Line Vautrin: ‘The poetess of metal’

The distinctive work of the French jewellery designer and decorative artist Line Vautrin (1913-1997), dubbed ‘the poetess of metal’ by Vogue in the 1940s, epitomises Parisian Neo-Romantic chic.

Her witty and imaginative creations — spanning jewellery, boxes, mirrors, powder compacts and other gilt-bronze whimsies — were the result of continuous experimentation, and are imbued with her passion for poetry and fantasy.

‘Vautrin famously claimed to have one idea a day,’ says Robin Beyries, a specialist in the Design department at Christie’s in Paris. ‘Even now, we’re still discovering new models and rare variants, so there’s always something new for the collector to marvel at.’

Born in Paris in 1913 into a family that owned a bronze foundry, Vautrin taught herself metalworking skills such as gilding, chasing and casting. By the age of 21, she had designed her first jewellery collection. After a brief spell working for the studio of Elsa Schiaparelli, she began making boxes, ashtrays, powder compacts and paperweights, often inscribed with her signature allegories, metaphors, symbols and visual puns.

‘There’s a playfulness in her work that sparks the curiosity of collectors,’ says Beyries. ‘Her works also appeal on an emotional level, with her visual cues often evoking memories.’

Over the course of her long career, Vautrin drew inspiration from a variety of sources, ranging from the ancient world to the palm leaves of Casablanca, where she moved with her family in 1949. She also continued to innovate, experimenting with materials, designs and techniques in a bid to blur the traditional genre boundaries of the decorative arts.

She worked in bronze, but also played with small fragments of mirror embedded in her own formulation of cellulose acetate resin, which she registered under the trade name Talosel. Her Talosel mirror frames proved a huge hit, enticing celebrities such as the writer Françoise Sagan, film star Ingrid Bergman and fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.

Her breakthrough came in 1937, when she took a booth at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. She showcased a wide range of gilt-bronze buttons and jewellery, including the celebrated Adam and Eve necklace, to the acclaim of critics and collectors alike. The presentation cemented her reputation as a singular, creative innovator, and launched her on the international stage.

The following year she opened her first shop, on the rue de Berri, near the Champs-Elysées. Her necklaces, bracelets, brooches, earrings and belts quickly became bestsellers. Collectors were drawn to her unorthodox approach to design, as demonstrated by a gilt-bronze necklace featuring hanging and articulated ends suspended on a piece of chainmail.

‘There’s something so daring and surprising about her work,’ says the specialist. ‘It feels as though many of her pieces could be made today.’

In 1939, she presented bronze powder and pill containers engraved with riddles at the annual Société des Artistes Décorateurs fair. Such was her success that in 1943 she moved to larger premises on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

In addition to her bronze containers, Vautrin also made boxes and powder compacts with delicate mother-of-pearl lids. ‘Most of these pieces are unique,’ says Beyries. ‘They feel so delicate and precious. They’re a joy to behold.’

The mother-of-pearl examples feature maritime designs based on drawings by Vautrin’s artist husband, Jacques Armand Bonnaud. Some depict real animals such as fish and geese, while others show mythological creatures. In each case, the design has been meticulously adapted to the shell’s curvature. ‘Although her husband had an influence on her career, the mother-of-pearl boxes are the only known artistic collaboration between them,’ says Beyries. ‘They provide a rare glimpse into their creative relationship at this early stage.’

It was only after the Second World War that Vautrin began to experiment with Talosel, creating the first of her distinctive mirrors around 1955. Like her sculpted decorative objects, the mirrors frequently feature poems and playful phrases.

‘There’s an ethereal quality to her mirrors,’ says the specialist, who notes that many take the form of celestial bodies such as stars and moons. ‘They seem to radiate light and depict other worlds. Even the images they reflect of our world are transformed thanks to the curvature of the glass.’

Vautrin created numerous mirror designs, all handmade and adapted to both her whims and those of her clients. Her sunburst mirrors, for instance, come in a great variety of colours and sizes, while only a handful of examples of her ‘Monaco’ design are known to exist. Not surprisingly, it is her unique mirrors that tend to achieve the highest sums at auction.

In addition to her mirrors, Vautrin used Talosel to make boxes, lamp bases, tables and jewels. Each object was made to a design conceived by Vautrin, yet each was unique — a singular, handcrafted piece.

After closing her shop in 1969, she set up a craft school for women with her daughter, Marie-Laure Bonnaud-Vautrin. By the early 1980s, Vautrin had retired but continued to make pieces in her apartment. When she decided to sell part of her collection in 1986 and 1987, the English collector and decorative arts dealer David Gill stepped in, buying many of the pieces. He put her back on the map by showcasing her work in exhibitions around the world, from London to Barcelona, New York and Tokyo.

In 1997, Vautrin was awarded a prestigious prize by the Société d’Encouragement aux Métiers d’Art (the forerunner of today’s Institut National des Métiers d’Art) for her contribution to developing innovative decorative techniques. In 1999, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris held a retrospective of her work.

The 2015 sale of her daughter’s collection at Christie’s in Paris triggered a fresh surge of interest in Vautrin’s work and introduced her to new audiences, with a figurine-bordered mirror from 1963, ‘Si tous les gars du monde’ (‘If all the guys in the world’), achieving a then record price of €421,500.

In 2022, a dedicated sale at Christie’s, Différents éclats de paradis: oeuvres de Line Vautrin, showcased the diversity of her production across mirrors, boxes, jewels and objects, and achieved a record price for her work at auction — €491,000 for a unique Talosel mirror. Since then, Vautrin’s designs have continued to gain in value.

‘Of the five highest prices achieved by Line Vautrin at auction, four were set in 2022 and 2023,’ says Beyries. ‘Collector interest in fresh-to-market pieces is stronger than ever.’

A private selling exhibition presented by Christie’s in Paris, Line Vautrin, a Parisian Chic: A selection of mirrors and boxes is on view until 31 July 2024