Boucheron

Boucheron is a french jeweler. The history of Boucheron begins in 1858 in Paris with Frédéric B. (1830-1903) who chooses as the headquarters of his business the Galérie du Palais Royal, winning the favor of the Second Empire aristocracy with a style inspired by nature. In 1867, his popularity grew with his manufacture of the gold medal for the Universal Exhibition of Paris. Around the same time, he created for Mrs. Clarence H. Mackay a necklace which was destined to be remembered: set between diamonds was a zephyr considered to be the purest, the biggest, and the most beautiful in the world. In 1893, he moved to Place VendÂme 26. Louis Boucheron would continue his father’s tradition, hoarding the most extraordinary precious stones, refining the cuts, and using onyx, lapis lazuli, coral, jade, and amber in his creations. He opened a subsidiary firm in London and successfully participated in the famous Art Deco exhibition of 1925. Some of his jewels are today on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Among his clients have been maharajahs, oriental princes, kings of Egypt, and emperors of Persia, along with big American industrialists and movie stars. The new generation, represented by Fred and Gérard Bucheron, returned in the 1940s to a naturalistic and floral inspiration. And immediately after the war, the conquest of the rest of the world began: the Americas, the Middle East and, in the 1970s, Japan and the Far East. In the 1990s the policy of Alain Bucheron was based on prestigious jewellery, in express contrast to less exclusive jewellery, to be worn in everyday life, including also steel watches. The year 1983 saw the launch of the fragrance Boucheron, in a bottle shaped like a ring meant for a maharajah. In 1994 there was a second perfume of oriental inspiration, Jaïpur.