Obscurity May Be Ending for These Jewelry Designers

Male Barton is hunting for bold gold jewelry with the initials GL, for Georges Lenfant. “It’s a concealed mark that implies fantastic, unparalleled good quality,” reported Mr. Barton, the director of Hancocks London, the classic jewellery vendor founded in 1849.

As another person who has handled examples of high-quality jewelry from each individual period of time, Mr. Barton said that no other goldsmith has matched the craftsmanship and creative imagination of the mid-20th century-maker. “You can instantaneously convey to a Lenfant piece when you maintain it,” he reported. “It is tactile and adaptable it has inventive finishes and textures and motion.”

Lenfant’s name is acknowledged by vintage sellers and educated collectors, but it’s most likely that some people today who personal Lenfant pieces really do not know it. Which is mainly because for a long time Georges Lenfant and his son, Jacques, collaborated on styles with just about just about every critical jewellery home, from Cartier to Van Cleef & Arpels. The Lenfants’ hallmark, a diamond-condition stamp with the initials, appeared together with the names of popular properties on jewelry and also was stamped on the gold bracelets of watches from Rolex, Hermès and Vacheron Constantin.

Just lately, nonetheless, the Lenfants are eventually obtaining recognition past jewelry’s interior circles. With the renewed desire in assertion gold jewellery, persons are getting their striking patterns, explained Russell Zelenetz, a spouse in Stephen Russell, a jewellery retailer on Madison Avenue. “Customers are drawn to the jewellery because of the look and the way it feels. Lenfant was a genius in the way he manipulated, hand-wove, and concluded the gold.”

Mr. Zelenetz has been collecting and marketing Lenfant parts due to the fact he and Stephen Feuerman proven the small business 39 several years ago. Its latest presenting involves a variety of pieces from the 1960s, such as an oversize 18-karat gold Hermès Chaîne d’Ancre website link bracelet stamped with Georges Lenfant’s initials and a supple 18-karat gold mesh buckle bracelet created by Jacques Lenfant.

The enterprise began as Duparc and Lenfant in 1899, and Georges Lenfant registered his initials as his maker’s mark in 1909. His workshop was close to Paris’s Place Vendôme, previously the coronary heart of the world’s luxury jewellery properties. In 1915, Jacques, then 11, joined the enterprise whilst continuing his experiments at the École nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs in Paris and later on apprenticing with jewelers in Germany, Austria and England. (Eventually some of his layouts have been stamped Jacques Lenfant for Georges Lenfant.)

Around the a long time, the Lenfants made a selection of items, from diamond rings to whimsical jeweled brooches in animal styles. But following Environment War II, when girls needed statement jewellery that mirrored their newfound unbiased spirit, Jacques Lenfant pushed the boundaries of metalwork to create modern items in gold — what he referred to as a “harmony of sounds, styles and textures” in his guide “Le livre de la chaîne,” revealed in 1996, a calendar year immediately after his loss of life.

“His gold jewellery,” Mr. Barton stated, “was the spine of the midcentury bold gold motion.”

“Lenfant’s chains are attractive and seamless, and they go perfectly,” mentioned Loren Teetelli, a Los Angeles-dependent jeweler properly trained in ancient metalsmithing, who spends 3 to 5 times making a solitary gold chain for her Loren Nicole assortment.

“When you maintain a handmade chain,” she mentioned, “it feels diverse, moves various and has a heft that you just cannot get with casting.”

Jacques Lenfant pulled gold into skinny wires that then had been woven into versatile lengths, so even a massive mesh bracelet appeared to hug the wearer’s wrist. His finishing tactics incorporated etching gold to generate sparkle, sprucing it to a high shine and sanding for a matte result.

“Gold function is a massively qualified craft,” Mr. Zelenetz explained. “Jacques Lenfant pushed the boundaries of what was possible. He was creating special types that hadn’t been viewed before. Even his clasps were exceptional and integrated seamlessly into the structure.”

Soon after Jacques Lenfant’s demise in 1995, the organization stopped producing Lenfant jewelry and the workshop was offered.

But Anthony Barzilay Freund, the editorial director at 1stDibs, the on line home and style and design retailer, reported Lenfant is ripe for rediscovery. “It’s quite insider for now, but I consider it will transform mainly because we are in a interval when men and women want statement gold jewellery,” he reported.

A recent lookup for Lenfant on the 1stDibs web page turned up additional than 50 jewels and watches, ranging from a 1970s gold zodiac pendant from Van Cleef & Arpels and Lenfant ($16,500) to a 1950s Vé gold backlink bracelet by Jacques Lenfant for Georges Lenfant ($38,000). The sellers established selling prices on 1stDibs, with all those for Lenfant pieces ranging from $16,000 to $18,000.

Mr. Barton said Lenfant jewellery signifies very good value, as a piece would be fewer pricey than, for case in point, a gold vintage bracelet signed by Cartier.

“At the moment, I do not imagine the Lenfants are acquiring the recognition that they are entitled to,” Mr. Barton said. But he thinks that will not very last a great deal for a longer time.