters Workshop Jewellery. Buccellati, Nikos Koulis and Georges Lenfant x Durazzo are new to the fair for 2026. Buccellati is working with Chahan Minassian on an installation combining its jewellery and silver with his interiors, while Georges Lenfant x Durazzo will place high jewellery beside post-war Op Art by Marina Apollonio, Yaacov Agam and Titina Maselli.
A creation by Fernando Jorge. High Swirl Diamond Pendant featuring a 7.08 carat Fancy Yellow Brown Type IIA Old Mine cut diamond, framed in hand carved smoky quartz and backed in 18K yellow gold, suspended from an 18K yellow gold snake chain.
Glenn Spiro creation. A Highly Important Yellow Diamond Ring, set with an exceptionally rare 20.83cts Natural Fancy Intense Yellow Diamond; in Gold, Silver and Diamonds.
Giorgio B, presented by Second Petale. Chocolate titanium and 18K rose gold, set with 1.00 carat of diamonds and 3 grams of 18K gold.
A creation by Hemmerle. A pair of earrings composed of tourmalines, magnesite and haematite discs, copper and white gold. Price on application.
A creation by Fernando Jorge. Two faceted cushion cut brown diamond surrounded by hand-carved smoky quartz and set in 18k yellow.
A creation by Glenn Spiro. An Extremely Rare and Important ‘No Oil’ Colombian Emerald Ring, set with a 7.18-carat ‘Old Mine’ Cushion-shaped Natural Colombian Emerald; in Gold and Silver and Diamonds.
A creation by Nikos Koulis. WISH earrings, 18K white and yellow gold and aluminium, set with 13.27 carats of brilliant cut white diamonds, 2024.
R KHENI Ruby and Opal Brooch, presented by Second Petale Gallery. 18K white gold, diamonds and natural opals, centred on a 3.01 carat cushion cut ruby.
R KHENI Diamond Ring, presented by Second Petale Gallery. 18K white gold set with 2.97 carats of diamonds.
VAK Jewels The Open Arch Carved Eye Agate Ring, presented by Second Petale Gallery. 18K white gold with black rhodium, portrait cut diamonds, natural Zambian emerald, emerald drop, eye agate and mother of pearl, set with 1.15 carats of diamonds, 36.29 carats of coloured stones and 0.45 carats of pearl.
Nada Ghazal Echo of Light Earrings, presented by Second Petale Gallery. 18K gold set with approximately 15 carats of multicoloured sapphires.
I have already put together a list of must-sees at the fair, including Glenn Spiro’s presentation, which brings together a body of archival work for the first time. The selection draws on pieces from the house archive as well as jewels held by collectors and friends of the house, shown alongside new creations and works from the Materials of the Old World collection.
Michele Lamy and Loree Rodkin Hunrod Gold Rat Ring, presented by Carpenters Workshop Jewellery. 18K yellow and white gold set with 171 diamonds totalling 4.48 carats. Edition of 30, 2021.
Tiffany & Co.: Preserving Jean Schlumberger’s Legacy in Paris
Tiffany & Co. is supporting the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in the conservation and accessibility of Jean Schlumberger’s archive. The museum holds one of the most significant bodies of material relating to his work, including thousands of drawings and personal and professional documents connected with the French designer, who joined Tiffany in 1956 and created jewels including Bird on a Rock, the Sixteen Stone ring and his celebrated enamel bangles.
Tiffany & Co. Launches Landmark Conservation Initiative to Preserve the Legacy of Jean Schlumberger.
I Am Only a Pencil, presented by Tiffany & Co. during Paris Fashion Week 2026, brings together Jean Schlumberger’s original drawings, archival material and the exceptional jewels they inspired.
Original Jean Schlumberger designs appear alongside Tiffany & Co. creations, including jewels once owned by Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon, tracing the evolution from sketch to finished masterpiece.
Jean Schlumberger joined Tiffany & Co. in 1956, introducing a distinctive visual language inspired by birds, blossoms, sea life and fantastical forms, defined by movement, colour and wit.
The project is focused on preserving and cataloguing the material and making it available to researchers. Its purpose is access and study, not permanent display. The museum’s Schlumberger archive includes correspondence, order books, production records, press books and other documents from his career, while around 3,000 drawings are held separately by its graphic arts department. For a designer whose jewellery designs began on paper, those drawings provide an unusually direct record of the development of his ideas.
Tiffany & Co. Schlumberger Tulip Necklace in 18K yellow gold and platinum, set with diamonds.
Pomellato: Moneta Orientale, Almost 30 Years Later
Pomellato has delved into its own history for the latest Memorie d’Archivio, the series it introduced in 2024 to revisit archival house designs. Previous editions have brought back Mora, Mosaico and Bisanzio; this year, the starting point was Moneta Orientale, a pendant made in 1997. Its geometry is ancient: a circle enclosing a square, traditionally associated with heaven and earth. The square appears again in the new rounded frame surrounding the disc, while the deliberately irregular edge of the stone keeps the form from becoming too exact.
Pomellato revisits Moneta Orientale for 2026, reinterpreting an archival 1997 pendant as a contemporary talisman in matte yellow gold, rooted in ancient ideas of fortune, balance and protection.
The Moneta Orientale collection unfolds across 33 combinations of hardstones and pavé, transforming a single symbolic form into a richly varied study of colour, texture and meaning.
Defined by an irregular organic disc framed by a rounded square, Moneta Orientale explores the tension between softness and geometry, with every contour conceived to respond to light and movement.
Black jade, amazonite, sodalite, kiwi jade, rhyolite, labradorite and rhodochrosite reveal Pomellato’s instinctive command of chromatic harmony, each stone selected for the emotion and character of its colour.
The original 1997 Moneta Orientale pendant by Pomellato, conceived as a minimal gold coin suspended from a black cord, forms the archival foundation of the 2026 reinterpretation.
The 33 variations use hardstones with very different qualities, including black jade, rhodochrosite, red agate, amazonite, sodalite, kiwi jade, rhyolite, labradorite and rutilated quartz, with some opaque and some veined or mottled. Pomellato places irregular diamond, sapphire, ruby and demantoid garnet pavé alongside them, so that each pendant changes not only in colour but in surface, depth and light.
Pomellato’s signature irregular pavé brings diamonds, sapphires, rubies and demantoids into an organic dialogue with opaque hardstones, rejecting rigid symmetry in favour of a more instinctive composition.
Vhernier: Trottola Spins Again
Vhernier has revisited its Trottola collection, first launched in 2003 and named after the Italian word for a spinning top. The rounded, asymmetric silhouette remains, but the new pieces play more deliberately with proportion, colour and finish. The ring has been made taller and more vertical, with dimensions intended to make it easier to stack, while bracelets and necklaces alternate polished rose gold with glossy black jet.
Vhernier revisits Trottola, first introduced in 2003, preserving its sculptural asymmetry while refining proportion, colour and finish for 2026.
Inspired by the perpetual motion of a spinning top, Trottola explores balance through rounded volumes, contrasting materials and, tactile surfaces.
Polished rose gold meets glossy black jet in a study of warmth and depth, giving the renewed Trottola collection its graphic character.
The new Trottola ring rises vertically on the hand, its elongated proportions conceived for effortless stacking and everyday wear.
Trottola bracelets and necklaces alternate rose gold and black jet in a continuous rhythm, with concealed clasps preserving the purity of the composition.
Diamonds are scattered across rose, white gold and jet in select Trottola creations.
Vhernier introduces detachable Trottola earclips with an ingenious screw mechanism, allowing the elements to be worn as studs or pendants.
The renewed Trottola collection demonstrates Vhernier’s mastery of material contrast, transforming rose gold, black jet and diamonds into forms defined by movement and equilibrium.
There are changes in the construction too. Hidden clasps keep the line of the bracelets and necklaces uninterrupted, and the earclips use a screw mechanism so the elements can be detached and worn either as studs or pendants. Diamonds appear in two different ways: scattered across rose gold and black jet in some pieces, and as full pavé against jet in others. The contrast between the warm polish of the gold, the depth of the jet and the brilliance of the diamonds gives this version of Trottola a noticeably different finish from the earlier pieces.
Vhernier’s 2003 Trottola is recast for 2026, retaining its distinctive rounded profile while introducing a bolder interplay of scale, surface and wearability.
Van Cleef & Arpels: The Exhibition, in Book Form
GLANZSTÜCKE: Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewelry × Masterpieces from the MAK Collection grew out of the exhibition held at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts earlier this year. Edited by MAK director Lilli Hollein, the 368-page book places Van Cleef & Arpels jewellery beside works from the museum, from historic textiles to Wiener Werkstätte design.
GLANZSTÜCKE: Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewelry × Masterpieces from the MAK Collection extends the Vienna exhibition into book form, pairing 120 years of the Maison’s jewellery with more than 500 works from the MAK across six thematic chapters. Edited by Lilli Hollein.
Like the exhibition, it is organised by theme rather than chronology. A 1955 Zip necklace appears alongside Koloman Moser’s 1906 folding screen, while the Maison’s miniature model of the yacht Varuna sits near an early seventeenth-century carpet populated with ships and nautical motifs. For anyone interested in Van Cleef & Arpels beyond the jewels, it is a beautiful addition to the bookshelf.
Until Next Week
And that is October underway. With Frieze Week and PAD London just around the corner, there is sure to be plenty more to talk about next week.
WORDS
Bianca Blanari approaches jewellery as architecture in miniature, where form, structure, balance and elevation are distilled into objects of intimate scale. Bianca joined Katerina Perez as Club Editor and contributing writer in March.
RelatedArticles
Discover the brand: the story from various angles.
