Boucheron (French, est. 1858), Bracelet, 1971, gold, elephant hair

Audio Description

This bracelet was manufactured by French jewelry house Boucheron, which was established in 1858. It was designed and made in 1971.

Strands of thick dark brown elephant hair form two parallel ropes that are bound together at the back of the bracelet by polished yellow gold. The separate ends are finished at the center front with polished yellow gold that links around each other.

Label Copy

This bracelet was manufactured by French jewelry house Boucheron, which was established in 1858. It was designed and made in 1971.

Founded in the mid-nineteenth century in Paris, the house of Boucheron remains today a mainstay of elegant, and expensive, fine jewelry studded with precious gems. But in the 1960s and ‘70s, Boucheron endorsed the newest trends and offered jewelry of pure modernity. Like other forward-thinking firms, it advanced collections with themes such as space, abstraction, and nature. Their in-house designers experimented with new materials to appeal to its well-heeled hippie clientele. The incorporation of natural elements such as ivory, bone, and tortoiseshell, materials that are now banned from use, resonated with the upper-class counterculture.

Perhaps exploiting the casual feel of the safari-style popularized by fashion designer Yves St. Laurent in his late 1960s collections, this bracelet has a sense of the wild. Boucheron captured the moment with this substantial bracelet of polished gold and hefty strands of elephant hair. This ultra-modern, minimalist piece, with no texture, no gems, no pretentiousness, focuses the eye on its unusual material.

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