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Shortly after establishing his workshop in 1780, Marie-Étienne Nitot, the founder of Chaumet, began signing his correspondence “naturalist jeweller” — and the connection to the natural world has stayed with the maison ever since. A Journey Through Nature spans three sensory chapters and 46 magnificent pieces asking the question, what would the refreshing scent of mint look like in a gemstone? Or the comforting aroma of cinnamon as a glittering ring. The heritage house has drawn on botany for previous high jewellery collections, including La Nature de Chaumet, Le Jardin de Chaumet and Jewels by Nature. With A Journey Through Nature, it takes that approach to dizzying new narrative heights.
Translating nature, memory and mood into something wearable is usually the perfumer’s work — but Chaumet has taken it upon itself to distil that same sensorial, emotional experience into jewels. In A Journey Through Nature, the aesthetics of species — a petal, a pod, a pistil — are all present, but it’s the intangible qualities of freshness and vitality that the collection summons through the manipulations of form, precious metals and glittering jewels and gems.
Structured as a triptych, the collection has three chapters, each designed to summon a sensation. It’s an unusual task for a maison to set itself, and Chaumet’s ateliers at 12 Vendôme have leaned into the ambiguity, working with colour and sculptural form over botanical literalism.
Below, take a walk through the garden of Chaumet.
Chapter One: Botanic Freshness
The collection opens light and green. Tea Field, the parure leading the chapter, borrows its silhouette from Chaumet’s own archive of sketches: cascading ribbons that fall waterfall-style from a strand of diamonds, with a 23.81-carat emerald suspended at the base. The necklace required more than 1,400 hours of work, its diamonds individually cut to follow the piece’s sculpted curve.
Next is Verbena Bouquet, which evokes a feeling of lightness through Chaumet’s signature mesh technique. Madagascar and Ceylon sapphires are suspended across a net of diamond-embellished yellow gold, shifting from yellow to green with the occasional flash of blue as the light catches them.
Mint Leaf closes the chapter with the geometric lines of a dazzling glacier, recalling the reflections of light on water and the bracing freshness of it on skin. Its emerald-cut gems include a 17.46-carat stone, set in diamonds and framed by pearls.
Chapter Two: Spicy Sweetness
As comforting as Proust’s madeleines, the Vanilla Flower, Star Anise and Cinnamon Bark parures are designed to envelop the wearer. Vanilla Flower sets its diamonds in creamy white gold, full of soft volume and asymmetrical shapes — the centrepiece a 10.71-carat D FL Type IIA diamond, crafted over more than 1,350 hours. Cinnamon Bark takes its cue from the Baroque, its geometric openwork rings recalling the stained glass of a cathedral window, contrasting rich, amber-hued tourmalines, rubellites and spessartite garnets to summon the warmth of the spice. Star Anise, meanwhile, speaks to Chaumet’s mastery of the goldsmith tradition, pairing marquise-cut diamonds with candy-pink Madagascar sapphires for a feminine, sweetly organic aesthetic.
Chapter Three: Aromatic Warmth
Rich and powerful, this final chapter is designed to boldly envelop, opening with Coffee Aroma. Drawing on the invigorating energy of the coffee bean, it sets luminous blue sapphires — including a stone of incredible depth at 12.09 carats — into a whorled world of white gold glittering with pavé diamonds. Energetic and expressive, the set has its own sense of rhythm and movement.
The art of Parisian high jewellery comes alive in Peppercorns, a parure that is both airy and outspoken. A V-shaped aigrette earring and a tiara-inspired ring interpret signatures from the Maison’s Joséphine collection, including its explosive radiating motif and fil couteau technique.
Saffron is one of the world’s most sought-after spices, and yellow diamonds among the rarest of jewels — so Saffron Flower celebrates both, its vibrant, precious beauty framed by colourful grand feu enamel that brazenly peacocks.
The Emperor Napoléon I chose the bee as his imperial emblem, and it has been essential to the Maison’s story for almost 250 years since. Here, it gathers in twenty-five brooches that play on the honeycomb motif, playful creatures foraging nectar from coloured gemstones rendered in pavé diamond or vibrant enamel.
Learn more about the “A Journey Through Nature” High Jewellery collection at Chaumet.
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