William Bouguereau

Arthur Tooth & Sons, Ltd., London (purchased directly from the artist, January 26, 1890 for 25,000 FF and received July 8, 1892, no. 1892/36)
Liddell (acquired January 19, 1892)
Arthur Tooth & Sons, Ltd., London (repurchased February 13, 1892, no. 1892/36)
Monsden (acquired November 19, 1892)
Private Collection, England
Theodore Marburg; his sale; American Art Association, New York, March 15, 1907, lot 74 (sold for $3,000)
Arthur Tooth & Sons, Ltd., London, no. 4478 (acquired at the above sale)
Boussod, Valadon & Cie., New York (acquired August 22, 1908)
Anon., sale, Christie's, New York, October 26, 1988, lot 70
Sale, Christie's, New York, November 1, 2001, lot 78, illustrated
Acquired at the above sale

Paris, Salon, 1892, no. 204

Marius Vachon, W. Bouguereau, Paris, 1900, p. 157 (recorded as executed in 1890)
Mark Steven Walker, William-Adolphe Bouguereau: L'art pompier, Borghi & Co., Paris, 1984, p. 65

Bouguereau painted Premiers Bijoux in 1890, but did not sign the completed canvas until 1891.  Arthur Tooth had already purchased the painting when Bouguereau exhibited it at the 1892 Salon alongside his famous composition Le Guêpier. 

In 1890, Bouguereau painted Boucles d'oreilles, a composition depicting a woman similar to the figure in Premiers Bijoux.  One picture most likely was a study for the other, though it is unclear which work functioned as the precedent.  Bouguereau's notebooks reveal he originally intended to title this work Daphnis et Chloë, referencing the famous pastoral novel of Longus, which Bouguereau had read and admired.   He then altered the title, probably opting for a more poetic and universal name.