A Gallery and School Devoted To Jewelry Arts Opens In Paris This Fall

There are many 18th century mansions in Paris, but few you can visit. One is registered as a historic monument, the Hôtel de Mercy-Argenteau. It’s one of the oldest private homes on one of the grandest boulevard in Paris and is now going to open to the public this fall.

L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts will open its doors on October 6 and will feature an exhibition space devoted to the art and history of jewelry, a bookshop and library dedicated to the world of jewelry.

It has been a long time coming. The school was founded over a decade ago with the support of Van Cleef & Arpels, who wanted to share the culture of jewelry in France and beyond. Previously, the school has presented exhibitions in New York City, Tokyo and Hong Kong (where it has a permanent campus) with two more campuses opening up in Shanghai and Dubai.

They’re used to offering on-site courses, conferences, workshops, and events related to jewelry, its history and gemology. The temporary exhibitions are free to the public.

Inside the forthcoming Paris school, which will debut right after Paris Fashion Week, the interior design of the historic mansion will be by designer Constance Guisset.

According to Nicolas Bos, President and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, the goal is to “provide access to the world of jewelry to the widest audience possible.”

Bos explained in a statement that they chose the Hôtel de Mercy-Argenteau, which is located in the ninth arrondissement in Paris, for many reasons.

“Its façade is so discreet that it creates an element of surprise,” said Bos. “Who would expect to find such a beautiful setting upon crossing the threshold of its porte-cochère?”

The building was built in 1778, designed by architect Firmin Perlin and built for a banker, Jean-Joseph de Laborde. It’s named after the mansion’s first occupant, Florimond Claude, Count of Mercy-Argenteau, an Austrian diplomat who arranged the marriage of French king Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. As lore has it, Marie Antoinette trusted him with a chest filled with her jewels and it survived, creating the building’s fate with jewelry.

Bos also said that the mansion’s address on Boulevard Montmartre “feels more accessible than our Place Vendôme location.” The neighborhood was also a big draw, as it “has strong ties with culture and art, thanks to its covered passageways, its theaters, the Hôtel Drouot, and the Musée Grévin,” adding that: “I like the combination of the two. This part of Paris is also associated with jewelry, for jewelry makers and stone merchants are not far away.”

When the school opens this fall, they’ll debut a new exhibition called Stage Jewels of the Comédie-Française, curated by Agathe Sanjuan, director of the Comédie-Française’s library-museum. Over 120 pieces of jewelry, accessories, artworks and documents will be on view, many of which are from the theater’s collections.

The exhibition aims to show how a piece of jewelry can be key to theater—like how a ring plays a seminal role in Georges Feydeau’s play Un Fil à la patte, which first premiered in 1894.

The exhibition will feature paintings, prints, and manuscripts from the early days of the Comédie-Française. It will also feature jewelry worn by the actors, as well. One piece that will be on view is a gold brooch that belonged to French actress Sarah Bernhardt, from 1896.

According to Sanjuan, the stage jewelry at the time was a way for the actors to display “their social status,” she explains.

“Even if it meant contradicting the action of the play. Historical truth only gained the upper hand at the end of the eighteenth century.”