Breton Jewelry

You are likely to find exactly the piece of breton jewelry you’re looking for on 1stDibs, as there is a broad range for sale. Each design created in this style — which was crafted with great care and often made from gilt metal, gold and 18k gold — can elevate any look. If you’re looking for an item from our selection of breton jewelry from a specific time period, our collection is diverse and broad-ranging, and you’ll find at least one that dates back to the 19th Century while another version may have been produced as recently as the 20th Century. There have been many well-made iterations of the classic choice in our collection of breton jewelry over the years, but those made by Verdura are often thought to be among the most beautiful. An object in our assortment of breton jewelry can be a stylish choice for most occasions, but diamond rings, from our inventory of 1, can add a particularly distinctive touch to your look, day or night. Today, if you’re looking for a brilliant cut version of this piece and are unable to find the perfect match, our selection also includes alternatives.

The price for a piece of breton jewelry starts at $375 and tops out at $50,400 with these prints-works-on-paper, on average, selling for $1,683.

In the wake of World War I’s ravaging of Europe, artists delved into the unconscious mind to confront and grapple with this reality. Poet and critic André Breton, a leader of the Surrealist movement who authored the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, called this approach “a violent reaction against the impoverishment and sterility of thought processes that resulted from centuries of rationalism.” Surrealist art emerged in the 1920s with dreamlike and uncanny imagery guided by a variety of techniques such as automatic drawing, which can be likened to a stream of consciousness, to channel psychological experiences.

Although Surrealism was a groundbreaking approach for European art, its practitioners were inspired by Indigenous art and ancient mysticism for reenvisioning how sculptures, paintings, prints, performance art and more could respond to the unsettled world around them.

Surrealist artists were also informed by the Dada movement, which originated in 1916 Zurich and embraced absurdity over the logic that had propelled modernity into violence. Some of the Surrealists had witnessed this firsthand, such as Max Ernst, who served in the trenches during World War I, and Salvador Dalí, whose otherworldly paintings and other work responded to the dawning civil war in Spain.

Other key artists associated with the revolutionary art and literary movement included Man Ray, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Frida Kahlo and Meret Oppenheim, all of whom had a distinct perspective on reimagining reality and freeing the unconscious mind from the conventions and restrictions of rational thought. Pablo Picasso showed some of his works in “La Peinture Surréaliste” — the first collective exhibition of Surrealist painting — which opened at Paris’s Galerie Pierre in November of 1925. (Although Magritte is best known as one of the visual Surrealist movement’s most talented practitioners, his famous 1943 painting, The Fifth Season, can be interpreted as a formal break from Surrealism.)

The outbreak of World War II led many in the movement to flee Europe for the Americas, further spreading Surrealism abroad. Generations of modern and contemporary artists were subsequently influenced by the richly symbolic and unearthly imagery of Surrealism, from Joseph Cornell to Arshile Gorky.

Find a collection of original Surrealist paintings, sculptures, prints and multiples and more art on 1stDibs.