A New Style for a New World

When the First World War came to an end, Europeans wanted to forget the horrors as soon as possible and create a new art of living, a reborn world that would oust the traditions established by a pre-war society. A rapid and radical transformation took place, with more innovations and inventions than there had been in the forty years leading up to the war. One movement in art followed hard on the heels of the last— Expressionism, Cubism, Modernism and Functionalism.What they had in common was that they were all reactions to the organic ornamentation of Art Nouveau, which was regarded as hopelessly old-fashioned and pompous. One of the best-known trends to emerge after the Great War was Art Deco, seen as the first artistic style of these Modern Times. The style embraced industrial design and there was a focus on construction. Although some authors take the two decades between the wars (1920 to 1939) to be the Art Deco period, there was a parting of the ways between Old School designers and the Moderns after 1925. The style of this bracelet tends towards the Moderns, who made their name after the heyday of Art Deco. For this reason it makes more sense to describe this piece as a Modern Times bracelet.

Salons and Exhibitions

Annual salons and international exhibitions played a key role in the development of the applied arts. They stimulated creative energies and brought creations to the notice of a wider public. The 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris remains an unparalleled event in the annals of jewellery. It was the first exhibition to insist on artistic innovation as a pre-condition for entry, and this encouraged a range of new style elements.

France was the major contributor to this exhibition, but many other European nations were also represented. The Netherlands’ entry was dominated by the Amsterdam School. The exhibition—a resounding success—was in fact a homage to the new age. The world of communications, of speed, travel and luxury, in which  technology was embraced, spawned geometric figures and bold decoration that was expressed in fine art, in fashion and, above all, in jewellery and architecture. Gem cutters obtained unprecedented effects from precious stones. To the classic cuts—rose, brilliant and demi-brilliant—were added new combinations: in tables, baguettes, prisms and trapeziums, enabling creator-designers to achieve their projects and breaking once and for all the orthodox rigidity of traditional cuts.

The 1925 Exposition was the embodiment of all the various trends that combined to define the style of the age. They very name Art Deco derives from this exhibition. Paris was unquestionably setting the tone for the elegant women of Europe and America. It was to Paris they came each season to look and to buy what was being worn. Between 1926 and 1928 jewellery enjoyed an unprecedented period of popularity. There was no question of ‘less is more’, and women wore numerous bracelets on each arm.

Mode Blanche

Parisian designers decided to repeat the 1925 experiment to show just how far their ingenuity and imagination could stretch. In 1929 George Fouquet initiated an Exposition de Bijouterie-Joaillerie et Orfèvrerie at the Musée Galliéra in Paris. While the use of colour had characterized the 1925 Exposition, this exposition was set dans la note blanche. The diamond reigned supreme and the rainbow colours of the jewellery exhibited in 1925 gave way to the silver-grey of platinum, the white of diamonds and the black of jet, onyx and lacquer. The sharp angles, the cut-off corners and the flat surfaces were abandoned in favour of relief and curved lines, as this bracelet exemplifies.

Union des Artistes Modernes

It was also around this time that a number of jewellery designers and architects were coming together in new forms of collaboration. Although the 1925 Exposition embodied all the various trends that combined to define the style of the age, careful observers were already able to distinguish between the various French exhibitors: between the Haute Joaillerie and the Avant-Garde or innovators. This dividing line between the Anciens and the Modernes (Old School and Moderns), the Tempérés and the Radicaux (the Moderates and the Radicals) foreshadowed the ultimate breach and subsequent creation of the UAM—the Union des Artistes Modernes—in 1929. Jewellers Jean Fouquet, Gérard Sandoz and Raymond Templier joined forces with architects like Le Corbusier and sculptors like Joseph Csaky. Their first exhibition was staged at the Pavillon de Marsan in 1930. Their designs and art were strictly modern and strictly rational. The UAM’s manifesto, published in 1934, states that ‘a work only has true unity when one cannot displace a single part of it without weakening or disturbing the whole. All ornament that is just ornament is excessive: get rid of it.’

This Bracelet

This bracelet beautifully expresses the fascination with the mechanical world. Each link is gently domed. Over the rounded forms of the links, set with brilliant cut diamonds, runs a row of baguette cut diamonds, like a sort of caterpillar track across the bracelet. The relief and the uncluttered lines of the design, combined with the rounded links and the ‘white’ execution in platinum and diamonds only, are typical of the period in which this bracelet was made. It is an exquisite piece in which the diamonds are cleverly distributed and of the highest quality. The design and craftsmanship suggest an important maker. Although this bracelet is unsigned, the design is reminiscent of the work of Raymond Templier.

Length 18.8 cm
Weight 55 grams
Total weight of diamonds approx. 23 carats, D/E colour, LC/VVS1