Laurel Wreath of Honor

Paul Gillot (American (born in France), died 1949)

Sarah Bernhardt (French, 1844–1923)

About 1896

Medium/TechniqueSilver gilt

DimensionsDiameter and length (Laurel wreath of honor): 30.5 cm (12 in.)
Lender accessory (Mount): 34.9 × 14 cm (13 3/4 × 5 1/2 in.)
Lender accessory (Base): 4.1 × 15.2 cm (1 5/8 × 6 in.)
Lender accessory (Framed image of Sarah Bernhardt): 26.7 × 21 cm (10 1/2 × 8 1/4 in.)

Credit LineMarshall H. Gould Fund, H.E. Bolles Fund, Arthur Mason Knapp Fund, Edwin E. Jack Fund, Lucy Scarborough Conent Fund, John Wheelock Elliot and John Morse Elliot Fund, Benjamin Pierce Cheney Donation, and Otis Norcross Fund

Accession number2018.370

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment

Collections

Inscriptions“A Madame Sarah Bernhardt/9 Decembre 1896/Maurice Grau.”

ProvenanceDecember 9, 1896, presented by Maurice Grau (b. 1849 – d. 1907) to Sarah Bernhardt (b. 1844 – d. 1923), Paris; June 11-13, 1923, Bernhardt estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris. By 1976, Michel de Bry (dealer), Paris [see note 1]. By 1994, Albert Benamou (dealer), Paris [see note 2]. April 23, 1997, anonymous sale (Sarah Bernhardt et son époque), Chayette et Cheval at Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 168, to Patrick Serraire (dealer), Paris and Brussels; 2015, sold by Serraire to Sinai and Sons, London, on behalf of a private collection, England; April 18, 2018, anonymous (“international private collection”) sale, Sotheby’s, New York, lot 28, unsold; 2018, sold by this private collection, through Sinai and Sons, to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 19, 2018)

NOTES: [1] He lent the crown to “Sarah Bernhardt,” L’Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris (March 31 – May 30, 1976), cat. no. 177. [2] Claudia Balk, Theatergöttinnen Inszenierte Weiblichkeit, (Berlin, 1994), p. 232, cat. no. 158.