Suzanne Belperron, born in 1900, began her career working briefly for Cartier. But it was at the firm of Boivin, where she worked from 1921 until 1931, that she developed her distinctive flair “for both the dramatic and the sensual that set her apart from other designers of her time,” says Audrey Friedman, owner, Primavera Gallery, New York City. “Her style had a profound effect on the look of Boivin’s jewelry,” adds Friedman. In 1933, Belperron partnered with pearl dealer Bernard Herz, enjoying the freedom to sell her own designs under the Maison Herz name.
“Belperron was very forthright in a very difficult period with the occupation in France, refusing to leave the country,” says Lisa Hubbard, Sotheby’s chairman of international jewelry for North and South America. “When the Nazis required all Jewish businesses to register, she registered the business she shared with Herz under her own name to keep it alive.” Herz died in the concentration camps in 1943. His son, Jean, was taken as a prisoner of war. When he returned to Paris in 1945, he joined Belperron in the firm, which was renamed Herz-Suzanne Belperron. It remained active until 1974. Belperron died in 1983. The rights to Herz-Belperron’s designs were subsequently purchased by Ward Landrigan, owner of Verdura, in 1998.
Belperron was very secretive, never giving interviews and insisting clients visit her at her small Paris shop. “There’s an air of mystery about her,” says Friedman. “She kept a very low profile. She didn’t sign her work, a lot of which was done as commissions for clients.” It’s her distinctive style and in some cases the fabrication marks — Herz-Belperron jewelry was executed by Groene et Darde, which later became Darde et Fils — that identify her work.
Art Deco and Beyond
“Much of her earlier Art Deco jewelry was very geometric and used a lot of carved rock crystal,” says Friedman. “In the 1930s, her designs become more sensual in their feeling. She was particularly fond of a grape motif, which recurs in a variety of versions, ranging from a three-dimensional cluster carved in chalcedony to just an outline in rock crystal set with sapphires.”
For Malcolm Logan, co-owner of Nelson Rarities of Portland, Maine, Belperron “was probably the greatest female jewelry designer in the twentieth century. To me, you look at Belperron’s jewelry and at first you say, ‘Oh, wow, that’s so masculine.’ And then you look at it again and say, ‘Oh, wow, it’s so feminine.’ She was a sheer genius in terms of the materials she used and the manner in which she used them. She made wonderful rings out of one piece of gemstone, whether it was rock crystal or citrine, and she’d decorate the top with diamonds and pearls or something of that sort. She did a lot of rings, in particular, of carved chalcedony and she liked setting pearls into these.”
“She was so different for the time,” states Daphne Lingon, senior vice president, Christie’s New York jewelry department, pointing out that Belperron chose stones that “weren’t necessarily expensive, but she put them together in interesting ways. Her jewelry was very sculptural and bold.”
According to Friedman, Belperron made a lot of complex pieces using blue or flesh-color chalcedony. When she worked in gold, says Friedman, the gold surface was painstakingly textured to give it “a distinctive mattelike finish. And she had a way of setting stones in what almost looks like a honeycomb setting. So there are certain things of hers that you look at and say, ‘it’s Belperron,’ even before you identify the maker’s mark.”
Lingon recalls a “beautiful smoky quartz bracelet” from a sale at Christie’s in 2000 estimated at $12,000 to $15,000, which sold for $23,900. It had a look, she says, “that was almost quilted in the way it was carved; it was fluted, and trimmed by little diamonds. Belperron was interested in how light was diffused by the stones and how they would look in different lights and just gave it that tiny little finish with the diamonds.”
Belperron’s bracelets and cuffs tend to be small and cannot be adjusted — something, Lingon notes, that can restrict their salability “to a limited group, just for the fact that the size is so small.” A lot of her rings tend to be very small as well, points out Friedman.
A Rare Talent
Among the stellar list of clients who appreciated Belperron’s work were Mrs. Solomon Guggenheim, Elsa Schiaparelli, Frank Sinatra, Babe Paley, Diana Vreeland and Colette.
“People of real style were patrons of Madame Belperron,” sums up Andrew Nelson, the other co-owner of Nelson Rarities. But the event that really “catapulted Belperron onto the more traditional jewelry world’s radar screen,” he says, “was the 1987 Sotheby sale of the Duchess of Windsor jewelry, held on April 2 and 3 in Geneva. Included in the sale were a chalcedony, sapphire and diamond necklace, ear clips and bangles. At the time, the necklace brought $183,333; the ear clips, $88,000 and the bangles brought $146,667.”
“She hit the big time with the Duchess of Windsor sale,” agrees Friedman. “After that sale, she became increasingly sought after.”
Nelson’s introduction to Belperron’s designs occurred in the early 1970s, he says, thanks to the Art Deco collector/dealer Annella Brown, who was the first board-certified female surgeon in New England. “She was a collector, always well advanced of her era,” says Nelson. “And she became knowledgeable about Madame Belperron early on. I bumped into her in New York and she took me to Bergdorf Goodman, where there was a collection of about 50 Belperron items, including two-dozen rings, all carved rock crystal. Some had gemstones embedded in the centers — emeralds or rubies or colored diamonds. Annella bought two rock crystal rings, one with a little canary diamond and one with an emerald, paying a price that was amazing for the time of $20,000 to $25,000 for each one.”
Recent auction sales reflect the high prices Belperron pieces command in today’s market, confirming, says Lingon, an interest in Belperron and the rarity and romance associated with her pieces. “A pair of gold cuffs, set with tumbled, graduated beads, circa early 1940, sold at Christie’s New York in 2003 for $164,000 on an estimate of $35,000 to $50,000,” recalls Lingon. And at Sotheby’s on December 9, 2009, a pair of her rock crystal and diamond double clip brooches sold for $158,000, against a presale estimate of $50,000 to $70,000.
The appeal of Belperron’s work is clear to Friedman. “It’s beautiful; it’s feminine. She didn’t do a huge production so there’s the rarity factor. It has a certain cachet to it. Women who like interesting jewelry know the name Belperron — it’s an important name that they’d want to show off.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - May 2010. To subscribe click here.