€4,500 - €5,500
ILIAS LALAOUNIS: A DIAMOND AND GOLD NECKLACE Composed of a double herringbone rope twist chain, the frontispiece with five gold connectors accented with brilliant-cut diamonds and beading detailing, mounted in 18K gold, signed Ilias Lalaounis, numbered, with maker's mark, length approximately 41.5cm Ilias Lalaounis (1920–2013) was among the most original jewellers of the twentieth century, who transformed the buried forms of antiquity into jewels of striking, wearable modernity. Born in Athens into a family of goldsmiths with roots in Delphi, he came of age within the celebrated Zolotas firm before establishing his own house and, in time, becoming the only jeweller ever elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France. His Archaeological Collection of 1957 announced the terms of his ambition: that ancient Greek ornament, Mycenaean, Minoan, Hellenistic, could be not reproduced but genuinely reimagined. Granulation, filigree, hand-hammering and woven gold were treated not as historical curiosities but as living techniques, applied with sculptural confidence and a sure sense of presence. The results carried the gravity of the ancient world without its weight. What brought the house its international reach was the social world that gathered around it. Aristotle Onassis was among the first significant patrons, purchasing jewels for Maria Callas and later for Jacqueline Kennedy: a pair of names that placed Lalaounis simultaneously at the centre of Aegean glamour, operatic legend and American political history. Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand, Charlize Theron and Scarlett Johansson followed across subsequent decades, each lending the house a different register of cultural authority. In 1976, Empress Farah of Iran commissioned an entire collection inspired by Persian art, displayed at the Imperial Palace in Tehran. His connections extended beyond patronage into creative friendship. When Salvador Dalí became too frail to continue designing the ceremonial swords presented to new members of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, he named Lalaounis to carry on the work; a detail that speaks to the esteem in which he was held among the wider artistic world. His retrospective was staged at the Sorbonne Chapel; his Helen of Troy collection toured the Penn Museum in Philadelphia; in 1992 he designed the Olympic torch. When he formally founded Ilias Lalaounis – Greek Gold S.A. in 1969, the house expanded steadily: Paris near Place Vendôme, then Zurich, Geneva, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, each opening accompanied by a collection drawn from the local cultural inheritance. He founded the Greek Jewellers' Association and trained hundreds of goldsmiths, shaping the broader language of modern Greek jewellery as much as his own. His legacy found lasting form in the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum, opened in 1994 at the foot of the Acropolis, housing more than 4,500 pieces alongside a gallery dedicated to his commissions for international figures. The house continues today under the direction of his four daughters.
Clasp closing securely and has a safety catch Minor signs of wear, overall in good condition Signature, numbered A21, 750 and maker's mark located on the clasp Total gross weight approx. 45.6g
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