My mom has a Sleeping Beauty turquoise ring. I've never seen anything like it - absolutely perfect. It's a huge chunky cabochon so I have dreams of taking it to VCA one day to see if they can slice a bunch of motifs out of it, lol.
Vca new turquoise butterfly??
- Thread starter AlexaKate
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I asked my SA about it and he said they don’t have any details yet. But it most probably would be very exclusive and available only to very VIP customers.
my SA is advising me to get it. said will be a good collection to own. They only source their turquoise from a certain country now and its v limited. but its quite expensive.
D
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The problem is, there are many sources for turquoise (lapis too, amongst other things), and unscrupulous dealers will say what they think you want to hear. If you really want to make sure of what you're buying, ask the dealer to provide a GIA certificate (it's not very expensive). Alternatively, you could buy it on a credit card, get a description of the origin in writing, send it to GIA and if it's not as represented, you have recourse. It's a hassle, but I don't know how else to protect oneself, other than to pass altogether.
Buy it only if you love it and the butterfly design. Don’t buy it because it’s rare. For me, I passed. I love turquoise and I love BTF rings. Yet I only wear WG and I don’t love the butterfly collection, hence I told my SA no.
But… If you love the butterfly design and love turquoise, I would for sure grab the ring and earrings! I love mismatched earrings like that. Those would be the two pieces for me.
The thing to ask yourself is have you loved the butterfly collection before the turquoise came out? If yes, then why this turquoise set vs. the other stones. That will help you decide if you truly love it or love the hype.
Good luck! Post photos if you get it.
Yes, all those factors you stated. She did offer to send it to GIA, but I wasn’t in the market for turquoise at the time, hence I had not thought about a set yet. That was probably a key factor too… I would have this one strand without matching pieces, and you know how I am about buying sets. Too much drama.
The turquoise was beautiful though, the perfect shade of medium blue, almost no matrix, maybe just a dot every now and then. I can still see that strand in my head.
@BigAkoya the laughing emoji was also pretty close to my SA’s responseI love butterflies and have several other pieces from the collection. I wonder if you can just buy the single turquoise earring and how it would look paired with singles from the other sets
You know the funny thing is someone has asked this in the past and VCA did say they’d make you pay 50% for one earring. So it isn’t an out of this world request BUT given that it’s TQ and a new release, it maybe a hard ask now.
This is actually possible, but you first need buy a pair of earrings. You can then purchase a third earring to make a different combo set. You just can't buy one earring without first having the set. This option was available earlier, not sure about now, COVID, SO restrictions, and this limited release of turquoise (assuming you want the third earring to be turquoise vs diamond).
I think if you really wanted the turquoise earrings and love the butterfly theme, I would get two sets of these earrings. You could then do all turquoise, all diamonds, or one of each. For me, I like the one of each combo; I think it's very unique, especially when worn with the BTF ring.
One downside of mixing and matching with a third earring is each earring is polarized (e.g. there is a right ear and a left ear). If you wear it on the wrong ear, there may be a slight angle positioning that is off. It won't be as bad as if it were Frivole where you can really tell as the flower is angled. It would not be good to swap ears on Frivole, but for the butterfly earrings, I do think it will be ok as they are rather flat.
I was exaggerating a bit and they were of course more polite, but I don’t think a single turquoise or lapis is available now. It did sound like you can still buy a single of the others to mix and match as you see fit, not just a matching one of your set(s)
You can, or could, buy singles but not ime the harder to find ones. I don't know for sure but do assume you need to own a pair first, but in my experience you don't have to only be completing one pair like buying a second diamond or second yellow sapphire etc. My other VCA butterflies include some of the earrings and I thought the turquoise would look fun with either sapphire, but especially the pink and especially in the summer. I also love the lapis, but that was never an option for me for the same reason I would not buy two of the turquoise pair, I do not like the pave on YG. I didn't mind about the lapis because I thought it might not pair too well with the white gold pave or the either sapphire, but I think the turquoise would be lovely with all three, so that was a little disappointing, but not much to do about it
FWIW, I don't think the butterflies are polarized. Unlike the Frivole backs they have two bumps on the clip. However, I personally have a strong preference for which ear I think each one feels and looks better on
Thanks for posting this. If there is an abundant supply of high quality turquoise, It makes me wonder why VCA has not returned the TQ Alhambra collection if they are able to source from Central and South America? I’m sure it would be coveted. Is it a marketing decision to only make a certain number of pieces to preserve vintage piece values? Supply and demand? Maybe TQ is VCA’s equivalent of the Birkin ♀️?!?Sleeping Beauty closed in 2012. In my opinion the possibility that these new pieces - or any other modern pieces - are being made from Sleeping Beauty material is remote.
The colour of the turquoise VCA uses varies hugely. VCA says they source from various locations and there are many active mines in these areas -
Turquoise - Van Cleef & Arpels
Characterized by an intense blue color, turquoise is among the first stones to be mined during Antiquity. Collections such as Alhambra®, Perlée™ and Bouton d’or feature turquoise in delicate harmonies of color, set off by white or yellow gold. Turquoise’s azure hue also features in the Maison’s...www.vancleefarpels.com
Although colloquial zeitgeist does put a premium on “Sleeping Beauty”, trade value judgment does not. Value is determined by colour, clarity, presence or absence of matrix, and treatments, and geography within the Americas doesn’t factor in.
So it really doesn’t matter where any VCA turquoise is from! Clean and blemish-free material, absence of matrix, no treatments besides Zachery stabilization - these are guaranteed by VCA by default. And whilst yes, there is a trade preferred colour, most mines will output some material that matches the trade ideal, and of course preference for one’s own pieces is inherently subjective.