This article is a translation by Claudine Seroussi of : Suzanne Belperron, histoire d’une consécration. Entretien avec Olivier Baroin 

« Suzanne Belperron is the most talented and influential jewelry designer of the twentieth century, » said David Bennett, now Global President of Sotheby’s International Jewelry Division, when he opened the auction on May 14, 2012 in Geneva of « the personal collection of one of the greatest jewelers of the 20^thcentury: Suzanne Belperron (1900-1983) ».

The sale was comprised of 60 lots, all of which sold, for the most part, at exceptional prices – on average three times their estimate.

At the December 5, 2018, Christie’s ‘Magnificent Jewels’, sale in New York, a platinum and gray gold “Tube” bracelet set with old-cut diamonds, designed by Suzanne Belperron in 1935 as confirmed in her personal archives, appeared at auction. It had an estimate of 200,000 – 300,000 USD and was sold for 852,500 USD. Today, Suzanne Belperron is ranked amongst the greatest names in jewelry: Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Boucheron, Chaumet… and collectors of her work push the prices for her pieces ever higher to record levels.

This crowning glory is the fruit of a very long journey.

Recognized, admired and highly sought after during her lifetime, Belperron’s name briefly fell into oblivion following her death. Her name reappeared in two major sales in the following years.

• ‘The Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor’, Sotheby’s Geneva 2 – 3 April 1987, featured 16 pieces by Belperron.

• The May 17, 2004 sale held by Pierre Bergé & Associés in Geneva which featured 62 lots entitled ‘Créations de Suzanne Belperron’.

However, it was the discovery of Belperron’s personal archives by Olivier Baroin in December 2007, followed by the publication of Baroin’s book ‘Suzanne Belperron’, co-written with Sylvie Raulet and published in 2011, that saw the return of Belperron’s name and work to the limelight. In recent years, auction houses have presented works by Belperron at auction with great fanfare, emphasizing the unique style, and artist’s soul, of this grande dame of 20^thcentury jewelry.

If the life of Suzanne Belperron was a passionate one, then so too is her legacy. From the incredible discovery of her personal archives, which had been thought to have been burned, to the tensions surrounding the reattribution of her work, the transatlantic disputes over the succession of her legacy, the name of Suzanne Belperron is in no danger of being forgotten for a second time.

Olivier Baroin, expert on the work of Suzanne Belperron, is here to explain to us how this artist, who was celebrated in her lifetime yet slipped into obscurity following her death, has become lionized in the salerooms.

 

Beginnings, life and legacy of a singular style

Suzanne Belperron: chapters of a life

Madeleine Suzanne Vuillerme was born in the Jura on the 26^thof September 1900. At 18 she won the first prize at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Besançon, and soon after moved to Paris. In March 1919 she was hired as a modelist-designer by Jeanne Boivin, the widow of René Boivin who ran the eponymous house.

Five years later, she was promoted to co-director of Boivin. The same year she married Jean Belperron (1898-1970), an engineer from Besançon, whose name she took. The couple did not have any children.

In 1932, Suzanne left Maison Boivin to join Bernard Herz, a great dealer in fine pearls and precious stones, as artistic and technical director at Société Bernard Herz until 1940.

At the beginning of the Second World War, shortly before the anti-Semitic Vichy laws, and at the request of Bernard Herz, Belperron purchased the company and created Suzanne Belperron SARL (1941-1945). In 1943, Bernard Herz was deported to Germany, never to return.

In 1946, Jean Herz, The son of Bernard Herz, returned from the war. Belperron offered – in memory of his father Bernard, for whom she held deep affection – the joint ownership of a company incorporated in equal parts, to be called « Jean Herz Suzanne Belperron ». Belperron assumed the artistic and financial direction of the company until its liquidation on December 31, 1974.

From the 1930s to the 1970s, Suzanne Belperron continuously designed and created, and never once showing any desire to work for another house. She achieved great fame in here lifetime, both in France and abroad. In 1963 she was awarded the rank of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1963 for her services as a « jewelry designer ».

After her retirement, she continued to create pieces just for relatives and close friends. She died in Paris on March 28, 1983. She was eighty-two years old.

Observations on the Belperron style

Her creations reflect a very personal style, a ‘signature’, even though the designer never signed any of her pieces. « My style is my signature, » she said in a famous quote.

Belperron jewelry is often characterized by the bold choice, for its time, to marry precious stones or fine pearls with fine or ornamental stones. Belperron did not hesitate to set sapphires with chalcedony, diamonds in rock crystal, or silver with hematite, or an amethyst with chrysoprase.

These combinations of colors and materials (transparent, translucent, opaque) created unusual light effects. However, Suzanne Belperron also created pieces that could be described as « high-jewelry » since they were composed of precious materials.

Another characteristic of the work of this avant-garde designer, are the volumes that sometimes border on excess. However, says Olivier Baroin, « even if the jewel is sometimes a little exuberant, it does remains elegant. Madame Belperron’s creativity never went beyond the limits of good taste.  » And he adds: « her work is pure and graphic jewelry, but above all sensual, almost carnal ».

The craze for Belperron’s style extended beyond the world of jewelry connoisseurs. For example, Suzanne Belperron was one of the first jewelry designers to be mentioned by name in fashion magazines such as ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ and ‘Vogue’.  As early as 1933, Elsa Schiaparelli posed in Vogue adorned in Belperron jewels. Suzanne Belperron’s jewelry enhanced the creations of fashion designers – so much so, that designers sometimes feared their creations would be entirely overshadowed!

A designer for the happy few

Belperron’s clientele was incredibly varied. It included the members of royal families and the European aristocracy, rich bankers and industrialists, and also actors, artists and writers. Her personal order books show that she received the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Colette, Jean Cocteau, Nina Ricci, Jeanne Lanvin, Elsa Schiaparelli, Gary Cooper, the Begah Aga Khan, the Baroness Rothschild, Daisy Fellowes, the singer Ganna Walska and Merle Oberon, the beautiful heroine of ‘Wuthering Heights’, to name a few!

Even today, her creations remain unknown to the general public. For the past ten years, however, they have become in great demand for art dealers, jewelry dealers and knowledgeable collectors.

Philippine Dupré La Tour, director of the jewelry and watch department at Aguttes, explains that Belperron jewels occupy a special place in her work as an expert because often clients who consign a Belperron piece are unaware of its value. « It is therefore a double pleasure: to see these jewels and to unearth them ».

Today collectors of Belperron are a new kind of elite. Olivier Baroin finds that buyers are influenced more by the design of the jewel than by its intrinsic value. « Collectors who appreciate Belperron pieces do not need their jewelry to be set with diamonds; those who recognize her style understand its importance. »

During auctions, buyers are rarely wrong; the most expensive pieces are those that are the most emblematic of the Belperron oeuvre. Karl Lagerfeld, one of the leading collectors of Belperron jewelry, sums it up as follows: « A Belperron jewel can be recognized right away. It’s an attitude. »

 

Olivier Baroin and the rebirth of Suzanne Belperron

How did your affiliation with Madame Belperron come about?

By an incredible twist of fate!

I had been a jeweler since 1987 and an expert in antique jewelry since 2001. At that time I already had a great admiration for Suzanne Belperron whose work I knew thanks to my friend Miriam Mellini, pearl merchant, who is passionate about old jewels and Belperron amateur enthusiast.

One day in December 2007, I was sketching a project in front of a client and he looked at me and said: « It’s funny to see you draw this way, my father just inherited the estate of a jewelry designer ». I dared to ask the name of this designer. The customer answered me, obviously uncertain: « maybe Josiane Duperron ». My blood turned and I calmly asked him, « Are you sure? Could it possibly be Suzanne Belperron? « .

At the time, we thought that Suzanne Belperron had burned her archives while she was alive, as Ward Landrigan had explained in the New York Times in August 1998.

The client invited me to visit, the following day, a small apartment located at the foot of Montmartre, which had not been opened for nearly twenty-four years. Stored in this apartment were all the belongings of Madame Belperron. I went there very early in the morning, before the junk dealers came to empty the premises, as an auctioneer had informed the heir that the contents were worthless!

I had no idea what it was worth, but I suspected that what this small apartment contained was priceless. And rightly … there was the contents of this woman’s life stored pell-mell: her furniture and decorative objects, including living room furniture that appeared to be designed by her friend Marcel Coard, decorator and set designer from the 1930s, her table service, her tablecloths, a lot of Asian art … all covered in a thick layer of dust!

We took an inventory of the contents and then we came to an agreement to purchase Suzanne Belperron’s personal belongings. The heir was a great gentleman, a very straightforward and loyal man, passionate about art, having come from a family of painters. Once he had realized who Suzanne Belperron was, having greatly admired the pieces he had seen, he wished that Suzanne Belperron, who was then somewhat forgotten, should receive new recognition. It was this man, heir to Mme Belperron’s legatee, who suggested that I write a book about her work. Sufficed to say we owe him a lot.

He died a few days after the sale of the personal jewels of Suzanne Belperron, which took place Geneva in May of 2012, reassured as to the legacy of the work of the designer. Prior to his death he had read with infinite attention the book I co-wrote with Sylvie Raulet, entitled ‘Suzanne Belperron’, which was published in August 2011.

It is a very romantic story!

Indeed, the odds were slim that I would stumble across the personal papers of Suzanne Belperron! Moreover, the daughter of the heir hoped, one day, to make a film retracing Belperron’s life and her career. There is so much to tell: her personal story, her creative genius, her famous clients, her estate, the discovery of personal archives, the recognition she enjoys today and so much more …

When you rediscovered Suzanne Belperron’s personal archives in December 2007, it was twenty-four years since the designer had stopped working. What remained of her work?

Suzanne Belperron officially stopped working in 1975, but in reality she continued to create pieces for her most favored clients and friends virtually up until her death in March 1983.

Once I had acquired her personal archives, I began with the important task of tracing the jewels. Through researching auction results, I realized that 90% of the jewels by Suzanne Belperron had not been attributed to her, regardless of the period in which they were made. The expert authority on René Boivin made virtually no distinction between Boivin and Belperron. Based on the assumption that Suzanne Belperron began her career at Boivin as a « young saleswoman » (sic) before moving under the leadership of Jeanne Boivin, the certificates of authenticity didn’t differentiate between her work at Boivin, the house in which she had worked from 1919 to 1932, and the next forty years of her career.

Today we know that Suzanne Vuillerme, after obtaining the first prize at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Besançon for a watch design featuring champlevé decoration, entered René Boivin in 1919 not as a « young saleswoman » but as a « model-designer » before becoming in 1924 co-director of the House and marrying Jean Belperron.

It is also now recognized that René Boivin, prior to the arrival of Suzanne Belperron, was a manufacturing workshop, which produced pieces for other jewelry houses. It was a family workshop, which had bought up other Parisian workshops in the late nineteenth century, in order to acquire the best craftsmen and equipment.

For example, these three necklaces, photographed above, which are of relatively classic design (diamond-set with pearls) were manufactured in 1912 by René Boivin for Boucheron. I am very grateful to my friend Claudine Sablier, curator of the Boucheron archives for sharing these images with me. In 1912, René Boivin moved to 27 rue des Pyramides, with reception rooms that adjoined his workshops. However, the fact remains that the house gained its notoriety only after the arrival of Suzanne Belperron. In a letter from Jeanne Boivin of November 1923, that Suzanne Belperron carefully preserved, she writes that Suzanne « is now a necessary active force and holds a great place in the artistic life of the house René Boivin ». As such I challenge anyone to show me a modernist work that was created Mr. Boivin!

How did you go about reinstating the work of Suzanne Belperron?

Many at the auction houses have helped with my research – especially Aguttes. Philippine Dupré la Tour agreed to contact some of her “selling” customers. If a jewel appeared to me to be by the hands of Suzanne Belperron , then they were asked if they would agree to give us the names of their ancestors, and any information as to whether they were purchased at René Boivin or Suzanne Belperron.

This allowed me to go back to the archives and see if I could find the seller’s family. It allowed me to go back in time. I soon learned many jewels sold at auction under the name of Boivin, were actually pieces ordered from Suzanne Belperron by the seller’s family after 1932.

I am very grateful to Philippine Dupré La Tour for her cooperation as well as her trust – auction houses are normally very secretive. David Bennett was also incredibly helpful. He was immediately supportive of the book project and consequently Sotheby’s made their resources available, worldwide, so that the owners of Belperron jewels could have their pieces recorded, valued and photographed. I am very grateful to David Bennett and Claire de Truchis-Lauriston, then the head of the jewelry department in Paris. They had the courage, and the strength, to take that risk, while others would have been fearful of destabilizing the market.  Sotheby’s was incredibly supportive of the book.

With the discovery of the Belperron’s personal order books, it allowed her pieces to be formally authenticated. Has it helped propel Belperron’s position in the auction market?

When my book was published, the jewelry world, (the auction houses in particular) became aware that Suzanne Belperron and her universal legatee had preserved the archives, consisting of about twenty order books, that Belperron maintained and kept. They date from 1937, and contain the names of 6,730 customers and nearly 45 000 appointments!

As a result, it became possible to attribute the jewels – if one had the last name of the client and/or their family or associates. The order books end in 1974. However, later, between 1974 and 1983, various letters testify to the fact that Suzanne Belperron remained active.

I began to work on tracing the provenance back to the original orders, to reestablish the work of Suzanne Belperron and to reattribute the pieces she had created over a period of fifty years. My certificates ended up clarifying the auction market for Belperron. Her position in the market continues to grow and auction prices for her jewels are almost on a par with those from the biggest jewelry houses.

How do you authenticate a jewel by Suzanne Belperron?

Suzanne Belperron never signed any of her pieces, neither at René Boivin nor at Herz where she became the sole decision-maker and creator in her own right.

At first I was particularly vigilant! When I was in doubt and when there was no factual evidence, or documented order, I abstained. Over time, knowing that I have many elements: studio models, plasters, drawings and sketches, photos and press articles countersigned by her hand and of course the personal order books, I managed to crosscheck. My eye was formed by the twenty years I had spent in the studio. As a jeweler, I am familiar with jewelry making; I know how a jewel is constructed, mounted, adjusted etc…

But it’s mostly the years spent authenticating and the accumulated experience – I’ve searched, searched again and again! – that allowed me to refine my expertise.

At the very beginning, the quality of workmanship of certain pieces was almost closer to that of costume jewelry, with pieces executed in silver, than high jewelry – although I should clarify that during this period costume jewelry was of high quality and well made.

Between 1942 and 1955 saw a return to high quality production, reaching its apex in the 1950s. All jewelry is made by hand using precious metal wire, sheets and soldering.

Then, between 1955 and 1970 the manufacturing techniques begin to evolve. These new techniques mean the quality is no longer the same but not because of a lack of skill from craftsmen. Lost wax casting begins to take over the market, resulting in the acceleration of production. We are entering a new era of industrialization of jewelry, which resulted in Belperron jewels still remaining, in part, handmade as well as now being cast.

In the 1970s and 1980s became easier to execute, but those that were unable to be cast remained entirely handmade.

In 1932, the Groëné et Darde workshop was working exclusively with Suzanne Belperron and it remained exclusive right until the end. The various workshop marks allow us to date, approximately, the jewels by Suzanne Belperron and, at the very least, to authenticate them.

– From 1928 to 1955, the company bears the name of Groëné et Darde (Emile Darde and Maurice Groëné). The workshop mark has the initials GD with a fleur de lys in the center, which is surmounted by surmounted by Ste.

– From 1955 to 1970, the workshop took the name of Darde et Fils (Emile Darde and his son Michel). The workshop mark shows the initials DF with a fleur de lys in the center.

– From 1970 to 1974, the workshop is known as Darde et Compagnie (Michel Darde) and the workshop mark has the initial D a fleur de lys, surmounted by Ste, followed by the letters CIE.

In cases where there is no record of an order in the archives, only the extraordinary skill of the lapidary Adrien Louart (1890-1989), to whom Suzanne Belperron entrusted to work on carving her hard stone pieces, makes it possible to authenticate the Belperron pieces.

What about certificates?

In September 2008 when I acquired all the archives, discovered the previous year in Montmartre, the last universal legatee authorized me to safeguard « the future expertise of the work realized by Madame Suzanne Belperron ».

That’s how I started to authenticate jewelry for Sotheby’s, Aguttes, Artcurial, and so many other auction houses …

Today, I establish the certificates (or simple testimonials in the instances where I believe a jewel was created by Suzanne Belperron, but that I do not have the documentary proof in the archives!). For the majority of collectors and auction houses, including American auction houses (most recently Fortuna in New York) I am sometimes considered as the gatekeeper, though I would prefer to be thought of as guardian of Madame Belperron’s memory, especially since I now devote practically most of my time to her work.

 

Portfolio: some of the most beautiful pieces Belperron that have for sale in recent years

Suzanne Belperron holds a special place in the jewelry market. Overall, Belperron jewelry is reaching stellar prices at auction, but in reality, there is no benchmark applicable to Belperron. The buyers judge each piece according to the significance of the jewel. That is, they judge and buy each piece according to its aesthetic value and its place in the cannon of Suzanne Belperron. These criteria are very similar to those applied to the market for painters or visual artists.

Here is an additional selection of some remarkable jewels that have been on sale in recent years and that Olivier Baroin has appraised.

AGUTTES

 

ARTCURIAL

CHRISTIE’S

DROUOT

On Wednesday December 17, 2014 Drouot presented this sumptuous necklace and bracelet achieved a record price. Estimated between 10,000 and 20,000 EUR this parure flew for 415,000 EUR. This set is characteristic of the Belperron style, with its volumes and delicate shades of velvety blue stones selected by the designer.

FORTUNA

On April 25, 2018, Fortuna Auction in New York sold an exceptional collection of Belperron jewelry from the Bokara « Bo » Legendre estate.

 

SOTHEBY’S

Magnificent jewels & Noble jewels, 15 november 2018, Geneva.

Magnificent jewels & Noble jewels, 15 may 2018, Geneva.

Magnificent jewels & Noble jewels, 15 november 2017, Geneva.

Magnificent jewels & Noble jewels, 16 may 2017, Geneva

Magnificent jewels & Noble jewels, 17 november 2016, Geneva

Magnificent jewels & Noble jewels, 11 november 2015, Geneva

Magnificent jewels & Noble jewels, 12 may 2015, Geneva

TAJAN

On June 29, 2015, the expert Jean-Norbert Salit presented at auction a rare set of four pieces in white gold, diamonds and rubies (of certified Burmese origin and with no trace of heat treatment). Circa 1936 with a maker’s mark for Groëné et Darde.

***

My thanks to Aguttes, Artcurial, Christie’s, Drouot, Eve, Fortuna, PB & A, Sotheby’s and Tajan.

Special thanks to Olivier Baroin who combines, as few others do, the precision of an expert and the passion of a pedagogue.

And finally, my warmest thanks to Claudine Seroussi for her beautiful translation.

***

La Golconde
Galerie d’Olivier Baroin
9, Place de la Madeleine. 75008 Paris.
Tél. 01 40 07 15 69

Suzanne Belperron, Sylvie Raulet et Olivier Baroin, La Bibliothèque des Arts , 2011.

Les bijoux de Suzanne Belperron, Patricia Corbett, Ward and Nico Landrigan, Karl Lagerfeld, Thames & Hudson, 2015.