Jewelry Lovers

Art Nouveau jewelry had its origins in the work of French goldsmiths, whose creations were the inspiration for other European craftsmen and women. Most influential among the French artist-jewelers was the glass-maker Rene Lalique. He had a profound impact throughout Europe and America, starting when he opened a shop in Paris in 1885. He showed his work at the Salon du Champ Mars gallery in 1895 and again at the Paris exhibition of 1900. He has become particularly renowned for the pieces he made for the actress Sarah Bernhardt. They were a bold and extravagant celebration of mythology, combining engraved and stained glass in a theatrical style appropriate to the world of the actress.

Lalique linked precious materials with lesser ones such as horn, using a wide variety of techniques, including casting and plique-a-jour. By using many different materials he was able to match the colour of a piece of jewelry to a dress design. He used gold enamels, large pearls and a galaxy of semi-precious stones to create glowing, exuberant jewelry that was distinctively his own.

Other important names in the field included Georges Fouquet who commissioned Alphonse Mucha, a Czech painter and graphic artist, to design more jewelry for Bernhardt. On the whole, his designs were more synthetic and geometric than Lalique’s. Lucien Gaillard, Eugene Feuillâtre and Henri and Paul Vever of La Maison Vever were other major figures of the time, as was Edward Colonna. The latter designed furniture for Samuel Bing’s La Maison de I’Art Nouveau, the shop that gave its name to this movement.

The new art jewelry being produced by these designers excited much debate as to its wearability, not least because the pieces were generally very large. Many of the designers also made more commercial jewelry that had wider popular appeal whilst retaining the same aesthetic qualities as the art pieces.

Jewelers in France in this period had to produce ever more lavish and exuberant pieces for a society that was celebrating the final years of La Belle Epoque. Their work is symbolic, figurative and ostentatious, taking its inspiration from sources as wide- ranging as imported Japanese designs, Symbolism and ecclesiastical imagery.

Art Nouveau styles were adopted not only by the artist-jewelers, but also by the well-established companies centred in Paris such as Cartier and Boucheron, and by retailers like Julius Meier-Graef’s La Maison Moderne, which sold designs by Paul Follot and Maurice Dufrêne.

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Lalique and the beginning of Art Nouveau Jewelry