“Sous le marteau” came one of Van Cleef & Arpels most iconic necklace. The Zip necklace. It saw the light in 1951 after many years of innovation. It was the Duchess of  Windsor who came with the idea to design a piece of zipper jewelry. The Zip necklace has a small device that is used to zip and unzip the necklace. Open it was worn as a necklace and closed as a bracelet. According to the auction house Leclere a few rubies were replaced by diamonds and the necklace needs to be revised. Although when I asked about it, the expert could still unzip the necklace. A truly beautiful piece of jewelry. VCA made several models in diamonds and in colored stones. Only a few came to auction in the last 60 years. Oh and the hammer price? 66.000,- euros.