Van Bergen’s Mona Lisa’s Daughter arrives in a shipbuilder’s chest

The bell speaks before the watch reveals itself. Van Bergen 1795’s Mona Lisa’s Daughter arrives cradled not in velvet, but in silence and bronze, the bell suspended in dark space within an oak sea chest that carries the weight of two centuries of the van Bergen family’s mastery. The chest itself is the prelude.

Modelled on a trunk that belonged to the original Andries van Bergen, the 18th century shipbuilder who founded the family’s legacy, this container is built as Andries would have built it. The rope beckets are twisted in the blue, ivory and gold of the family torse, while the braided cords come from Florence, woven on a warping machine designed to Leonardo’s specifications. To hold it is to touch continuity across epochs.

The bell itself was cast by Andries’s son in 1795, the same year that gave the maison its name. Its inscription, Vivos voco. Mortuos plango, is carved into the bronze with the authority of bell founders’ tradition. Only when this bell is lifted does the watch emerge, revealing the Pièce Unique to the collector’s eye. The reveal becomes ceremony.

Each element has been considered with the precision of high watchmaking applied to the moment of discovery. The watch rests on a black lacquered stand lined in crimson, set within the chest’s velvet interior. The bell itself, a functional work of bronze, becomes sculpture and statement.

This is not merely a container, nor a chronometer alone. Van Bergen has created a ritual object, one that acknowledges the disciplines that built the maison: shipbuilding’s understanding of structure and material, bell casting’s command of bronze and sound, and the watchmaker’s devotion to the infinitesimal measures of time. The Pièce Unique is available through the maison directly.

Imagery courtesy of Van Bergen 1795 (@vanbergen1795).