Thank you so much. I am passionate about the designs of Verdura Belperron. Before WWII, coco chanel was friendly with a sicilian duke Fulco di Verdura. They would travel together and were inspired by Byzantine art (obviously very different from Art Deco). He designed jewelry and created two white asymetrical cuffs that CC wore every day: thus the Maltese cross cuff and bracelet were born. The Maltese cross cuff literally launched the house of Verdura. The CC ones I believe were white enamel over base metal and decorated with semiprecious gems. (I have seen the original ones at Verdura). There are many versions of the Maltese cross cuff with gold, black enamel, hard wood, and other materials. Verdura also came out with black jade and other versions (Sofia Coppola has a black pair). My DH and SA strongly warned me not to even consider the black jade versions bc as my SA put it: you have to be very careful and put them on and take them off over a bed. if for example, you take them off in the bathroom or they drop on the floor, it’s broken. Mine are gold, black enamel, blue topaz. Periodot, amethyst, and diamond. I had dreamt of the Maltese cross cuff since high school
Many many years later, the President of Verdura Ward Landrigan fell in love with the designs of SuzAnne Belperron. Verdura bought all of the rights to create licensed reproductions of her work. This is important bc Suzanne Belperron never signed her work, famously saying “my style is my signature.” Belperron was one of the founders of Art Deco; had incredibly modern takes on jewelry; and single handed saved the company she worked for (owned by her lover Herz who was sent to a concentration camp); and business partnered with his son after the war. Tiffany had asked her to leave France to be the in house jeweler. She refused bc she felt she could not leave her company, and so Tiffany appointed Schlumberger. i have corne earrings by Belperron which are an design created during the time of Art Deco that give the look of a spiral multi piercing.
Incidentally, she was most famous for employing skilled lapidaries who would set semi precious stones in chalcedony, rock crystal, and other materials And precisely fit the Jewelry to the individual client. As the story goes, all the society ladies bought Belperron and would wear them to the opera. The chalcedony would break and chip whenever they clapped. So, the workers were kept very busy. Wallis Simpson commissioned many pieces, the most famous of which were later allowed to be mass reproduced in plastic by Kenneth Jay Lane (entitled the KJL Duchess of Windsor collection) . One of the most famous collectors of Suzanne Belperron was Karl Lagerfeld, and Matisse famously depicted Dorothy Paley in Belperron emerald and gold cuffs (Very different than Verdura ones).
