Last week, Hong Kong– and Taipei, Taiwan–based high jewelry designer Cindy Chao, whose line is formally known as Cindy Chao The Art Jewel, returned to Masterpiece London, the prestigious art fair, after her acclaimed 2018 debut.

This year, Chao presented Black Label Masterpieces, an impressive series highlighting works completed in the last two years or so. Among them was the Winter Leaves necklace from 2016, which won the 2019 Masterpiece London Highlight Award.

A marvel of undulating curves and organic forms frosted in more than 240 carats’ worth of diamonds, the necklace was selected by the Masterpiece Vetting Committee for being the “Best Jewellery Piece of the Fair,” reflecting scholarship, rarity, and connoisseurship of the jewelry industry.

Philip Hewat-Jaboor, chairman of the fair, said in a statement, “Cindy Chao’s jewellery has a very different element: the sculptural quality, the emotional investment, the real intellectual curiosity behind the designs, and the extraordinary combination of stones are put together in a way that no one has ever seen before. It is exceptionally exciting for us. I think it presents a marvelous opportunity for our audience.”

First unveiled at Paris Biennale in 2016, the Winter Leaves necklace from the Four Seasons collection is a reinterpretation of Chao’s first auctioned art jewel back in 2007. Because it is set entirely in titanium, which is one- fourth of the weight of gold, the design is fantastically lightweight and rests gently on the neckline with 11 invisible articulations, and foliage that intertwines and overlaps with delicate tendrils and sparkling flashes of light.

And if you’re traveling across the pond this week, you still have one more day to check out Winter Leaves in person—the fair closes on July 3 at 9 p.m.

Top: The Four Seasons collection Black Label Masterpiece IX Winter Leaves necklace, 2016, by Cindy Chao. The art jewel is set in titanium and features 12.06 cts. t.w. pear-shape diamonds, 93.04 cts. t.w. oval-shape diamonds, 6.3 cts. t.w. round brilliant-cut side diamonds with 129.36 cts. t.w. white diamond side stones and 1.62 cts. t.w. yellow diamonds.

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Amy Elliott

JCK Contributing Editor