French Maison Boucheron continue to excel with their latest iteration of their Animaux de collection. The Animaux de collection has been sold by Boucheron for many years, with the collection being reinvigorated with new designs yearly. The star animal character in this year iteration is Wladimir, the cat who won over the hearts of the Boucheron family.
Wladimir is a black Persian cat that the Boucheron family adopted in the 1970s. He was well-known to the clients of Boucheron’s Place Vendôme as he was very friendly and loved to cuddle with the customers. Wladimir was the first cat to appear as a model for a luxury jewellery company when he was featured in advertising campaigns in 1979 and 1981. The Wladimir bust honours these advertising campaigns by portraying the yellow gold and white gold diamond-encrusted cat’s bust wearing a beautiful necklace of tanzanite, sapphire, tsavorite, or diamond, depending on the style.
Maison Boucheron was founded by Frédéric Boucheron in 1858 in the Palais Royal. He opened a workshop in 1866 to teach jewellers Boucheron’s particular style; it was there that the Maison first started exploring how to capture nature in jewellery. In 1893, Boucheron was the first of the great jewellers to move to Place Vendôme, which has since become a centre of luxury, hosting many of the world great fashion retailers and deluxe hotels. After Frédéric’s death in 1902, his son Louis took over the running of the business bringing in his sons, Gérard and Fred, with Gérard’s son Alain being the final member of the family to own the company. Alain sold the business in 1994. The much loved Wladimir was Gérard’s cat.
Each animal in the Animaux de collection is given a unique name. Wladimir is joined by Fuzzy the leopard, Hans the hedgehog, Meisa the chickadee, Nuri the parrots, Hopi the hummingbird, Hera the peacock, Hirundo the swallows, Nara the doe, Shibli the lion cub, May the chameleon, Pégase the horse, Cypris the swan, Oulu the owl and China the eagle. All animal figures are available as rings; most are available as necklaces, and some are available as earrings, bracelets and brooches.
Since the opening of the workshop in 1866, Boucheron have been immortalizing nature in jewellery. Animaux de collection is just one of the collections inspired by nature; Boucheron have released the Fleurs Éternelles, a stunning collection of rings that look like flowers and use actual petals that, through a secret process, they have made immortal. Their collection Nature Triomphante is a tribute to nature by manipulating shapes and lines to create flowers and leaves out of gold, silver and diamonds.
Many royals have worn Boucheron jewels, including members of the Russian royal family, the British royal family, Indian royals, the Egyptian royal family, and the Jordanian royal family.
Boucheron continues to excel in providing exquisite nature-inspired jewellery collections, and the Animaux de collection is one of the unique jewellery collections in the world.