“Some of the most imaginative jewelry ever made” is how Audrey Friedman, a co-owner of New York’s Primavera Gallery, describes the pieces in “ Jewelry of the 1950s–1960s from the House of René Boivin and Other Notable Jewelers,” on view at the gallery from November 13 through December 23. The show highlights work made in the years after World War II, when wealthy Americans began traveling to France to shop for couture clothes and the jewels to adorn them.

According to Friedman, the postwar years brought important changes in jewelry design: “Materials were available again, and people wanted fresh, new styles.” French craftsmen rose to the challenge, producing elaborate works that supplanted the geometric shapes of Deco design with naturalistic forms—birds, fish and flowers— and a variety of textured surfaces. Precious and semiprecious stones were combined for “visual effect rather than intrinsic value.”

Among the almost 60 pieces on display are technically sophisticated rings and brooches with moving parts, and necklaces that separate into multiple bracelets. Familiar names like Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier are represented, along with such smaller houses as Marchak, Mellerio and, the show’s star attraction, René Boivin. “We wanted to do material that hasn’t been looked at before, but we couldn’t do an all- Boivin show,” Friedman explains, because his “pieces sell too quickly.” Prices range from about $4,000 for an unsigned ring to $95,000 for a rare Boivin brooch of entwined dolphins adorned with diamond teardrop pendants. All were products of a traditional French apprenticeship system that ended as the last generation of skilled craftsmen retired or died. “If you made one of these now,” Friedman says, “it would cost at least as much, and it wouldn’t be made as well.” "Ravishing, Not Retro" originally appeared in the October 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's October 2008 Table of Contents.