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SUMMARY:suzanne-belperron - Date de vente : 08/12/2025
DESCRIPTION:Nom du lots : Suzanne Belperron\n\nDesigned as a stylized bunch
  of grapes\, composed of carved chalcedony\, studded with old mine and old
  European-cut diamonds\, with French assay marks and workshop marks for St
 é Groëné & Darde\; circa 1935.\n\nAccompanied by Certificate of Authent
 icity no. 251007c by Oliver Baroin dated October 7\, 2025 stating that Gro
 ëné & Darde manufactured the piece circa 1935.\n\nPatricia Corbett\, War
 d Landrigan and Nico Landrigan\, Jewelry by Suzanne Belperron\, London\, 2
 015\, p. 24 for a photograph of this clip along with its original design d
 rawing.\n\nSylvie Raulet and Olivier Baroin\, Suzanne Belperron\, Lausanne
 \, 2011\, pp. 123\, 241 and 242 for similar clips.\n\nMany of Suzanne Belp
 erron’s most iconic creations feature transparent and translucent stone.
  She became renowned in the 1920s and ‘30s for her impressively-sized je
 wels incorporating massive yet ethereal carved rock crystal and subtly col
 ored chalcedony.  These can often seem as striking and modern today as t
 hey were when they were first made. Belperron worked closely with the tale
 nted lapidary Adrien Louart\, who supplied her with custom-carved rock cry
 stal and chalcedony to create cuff-bracelets\, rings\, brooches\, earclips
  and cufflinks. He developed a technique for setting gemstones directly i
 nto hardstones that allowed her to create novel combinations of materials.
  This collection includes ten jewels that feature carved rock crystal and
  chalcedony. Lots 42 and 53 are cuff bracelets carved from single pieces 
 of stone\, one of two-tone chalcedony set with a large amethyst cabochon a
 nd one of rock crystal set with diamonds. Lots 60 and 62 combine fan-sha
 ped rock crystal motifs with diamond accents. Two brooches\, lots 16 and 
 50\, employ angular rock crystal shapes while lot 15 has a stepped tubular
  form. Of particular note is lot 14\, a simple clip of carved rock crysta
 l that Suzanne Belperron chose to wear in her portrait by photographer Hor
 st P. Horst (reproduced on page 11).\n\nSuzanne Belperron’s fondness for
  botanical motifs is not unusual for a jeweler\, but her interpretations o
 f them were idiosyncratic\, modern and highly innovative. She pared them 
 down to their essential outlines or simplified them\, sometimes to the poi
 nt of abstraction. A chalcedony and diamond clip-brooch depicting a styli
 zed bunch of grapes (lot 39) has the spare\, monumental quality of a piece
  of modern sculpture. She also created a number of jewels based on leaves
  and branches. Lots 10 and 38\, composed of chalcedony and diamond\, and 
 gold and jade respectively\, are realistic\, albeit streamlined\, represen
 tations of plant motifs. Later in her career Belpoerron began to incorpor
 ate a greater number of transparent\, faceted gemstones\, as seen in the p
 air of sapphire and diamond ‘Branche’ clip-brooches (lot 32). Here\, 
 solidity and volume are replaced with sinuous and flattened forms\, the op
 tical properties of the gemstones projecting a lightness that marks a dist
 inct progression of her style.\n\nForever Modern\n\nSuzanne Belperron\n\nS
 uzanne Belperron (1900-1983)\, née Vuillerme\, was born in the village of
  Saint-Claude in the French Jura region to a family with ties to the area
 ’s lapidary and watchmaking industries. Shortly after her birth\, Suzan
 ne’s father took a position in Bésançon and it was here\, at the age o
 f 16\, she began her training in watchmaking and jewelry decoration at the
  Écoles Municipales de Musique et des Beaux-Arts. By this time her fathe
 r had passed away\, and it was therefore highly fortuitous that the school
  was not only free but open to female students. She showed a natural facil
 ity for design and draftsmanship\, and her surviving designs from this per
 iod exhibit hints of the sculptural and geometric qualities of her later w
 ork. In 1919 she moved to Paris where she was hired as a designer by the 
 jewelry firm René Boivin. Founded in 1893\, the company was a prominent 
 and successful house known for its innovative designs and cultured cliente
 le. Upon René Boivin’s death in 1917\, his widow Jeanne\, the sister o
 f famed fashion designer Paul Poiret\, took over as director and went on t
 o lead the house through some of its most influential and prosperous years
 .\n\nBelperron’s experience at the company was to have a profound impact
  upon her career. Madame Boivin served as the young designer’s mentor a
 s her style and position advanced within the firm\, elevating her to the r
 ole of co-director in 1924. The house’s tendency to eschew advertising 
 and its avoidance of adding signatures—instead relying upon word-of-mout
 h and loyalty to attract customers—are practices Belperron continued thr
 oughout her life. The Legacy of Elegance collection includes two jewels c
 reated during Suzanne Belperron’s years at René Boivin. Lots 15 and 16
 \, two carved rock crystal and diamond brooches made as early as 1928\, ar
 e masterful examples of Belperron’s work that incorporate the volume\, g
 eometry and translucency she would revisit throughout her career.\n\nIn 19
 32 Suzanne left René Boivin and began a collaboration with noted gemstone
  and pearl dealer Bernard Herz. Belperron became the sole designer and di
 rector for the newly formed Maison Herz. The two opened a private salon on
  Rue de Châteaudun that quickly began to attract discerning and prominent
  clients. Groëné & Darde\, a jewelry workshop owned by Maurice Groëné
  and Émile Darde with whom she had worked while at René Boivin\, became 
 her dedicated manufacturers. Belperron’s jewels became constant fixture
 s in the fashion press during the 1930s\, appearing frequently in publicat
 ions such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Sometimes the jewels were attri
 buted to Maison Herz\, but she was often credited as their designer\, an u
 nprecedented degree of recognition for a woman in the industry at that tim
 e. Always extremely stylish and traveling in sophisticated circles\, she 
 sometimes appeared in the contemporary fashion press alongside her creatio
 ns. Her high-profile clients included some of the most celebrated figures
  of the era\, including Daisy Fellowes\, Mona Bismarck\, the Duke and Duch
 ess of Windsor\, Ganna Walska\, Princess Agha Khan\, Adele Astaire and Dia
 na Vreeland. Despite her prominence\, she continued to decline to sign he
 r jewelry\, explaining\, “My style is my signature.”\n\nThe year 1941 
 brought tragedy to the firm when it was confiscated by the occupying Nazi 
 government due to Bernard Herz’s Jewish origins. Belperron purchased th
 e company herself\, with Herz’s assistance\, renaming it Suzanne Belperr
 on. In 1943\, to her horror\, Bernard Herz was deported to Auschwitz and 
 killed. When Jean\, Bernard’s son\, was released from captivity in 1946
 \, she offered to return the company to the Herz family. In appreciation 
 of her stewardship throughout the war and her indispensable talent\, Jean 
 offered her a partnership\, and the firm was renamed Herz-Belperron. It c
 ontinued to attract a loyal clientele in the post-war years\, adapting to 
 changing styles. In 1963 Belperron was made a knight of the Legion of Hon
 or for her contributions to French jewelry design and manufacturing. She 
 decided to retire in 1975\, though she continued to work on occasional pro
 jects until her death in 1983.\n\nIn the late 1980s\, the heirs to the Mai
 son Herz-Belperron sought a custodian who would preserve Belperron’s leg
 acy with the same integrity that characterized her career. They approached
  Ward Landrigan—then owner of Verdura and formerly head of Sotheby’s J
 ewelry Department in New York—who had gained international recognition f
 or his careful stewardship of the Verdura archives. In 1999\, Landrigan a
 cquired the rights to the Belperron brand as well as an extensive archive 
 of over 9\,300 gouache designs and tracings\, wax models\, molds and inven
 tory books. These materials not only document her remarkable career and ac
 t as a critical resource in authenticating her original creations\, but al
 so serve as the creative foundation for each jewel produced today. As the 
 steward of the House of Belperron\, Nico Landrigan works with collectors 
 and museums authenticating the original work of Suzanne Belperron. The com
 pany lives on in a beautiful salon located at 745 Fifth Avenue in New Yor
 k City\, modeled on Suzanne Belperron’s own Paris apartment.\n\nWhile ot
 her jewelry houses have produced jewels that fall in-and-out of fashion\, 
 the designs of Suzanne Belperron never look dated. For more than one hund
 red years\, her signature style has never lost its edge.
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