This playful whale-shaped brooch was presented by Van Cleef & Arpels at the 2010 Paris Biennale of Antique Jewelry. Part of the Les Voyages Extraordinaires high
jewelry collection, it draws inspiration from the blue whale in Jules Verne’s novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, realistically capturing the whale’s rounded, voluminous form.
Van Cleef & Arpels used sapphires and colorless diamonds to depict the whale’s skin — the back and fins feature a gradient of round-cut sapphires, while the belly is outlined in white gold with vertical folds set with brilliant-cut diamonds.
The whale’s head is especially detailed: the teeth are crafted from mother-of-pearl, carefully carved to show precise dentition, and the eyes are brilliant-cut diamonds. To mimic the whale spouting water from its blowhole, the brooch includes a “water jet” of colorless diamonds, creating the effect of scattered droplets.
