The exhibition "Fantastic Beasts" by Urus Gallery reveals deeper cultural and historical meanings beyond their playful appearances.

The theme of Eurus Gallery's new exhibition is Whimsical Animals. Is it fair to take this theme lightly or do these Whimsical Animals hold many secrets behind their cheerful faces?

If you look at the history of jewellery art, the answer is obvious. Whimsical Animals are not just a light genre. They have played a very serious role in what we consider contemporary jewellery, how we wear it and who buys it. "La Boutique" was the name given to the Van Cleef & Arpels collection that appeared in the 1950s.

Its very appearance was questionable, because the Arpels brothers had different views on whether these funny animals - funny lions, dogs and bunnies - belonged in the show-window of a blue-blooded jewellery boutique on Place Vendome. And it's not even the frivolous theme, but the fact that this collection was addressed to women as customers.

It's hard to believe it now, but up to this point, the big jewellery mansions had focused on male buyers. And "La Boutique" became one of the precursors of what happened in the 1960s, when not only collections were addressed to women as buyers, and here we can remember, for example, Elsa Peretti and her fashionable jewellery in a good sense, but entire brands founded with the concept of a woman buyer. Of course, the Italian brand Pomellato should be mentioned as an example of the latter.

Funny animals have also become serious political statements. And this is not only about Madeleine Albright and her collection of brooches, among which there were many representatives of fauna. Cartier's famous caged bird and liberated bird - a piece of jewellery in the form of a golden caged bird in the colours of the French flag was placed in the window of Cartier's Paris boutique during the occupation of France. At the moment of liberation, the brooch was changed to a brooch in the form of a joyful bird fluttering out of this golden cage. As you can guess, it was created in advance.

And what about contemporary jewellers? A lion-shaped ring from Chinese jeweller Richard Wu is an entire exploration of the theme of animal depiction in ancient times. According to Richard, who lived in Italy for 6 years, he was struck by the fact that the faces of lions there resemble human faces. This is because painters and sculptors of the past had never seen a live lion and often made up a picture of it or tried to reconstruct it from other images and descriptions. And in China, Richard recalls, for the same reason lions look like dogs with flattened muzzles, like a pug. In his ring, Richard decided to make the hyper-realistic centrepiece of an enraged lion biting into a large gemstone, and to take the image into full abstraction, resembling ribbons rather than a mane.

The jadeite pig ring from Epic Jewelry also has an interesting story. It was inspired by a drawing by British artist David Shringley. And not only the image of the funny little animal transferred from it, but also the ironic inscription from the drawing, which became an engraving: “Some of My Friends Are Pigs.”

Anthropomorphic watches comprise a significant portion of Russian watchmaker Konstantin Chaikin's Wristmons collection. Among them are various characters, ranging from the fearsome sabre-toothed tiger to a cute bunny or the Mouse King from “The Nutcracker”.

The hilarious piggy bankers from Dickson Yewn tell a whole story of their own. Dickson has crafted biographies for each of these amusing animals. For instance, the head of the family, Mr. Qian Duoshao, which translates from Chinese as “How Much,” is portrayed as the chief earner and provider. He was born, like the other adults in the family, in the 1970s. Mr. How Much’s wife has a name that translates from Chinese as “flower,” but if interpreted as a verb, it can mean “to spend.”

Another fictional character in the story is Xiao Sa, a Chinese man living in America, who is characterized by his fashionable eyeglasses and tattoos shaped like cannabis leaves. According to legend, Xiao Sa has an ex-girlfriend named Qian Duohao, elegantly crafted from black and white diamonds and adorned with enamel.

The “Watermelon” tiger by Alexandre Laut plays with our vision and imagination, much like Cartier’s famous flamingo created by Jeanne Toussaint almost a century ago. While the Cartier flamingo was made in signature tutti-frutti colors of green, red, and blue, Alexandre Laut’s cheerful tiger is crafted from diamonds and tsavorites in green and white.

Ilgiz Fazulzyanov has a profound affinity for art nouveau themes and aesthetics. Typical motifs, such as butterflies and dragonflies, have not escaped the artist's attention. Though Ilgiz is serious in every respect and rarely produces humorous works, there are exceptions, which become all the more valuable for collectors.

In general, another notable role of Whimsical Animals is to serve as cherished collector’s items.