French Jewellery of the Nineteenth Century

Author: Katherine Purcell

Exhibition Catalogue
72 pages
Publisher: Wartski, 2001
Soft cover
Profits to: The Samaritans

Written to accompany the exhibition which marked the publication of Katherine Purcell’s English translation of Henri Vever’s ‘La Bijouterie Française au XIXème Siècle’. The catalogue records three hundred and fourteen pieces of French jewellery spanning the entire century, with seventy-five illustrations. An important and influential exhibition, it included works by the most famous jewellers working in France during the period, including Baugrand, Boucheron, Falize, Feuillâtre, Fontenay, Fouquet, Gaillard, Gautrait, Lalique, Mellerio, Thesmar, Vever and Wiese. Among the masterpieces that are illustrated is an astounding ruby and diamond foliate spray that had previous belonged to Empress Josephine, as well as a monumental diamond study of a rose by Mellerio that had belonged to Princess Mathilde.