The new High Jewellery collection from The London Jeweller spotlights what makes David Morris designs magnificent.
For its latest collection of High Jewellery, David Morris is shining a light on the incredible gemstones, artistry and techniques that are signatures of the House’s most spectacular one-of-a-kind Jewels.
Titled Spotlight, the collection gathers 25 new and unique pieces, each designed at the David Morris studio on London’s Bond Street. Unveiled at the House’s Paris flagship on rue Saint-Honore during Haute Couture Week, the collection tells the story of how High Jewellery continues to evolve at David Morris, with a combination of traditional and cutting-edge techniques enabling the House to realise designs of ever greater beauty and intricacy.
No High Jewellery collection from David Morris is complete without an outstanding array of gems, including the natural pearls, pink diamonds, rose cut diamonds and Paraiba tourmalines for which the House is famed Whether it is presenting Paraiba tourmalines upside down. revealing the pointed underside of these neon-bright stones, or showcasing a Fancy Vivid pink diamond in a design that summons memories of childhood trips to the seaside. the complex and creative settings show these remarkable gems in a whole new light.
A masterpiece in the collection is the Modern Maharaja necklace. Entirely handmade in David Morris’ in-house atelier over the course of 12 months, its splendour is inspired by centuries of bejewelled opulence in India, viewed through a thoroughly contemporary lens. Crafted by a traditional goldsmith with five decades of experience in High Jewellery craftsmanship, the skill required to take such a complex design and make every section to scale by hand is extraordinary.
Designed as two pieces that can be worn separately but which also sit perfectly together, more than 350 carats of diamond beads have been strung by hand to form three strands of stones that sweep across the decolletage. David Morris has never placed so many diamond beads together in a single piece before and called upon the skill of one of the very few craftspeople who can achieve a flawless High Jewellery finish using traditional stringing techniques. Altered many times during the process to ensure the perfect balance between the different strands. the graduation of the beads, undertaken entirely by eye, is so precise that the transition from one to the next is indiscernible.
The second necklace creates a magnificent contrast alongside the diamond beads, with three pear shape diamond drops bordered by graphic compositions of emeralds and diamonds. A risky undertaking, given their fragility. David Morris’ craftspeople recut and re-polished all of the geometric emeralds to fit the design. Playing with volume, shape and light, the brilliance of the pear shape diamonds, the kaleidoscopic beauty of the diamond beads and the sharp lines of the surrounding diamonds and emeralds together create a fractal effect that is breath-taking.
CEO and Creative Director Jeremy Morris endeavours to find the most beautiful pink diamonds in highly saturated tones – Fancy Vivid and Fancy Intense stones that make a vibrantly rare statement. Inspired by a pinwheel – a spinning toy and symbol of the simple pleasure of playing outdoors – the Girandola ring and earrings joyfully interpret the pinwheel’s spinning colours in French cut diamonds, custom cut to be triangular in shape and angled to evoke movement, bringing a unique depth and dimension to their inner fire. Meanwhile, the brilliance of two Internally Flawless pear shape diamond drops weighing more than 11 carats is intensified in the Calla earrings with a surround of pink and white diamonds. Each stone has been precisely cut and set to follow the curves of the centre stones, with the spaces between carefully calibrated to create a sun ray effect.
No one appreciates the beauty and rarity of natural pearls more than Jeremy Morris, who has specialised in them for decades. Highly prized for millennia, two natural pearls are showcased in the Spotlight collection, paired with pink diamonds – a classic David Morris combination. In the Garland cocktail ring. a mosaic of round, pear and marquise diamonds are intricately layered to mimic petals unfurling, revealing a hidden treasure a 11.93 carat natural saltwater pearl. The second natural pearl weighs an astonishing 30.30 carats – the centrepiece in the Dewdrop necklace. Paired with a 10 carat marquise diamond. arranged to form a double drop that plunges down the decolletage, the necklace is designed with a freedom of movement that is rarely seen in the world of High Jewellery, with briolette diamonds suspended from the white and pink diamond chain, in constant motion.
The Pirouette collection has been part of the David Morris repertoire for more than 15years, and for good reason. The ingenious design – a feat of gemstone engineering – uses hidden titanium cables to give the pieces their signature flexibility. For the three new Pirouette jewels in the Spotlight collection, the House has opted for a rush of the most precious colours, with rows of Brazilian Paraiba tourmalines and Mozambique rubies spinning around the wrist and dancing upon the neckline. Unlike diamonds, coloured gemstones are cut to different depths to optimise their colour, and to achieve the uniformity of design and dimensions, it was necessary to custom craft each of the three High Jewellery Pirouette pieces around the stones.
Glamorous and bold, four new single stone rings spotlight the chromatic intensity of the House’s coloured gemstones. The Neptune ring presents a 6.67 carat Brazilian Paraiba tourmaline of exceptional quality and clarity, cut cabochon style to create a mesmerising pool of blue. Forming waves of colour upon the band and framing the centre stone, finding more than 3 carats of perfectly matched pink sapphires in exactly the right tone to complement the intense blue of the Paraiba tourmaline was an enormous challenge.
Inspired by ancestral Turkish floral motifs, a zigzag of diamonds frames a velvety 10.97 carat emerald cut Burmese sapphire in the lznik sapphire ring, with Paraiba tourmalines spiralling around it. Splashing out either side of a central 11.87 carat cushion cut Colombian emerald, graduated rows of emeralds create a magnetic stream of colour in the Green Absolute ring. Finally, a sumptuous 13.21 carat cushion cut ruby from Mozambique, enhanced by cushion cut diamond side stones, lies on a bed of pink diamonds in the lnhaca ring – a unique detail only the wearer will see.
Rare Brazilian Paraiba tourmalines have long been a David Morris signature, with the Peacock earrings playfully presenting these electric blue stones upside down, with the culet – the point at the base of the gem – facing upwards. Viewed from the crown side up, the light reflects from many angles, intensifying the gems astonishingly bright hue.
Beautifully articulated and free flowing, all-diamond pieces in the Spotlight collection are crafted with the extreme finesse of a Jewellery House that has long pioneered the use of both technology and traditional techniques in the craftsmanship of its High Jewellery. The chevron design of the Herringbone necklace draws an unexpected zigzag of diamonds around the neckline. Like a Couture dress, each strand of diamonds is crafted, polished and adjusted separately to create a soft flow of stones across the body. Structured yet completely flexible, the coordinating Herringbone bangle shoots diamond arrows around the wrist.
Injecting the classic geometry of 1920s design with a blast of modernity, the Empire suite sets emerald cut diamonds in a graphic tapestry of diamonds, while the geometric elegance of the Sempiterno suite is accentuated with interlocking geometric motifs that call to mind decorative tiles. And the wonderful translucency of a David Morris diamond is celebrated in the Nympheas necklace and earrings, which shine with an aquatic beauty as they tumble downwards.
A signature David Morris cut, the soft glow of rose cut diamonds brings an ethereal lightness to the Sempiterno necklace and earrings. Behind each rose cut diamond, a faceted diamond has been set – a technique invented by Jeremy Morris to add brightness and vibrancy to this antique cut. Setting two stones side by side is painstaking work, with the double-layered collets so finely crafted that space has been created for the light to pass through them, illuminating each of the diamonds – the perfect conclusion to the Spotlight collection.