"J.A.R. Vendôme" is the form in which Joel Arthur Rosenthal's house is most often catalogued at auction and in the collector literature, the address being a load-bearing part of the brand identity. The atelier has occupied 7 Place Vendôme, Paris, since 1978; the address is shared, in trade terms, with the surrounding cluster of high jewellers — Cartier, Boucheron, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chaumet, Mauboussin — that have made Place Vendôme synonymous with the upper tier of European jewellery for the past century and a half.

Significance of the address

For an introduction-only house such as J.A.R., the Vendôme location does the work that advertising would do for a more conventional brand. The atelier is unmarked except for a small brass plaque; clients arrive by appointment, are received in a small set of upstairs rooms, and never see a window display. The choice of Vendôme places J.A.R. inside the traditional Paris geography of high jewellery without participating in any of its conventional commercial signals.

Hallmarking

J.A.R. work made in Paris carries the French eagle's-head hallmark for 18-carat gold or the dog's-head for platinum, the small lozenge-shaped maker's punch registered to the atelier with the Bureau de Garantie, and the house's own discreet J.A.R. signature, usually engraved rather than struck. The combination of marks is a primary authentication tool when pieces appear at auction without paperwork.

Auction usage

Christie's and Sotheby's catalogue J.A.R. lots variously as "by JAR", "J.A.R., Paris", or "J.A.R. Vendôme". The latter form is used most often when the catalogue compiler wishes to underline the Place Vendôme provenance for buyers unfamiliar with the house. There is no separate sub-line, second brand or licensed collection at Vendôme; "J.A.R. Vendôme" denotes the same workshop as "J.A.R." or "JAR" elsewhere in the literature.

Trade context

The Place Vendôme itself, laid out by Hardouin-Mansart for Louis XIV from 1699 and given its octagonal final form in the early eighteenth century, has been the principal Paris jewellery address since the mid-nineteenth century arrival of Boucheron at number 26 in 1893. J.A.R.'s position at the southern end of the square places the atelier within a few doors of the Ritz, Chaumet and the present Boucheron premises, a clustering effect that the trade refers to simply as "Vendôme" and that is shorthand for the highest commercial tier of French jewellery.