AMMONITE

BY DOMINIQUE DUFERMONT

“It looks like a snail in rock form,” I said, playing

with this surprising ribbed spiral, encased in stone.
“It’s a fossil,” replied my father.

I
t’s probably there, crossing a
rocky field in Burgundy, that my
vocation and love of stones was
born. Fossils open up a temporal window
onto the history of our Earth and suggest
we understand its biological evolution.
They are also a wonderful launchpad for
the imagination and dreams. How do you
project something that represents five
hundred, a thousand, or even ten million
years of existence, when you’re seven
years old and one hour seems like an
eternity? Even after several years of stu-
dying geology, in which you juggle with
the scales of time and space by leaping
from the micro-mineralogy of magmas
to the paleontology of the Carboniferous
period, scientific rigor has not even begun
the powerful evocation of the infinite time
fossils represent. I find it incredible to ima-
gine that this fixed form, transformed into
stone by the inexorable power of time and
by a favorable environment, was once, se-
veral millions of years ago, a living orga-
nism in the ocean. The paleontologist, like
an anatomist of stone, will recognize the
species and thus be able to identify and
date the geological phases.
The tiniest of ammonites exist: less than
1 centimeter in diameter, or sometimes
up to 100 times bigger. There are some
deposits where telluric movements com-
bined with erosion have revealed large
quantities of ammonites, like a cemetery
of marine monsters at an altitude of 2,000
meters. The secret of the slow metamor-
phosis of the abysses is revealed as we
climb.
It always comes back to time. These spiral
ammonites evoke for me the cyclical na-
ture of time passing and ever-changing,
sometimes placing us at the threshold of
the abyss of the future of our own perpe-
tually accelerating society.

Dominique Dufermont first studied geology and discovered gemology during his mineralogy classes. He started working in the gem
industry with a gem dealer, then joined the house of Cartier as a buyer before joining the house of Van Cleef & Arpels. He then created his
own company of gem trading before joining Lemercier, a gem dealership that provides gems for the high jewelry industry. He is a teacher
at L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts since 2012.

Jean Vendome, Ammonite pendant necklace/brooch, 1968, yellow gold, white gold, pink gold and ammonites – Private collection – Photo Benjamin Chelly • Ammonite: © Mouse in
the House / Alamy Stock Photo / hemis.fr • © L’École Van Cleef & Arpels