Art Déco Jewellery and Accessories. A New Style for a New World

For every purse –
Art-Déco jewellery from France and Germany 

The 1920s and 1930s Zeitgeist produced design that was at once extravagant and astringent in jewellery made of cool-looking, precious materials. Artists and jewellers created masterpieces that were intended to enhance the liberated image of the emancipated woman. Moreover, new materials made beautifully designed jewellery affordable even for those of more modest means. 

On the Seine, the great jewellers Boucheron, Cartier and Chaumet combined coloured stones with frosted rock crystal, featured cornelian and lapis lazuli ‒ reminiscent of ancient Egypt – and created pieces of jewellery in geometric forms set off by diamonds. Japanese lacquer and enamel were materials typically used for jars and minaudières. The post-war years saw a desire for luxury resurgent in all classes of society. No wonder art jewellery and costume jewellery entranced the public at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. Costume jewellery swept the fashion scene to become trendy after Paris fashion designer Coco Chanel made a point of launching her collections with “faux bijoux” to match. Thus rhinestones, glass beads, aluminium, tombac and plastic materials such as Bakelite and Galalith became socially acceptable and glittered at the most elegant salons. 

In Germany, art jewellery between the two world wars was shaped by distinguished goldsmiths, including Elisabeth Treskow, Theodor Wende, Herbert Zeitner and – at the Bauhaus ‒ Naum Slutzky. Larger workshops and jewellery manufacturers also contributed substantially to the new trend in jewellery. The Idar-Oberstein firm of Jakob Bengel, which made countless variations on chic chains of chromium and plastic, and – with different products ‒ Gustav Braendle, Th. Fahrner, Successor proved that mass production and well designed cutting-edge jewellery need not represent a contradiction in terms.