"Ciel, Purgatoire, Enfer"

Line Vautrin began experimenting with design and metalwork as a young girl. Exposure to the metal-making process at her father’s iron foundry inspired her earliest designs in gilt and silvered bronze. She transformed the unconventional material into objects cast and chased with symbolism from religious and classical sources in a deliberately primitive style. After a brief post at Elsa Schiaparelli, Vautrin developed a loyal following at the Paris International Exposition in 1937, and during the 1940s and 50s opened a series of boutiques including an atelier in the city’s Marais district. This articulated brooch of gilt bronze, titled “Ciel, Purgatoire, Enfer” (“Heaven, Purgatory, Hell”), features a globe suspended in limbo between two half-round pendants cast with figures representing heaven and hell.