How Michaelangelo opened a famous jewellery designer’s eyes to a new world with his dramatic carvings full of tension, power and movement
- Creator of arguably the world’s most expensive necklace, Wallace Chan had a ‘mind-boggling’ experience when he discovered Michaelangelo’s works in a book
- A gemstone carver for some years already, he set out to learn about Western carvings and sculptures, visiting cemeteries to study statues of angels and saints
Jewellery artist and sculptor Wallace Chan is both the creator of arguably the world’s most expensive diamond necklace and inventor of the Wallace Cut trompe l’oeil gem carving technique. He tells Richard Lord how an encounter four decades ago with a book about Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo changed his life.
I moved to Hong Kong from Fuzhou in China with my parents and three siblings when I was five years old, in 1961. We moved into my grandmother’s apartment in To Kwa Wan, where my uncles and aunts also lived. It was crammed. I slept in the bathroom. It was rather difficult for my parents to find me a proper school. I finally enrolled at a rooftop school at 11 years old. It was located right above a wet market so there was a lot of noise. I could not speak or understand much. The two years at that rooftop school were the only education I have received in my life.
I was always drawn to books – I still am. I thought people who read must be so knowledgeable and intelligent. But I was also ashamed of my illiteracy. When I was in my 20s, the Swindon bookshop stood tall in Tsim Sha Tsui. To me, it was a sacred place, a temple almost. After passing through it and peeking through the windows many times, I finally summoned my courage and went in.
At school, I had trouble differentiating “m” and “n”. I just could not remember which was which, and my teacher scolded me many times. So when I saw a book that had a big M on it, I was intrigued.
I had been a gemstone carver for some years by then but my practice focused on traditional Chinese carvings, such as auspicious motifs and folklore. At that time, there was no internet and the exchange of information was extremely limited, so I had very little exposure to Western carvings and sculptures. Flipping through the pages of that book was a mind-boggling experience. I had no idea that there was a whole different world out there where carvings and sculptures were dramatic, full of tension, power, strength and movement.
