The Jewels of Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin

From the mid-1930s through the 1940s, the collaboration of the American jewelry firm Trabert & Hoeffer with the Parisian house Mauboussin produced some of the most extraordinary high-style jewels of its time. Hollywood stars such as Claudette Colbert and Marlene Dietrich appeared on-screen and off flashing the firm s historic gems mounted in diamond-studded platinum settings. Even during the Depression and World War II, Trabert & Hoeffer Mauboussin prospered and expanded across the country, not only by continuing to supply stylish custom jewelry to celebrities and socialites, but also by marketing more affordable ornaments. Its best -known invention was the Reflection line of semi-custom jewelry--"Your personality in a jewel." Crafted from interchangeable parts, it made a bold new modern look available to a wider range of customers by allowing them to mix and match preconstructed parts with their own choice of gemstones. Drawing on historical sources that include part of the firm s design archives, now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this book tells a story of design and marketing innovations, shrewd business decisions and adaptability to changing times that produced a legacy of dazzling jewels.