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Vintage Collectibles Home » Vintage Costume Jewelry » Boucher Vintage Jewelry
Boucher Jewelry
Come 1937 Marcel Boucher had teamed up with Arthur Halbersatdt to open Boucher and Cie. Boucher was the chief designer for all the costume jewelry while Halberstatdt focused on handling sales. A key pattern during this timeframe was a line of very intricate birds that seemed to nearly fly they were so realistic. The bird motif continued throughout the 1940s and is considered very collectible because of its distinguishing characteristics and complexity.
Toward the end of the 1940s Halberstadt left Boucher and Cie, which meant Marcel was seriously short handed. To compensate, he invited Raymonde Semensohn, a designer with Henry Winston, to work with him.
Identifying Boucher Jewelry Most of Boucher jewelry is signed and bears an inventory number. Some marks for which to look include: In terms of inventory numbers, 2300-2350 was throughout 1945, 2450 ended in 1946, 2550 in 1947, 2750 in 1948, 3000 in 1949, and 3500 in 1950. Note that initially where only fifty pieces were being produced annually, that number jumped to 500 by the mid 1950s.
Many collectors consider Marcel Boucher among the most creative designers of costume jewelry to ever live. To this day his works are highly sought after throughout the world. If you can find some of his early pieces from Cartier or Mazer brothers, these are a great investment along with bird motifs and fruit images.
Here are the current Boucher listings on eBay: Go From Boucher Vintage Jewelry to Vintage Costume Jewelry
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Boucher Jewelry is one of the names in collectible vintage costume jewelry. It began with Marcel Boucher who grew up in France but came to the US in his early 20s. Here he began working for Cartier in New York. When the depression hit and Cartier had to lay off workers, Boucher kept his skills honed by working freelance.
The preferred metal that Boucher worked with was white until World War II began. After that Boucher began using silver, perhaps inspired by his moved to Mexico and the abundance of silver available there. Boucher remained in Mexico until the War was over, at which time he returned to familiar stomping grounds – New York City.
Throughout the 1950s Semonsohn continued working with Boucher. During this time their designs were so popular that some unscrupulous types copied them. Prices were becoming highly competitive. So toward the end of the decade, Semonsohn went to Tiffany & Co. to design for them. Apparently, while a solid opportunity. Tiffany didn’t allow for much innovation. So in 1961 she returned to Boucher & Cie, and in 1964 became Boucher’s wife. In truly tragic fashion Marcel died only two months after their wedding. His wife continued to run the business until selling it in 1970 to Davorn Industries.
Marcel Boucher
Besides having great attention to detail work and a knack for fluid designs, Boucher vintage jewelry frequently featured very high quality rhinestones, glass pearls, and enamel. Many pieces were so well made that some people could mistake them for real fashion jewelry.
