Provenance
Diana Vreeland
Literature
Corbett, Patricia, et. al. Jewelry by Suzanne Belperron. London: Thames & Hudson, 2015, p. 128–129.
Mouillefarine, Laurence, and Évelyne Possémé, eds. Art Deco Jewelry: Modernist Masterworks and their Makers. London: Thames & Hudson, Ltd., 2009, p. 76.
Raulet, Sylvie, and Olivier Baroin. Suzanne Belperron. Woodbridge, Suffolk: ACC, 2011, pp. 108–109.
cf. Vogue, New York. August 15, 1934, p.45.
Weir-de La Rochefoucauld, Juliette. Women Jewellery Designers. New York: ACC Art Books Ltd, 2017, p. 38.
Biography
Along with Chanel and Schiaparelli, Suzanne Belperron was one of the innovators of modern dress and jewelry. Belperron began her career in 1919 designing for René Boivin. Her 1933 partnership with Bernard Herz (and later his son Jean) allowed her to develop her bold, imaginative style mixing hardstones, such as chalcedony and rock crystal, with precious stones, such as diamonds and sapphires. The elegant beauty became a favorite jeweler to the fashionable elite including Diana Vreeland, Colette, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Wallis, Duchess of Windsor. Belperron retired in 1974 and continued consulting on jewelry designs until her death in 1983.
Significance
Suzanne Belperron was a leader in modern design who created some of the most innovative jewelry of the twentieth century. Her bold curvaceous jewels caught the attention of the fashionable elite including Elsa Schiaparelli, Diana Vreeland, and the Duchess of Windsor. Unlike the renowned jewelers along rue de la Paix and la place Vendôme who drew in customers with glittering window displays, Belperron received her clientele only by appointment in her salon at 59, rue de Châteaudun. Her jewels spoke for themselves, and often she refused to sign her pieces stating, “My style is my signature.” The address was privately passed amongst the most fashionable women in Paris who were drawn to her original designs. Often featured in top fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, her modern designs were sculptural forms that were uniquely Belperron.
Owned by Diana Vreeland who was photographed wearing this cuff at the famous El Morocco nightclub in New York City in 1938, this piece is one of the most iconic and recognizable designs created by Belperron. As a columnist for Harper’s Bazaar and later editor-in-chief of Vogue and consultant for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vreeland was one of the most important tastemakers of the twentieth century, known for her transformative influence on style. Vreeland celebrated the qualities that made art and style unique and she frequently featured Belperron.
The fact that Vreeland chose to add this exceptional cuff to her own collection says a lot about the importance of the design. Belperron based the facetté design on the geometric facets of a gemstone, but in this piece the geometry is bold and oversized. A study in light and dark, she expanded the form of a stone with a lozenge and triangles of rock crystal, then set with diamonds, drawing ideas from the cubism and futurism movements that look at all sides of something at once. The combination of geometric form and unexpected materials is architectural, impactful and sophisticated. With an impeccable provenance and exhaustively documented in seminal books on Belperron, Art Deco, and women jewelers, this cuff is a masterpiece of twentieth century jewelry design that personifies the trailblazing spirit and daring style of the designer and collectors drawn to the jewel.
