Pierre Sterlé
Pierre Sterlé was born in 1905 into a family of financiers with lots of capital. His father went missing when he was just 10 years old at the time it was the First World War. His uncle Maynier-Pincon took care of Pierre. Maynier-Pincon was a jeweler on the rue de Castiglione in Paris and Pierre grew up learning the jewelry business. He became Sterlé’s tutor and mentor and at 29 Sterlé opened his own workshop on rue Sainte Anne. The wholesale trade shop created jewelry for other retail houses like Boucheron, Chaumet, and Ostertag. He retail name grew as well and he decided to open on the third floor of 43, Avenue de l’Opera in 1945. Sterlé was never a designer but was skilled at hiring and employed highly talented draughtsman to translate his creative imaginings into technical designs for the jewelers to follow. His designs won the DeBeers Diamond Award three times in consecutive years from 1953 to 1956. In 1957 he invented a new way of working with gold called ‘fil d’ange’ or ‘angel wire’ knitting it into fine ropes which created fringes. During the 1940’s and 50’s he attracted overseas clients such as King Farouk of Egypt, the Maharani of Baroda, and the Begum Aga Khan to name a few. During the late 1950's he tried to branch out and create perfume amongst other products and overstretched his finances. In 1961 Sterlé had no choice but to sell much of his collection to Chaumet and to Montreaux in the United States. With the influx of capital he was able to rebuild a bit and exhibited at the 1966 Paris Biennale. This led him to open a retail type shop in 1969 on the rue Saint-Honoré. The retail shop strained the finances again and forced him to declare bankruptcy which required him to liquidate his stock in 1976. Most of the inventory was bought by Chaumet as he had a working relationship with them. After the inventory was sold Sterlé joined Chaumet as a consultant and stayed consulting with them until his death in 1978.
