Coco Chanel is known for many things, from the creation of arguably the most famous fragrance in the world – Chanel No 5 – to her fashion foresight in raiding men’s wardrobes to create modern clothes for women. However, when it comes to jewellery, her penchant for running against the establishment meant that she was best known for her love of costume jewellery – though she often dabbled with perceptions by making copies of her costume pieces out of real gems and continuing to tell onlookers that they were not the real deal.

Yet the design and production of fine jewellery, which the modern house now takes very seriously, was something that Chanel dabbled in from as early as 1932. “The means I am using are legitimate in the profession I exercise, as long as they are only used in the true sense of fashion,” she wrote in the brochure for her first fine jewellery exhibition held in that year. “The reason that led me, at first, to design artificial jewellery, is that I found it to be lacking in the arrogance found all too often in an age in which splendour is so easily acquired. This consideration disappears during a period of financial crisis when an instinctive desire for authenticity is reawakened in every domain, relegating amusing costume jewellery of its true value.”