“I’m a naturalist jeweler,” wrote Marie-Etienne Nitot, the founder of what is now jewelry house Chaumet, in the 18th-century. For almost two and a half centuries, the celebrated jeweler on place Vendôme has given pride of place to nature and recently made it the subject of an exhibition at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, the capital’s fine arts college, featuring 400 works of art, photographs, and jewels. “We wanted to shed light on Chaumet and art in all its forms, and the many artists who, down the ages, have shared the same desire to contemplate the world of plants through the eyes of a botanist − humble, meticulous, and intimate − to create works that are certainly different by nature, but still rooted in its observation,” explained Jean-Marc Mansvelt, CEO of…