The auction house is offering two rare necklaces by Cartier and Boucheron.
Important Art Deco jewels will be auctioned on May 13th at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva. Christie’s is offering a Cartier sautoir and a Boucheron necklace, both made around 1925, the birth year of Art Deco, a name derived from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, an exhibition held in Paris that same year. Along with these two pieces, the auction also features other Art Deco jewels.
The Cartier necklace is made of emeralds, pearls, and diamonds and was used in the film adaptation of The Great Gatsby. The sautoir necklace was created by Cartier in New York, specially commissioned by one of the Maison’s most important clients, who already owned the remarkable 86.71-carat carved emerald depicting the Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati and requested that it be reinterpreted as a masterpiece of Art Deco design. It is estimated at $310,000–$510,000.
Fifty years later, in 1974, the Cartier jewel played a prominent role in the film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, where it was worn by Jordan Baker, played by Lois Chiles. For the occasion, Mia Farrow and all the main actresses in the cast wore Art Deco jewelry provided by Cartier.
The Boucheron necklace is crafted with rubies, emeralds, onyx, and diamonds, set in platinum. The piece is ingeniously designed to be disassembled into four parts. The necklace can be worn as two bracelets and a choker. Estimate: $310,000-$510,000. The rose motif was a prominent decorative theme in Paris in the early 20th century and was closely associated with the fashion designer Paul Poiret (1879-1944). Illustrator and designer Paul Iribe (1883-1935) created the celebrated stylized rose motif for Poiret around 1908-1909, a design that became emblematic of the House of Poiret and influenced designers far beyond the world of fashion. At the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, Boucheron presented this necklace decorated with these stylized roses, which recalled those that in turn recalled Iribe’s earlier design for Poiret. It is the continuation of the Question Mark series introduced in 1879, a revolutionary feat of craftsmanship that reinvented the way jewelry could move with the body.
