Alice Cicolini prices her archive by gold weight, not maker’s hand

Alice Cicolini has long measured the worth of her jewellery by the hand that made it. Yet during a season of steep rises in the gold price, she finds herself circling back to an Eastern tradition that prices pieces instead by their weight in metal, the maker’s skill folded invisibly into a number on the scale. On Diwali this year, she has chosen to price a selection from her archive precisely this way, and the reasoning runs deeper than mere economics.

The tradition belongs to Dhanteras, the day two before Diwali when gold is traditionally brought into the home. In the mythology, a bride heaps her gold at the threshold among the lamps, and Yama, the god of death come as a serpent to claim her husband, is so dazzled by the metal’s light that he sits upon it until morning, then leaves. The gold here is valued less for its weight than for its luminescence, the thing that held darkness at the door. It is an idea that transforms how we might think about precious metal altogether.

The first pieces shown by weight are long drop earrings in yellow gold, each one descending through five baguette cut stones that glow like lamplight: from near colourless to soft pink to lilac, milky and soft. Diamonds and sapphires set on the reverse catch and return light as they move. Displayed on the scale in these photographs, they sit precisely inside this meditation on value. What we are truly paying for, the jeweller suggests, has never had a simple answer. Material and mastery are not opposites but lovers of the same question. More pieces from the archive will be shown monthly, with the full selection available from November 11th.

Imagery courtesy of Alice Cicolini (@alicecicolini).