VEVER, Henri

French jeweller and collector. Henri Vever directed the family jewellery business, begun in Metz by his grandfather Pierre-Paul Vever (d. 1853). After the capture of Metz in the Franco-Prussian War (1871), the family moved to Luxembourg and then Paris, where the Maison Vever became well established on the Rue de la Paix. The Vever company garnered prizes at all the major exhibitions of the time (in Moscow, Brussels, Chicago and the Paris Universal Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900). Their prestigious international customers included the Shah of Persia, Alexander III, Sadi Carnot and leading American entrepreneurs of the Gilded Age. The company, which finally closed in 1982, was at its peak at the turn of the 20th century.

Though the name of Henri Vever was eclipsed by René Lalique’s, he played a key role in Art Nouveau. He contributed to the emergence of modern jewellery, excelled in the art of enamelling, and used horns, ivory and opals, though less boldly than René Lalique (who worked for him until 1898). He was also inspired by nature but would never feature any alarming creatures or withered elements. Unlike René Lalique, he remained highly conventional and was always attentive to the wearable aspect of jewellery.

Henri Vever’s early interest in contemporary French painting led him to assemble a large group of works by Corot, Sisley, Renoir and Monet. He sold the majority of them to concentrate on Japanese and Islamic art.

In 1924, Vever donated to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs around a hundred pieces produced by the Vever company and a remarkable collection of 250 French jewellery items, covering the period from the Revolution to 1900.

He wrote a three-volume book on jewellery, “La Bijouterie française au XIXe siècle” (French Jewelry of the Nineteenth Century). He describes the development of jewellery from 1800 to 1900 as shaped by social and economic changes and the life in workshops and new jewellery techniques and applications. It is an account of both jewellery and his times.