JEWELLERY

JEWELLERY
After designing furniture for Charles Gillot, Eugène Grasset ventured into another field of decorative art with the jewellers and goldsmiths Vever. The collection of some twenty pieces of jewellery he produced for this firm were shown at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900.

If you want to use this picture, please contact our library

The Vever company was founded in Metz in 1821 by the brothers Paul and Henri Vever. It was probably Charles Gillot who introduced Eugène Grasset to Henri Vever, with whom he shared the same passion for Japanese prints.

  • Poetry pendant

    Eugène Grasset, Maison Vever, Paris, 1900
    ivory, gold and enamel

    Paris, Musée des Arts décoratifs, inv. 12746
  • Omphale necklace

    Eugène Grasset, Maison Vever, Paris, 1900
    gold, silver, enamel, ruby, turquoise, emerald, red jasper, diamond

    Paris, Musée des Arts décoratifs, inv. 24521

Vever was not the only jewellery house to commission an artist to create such pieces, which were soon dubbed “painter’s jewellery” due to the colour harmonies of their enamels and tints of gold.
Eugène Grasset’s ornamental vocabulary of legendary female figures, animals and flowers was considered by contemporaries to be Byzantine, Irish and Japanese influenced.

  • Poppy belt buckle

    Eugène Grasset, Maison Vever, Paris, 1900
    gold, enamel, amethyst, turquoise

    Paris, Musée des Arts décoratifs, inv. 24530
  • Peacock belt buckle

    Eugène Grasset, Maison Vever, Paris, 1900,
    gold, enamel and cornelian

    Paris, Musée des Arts décoratifs, inv. 24531

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs has seven of the pieces Eugène Grasset designed for Vever, six of which were donated to the museum by Henri Vever in 1924.