Cup silver and gilded by Jean Despres, modern art

Jean Despres (1889-1980)

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Cup up to four rows of beads engraved "Golf Bridge-1967".

metal silver and gold.

Handwritten signature "j. Despres' two punches and a goldsmith.

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young man, his father apprenticed to a friend, a goldsmith in Paris' Marais district.
At the same time he completed his training by following the drawing classes in schools in the City of Paris and frequented the Boat wash-house, where he met Modigliani, Picasso, Signac, De Chirico, Marie Laurencin, Soutine, Utrillo and Braque to be his best friend. He is passionate about Cubism.
He served during the war of 14-18, as a mechanic in the designer shops of military aviation. This dual experience is a lasting mark and feed all his work. Jean Després is this generation who, in 1925, invented the Art Deco style in reaction against the old.
In the years 1920-1930 he took the store from his parents in Avallon, set up his workshop creates jewelry engines, including pieces inspired by the pure forms of aviation mechanics, are totally cutting edge. Artisan metal, gold, silver, tin, Després shapes the field, inventing new forms. Like his contemporaries Marcel Sandoz and Raymond Templar, it is one of those pioneers who renounce codes of fine jewelry and the use of precious stones. He participated with the help of Signac in his first Salon des Independants in 1926.
goldsmith by training, he also participates in the renewal of the forms of jewelry, by ridding it of its usual ornaments, to create pieces to form massive, silver, tin, mostly in silver.
In 1940, he was Chairman of the Union of Goldsmiths, Executive Protection Professional Artistic Office of International Gold Jewellery. It is the rapporteur for the goldsmith to the Commission on Awards of the Society for Promoting the Art and Industry.
In 1943 he came to live de La Trémoille, where he has a store at the same address. Among his friends Lalique, Delaunay, Leger, Vlaminck and many others. Among his famous clients, Josephine Baker. After the war, he exhibited several times, with the support of the state in different countries.

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The works of Jean Despres in silver and gold are very rare ..