alking into 231 Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris is an Alice-like moment, stepping through the looking glass to be greeted not by an irascible queen or a mad hatter, but by Lydia Courteille. Her magic power is to transform antique gems and artefacts into symbolic jewellery; miniature sculptures, almost. Her shop is how we might imagine the treasure-filled caverns of folk tales.

Lydia Courteille’s creations boast impressive stones with often difficult-to-pronounce names such as hauynite, rhodochrosite or phosphosiderite. These are stones which other jewellers often overlook and which she transforms into jewels with a story.

Before becoming Lydia Courteille, the antique jewellery expert turned jewellery designer Liliane Schoonjans (her real name) was a biochemist and would more than likely have pursued this career, had not her platinum and diamond antique wristwatch stopped ticking. She took it to Le Vase de Delft, a well-known antique dealer in Paris, for repair, and became besotted with jewellery. That was in 1980. Over seven years, she learned her new profession as a jewellery antiquarian at Le Vase de Delft. She became a certified gemmologist in 1985, launched her own brand in 1987 and opened her Paris boutique in 1995.

Lydia Courteille

©Manuel Lagos

More cabinet of wonders than shop, it remains a closely guarded secret. Many arbiters of taste have come through its door, among them Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Bergé, Karl Lagerfeld, Valentino, Catherine Deneuve, Tom Ford, Madonna and countless other collectors from around the world. We wanted to find out more about this jewellery designer whose creations enchant those who share her gift for beauty.

Europa Star Jewellery: Before becoming an antique jewellery dealer and before designing your own collections, you were a biochemist. Why biochemistry?

Lydia Courteille: I was science mad from an early age and my parents couldn’t afford to pay for years of medical school, so I opted for shorter studies. I took a degree in biology and biochemistry, then trained in haematology at Hôtel-Dieu [Paris’ oldest hospital]. I’d say I have a dual personality. One is really girly and loves fashion and the other is more serious, more scientific.

Earrings from the Revoir Palerme high jewellery collection

How did you make the leap from one world to the other?

I owned an antique platinum and diamond wristwatch which I’d bought from Le Vase de Delft. When I was pregnant with my son, I still had very long, curly hair. I’d put the watch on a shelf in the bathroom, accidentally caught it with my hair, knocked it into the sink and broke it. I took it back to Le Vase de Delft to have it repaired and fell down the jewellery rabbit hole. You could say it was fate. I already had some solid notions of gemmology. As soon as I was old enough to take the Métro by myself, I’d spend every Thursday at the mineralogical museum. Back then the displays were full of dusty old stones but I was enthralled.

So you trained as a jewellery antiquarian at Le Vase de Delft?

Yes, but after seven years I was ready to move on. I wanted to go on my own journey, which I began in 1987.

Design for a tulip and carnation necklace from the Topkapi collection

You’ve often said that your passion for jewellery began when you purchased a cameo. What was it about this particular style that attracted you?

I liked big rings and I liked cameos, but all the cameos I found were set in brooches, necklaces or bracelets, and all the large rings were eighteenth-century glove rings. As I couldn’t find what I wanted, I decided to make it myself by taking the cameos from antique brooches and giving them a new life as rings.

As a specialist in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century jewellery, you’ve seen many pieces that reflect the tastes, techniques and themes of those periods. Would you say your knowledge of antique jewellery has influenced your own designs?

I’ve taken what I consider to be interesting elements from every period. I also wanted to prevent certain traditions from dying out. For example, the Armenians had a reputation as skilled enamellists but the technique had fallen into disuse. When I designed my first enamel rings, I had them made in Turkey, where the Armenian community still has this expertise.

Lydia Courteille Revoir Palerme ring

Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld were regular customers. What was their taste in jewellery?

They had similar tastes, except Yves Saint Laurent was a fan of cameos whereas Karl Lagerfeld wasn’t. Both of them enjoyed Art Deco pieces and early-twentieth-century designers. Most of all they had an eye for beauty: they didn’t need to have things explained to them. There was very little talking. They came to me for jewellery for themselves, for their collection, or as gifts. The first time Lagerfeld came to the shop, he asked me, “What should I buy from you?” At that time, I was the only dealer in Paris with a large collection of jewellery by Suzanne Belperron. No-one had written about her, there were no pseudo-experts and very few people were interested in her work in France. The minute Karl Lagerfeld said he was collecting Belperron, people were falling over themselves to buy her jewellery. She never signed her work and I took great pleasure in buying pieces which I knew were Belperron but others didn’t, whereas going to a sale now and bidding for a piece with an authenticity certificate doesn’t appeal to me at all. I enjoy unearthing pieces whose identity isn’t known. Karl Lagerfeld said of me, “She has a genius for jewellery. I 100% love her taste.”

Pink Rabbit necklace, 18k gold (124,1 grams), pink tourmaline (39.37 carats), pink tourmaline (17.5 carats), pink tourmaline (23.71 carats), pink tourmaline (24.26 carats), rubellite (12.4 carats), pink sapphires (40.5 carats), rubies (16.74 carats), pink tourmaline (2.57 carats), diamond (1.26 carats), black diamonds (0.25 carat)

Colour is a highlight of your latest collection, Revoir Palerme, with lemon-yellow tourmalines, juicy yellow sapphires and green Paraiba tourmalines. Did you set out to capture a particular trip to Sicily in these jewels?

When I travelled to Sicily, I had a conversation with my husband, who’s my biggest fan. He suggested I create jewellery that would be easier to sell. I’d already designed several collections around fruit and flowers which had sold well, so I decided my next collection would be a celebration of Sicily. I took inspiration from the things around us, in particular pottery painted with suns and lemons. Another idea was to design less figurative pieces. I’d come across the work of a contemporary artist who paints scenes in Agrigento and that inspired me for more abstract designs, steeped in Sicilian colours. Inspiration is a syncretism of everything you have learned. Shake your head and something will come out.

How important is colour in the creative process?

I’m convinced we have a Pavlovian response to colour. Orange makes us think of vitamins, for example; the blue of a Paraiba tourmaline takes us back to a holiday in the Maldives or maybe Corsica. We associate red with passion. Colour affects us. Grey can make us feel down in the dumps. Black can be very elegant or very sad, whereas a bold colour fills us with joy.

Rosa del Inca collection - Illustration: Natalie Shau

Your jewels have a symbolic quality, a fusion of myths, colours and forms, almost like a secret doorway into your imagination. What might we find there?

At one time I toyed with the idea of designing a video game; a kind of Super Mario Bros where people would go through doors that would take them from one collection to another. Certain collections interlock with others. A kind of initiatory journey. You step through the looking glass into my world. Ideally, whoever sets out on this journey will want to continue and discover the next collection, all while experiencing the sensations which the colours and themes inspire, which could be happiness or sadness. Hopefully I make people laugh, too, with certain humorous designs, or provoke them with skulls wrapped in the Chinese flag or wearing a Covid mask, or erotic jewellery such as my Khajuraho temples collection. I want them to get inside my brain.

Memento Mori portrait ring, 2018, enamel portrait and butterflies, tanzanite, amethyst, aquamarine, 18k yellow gold. Illustration by Natalie Shau

Sometimes you take an antique artefact or a cameo from your stock and use it for a contemporary jewel. Is this your way of escaping the linear nature of time, of situating jewellery “out of time”?

Absolutely! I like museums but it makes me sad to see gorgeous jewels sitting in a display case. People often have preconceived ideas about cameos; they associate them with brooches their grandmother wore. I like to give them a new life, for them to be worn. Why wait for some grand occasion to wear an exceptional jewel? I want something fabulous on my finger every day of the week and why wouldn’t that be a cameo? When people come into my shop and say they’re looking for something to wear every day, my answer is that all my designs are for every day, including for grocery shopping.

Lydia Courteille Revoir Palerme pendant

You’ve always had a flair for stones that other jewellers tend to overlook. You were the first to use lesser-known gems such as hauynite, rhodochrosite or phosphosiderite, and others whose price has since shot up, such as green tourmalines, mandarin garnets and Paraiba tourmalines. What is it about these less familiar gems that appeals to you?

First of all, these are affordable gems. You can imagine that once a stone comes out of the shadows, so to speak, its price isn’t the same. The idea is also to offer alternatives to diamond. Diamond is the hardest stone and is loved for its sparkle, but there are many rarer, equally beautiful stones which, because they are less familiar, don’t command the same prices. They are harder to sell but perhaps slightly easier to buy.

What draws you to these stones? Is it their colour, their texture?

The fact that nature made them. This natural phenomenon has always been a mystery and never ceases to fascinate me. Nature makes them and we go looking for them deep in the ground. Why don’t they come easily to us? We have to go digging for them, then we have to polish and embellish them. The result is a perfect communion between human expertise and nature, the creator.

Lydia Courteille Revoir Palerme ring

Some of your favourite stones are opals, moonstones and tourmalines, which all display multiple or changing colours. Is this the extra spark that draws you to them?

Yes, because it’s always nice to see a stone that changes with the light that passes through it; to see how one or other colour dominates, depending where you are. You don’t feel you are wearing something static.

Storytelling is an important part of your jewels. Do these stories come to you in the same way a character appears to a writer?

I’m sure there’s some wizardry involved but in purely practical terms, my designs are usually inspired by things I’ve seen. I’m more cartesian than mystic.

Scarab finger-ring, Autumn in Peking collection, icy-jade carved plaque, tanzanite, sapphire, aquamarine, yellow sapphire, tsavorite garnet, ruby, 18k black rhodium-plated gold

Your jewellery has to be viewed from every angle, including the inside and the sides.

I’m very lucky to collaborate with some wonderful artisans. It’s teamwork. If you don’t have the right people to materialise your ideas, best put them to one side.

You want people to wear your jewels but they are also miniature sculptures. Do any of your customers buy them as artworks?

Absolutely. I have a customer who displays her jewellery, and not just mine, in a vitrine. In fact I have several customers who, when they’re not wearing my jewellery, create these lovely displays. It lends itself to this.

Is your jewellery instilled with magic powers?

I hope so. I’ve seen people moved to tears by certain pieces. It’s wonderful that a piece of jewellery can elicit such a powerful reaction and I take it as a compliment, but it’s not an easy experience.

Micro-mosaic necklace, Amber Chamber collection, 2019, citrine, almandine garnet, chalcedony, fire opal, yellow and orange sapphires, hessonite garnet, red jasper, 18k yellow gold with a nineteenth-century oval micro-mosaic.

Looking around your shop, or should I say cabinet of wonders, it’s like an oeuvre told not in words but with precious materials and precious stones.

I keep working because I feel I still have something to say, although I’m not sure that it will ultimately be an oeuvre. I enjoy sharing my tastes and knowledge with others, teaching them about materials, techniques, stories and legends. I do what I enjoy in the hope of experiencing something that goes beyond jewellery. Madeleine Castaingt, one of the twentieth century’s great interior designers, designed homes in the way others write poems. I want to make jewellery in the same way others write poems.