Boucheron French Retro Convertible Necklace

Created in the 1940s, this 18K gold, platinum and diamond necklace by Boucheron Paris is convertible into a pair of bracelets and a brooch, or an alternate form necklace and brooch. It is designed as high-relief snake chain with asymmetrical-length "négligée" diamond terminals joined by a stylized detachable bow clip with swirling baguette and round-cut diamond ribbons, the necklace convertible into a pair of bracelets. Precisely engineered for maximum flexibility and softness, this unique convertible jewel is an opulent work of high-style Parisian glamor and subtle mechanical genius.

Dimensions: Necklace: 19.00" length, 0.50" width; Brooch: 2.50" width and 2.75" length; Bracelets: 7.00" length
Materials: 64 old European and transitional-cut and 18 baguette-cut diamonds (approximate total weight 4.40 carats); 18K Gold and Platinum
Gram Weight: 197.5
Signed: Boucheron-Paris Depose, maker's mark for the atelier of Robert Prout

Maison Boucheron features prominently in Sylvie Raulet's scholarly work Jewelry of the 1940s and 1950s, in which she describes the medium as undergoing further artistic and technical revolution after the Art Deco era. Jewelry of this period unfolded into three dimensions, becoming sculpture, and French practitioners like Boucheron achieved new heights of technical innovation and design originality. This masterpiece of supremely flexible, high precision goldsmithing, with its high gauge, heavy snake chain, hidden mechanics, and strong design, is a multi-functional jewel that transforms itself and the wearer - according to the wearer's whim of the moment. Boucheron's collaborator on this jewel, Robert Prout, was a registered fabricant, and an elite supplier not only to Boucheron but also to luxury houses like Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. Active in the mid-century (ca. 1940–1960), his atelier specialized in complex and substantial gold chains, including tubogas, maille, and curb and marine links. Little known to the wider public, such artisans of hand-made high end work earned their high reputation within the closed-door network of the strict and exacting Parisian maisons.