JAR is a house of fine jewelry (est. 1978) by the American, Joel Arthur Rosenthal. Born in 1943, Rosenthal ​​studied art history at Harvard. He then moved to Paris where he met his business partner Pierre Jeannet. In 1978 they opened a salon at 7 Place Vendôme, located in a small passage to the left of the Ritz.  The company has no storefront or internet site and you must be referred by a current client to obtain an appointment.

 

He is known for his over-sized, elaborate and extravagant pieces often made of unusal materials like aluminum and (in haute  joaillerie) silver, and for pushing the pave setting  technique to its limit in a desire to make the metal seem to disappear.  The mass of stones appear as if in waves of painted colour.  Many pieces include stones and artistic detail  on the back that can only been seen when they are turned over, like beautiful secrets just for the wearer.

 

JAR is one of the very few jewelers at an international level that has his pieces made by hand in Europe.  Almost all other jewelry houses sub-contract their work out to countries with cheap labour  and/or use industrial means for manufacture.  He uses the best artisans that can be found in Europe with some pieces taking years to complete.  

 

The craftsmen in Switzerland & France produce only 70 - 80 of his creations a year, each of them one of a kind.   Oddly though, he goes against the modern trend in giving homage where homage is due and refuses to acknowledge the designers and, above all, the master craftsmen that work on his unprecedented projects of complexity, that demand a technical prowess that even some of the best will never reach.  More is the pity;  it is one thing to sketch an idea (no matter how good) on paper, it is quite another to make it come to life in breathtaking beauty.