RENE BOIVIN

Rene Boivin has been one of the most significant jewellery houses for the best part of a century. From its late 19th Century beginnings under its founder Jules Rene Boivin, to its recent take over by Asprey Plc it has become renowned for its capacity to allude to the current trends without betraying its individual style and influences. This legacy is due in no small measure to Jeanne Boivin who took over her husband’s business after his death in 1917. Keeping the business name, as much to facilitate life in a masculine world, as to preserve her husband’s memory, Jeanne Boivin forged her very particular style becoming the first important female jeweller. Her family and friends were at the heart of Parisian artistic circles, and their influence can be seen in Jeanne Boivin’s relationship with jewellery. Rather than wholly embracing the Art Deco trend that engulfed the rest of the jewellery world in the late 1920s and early 1930s, she was also inspired by the exoticism that was enchanting the likes of Picasso and Paul Gauguin, which can be seen in her famous “Barbare” collection or her “Tranche” and “Torque’ bracelets. Whilst remaining close to the greats such as Sandoz or Fouquet, she added her own feminine eye to the movement’s ideals with the help of Suzanne Belperron from 1921 to 1932 and then Juliette Moutard, her daughter Germaine Boivin and Louis Girard. The Boivin house would go on to create many spectacular jewels famously inspired by nature and sea life, Jeanne Boivin died in 1959 leaving the jewellery house in the hands of her trusted collaborators until 1968 when Jacques Bernard was brought in to carefully observe the Boivin empire for two years and eventually inherit it in 1970. He carried on the Boivin name until 1991 when it was bought by Asprey Co.