Lost In Jewels, New York, NY (2026)

08/09/2026

I couldn’t resist sharing this
Here you go: an intaglio by Edward Burch, one of the English gem engravers of the late 18th century. Glass paste and gold, dating to around 1771 or earlier. It shows a procession of maenads and putti solemnly carrying a phallus under a canopy towards an arch framed by curtains of rather transparent purpose.

And now imagine: this is a watch fob, something a gentleman would wear on a chain hanging from the pocket of his waistcoat, on display for everyone to see, but small enough that only someone leaning in a little closer could really appreciate the details.

And this is where it gets interesting: under the cover of “serious” Neoclassical taste,
collecting ancient gems, which was considered a sign of education and sophistication after the Grand Tour,
you could commission yourself a private little joke like this. You are, after all, simply collecting Antiquity.

I like to think of it as a kind of male club joke: something to show around over a glass of port after the ladies had retired, while keeping the most perfectly serious face and saying something like, “Did you notice the quality of the engraving?”

08/06/2026

August is the kind of time when Thursday feels like Sunday. It is when I allow myself to stop time and post here less. I realize that I don’t look closely at jewelry anymore; I just scroll and I’m not afraid to miss something interesting… because the real things are not fleeting, they will always come back.

I have a feeling that all this digital noise is getting a bit tiring. I’ve just stopped processing it. Marketers in the 2000s used to talk about ‘banner blindness,’ but now we are experiencing ‘content blindness.’ We just stop noticing things.

So, while my kids are doing their summer reading, I am thinking about dandelions… the most simple, ordinary flowers growing under our feet. Just like Bradbury’s characters “bottling summer”, jewelers seem to hint that true happiness is made of simple daily moments:
the smell of cut grass, the warmth of the sun on your skin, the laughter of a friend catching sunbeams, or the sound of summer silence far away from the city.

W**e made from weeds becomes a treasure because it holds real emotions, lived moment, an irreplaceable life beyond the screen.

And so, I have gathered a bouquet of these wild meadow flowers for you. Let’s put it in a vase (ooppss clothes), stop the rush and enjoy this August moment together.

turns in Thursday one 😉

07/19/2026

A clock made almost entirely of things that aren’t clocks. Cartier and clockmaker Maurice Couët made this in 1927 around a piece of white jade carved in 18th-century China: dragon in enamel, coral, mother-of-pearl, diamonds holding it all together like a frame around someone else’s much older object.

I don’t fully know why this is my and got me this week, in the middle of summer. Maybe because it’s not really about telling time at all. It’s a «screen clock» meant to be looked at more than checked. John Lennon once said time you enjoy wasting isn’t wasted and there’s something of that here: an object that spends 1727 and 1927 at once, and doesn’t seem in a hurry to pick one.

07/16/2026

Five things I couldn’t stop connecting this week.
A brooch. A shell. A lake in Utah. A museum. A dance made of silk and light.

Different centuries, different mediums, same shape underneath — the spiral. Once I saw it in Suzanne Belperron’s brooch (the one from her own personal collection, sold at Sotheby’s for almost four times the estimate), I couldn’t unsee it everywhere else. Robert Smithson built one out of rocks and salt. Frank Lloyd Wright built one out of concrete and gravity. Loie Fuller built one out of her own body.

This is what is for me following one form until it starts showing up in places you didn’t expect. New essay is up, link in bio. Would love to know what you’d add to this list

07/13/2026

In London, at the The Odyssey photocall, Zendaya showed up as Athena: a draped white Jacquemus gown, essential, statuesque.

What really caught my eye… and not only mine….
were the earrings: two authentic gold disks dating back 2,500–3,000 years, with solar motifs from the Ziwiye treasure in northwestern Iran. Barron London remounted them in 18-karat yellow gold with diamonds.

Compared to classical Greek earrings (usually smaller, with delicate rosettes, leaves, or mythological figures)
these are bolder and more imposing, with a clear Near Eastern flavor. And on Zendaya they work beautifully: the warm gold lights up her face, while the ancient disks add depth and gravitas.

In the end, there’s no need to be a history snob. Athena represents wisdom, strategy and primal strength. These earrings carry exactly that ancient, powerful aura.
Plus, as far back as the Archaic period, the Greeks were already trading with and absorbing motifs from the Near East. So it’s not that out of place.

Let’s just enjoy it: it works.

07/09/2026

Four dragonflies. One robbery. One idea I haven’t been able to put down.

We insure gold. We track cash. We put a number on almost everything except the thing that actually made a Lalique brooch worth stealing in the first place. Break it apart and the genius disappears before it even reaches the melting pot. It can only be taken whole.

Which made me wonder what else in our lives works the same way: valuable exactly because it can’t be split, priced or backed up. And why that kind of value is always the last thing anyone thinks to protect.

Full essay is on my Substack if you want to sit with this longer than five slides

06/30/2026

In Milan today the heat is unbearable, everything feels heavy and slow. To give myself a break I keep coming back to this diamond lily brooch by Etsuko Sonobe from the 80s.

Stylized flower with baguette diamonds as petals and pear-shaped ones for the buds. It’s essential and carefully done, feels both old-school and fresh at the same time.

Something about it is really calming. Like it caught one fragile moment of a flower blooming and just held it there. That’s the kind of cool thing we all need right now in this heat.

06/30/2026

In Milan today the heat is unbearable, everything feels heavy and slow. To give myself a break I keep coming back to this diamond lily brooch by Etsuko Sonobe from the 80s.

Stylized flower with baguette diamonds as petals and pear-shaped ones for the buds. It’s essential and carefully done, feels both old-school and fresh at the same time.

Something about it is really calming. Like it caught one fragile moment of a flower blooming and just held it there. That’s the kind of cool thing we all need right now in this heat.

06/29/2026

Monday, so: chasing blue…
I go back to a piece I saw years ago at the MAN in Madrid,
a late 15th-century Limoges enamel plaque, probably a clasp for a liturgical cope (or perhaps a banner).
Twelve small holes around the edge suggest it was once sewn onto fabric.

At the centre is the Tree of Jesse: Jesse asleep at the base, the tree rising through the kings of Judah (David with his harp among them), up to the Virgin holding the Child.

What always stops me is the blue. Eight starry night-blue lobes frame the composition like a miniature sky, while Mary’s mantle shines in that precious lapis lazuli blue,
the colour medieval artists reserved for what stood closest to heaven.

A small object carrying an entire theology, told through one powerful colour.

Lost In Jewels

08/09/2026

08/06/2026

07/19/2026

07/16/2026

07/13/2026

07/09/2026

06/30/2026

06/30/2026

06/29/2026

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