For six generations, the Swiss jewellery house Boghossian has been making jewellery – around 150 years of craftsmanship, rooted in the traditions of the Silk Road, that ancient web of trading routes connecting East and West. For Regine Ngan, Boghossian’s managing director for Asia, such a romantic and exotic backstory made a love affair with its high jewellery almost inevitable. Working with the house for almost a decade now, Ngan is driving its development in the region.
“I did not expect myself to still be so passionate about this field after 20 years,” she jokes. “I still remember the very first moment when I looked at a Boghossian stone and thought, ‘OK, this is it. I need to get into this industry.
’ It’s what I love.” Asked which piece she could choose to keep for herself, Ngan went for the Crimson Flame ring, centred on a pigeon’s blood Burmese ruby that the Boghossian family came across back in 2000. Not a surprising choice given it’s still the most valuable ruby per carat ever sold.
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"The Crimson Flame ring, with a 15-carat Burmese pigeon’s blood ruby at its centre","url":"https://cdn.i-scmp.
com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/09/bc8773d1-972a-43a1-8bba-d406b56f6bdf_962009ee.jpg"} The Crimson Flame ring, with a 15-carat Burmese pigeon’s blood ruby at its centre In gemmology, “pigeon’s blood” is used to describe some of the highest-order rubies to have ever been found. Descriptive of a rich, vivid red, the moniker is only granted to stones that meet strict requirements of colour, hue and vibrancy.
Boghossian set the Crimson Flame in a white-gold ring, engirdled by cushion-cut diamonds. It was in this form that it was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong in 2015 for a whopping US$18 million. Ngan got to handle the stone when it was displayed in Boghossian’s Hong Kong boutique in Landmark, Central, the brand’s only store in Asia.
“Every morning, I would take it out, and just look at it,” she recalls, eyes sparkling. “I would just appreciate how my eyes could travel through the colour.” {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Regine Ngan with creative director Edmond Chin. Photo: @reginejewels/Instagram","url":"https://cdn.i-scmp.
com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/09/efaac87b-c28c-4ec0-a7c9-97743e32d46b_7390c88c.jpg"} Regine Ngan with creative director Edmond Chin. Photo: @reginejewels/Instagram Boghossian’s pieces are the brainchild of CEO Albert Boghossian along with creative director Edmond Chin.
The Bamboo Blossom cuff, for example, from the maison’s new Palace Voyages collection, took an entire year to perfect. Like much of Boghossian’s work, it shows that the love affair between Eastern artistic motifs and Western lapidary innovation continues to this day. {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"The Bamboo Blossom cuff from Boghossian’s Palace Voyages collection","url":"https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/09/17aa0d8a-5011-4b76-b92c-068a80dad46e_da1cdee0.
jpg"} The Bamboo Blossom cuff from Boghossian’s Palace Voyages collection Diamonds are painstakingly inlaid in white jade to form each of the cuff’s magnolia flower accents, which float between its imperial green jadeite lattices, the whole bracelet reminiscent of the library room in the Qianlong Palace during the spring. “It’s like architecture in jewellery,” Ngan says of the piece. “I think this is really our approach.
We’re building something.” When asked about Boghossian’s attitude towards trends in high jewellery, she explained that instead of catering to existing fads like many of the colossal jewellery houses that constitute Boghossian’s competition, forging fresh trends is a strength of the brand. {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Muzo emerald and diamond necklace by Edmond Chin and Boghossian. Photo: Christie’s Hong Kong","url":"https://cdn.i-scmp.
com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/09/cd51237f-4bca-48bf-a84b-87c7fad5a444_d7491f3d.jpg"} Muzo emerald and diamond necklace by Edmond Chin and Boghossian. Photo: Christie’s Hong Kong The family-run firm prides itself on toeing the boundaries between high jewellery and art – indeed, the maison’s entire creative process starts not with a design sketch or blueprint, but from the gemstones themselves.
“It’s a journey,” Ngan says of the Boghossian way, likening the life cycle of a piece of Boghossian jewellery to a relay race. “Each step of the process is like passing the baton.” With each “pass”, from discovering a stone, to cutting it, to its setting, another stretch of ground is covered, and value is added to the piece.
“The Boghossian family travels around the world just to seek the right stone,” she adds. “For example, they find a ruby. They then study the ruby: its shape, its size, its brilliance, its colour .
..” Then and only then, she says, can they compose a design befitting the gem.
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Boghossian Diaphane mesh earrings","url":"https://cdn.i-scmp.
com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/09/f37ad6f1-1d3f-42ad-bafa-4b6c5beeef46_007c254e.jpg"} Boghossian Diaphane mesh earrings “That’s how it all starts,” says Ngan. “Because they are never satisfied with a simple setting.
They always want more. They’re always asking, ‘How can we elevate this stone to a stage where it feels right?’ And of course there are so many other things to consider: how does it sit on the hand, the neck? How does it feel for the wearer?” Ultimately, the dynamism of the Boghossians’ creative process and cutting-edge designs are a testament to their success among clients of the highest profile. Regine Ngan, managing director for Asia, admires the Crimson Flame, the brand’s pigeon’s blood ruby ring, sold for a record price by Christie’s in 2015.
