GIA displays of Pierre Touraine’s jewelry fulfills designer’s vow to educate others

By Tara J. McKenna

Young Pierre Touraine wanted nothing more than to become an accomplished jewelry designer when he was growing up in Marseilles, France. Other children passed the time on the playground, but he dreamed of creating beautiful jewelry pieces with fine metals and precious gemstones.

His passion led him to his first apprenticeship when he was 12 years old, but the excitement he felt of starting his career at such a young age soon led to disappointment as he spent the beginning of his five-year apprenticeship running errands. That left him little time to learn the craft of jewelry manufacturing.

Frustrated, the young Touraine promised he would share his knowledge with others once he became a seasoned professional.

Touraine continued his studies in Paris at the Beaux Arts, Academy de Montmartre and Montparnasse before joining the industry full-time. He quickly made a name for himself with award-winning, one-of-a-kind pieces he designed for European nobility and celebrities.

He moved to the United States in 1938 to work for Harry Winston in New York City. He started his own jewelry business in Los Angeles in 1943, but all along remembered his vow to share what he learned with others. He spent the last two decades of his life bringing European jewelry manufacturing techniques to Native Americans in Arizona.

 “In the desert, Pierre found many opportunities to help young men and women of talent who were interested in creating fine jewelry,” said his wife, Velma. “Recognizing their need for extra technical skills in order to ‘interpret’ their ideas into work, he dedicated himself to providing time, place and instruction in his own home to these youthful artisans.”

He died at 76 before he was able to achieve his goal of creating a formal manufacturing school there, but his wife has carried on his promise to educate others by regularly donating pieces from Touraine’s personal collection to GIA since his death in 1983. She was inducted into the Circle of Honor for her generosity in 2003.

“The promise my husband made to himself was the primary reason I’ve made these gifts,” she said. “He knew, and I know, that GIA is dedicated to carrying out his wishes.”

She has donated 40 of Touraine’s pieces to the Institute, including one of his last – a pair of jeweled spurs made from 14-karat yellow gold and platinum. They contain 909 round diamonds and 30.49-carats of lapis lazuli and are an example of Touraine’s love affair with the American southwest. The set is on display at GIA’s world headquarters and Robert Mouawad Campus in Carlsbad, California.

“Jewelry is like a window into what was going on in the world during the time it was created,” said GIA Museum Director Elise Misiorowski. “To have this many pieces of one artist’s work gives us a clear picture of what influenced him. We are delighted we can archive his collection and give our visitors and students a glimpse into the past through the eyes of Pierre Touraine.”

There are eight additional Touraine pieces on display at GIA’s headquarters, including a jade earring, ring and brooch suite, a necklace titled “Apache,” a ring called “Ram’s Head” and three brooches: “House Pin,” “Starburst” and “Executive Synergy.”

“Pierre Touraine combined European techniques of jewelry manufacturing with Native American jewelry themes to pioneer a whole new type of cultural expression,” Misiorowski said.

Touraine’s award-winning “Acoma Jewel” necklace will be showcased at the Institute’s new education facility in New York when it goes on display later this year. The one-of-a-kind design features two brown diamonds surrounded by colorless brilliants set in yellow gold, painted pottery and an eagle’s feather. It was named for the Acoma pueblo and won the Diamonds International Award in 1975.

“Archiving and displaying the works of people such as Pierre Touraine is a main goal of our museum,” said Patricia Syvrud, manager, In-Kind Gifts. “The Touraine pieces are an important building block of what we are sure will be a premier jewelry collection. I urge other award-winning designers to take advantage of our unique position in the industry to share their story with others.”

Touraine won numerous other awards in his lifetime, but his wife knows that sharing his work with prospective students would mean more to him than the awards.

“At GIA, his work will continue to be accessible to students as a teaching tool, as a wonderful example of jewelry as a craft and as the perfect model of jewelry as great art,” she said.