medium, considered vulgar at the time--that are nothing
less than works of high decorative art, cast by hand,
never mass produced. I first saw Vautrin's work, pur-
chasing a pair of small earrings in gilt bronze and rose
enamel, at London dealer David Gill's former gallery in
the Fulham Road. Gill, who now has a gallery at King
Street, London, produced some of the earliest furniture
collections of Zaha Hadid and Mattia Bonetti. He virtu-
ally rediscovered Vautrin in the 1980s, eventually curating
and selling her work in a magnificent exhibition in 1996
at Bergdorf-Goodman in New York. Vautrin is known for
surrealistic inscriptions in her pieces, augmenting their
already symbolic, talismanic visual quality. In The Inde-
pendent's 1997 obituary of Vautrin, her "delight in mate-
rials allied to a love of the primitive, of repeated motifs,
patterns and elements recalling ancient inscribed tablets,
hieroglyphics and pictographs" was cited. For inspiration,
Vautrin would delve into the collections of goldsmiths'
work in the archaeological museums of Cairo and on the
Left: Line Vautrin (1913-1997) Petit Soleil "Little Sun," France, ca. 1945-1950
A pair of bronze doré cufflinks. Right: Line Vautrin (1913-1997) Cartouche,
France, ca. 1945-1950. A pair of bronze argenté cufflinks
HYLAND
