ADAM'S Fine Jewellery & Ladies Watches 12th May 2026

101 At the turn of the twentieth century, women were only beginning to enter the workplace in any real num- bers. The First World War accelerated the shift: with so much of the country's labour directed toward recon- struction, women moved into roles that had long been closed to them. In the world of jewellery, traditional- ly and fiercely male, a handful of exceptional women emerged not just as contributors, but as the creative minds behind some of the era's most extraordinary work. The French firm of Boivin, founded in Paris in the 1890s by René Boivin, is considered to have produced some of the most original and finely wrought jewels of the twentieth century. René was born in 1864 and, after school, joined his older brother Victor's business as a goldsmith's apprentice at seventeen, learning his craft through inlaid metalwork and engraving be- fore becoming a highly skilled draughtsman. In 1893 he married Jeanne Poiret, whose brother Paul was already the most celebrated couturier in Paris, a con- nection that brought Maison Boivin into a remarkable circle of artists, intellectuals, and society figures from the very start. René died in 1917 at just 53, at the height of the firm's reputation. His death, swiftly followed by that of his only son Pierre, could easily have spelled the end of Maison Boivin. Instead, Jeanne decided to carry on. No woman had ever before headed an important jew- ellery firm. She had run the business alongside her husband for over two decades, and she knew it well. She fulfilled existing orders, took on work from other houses to keep things going, and used that period to quietly build the creative vision that would define the Maison's best years. She had no interest in fashion for fashion's sake, favouring bold, voluminous pieces set with large coloured stones, sculptural in form, unapol- ogetic in presence, and always deeply feminine. The most important hire of her time came in 1933, when Jeanne brought on Juliette Moutard as the Mai- son's principal designer. Born in 1900, Moutard was a gifted and meticulous designer who had trained at a Parisian watchmaking firm, work that gave her a remarkable feel for articulation and movement that shows in everything she made. The two women were a natural fit: one gave shape and substance to the ideas of the other, who then closely supervised every stage of manufacture down to the last detail. Moutard had no time for trends. She was drawn to the fluid, sensual forms of the natural world rather than the geometric cool of Art Deco, a preference she shared with Ma- dame Boivin, and one that gave the firm its singular character. While most contemporaries were still work- ing in the abstract severity of the period, Boivin's de- signs grew more playful and alive, full of flowers, crea- tures, shells, and the sea. In 1938, Germaine Boivin, Jeanne's daughter who had been working for her uncle Paul Poiret, officially joined the firm. With all three women now in place, the Maison hit its stride. Clients rarely received a price estimate or a delivery date, something that became, among the right circles in Paris, simply part of the plea- sure of owning a Boivin piece. Jeanne felt the jewellery was distinctive enough to need no signature. It drew exactly the clientele that sort of confidence tends to attract, among them Millicent Rogers and the Duchess of Windsor, both devoted to the Maison's bold and utterly original work. Madame Boivin retired in 1954 and died five years lat- er in 1959, leaving the firm to Germaine. Juliette Mou- tard stayed on, working until her retirement in 1970. She died in 1990. What she left behind, jewels made across nearly four decades, speaks for itself: pieces that felt ahead of their time when they were made, and have never quite caught up with since. Th r e e Wome n . On e V i s i o n . A Ce n t u r y o f Ma s t e r p i e c e s .