Van Cleef & Arpels. The son of a diamond merchant who arrived in France in the mid 19th century, Charles Van Cleef settled in Paris. In 1898 his son Alfred set up shop as a goldsmith, and then married Estelle Arpels, the daughter of Léon Arpels, a dealer in precious stones. In 1906, Alfred Van Cleef and Charles Arpels founded a firm for "the creation and operation of a business dealing in precious stones and jewelry". They opened a shop at 22 Place Vendôme, and in a few months were so successful that they had to engage a salesman. At the same time as the expansion of the Place Vendôme, branches were opened in various different French seaside resorts. The company participated in numerous exhibitions, especially the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in 1925 where it won a Grand Prix. In 1926 Renée Puissant, daughter of Alfred Van Cleef, took up the position of artistic director in close collaboration with René Sim Lacaze, the unrivaled designer and creator, who worked with the firm from 1922 to 1939. In 1929 Van Cleef & Arpels opened in New York on the day of the Wall Street crash. From 1939, the firm grew successfully in the United States thanks to Louis, Julien, and his young son Claude. Claude and Jacques Arpels continued in the tradition of their forbears and after the Second World War it was the turn of their youngest brother Pierre to enter the firm. As he wished to own a unique watch, Pierre Arpels designed the model "P.A. 49". This marked the beginning of lines for both men and women which were to lead in 1972 to a specialist shop. In 1954, the firm decided to open the first "boutique" next to the main establishment. Numerous branches exist in the world today, including one in Japan, since 1972. The firm is universally known for its 1934 invention of "invisible setting", an unparalleled method of showing precious stones in a completely new way.