The Object

An A4 of permanence.

Single-crystal sapphire, held in a codex made for it alone. Made once per commission, and never repeated.

Nº I

Single-crystal sapphire.
A4. Five millimetres.

Colourless grown corundum, nine on the Mohs scale, second only to diamond, the same material trusted in observatory windows. It does not scratch in ordinary use, does not fade or yellow, and withstands fire and water far beyond anything on paper. It is chosen to outlast the languages it is written in.

The optical-grade sapphire is grown in China, then cut and polished in Switzerland by our specialist sapphire workshop.

The front carries the family's chosen words. The back carries the lighthouse mark and the edition number: Nº I, then Nº II, and so on. The front belongs to the family. The back belongs to the record.

Concept rendering: hands holding an engraved sapphire tablet in a library setting
Nº II

In your own words,
in your own tongue.

An inscription can hold a family's own language: a phrase, a saying, a grandparent's line kept exactly as it was spoken. A family passes on not only its wisdom but its culture and its words.

Sapphire keeps all of it intact for the people who will read it long after the rest has been translated, paraphrased, or lost.

Concept view of the sapphire tablet with the engraved lighthouse mark and edition number, on a navy background
Nº III

The Codex,
opened like a book.

Cream leatherette without, deep navy velvet within. The Codex opens like a book, bound by hand, with the Memoria Aeterna lighthouse emblem centred on the cover in gold foil.

Each Codex is a numbered edition, bound by hand for a single family. No two are alike.

Concept rendering of the closed cream Codex with a gold lighthouse emblem, resting on dark wood
The opened Codex: on the left an original painting carrying the family's chosen symbol; on the right the engraved sapphire tablet with the hand-signed certificate below

On the left, an original painting on paper, commissioned for one family alone, sits within a slender gold-coloured frame and navy velvet mount. On the right, the engraved sapphire rests in a fitted seat of navy velvet, with the hand-signed certificate below it, read through the stone.

Images illustrate the design concept. Each commission is made to order in the materials described above.

Nº IV

Numbered. Signed. Recorded.

Every piece carries its edition number in Roman numerals, engraved on the back and entered in our private record. Beneath the sapphire sits a certificate on archival paper, hand-numbered and signed by the person who delivers it. No wax seals, no theatre, only a signature and a number meant to outlast us.

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