In addition to its artistic intentions, the extraordinary beauty of stones, in addition to creative inspiration for creating jewelry masterpieces that are not dominated by time, Van Cleef & Arpels is famous for its unique techniques. One of them is the mysterious technique of fixing stones Mystery Setting, or "Invisible Setting", which has become an integral part of the heritage of the House. Patented back in 1933, it was repeatedly imitated by others, but has never been reproduced exactly.
The essence of the Mystery Setting technique is the continuity of the precious "canvas." In the "Invisible frame" the stones are so tightly adjacent to each other that the metal under them is completely invisible, and it seems that the finished product is decorated with completely loose stones. This is achieved due to the fact that each stone is inserted between the thinnest gold rails with a thickness of not more than two tenths of a millimeter.
Only a very narrow circle of highly qualified jewelers possesses the skills to create the Invisible Frame. The process itself is unusually painstaking: it takes at least 300 hours to make one brooch alone. Due to the incredible complexity of the execution of such jewelry, they are very rare; only a few copies are created per year.
