A ring by His Jewel Highness JAR
This is a rare sight! A JAR jewel being offered in public. Normally, owners of JAR jewellery cherish their pieces and pass them down to their offspring. JAR himself, being extremely selective about who he sells his pieces to, also makes it difficult for the public to obtain his creations.
Here we have one of JAR’s earliest pieces: a wide yellow sapphire band ring in yellow gold made around 1980, echoing Bulgari’s design aesthetic from that period, where JAR used to work before opening his own high jewellery boutique at the famous Place Vendôme in Paris.
JAR, short for Joel Arthur Rosenthal, was born in the Bronx, New York in 1943. The famous Paris-based jewellery designer JAR has been called "the Fabergé of our time" by designer Diane von Furstenberg. Or as David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s Geneva, puts it, "trust the hype, in terms of creativity, JAR is without peers." These insights from experts help explain the extraordinary prices that JAR pieces have fetched at auctions in recent years.
After graduating from Harvard and a brief stint at Bulgari as a salesman, JAR spent most of his life in the French capital. In 1978, he opened his own high jewellery boutique at Place Vendôme, a boutique without a display window and not open at regular hours. With craftsmen in France and Switzerland, JAR produces fewer than 100 jewels a year. Each is one-of-a-kind and executed with Rosenthal's meticulous attention to detail, using the finest-quality gems. And being a true diva, he reserves the right to refuse to sell an item if he doesn't think it would look good on the intended wearer.