Chinese connoisseurs have paid vast sums for the intricately crafted, gem-studded sculptural jewelry of Wallace Chan. Once recognized mainly in Asia for his ingenious creations, which take inspiration from Chinese myths and heritage, the Hong Kong-based Chan is now raising his profile in the West.
His exhibitions at the Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris, and more recently at Masterpiece Fair in London and TEFAF Maastricht, have drawn bustling crowds and opened up a new market of Western buyers. His contemporary pieces can command many millions of dollars each, yet Chan maintains a modest lifestyle as he dedicates himself to new challenges in craftsmanship.
“Ever since I was a child, curiosity has been a driving force for me,” Chan tells
Rapaport Magazine. “I create for the visions in my mind, the poetry, the music, the colors and light — I am curious about how the pieces will look in real life, how they will feel to be held in someone’s hands or to be worn on someone’s body.”
Inventor extraordinaire
Chan became an apprentice sculptor as a teenager and later moved into jewelry design as a young man. He founded his gemstone-carving workshop in 1974, when he was 17. One of the highlights of his career was his 1987 invention of the seemingly impossible Wallace Cut, an innovative method of carving designs into a gem’s back so they appear to be inside the stone.
“To me, the Wallace Cut was a door to the future. It was the first major invention in my life,” he says. “The Wallace Cut taught me that as long as I put my heart and soul into it, nothing is impossible.”
Chan expresses a love of colored gemstones and works tenderly with precious materials, notably colored titanium, making the most of light and color. Exhibitions of his jewelry — sculpted insects, flowers and fish — attract collectors, artistic directors at top jewelry houses, and up-and-coming designers seeking inspiration for their own work. Chan was the first Asian jeweler to exhibit at the Biennale des Antiquaires. One of his most exquisite pieces at the show’s 2014 edition was “On Dragon Fly Wings,” incorporating oval-shaped jadeite, pink sapphires, colored diamonds and garnets in a carved titanium setting.
Asked which of his creations means the most to him, he declines to choose a favorite.
“The piece that I am working on is always the most important and meaningful piece,” he says. “I don’t linger in yesterday’s dreams.”
All the rage at auction
Wallace Chan pieces rarely come to auction, so the selection of more than two dozen of his early works for the Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sale in Hong Kong on November 28 drew strong interest, with some items greatly exceeding estimates.
The top lot by the designer was a multi-gem brooch that sold for $418,600 (HKD 3.2 million), beating its pre-sale high estimate of $234,000 (HKD 1.8 million). Designed as a butterfly, the body is set with a square-shaped, fancy intense yellow diamond weighing approximately 3.28 carats, and oval and circular-cut yellow and brown diamonds. The sale price reflected a strong appetite for Chan’s wildlife and nature designs.
A carved blue topaz sculpture became the number-two lot, selling for $325,000 (HKD 2.5 million) — more than three times its upper estimate of $104,000 (HKD 800,000). The piece features a profile of a woman overlooking a castle inside the stone. That signature carving technique was a major reason for the brisk bidding that drove up the lots’ prices.
“I was surprised to see pieces that I created some 15 or 20 years ago,” Chan says of the sale. “Such events don’t come by every day, I am sure.”
Image: Wallace Chan
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - January 2018. To subscribe click here.