METAL: 18K gold (750) and silver (925)
AQUAMARINE: cut-cornered rectangular aquamarine with approximate total weight of 85.0 - 90.0 carats
LACQUER: black lacquer
SIZE/DIMENSIONS: 58.5 cm (necklace), 9.8 x 4.5 (pendant)
DATE: circa 1925
SIGNATURE: Jean Fouquet
MARKS: French assay marks for gold and silver
GROSS WEIGHT: 166.06 grams
Accompanied by its Georges Fouquet fitted case and an original photograph of the necklace signed by George Fouquet.

λ Droit de suite de l’artiste
λ Artist's resale right

Michel Périnet, Barlach Heuer

- Le Style 1925 ,Paris, Baschet et Cie Editeurs, 1975, p.173.
- F.Falk,Art Déco –ein neuentdecker Kunsbegriff? , Blickpunkt Pforzheim I/1975 p. 40 à 45.
- L. . Heuer, F. Marcilhac, Art Déco Schmuck und bücher aus Frankreich, Schmuckmuseum, 1975, p.10
- « Cinquantenaire de l’exposition de 1925 », Paris 1976, Musée des arts Décoratifs, catalogue N°466
- Handbuch des Schmucks , Bruckmann-Verlag, München 1977, p.167.
- V.Arwas, Art Déco , London, Academie Editions, 1980, p.124.
- M.Noël, Feuilles, « La Belle et la Machine » n°5, Edition SEITA, été 1983, p. 94
- Les Fouquet , Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris, Janvier/Mars 1984. p. 139.
Same for Zürich, Museum Bellerive, Mai-Août 1984
- A B.Chadour, «Die Fouquet 1860-1960 Schnuck-Künstler in Paris», Kunstchronik, 37jhg; Heft 8, Aug. 1984.
- Design (The Design Council -London).
- S.Raulet, Bijoux Art Déco , 1984, p.191.
- B.Cartlidge, n°59 Twentieth-Century Jewelry , Harry N. Abrams, Inc ; Publishers, New York 1985.
Featured in the same book, under no. 72.
French edidtion: Office du livre. Fribourg suisse 1986 ; Les Bijoux au XXè siècle.
- n°72 Art Déco 1920-1930, Fondation Septentrion, Mai-Juillet 1986.
- M. Gabardi, Les Bijoux de l’Art Déco aux Années 40, les Editions de l’Amateur, Paris 1986, p.53.
Featured in the same book under a "group photo" p.32
- n°109 Les Années UAM 1929-1958, Musée des arts Décoratifs, Paris 1988
- G. Neret, Ces bijoux qui font rêver, Ed. Solar 1990, p.110.
- The Master Jewelers, Ed. Thames and Hudson 1990, p.167.

- Exhibited at the « Cinquantenaire de l’exposition de 1925 », Paris 1976, Musée des arts Décoratifs (no. 466 in the catalogue).
- Exhibited at « Les Fouquet », Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris, January/March 1984. Page 139 of the catalogue
Same in Zürich, Museum Bellerive, May/August 1984
- Exhibited under no.72 for « Art Déco 1920-1930 » Fondation Septentrion, May/July 1986 (reproduced in full page colour in the catalogue)
- Exhibited under no.109 for « Les Années UAM 1929-1958 » Musée des arts Décoratifs, Paris 1988

Artist's Resale Right ("droit de Suite"). If the Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer also agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.

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Lot Essay

Among the great French families of jewelers, the Fouquet dynasty stands out, and notably Jean Fouquet in the third generation, with this magnificent necklace.
Heirs to the great tradition of Parisian jewellery, the Fouquets brought their dynamism, their creative boldness and their ever-renewed links with other artistic disciplines.
Jean Fouquet was the son of Georges Fouquet, a jeweller renowned for his Art Nouveau creations, himself the son of the no less famous Alphonse Fouquet, whose shop can be seen at the Musée Carnavalet.
Jean Fouquet’s style is strongly inspired by constructivism, cubism and futurism. The artist opts for a simple style with geometric shapes, triangles, semi-circles and pyramids.
He uses white gold and silver, prefers lacquer to enamel, plays with shining and matt surfaces or flat, chiselled surfaces like the disc of this lined necklace as well as large semi-precious stones, of which the aquamarine used for this necklace, imposing in weight and shape, is a perfect example.
Before he started making jewellery, Jean Fouquet studied literature and wrote novels. He was a friend of Paul Eluard and Louis Aragon. He wanted to become a lawyer, far from the world of luxury. Parallel to his literary activities, he started working with his father in 1919 and created avant-garde jewellery with revolutionary materials that were not used at the time, such as ebony, silver, chromium steel and white gold.
The city of Paris chose him to make a piece of jewellery for Princess Marie-José of Belgium, a tribute to the success of his creations. From 1925, during the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels and from 1926 to 1928, when he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, his pieces were the most innovative created by the Fouquet family.
Jean Fouquet was a master of the juxtaposition of geometric elements with strong colours to achieve a harmonious balance. His work has the same aesthetic approach as that of his contemporaries Raymond Templier, Paul Brandt and Gérard Sandoz, or Suzanne Belperron, he was one of the founding members of the UAM (Union des Artistes Modernes), a major movement in the history of art at the time, which brought together artists of various specialities.
After the war, his style evolved towards more rounded shapes, reflecting the style of the time tending towards softer curves and volumes. At the Brussels World Fair in 1958, the artist received a gold medal for his creations. In 1960, he stopped making jewellery altogether. He died in 1984 after having gifted his archives to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.
It is exciting with this piece made around 1925 - 1930 to present a piece of jewellery from the most interesting period in the artist’s creative work, when he was awarded the prize at the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels of 1925, a major event of the Art Deco period.