One of today’s most popular and renowned jewelers died more than 40 years ago. Suzanne Belperron, whose artistic vision was as fearless as the life she led, has been tearing up the auction market in recent decades, finding favor among serious collectors and jewelry enthusiasts.
Most recently, the Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction in New York this past December offered 15 pieces from a single collection that fetched nearly $3.6 million, with 13 of the lots exceeding their high estimates. One other Belperron piece in the same auction, from the estate of designer and philanthropist Mica Ertegun, also sold well above estimates. It was the largest auction of Belperron jewels since the 60-lot sale of Belperron’s own collection at Sotheby’s Geneva in May 2012.
The French jeweler was a visionary, which is why her pieces remain so popular, says Nico Landrigan, president of the Belperron brand.
“Her jewelry is so wearable and modern,” he elaborates. “It’s tactile and sculptural, and because of this, it has a remarkable relevance today. It’s sort of miraculous how ahead of her time she was as far as her aesthetic. She was a 21st-century designer born in the beginning of the 20th century.”
Favorites on the block
Landrigan and his father, Ward, acquired the Belperron brand in the 1990s. With it came artifacts and thousands of original drawings by Belperron herself. Using the drawings, the Landrigans began to recreate Belperron jewelry, employing artisans who specialized in the designer’s signature techniques, before officially launching the company in 2015. Its salon on Fifth Avenue also sells vintage Belperron pieces that the Landrigans have acquired through auctions and private sales.
For Nico Landrigan, the December Christie’s auction was further proof of Belperron’s ongoing popularity. He was most enamored of a diamond Tube bracelet from circa 1948 consisting of rounded, intertwined links of grey gold and platinum. Half of each link is paved with diamonds, creating a visual contrast with the other half’s highly polished finish. It was one of the top lots in the sale, fetching $945,000 — well above the $600,000 high estimate. In 2018, the same bracelet sold for $852,500.
“It was the best example of the demand for her jewels,” he says, noting the significant rise in its price. “It’s remarkable.”
For Christie’s jewelry specialist Claibourne Poindexter, the sale shows that buyers want wearable, unique jewels with a modern appearance.
“I think of [her pieces] as oil paintings, in the sense that everything is one of a kind,” he says. “I think that that really helps drive demand. I think people who are looking for individuality gravitate toward her jewelry.”
His favorite piece in the auction was a large Facetté cuff in rock crystal and diamonds, which once belonged to renowned Vogue editor Diana Vreeland and sold for $415,800 — comfortably above its $300,000 high estimate.
“In my opinion, it’s one of the greatest jewels of all time,” he says. “It looks like something from another world.”
Sculpting a new aesthetic
Belperron came of age during the Art Deco era, when jewels featured sleek, streamlined geometric forms. She took a different route, creating bold, rounded, sculptural designs with a mix of precious and more common materials. These types of pairings were unusual for the period and still are today. Her works reflect Egyptian, Asian, African and Oceania influences. She took inspiration from nature, creating shapes based on flora and fauna on land and underwater.
Among her most notable signature techniques were the use of “virgin gold” — 22-karat gold that is hammered, chiseled and hand-burnished to achieve an antique patina — and the serti couteau, or “knife-edge,” method of setting gemstones, which creates a pattern resembling an irregular honeycomb with variations of light and color. Another technique she pioneered was “drowned stones,” in which she would place a precious gem inside a rock crystal or another semi-precious stone, relates Landrigan.
“Her work was unapologetically sculptural, never hiding the internal structure to the piece,” he says. “She was confident that these jewels were sculptures and not just vehicles for commerce.”
She was also “an amazing colorist,” remarks Emily Stoehrer, the Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan senior curator of jewelry at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Belperron’s work “connects to the art world and has an enduring timeliness. She’s hard to compare to anyone else, because she’s a true original.”
‘My style is my signature’
Born in 1900 in Saint-Claude — a commune in the Jura Mountains on the Swiss border — Belperron was a creative prodigy from an early age. Her mother was the first to recognize this and enrolled her in the School of Fine Arts in Besançon, the historical capital of the French watch industry.
She excelled at school, then moved to Paris at the age of 19. It didn’t take long for her gift to garner recognition. Jeanne Boivin of Boivin, one of Paris’s most prestigious jewelry houses at the time, hired her. Her husband, company founder René Boivin, had died two years earlier, and the firm needed a designer to take his place. In 1924, at the age of 23, Belperron became codirector of the maison.
Besides being young, she broke ground as a woman in the industry, relates Stoehrer. “Jewelry is a man’s world, and she was one of the first female figures to emerge in the 20th century. She represented the new women of the 20th century…[at a] moment in history when women were entering the workforce.”
Belperron worked in anonymity for Boivin, which was common among designers at jewelry houses at the time. In 1932, she accepted an offer from Bernard Herz, a renowned Parisian dealer of pearls and precious gems, to take a central position in his eponymous company. With this job, she had total creative freedom.
This was a turning point in her career, says Landrigan, as Herz was one of the most important figures in the Parisian jewelry industry. “He was the supplier to the top five houses in Paris. He had the greatest gemstones at the time. His choice to make her lead his jewelry house showed how rare a find she was. He could have approached anyone. It wasn’t like she was third on his list; he asked her first, and she agreed. No women at this time were designers. She was running circles around the competition.”
Belperron set up a private salon at 59 Rue de Châteaudun, receiving clients by appointment. She secured the services of gem-cutter Adrien Louart and appointed Groëné et Darde as her exclusive workshop, crafting her signature techniques. She never signed her jewels, famously saying, “Mon style est ma signature” — “My style is my signature.”
A powerful legacy
During this time, her high-jewelry creations found favor among Europe’s royalty and aristocrats, as well as many of the era’s celebrities and fashion influencers. The Aga Khan dynasty, the Rothschilds, and the duke and duchess of Windsor were clients. Others included Vreeland, fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, French socialite Daisy Fellowes — who was the Paris editor of Harper’s Bazaar — and entertainers Josephine Baker, Gary Cooper, Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra.
That level of reach “speaks to power,” says Poindexter. “You’re 30 years old, and you have people like Daisy Fellowes coming in, or [US fashion icon] Mona von Bismarck, and ordering these jewels or selecting from what you’ve made. That just shows you how important she was.”
During World War II, Herz, who was Jewish, was jailed and eventually died in a concentration camp. Belperron, who also suffered harassment from the Gestapo, did all she could to keep the business in Paris, refusing several offers from American businesses to design jewels in the US. She partnered with Herz’s son, Jean, to form Herz-Belperron in the 1940s. They owned the firm until 1974, when they agreed to liquidate the business. Belperron died in March 1983 at age 82.
To say that her artistic high-jewelry creations live on is an understatement. No one knows this better than Landrigan.
“People walk in, look at her designs today and say, ‘My god, it’s so modern,’” he says. “As if it was done with foreknowledge of how women dressed today — edgy, comfortable, using mixed materials, but always fine.”
Main image: Facetté cuff by Suzanne Belperron in silver with old-cut diamonds and rock crystal, circa 1934, which sold at Christie’s for $415,800. (Christie’s)
