John Rubel ballerina demi-parure from the 1940s

“John Rubel’s jewels have always danced. My wish today is that they resume their ballet of shapes and colors“, says Sophie Mizrahi-Rubel, granddaughter and president of John Rubel Paris.

The Franco-American company which was founded by the two Hungarian Rubel brothers had from 1943 to 1947 a New York branch. It was in a famous nightclub that John Rubel scribbled the design for the ballerina brooch on a napkin. He gave the serviette to Maurice Duvallet to work out the design. Duvallet worked also for Van Cleef & Arpels and VCA took one of the ballerina’s in production. It was Van Cleef & Arpels who made the ballerina brooches famous, but the father of the ballerina was unmistakably John Rubel. The brooch is part of a demi-parure with a pair of earrings set in 18K gold and sapphires.