Wièse | Egyptian-Revival Gold and Hardstone Longchain, France

Jules Wièse (1818 – 1890) was born in Berlin where he was apprenticed to court goldsmith Johann Georg Hossauer. Like so many great metalsmiths and jewelers before him, Jules moved to Paris where he began working with François-Désiré Froment-Meurice in 1839, ultimately taking on the role of workshop manager and adopting the name by which we know him today: Jules Wièse.

On February 11, 1844 Wièse registered his mark with the Paris Assay office under the name of Jules Wiset (J and W with stars above and below in a vertical lozenge), but this was cancelled on March 24, 1849. Following an inexplicable hiatus, on March 24, 1858, the same mark was then registered under Jules Wièse for bijoux artistique and he continued using this mark until 1890. That year, his son Louis registers the mark (revised to the name “Wiese” with stars above and below in a horizontal lozenge) and this remained valid until 1923.  

The jewels produced during Wièse’s years of collaboration with Froment-Meurice reflected themes of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance art and architecture. With the death of Froment-Meurice in 1855, he exhibited at the Paris World Exhibition under his own name and received a Class 1 medal. A report of the exhibition stated “The results of his efforts have been given to Mr. Wièse, rank among the most prominent and meritorious fabricants of France.”

By 1867, influenced by the Campana Collection of Etruscan and Roman discoveries, which included a stunning array of ancient gold jewels, Wièse created bracelets, brooches, necklaces and rings in the “Archaeological” revival style. Upon Wièse’s death in 1890, his son Louis takes over the company and continues making jewels of Renaissance and Archaeological revival styles with the “Wiese” mark as noted above. The necklace offered here, made by Louis Wièse, reflects the same sensitivity in the rendering of the gold work, as well as the use of colored stone scarabs, pharaonic busts and cobra-flanked sun disks which serve as an homage to jewels from antiquity, though never intended to deceive or pass them off as ancient.