18k yellow gold (French assay marks), circa 1945, maker’s mark (Société Groene et Darde) on clasp and bangle

Certificate of Olivier Baroin, March 2022

Size/Dimensions: inner diameter 6.2 cm, continuous inner circumference 16.5 cm, width 1.3 to 3.3 cm
Gross weight: 52.6 grams

June Newton.

Cf. S. Raulet and O. Baroin, Suzanne Belperron, Lausanne, La Bibliothèque des Arts, 2011.

The story of an encounter

A Berlin Jew who fled Nazi Germany alone when he was not even 18, Helmut Neustâdter was still a small wedding photographer who was not even established in Melbourne when a friend asked him to photograph June. It was love at first sight.

Initially an Australian model and well-known actress for theater, June Browne (1923-2021) married to the German photographer Helmut Newton in 1948 to become June Newton.

In the 1960s, her husband's career really took off. However, surely by fate, Helmut fell ill one day in 1970. Unable to continue photoshooting, he entrusted it to June who then took the name of the Australian town of Alice Springs.

Forming a close-knit and artistically fertile photographic couple, June gave up her actress career to launch herself, late in life, into advertising and portrait photography and worked for the most prestigious magazines (Vogue, Vanity Fair...). At the opposite end of the spectrum from her husband's studied and double-entendred work, June captured magnetism and naturalness with tenderness and delicacy.

Before becoming an internationally renowned self-taught photographer and the favourite portraitist of Hollywood and Paris, June was above all an exceptional woman. With a rare elegance and a look as strong as her personality, June was a huge fan of modernist jewellery such as that of Raymond Templier, René Boivin and Suzanne Belperron. These jewels, with their geometric lines, purity and limited colours, reflect her photographic work: character without overdoing it. Her jewellery collection was enriched by her husband Helmut Newton throughout her life.

After the death of her great love in 2004, she established the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin, of which she was president until her death. There is no doubt that the rarity and uniqueness of all of the pieces that we are honored to present will attract the attention of lovers of modernist jewellery with a strong character.

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.