Jar

JAR (JOEL ARTHUR ROSENTAL) was born in New York. After graduating in Harvard in 1966 he went to live in Paris. He wants to be known by a single name: JAR. After a brief period working with Bulgari in New York he returned in 1977 to Paris where he opened a shop in the Place Vendöme. Together with his partner, Pierre Jeannet, they create exquisite and superbly crafted jewels. The craftsmen in Switzerland and France turning out his creations produce only 70 to 80 pieces a year, each of them one of a kind and many designed with a particular buyer in mind. He reserves the right to refuse to sell an item if he doesn't think it would look good on the intended wearer. Ordinary jewels that come onto the secondary market bring maybe a third of their original price. JAR items routinely sell for twice what the first buyer paid. He focused on pavé, a technique for setting small stones so close together that they form a veritable pavement of jewels. His settings are so finely wrought as to be virtually invisible, and gradations of color progress from subtle to vivid. Unlike other jewelers, he uses a dark metal alloy for the settings to highlight the gems' color.