Charles Arpels (1880–1951), born Salomon Arpels, was one of the brothers of Estelle Arpels, whose marriage to the Paris diamond merchant Alfred Van Cleef in 1895 joined two families of stone dealers and jewellers. In 1906 Alfred and Charles went into partnership and opened the first Van Cleef & Arpels boutique at 22 place Vendôme, opposite the Hôtel Ritz, an address the house has never left. His brothers Julien and Louis followed him into the business.
The house's early commissions show the range of the firm he helped found: one of the first orders, in 1906, was a scale model of the yacht Varuna in gold, silver, jasper, ebony and enamel, fitted with an electric bell to call the butler. From 1916 the partners made Touch Wood pieces, jewellery combining wood with precious materials as good-luck charms, and they opened seasonal boutiques in resorts such as Deauville, Vichy, Le Touquet, Nice and Monte-Carlo. In 1925 the house won the Grand Prize at the Paris Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs for its bracelet of red and white roses in rubies and diamonds.
Charles Arpels is credited with the Minaudière, the compartmented precious case that Van Cleef & Arpels introduced in 1933 to 1934. According to the house's story he watched his friend Florence Jay Gould drop her lipstick, powder compact, cigarettes and lighter into a tin cigarette box, and imagined an elegant case with a place for each. According to French Wikipedia he named it after his property at Flins-sur-Seine. The Minaudière became one of the signature objects of the house, made in gold, lacquer and, in some examples, Mystery Set rubies and sapphires.
Sources thin on his own life: English Wikipedia confuses him with his father, Salomon Arpels, as co-founder in 1896; Casadi follows the house's account (partnership with Alfred Van Cleef in 1906). The Minaudière is dated 1933 by Van Cleef & Arpels and 1934 by press of the time.