Reading Form: The Unseen Language of Jewellery at TEFAF

Ahead of TEFAF New York, I am looking back at my trip to TEFAF Maastricht – at my personal highlights and the underlying themes that bring them together: the dialogue between jewellers exhibiting for the first time and established houses, between carefully curated histories and newly formed collections. What emerges is a network of relationships, where each piece exists not in isolation, but as part of a larger, evolving whole.

Held the day before the fair opened more widely to the public, the Collector’s Preview at TEFAF Maastricht is dedicated to the serious connoisseurs who know what they are looking for – the rare pieces that will complete, refine or transform the collections they are building. In this space, decisions are rarely impulsive and objects are valued not only for what they are, but for the significance they hold. An architect by profession, I attended the preview with a different way of looking at jewels. Trained to analyse what is in front of me – to read structure before surface, to understand how something is built and to follow how light moves, where it settles and where it slips away – in my world form is resolved through three key decisions: material, proportion and balance.

The magnitude of the fair is difficult to put into words, and I was struck by how thoughtfully each jewellery house and contemporary designer presented their pieces to such a discerning audience. Below are the highlights from my first TEFAF experience.

Otto Jakob: Sculpting Nature in Gold 

There are certain names at TEFAF that do not seek loud announcements, and Otto Jakob is one of them. This German artist-goldsmith appears at very few fairs, and perhaps because of that, encountering his work is always accompanied by a sense of discovery.

At the edge of his stand, it was impossible not to be drawn in by the Pomo d’Oro earrings. Featuring two ripening tomatoes, full and naturally misshapen, one might expect them to be weighty. Yet they are actually very light, achieved through their hollow gold structure. Glowing beneath layers of red and green vitreous enamel, they are so realistic you could almost eat them.When I asked Jakob to show me something more personal, he presented the Tycho IV ring, the final piece he completed in December ahead of TEFAF Maastricht. Inspired by early Celtic adornment, the form is restrained, almost austere. Hand-carved in wax and cast in white gold, its raw casting crust is left intentionally untouched, while at its centre, a Renaissance-inspired table-cut diamond deepens the design’s links to the past.  

Hemmerle & Van Cleef & Arpels: Time, in Dialogue

Across from Hemmerle, Van Cleef & Arpels presented more than 50 archival pieces alongside contemporary creations, bridging past and present. At the stand, I was drawn to two pieces in particular: a Hawaii clip from 1942, once worn by Wallis Simpson, and a 1977 gold money clip. The Hawaii clip carries the exuberance of its time, a piece of rubies, sapphires and diamonds arranged in a floral spray that reflects the naturalistic language the maison developed in the late 1930s. Its association with Wallis Simpson, one of the 20th century’s most influential jewellery patrons, places it within both a design and a cultural history. The money clip, by contrast, is almost austere. Designed as an object of function, it was acquired during the preview and immediately clipped onto a collector’s suit. In being worn, it slips out of its original role and into another, shaped by the one who chooses it – a reprogramming of its function, where its original utility is replaced by a more symbolic role.

Cora Sheibani: Objects that Remember

FORMS Jewellery: Orchestrated Diamonds 

This architectural logic of structure, where light is not applied but constructed through proportion and alignment, will continue at TEFAF New York, where such relationships will further distil.

Margot McKinney: Colour Composed

Margot McKinney presents her world through an interior that evokes a private salon or tearoom, where colour, texture and object are thoughtfully layered. A sculptural fountain, adorned with classical figures, introduces a sense of movement, fantasy and opulence, reinforcing the space’s almost theatrical intimacy. Soft green surfaces, floral elements and glass forms establish a palette that mirrors the gems themselves, with opals and pearls appearing as if they have emerged from the space rather than been placed within it.

Two rings bring the scene into focus. Both are of a similar scale, each centred on a significant opal. At first glance, their size suggests weight. In hand, and on the finger, that weight disappears. The structure of the band and the distribution of the stones define the form so completely that it feels held rather than heavy. In the Rainforest Bloom ring, the black opal holds depth, its blues and greens layered and contained, like a breath of ocean. In the Galah ring, the direction shifts. The white opal expands, allowing pinks, golds and greens to extend beyond its centre. McKinney’s world is constructed through colour, where Australian opals and South Sea pearls are not set apart but belong to the same visual field.

VKD Gallery: A Family Continuum

Within VKD Jewels, the atmosphere shifts to something more personal, shaped by a lineage of connoisseurship. Founded in 1969 by Jan van Kranendonk Duffels and now led by his daughters, the gallery reflects a continuity of knowledge and an instinct for exceptional jewellery honed over decades. This family-run gallery has long specialised in European and American antique jewellery from the late 19th and early 20^th century, each piece selected for its authorship, provenance and execution. Alongside these historical works, VKD introduces a small number of contemporary artist-jewellers.

Luz Camino

Luz Camino’s jewels are sculptural, almost tactile, where form is developed through carving rather than assembly, and volume is approached with a lightness that challenges expectation. A brooch by Camino, a peach almost the size of a palm, drew me in immediately. Not a full sphere, but a sliced form, deliberate, almost architectural. You expect weight, yet it surprises. It is light. Turn it, and the structure reveals itself, an open framework that allows volume without mass. When I asked Camino how many pieces she creates in a year, she smiled and said, “I never count.” Her work is not defined by quantity, but by the time and attention it demands, shaped through a practice where making and living remain inseparable.

Fabio Salini

Another contemporary voice introduced within VKD, Fabio Salini marks his debut at TEFAF Maastricht with a pair of earrings that bring a different precision to the conversation. At first encounter, the language is defined by the intensity of rubies, framed by diamonds and arranged in a descending sequence. But it is only in movement that the structure fully reveals itself. As the earrings shift, mirrored side panels appear along the edges, momentarily interrupting the colour with reflection. Seen from the front, they almost disappear. From the side, they become essential. This creates a measured tension between colour and reflection, between the saturation of the stones and the neutrality of the mirrored surface. What could read as opposition is instead held in balance, with each element placed in relation to the other so that brilliance and reflection do not compete but cohere into a unified whole.

Angela Cummings

I always look for the pieces that speak for their maker or the gallery that represents them. That is what led me to ask Fleur, one of VKD’s directors, to point me to a piece she particularly admires: a pair of earrings by Angela Cummings. In rock crystal and gold, the articulation shifts with movement, revealing and concealing form. The arrangement carries a restrained architectural clarity, echoing an abstract language reminiscent of Kazimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky.

Fernando Jorge and Dries Criel: Between Flow and Control

To draw this moment to a close, two distinct voices emerge, both grounded in movement. Fernando Jorge approaches movement through curvature and material. His forms gather and fold into themselves, shaped as if by time rather than design. The line curves, thickens and gathers into volume, often approaching the spherical. Materials drawn from the earth are absorbed into this movement, each carrying its own sense of time. The old mine cut diamond settles naturally within this language, its diffused light allowing it to exist within the flow rather than dominate it.

Dries Criel approaches movement differently. Rooted in a background in dance, his work translates the discipline of the body into structure. In the Hestia bracelet, a central diamond is held in equilibrium between opposing gold volumes, their engraved surfaces and traced edges creating a controlled interaction of contrast and balance. Here, movement is not released, but held, each element calibrated in relation with the body.

At this level, jewellery asks to be explored rather than simply seen. It can be read like a painting or understood like a building, through layers of structure, light and form. This way of looking became clear across the fair. Each piece holds its own logic, revealing itself differently depending on how it is approached. That is where its power lies, in the way it can be interpreted and felt in more than one way.

This dialogue will continue at TEFAF New York, taking place at Park Avenue Armory from May 15-19. Returning exhibitors including Hemmerle and FORMS Jewellery extend their respective approaches to material and structure, while new voices emerge through Didier Ltd, presenting Gold in the Hands of Artists, a sculptural jewellery collection informed by the visual language of artists such as Leonor Fini and Wifredo Lam. Alongside this, Anna Khouri returns, continuing to situate her work between jewellery and contemporary sculpture.