Among Marcel Boucher's most unusual vintage costume jewelry designs is his Arts of Antiquity collection, an elaborate interpretation of traditional Indian jewelry featuring colorful simulated gemstones, green enamel, and distinctive Moghul-inspired ornamentation.
An exceptionally hard-to-find necklace and matching earring set, accompanied by its original presentation materials and explanatory booklet from our own collection, provides a fascinating glimpse into the history of this little-documented Boucher collection!
The necklace features individually articulated gold-tone links decorated with richly colored simulated gemstones, green enamel, imitation pearls, and unusual projecting bullet-shaped cabochons.
Each square link incorporates different arrangements of stones in shades of ruby red, turquoise, emerald green, sapphire blue, coral, and amethyst purple. The matching teardrop earrings repeat the elaborate decorative patterns.
The vibrant colors, intricate construction, and ornate gemstone arrangements recall the jeweled traditions of Mughal India, often described as Moghul-style jewelry in the vintage costume jewelry market.
Perhaps most remarkable is the survival of the original Arts of Antiquity booklet, which explains the inspiration behind the collection and provides details about Boucher's manufacturing techniques.
According to the original Boucher literature, the collection was inspired by a bracelet more than 500 years old, reportedly uncovered during an archaeological excavation in India.
The booklet describes an unusual green finish on the original gold bracelet, said to have been created using a paste of crushed gemstones.
Boucher interpreted this historical design into three coordinating pieces: a necklace, bracelet, and earrings.
Although the specific archaeological bracelet described in the booklet has not yet been identified, the account offers an intriguing connection between mid-century costume jewelry and the older decorative traditions of India.
Moghul jewelry, more commonly spelled Mughal jewelry in historical scholarship, refers to the elaborate jeweled arts associated with India's Mughal Empire, which began in 1526.
Mughal court jewelry was renowned for its precious gemstones, intricate goldwork, colorful enamel decoration, and sophisticated gemstone-setting techniques.
Emeralds, rubies, pearls, diamonds, and other precious materials were frequently incorporated into richly decorated ornaments.
These distinctive characteristics have influenced generations of jewelry designers, including Western costume jewelry makers who interpreted Indian designs using simulated gemstones and plated metals.
Boucher's Arts of Antiquity collection echoes the lavish appearance of this jewelry tradition through its multicolored stones, gold-tone surfaces, elaborate linked construction, and green enamel details. The enamel is particularly interesting, in that it has the appearance of a light wash, as opposed to the type of full coverage enamel more commonly seen.
However, the collection should be understood as Moghul-inspired costume jewelry, rather than an authenticated reproduction of a specific Mughal-period ornament.
The Gemological Institute of America (GIA), in its fascinating article Centuries of Opulence: Jewels of India, explains how gemstones and colorful enamel held deep cultural significance in historical Indian jewelry. Particularly interesting is the symbolism of color: red represented life's vital energy, while green symbolized plant life. The article offers valuable historical context for understanding the Indian jewelry traditions that influenced Boucher's Arts of Antiquity collection.
While Moghul describes a historical artistic tradition, Navagraha refers to nine celestial influences recognized in Hindu astrology.
In traditional Indian jewelry, these associations are expressed through Navaratna, or nine-gem, arrangements.
Each gemstone is associated with a particular celestial influence, and combinations of stones have historically been worn for their symbolic and protective significance.
It's important to note that Boucher's original booklet lists topaz, turquoise, amethyst, and jade among the nine Navagraha gemstones, differing from traditional Navaratna arrangements, which typically include diamond, yellow sapphire, hessonite garnet, and cat's eye chrysoberyl instead.
This is the specific historical symbolism documented for the Arts of Antiquity collection, distinguishing it from costume jewelry that merely resembles Indian designs.
Two 19th-century Northern Indian Navaratna bracelets in The Metropolitan Museum of Art provide particularly interesting historical comparisons, although they are not the 500-year-old example referenced in the Boucher product card.
These bracelets incorporate multicolored gemstones set in gold, with green enamel decoration on their settings.
Image Source: Nine-Gem (Navaratna) Talismanic Bracelet, Northern India, 19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
According to the Met Museum, both belonged to Lockwood de Forest, who collected Indian jewelry during travels between 1879 and 1881.
Their materials, decorative techniques, and nine-gem symbolism provide a useful visual comparison with Boucher's collection.
Another fascinating feature of the original documentation is its description of Boucher's proprietary Karatcloaked plating process. Until this booklet surfaced, we had never heard this particular term in vintage jewelry before!
The company advertised this process as applying a substantial layer of precious metal across the jewelry's surfaces, including edges that might otherwise expose the underlying base metal through wear.
The booklet even compared the metal-coating method with technology employed in spacecraft and electronic computers.
Although these are historical manufacturer claims rather than independently verified technical specifications, they provide an interesting insight into how Boucher promoted the quality and durability of his jewelry.
The surviving necklace and earrings retain particularly well-preserved gold-tone surfaces, with very minimal wear.
Research into this particular Moghul-inspired design has revealed remarkably few examples available to study online.
A necklace from the same collection sold online in 2023 for $399 USD, despite missing stones and an incorrect replacement clasp.
A matching bracelet sold in 2023 for $295 USD, despite multiple missing stones and at least one incorrect replacement.
So far, only one other example of this particular necklace has been located during our online research, and no matching examples of the earrings have been identified to date.
These findings do not establish how many pieces were originally manufactured or how many survive today. They do, however, illustrate the scarcity of publicly documented examples.
The Marcel Boucher necklace and earrings featured in this article remain together in excellent condition, accompanied by their original Canadian earring display card and historical booklet. For more about Boucher's history and Canadian jewelry production, see our article on the Canadian connection.
What we did find were numerous modern knockoffs of this design being sold through sites such as SHEIN and Alibaba, some bearing counterfeit Trifari marks. These are not authentic vintage Trifari pieces, and we have found no evidence that Trifari ever produced this design. They can be distinguished from the Boucher design by not only the designer mark, but also a lack of bullet cabochons and soldered links.
Original packaging, advertisements, display cards, and explanatory booklets can preserve historical details that might otherwise be lost.
In this case, the Boucher literature identifies the collection's Indian inspiration, explains its Navagraha symbolism, describes the coordinating jewelry, and documents the manufacturer's plating claims, facts that we might not otherwise uncover without them!
The documentation establishes a direct connection between this elaborate vintage costume jewelry design and the historical Indian jewelry traditions that inspired its creation. It also serves as a collectible historical artifact that can increase the value of a piece of jewelry.
The search for the exact bracelet that inspired Marcel Boucher's Arts of Antiquity collection continues.
Original jewelry photographs, collection documentation, and research: © Vintage Jewelry Girl 2026. All Rights Reserved.
