That ‘70s Jewelry: High-end Vintage Finds at Particulieres Are an Art Gallery of Adornments

In a crowded sea of jewelry sellers, Shelly Branch is dealing art.

Particularly, Particulieres, her Instagram and private sale business, is sourcing and selling bold vintage pieces that are at once simple and statement making. And what’s immediately apparent in Branch’s gold-filled feed is that rarity and form are what catches her eye. The pieces — many of which are from the 1970s by jewelry houses like Cartier and Bulgari — possess a quality of craft that makes them collectible for those who can afford them, and covetable for those who can only afford to admire them.

“I like to think that the jewelry I sell is timeless, classic because the ‘70s, give or take a few decades, a lot of that jewelry is extremely wearable and doesn’t really go out of style,” Branch says from her Manhattan home, where her own adornments for the day include a Bulgari Monete necklace and a Bulgari diamond ring from the 1970s. “I find a lot of pieces that are appealing to the eye but that I know are marketable.”

In the gallery of Particulieres art pieces is a gold Elsa Peretti “e” cuff, a Cartier fluted diamond ring, and several pieces from the hard to come by and recently re-popularized Georges Lenfant. Known for incomparable quality, Lenfant and his son Jacques created pieces for the top Parisian jewelry houses in the mid-20th century. While their work is just beginning to see broader credit where due, Branch had an eye for it, adding pieces to her collection before discerning jewelry lovers caught on and prices doubled. Lenfant’s astrological ingots, intricately detailed with “designs-in-relief,” as the Instagram post featuring them notes, are part of Particulieres’ offer.

“Right now people are absolutely ravenous when it comes to zodiac jewelry,” she says.

Branch has an eye, and that’s what got the former writer and editor for The Wall Street Journal into the business in the first place. She was wearing vintage Parisian jewelry she procured and people in New York were imploring her to source similar for them. She did and then, she says, “I started throwing some things up on Instagram because I liked them and I thought, ‘Let me see if I can attract the attention of people who might like my taste in fine jewelry’ and I was shocked at what happened. I immediately started to hear from dealers in London and dealers here.”

Particulieres also attracted Blake Lively, who, it seems, likes Branch’s taste in fine jewelry, too.

“The world is abundant with vintage items, whether forgotten or sought after. Shelly finds both with an eye so exacting that each piece feels like the crown jewel,” the actress and client of Branch’s tells WWD Weekend. “Because she’s extremely selective, you know when she chooses something, it’s a piece to pay attention to.”

The pieces actually are worthy of the kind of attention jewelry boxes don’t do justice to, which is why Branch prefers to put some of her personal collection pieces away in plain sight.

“Because I’m a lover of objects and design, it’s a little hard for me to separate the idea of jewelry as just something to wear and jewelry as a design object, as an artwork. Therefore in my home you will find various pieces sometimes displayed in the way that someone might display a vase or tray because I love to look at these objects,” she says.

At the moment a pair of Pierre Sterlé bird brooches — one with a head of turquoise, the other coral — are on Branch’s bedside table.

Of all the jewelry she’s sourced, the best is one she sold and still regrets. “It was a very, very unusual bracelet by Georges Lenfant for Cartier Paris; I’ve never seen anything like it, I don’t expect to see anything like it again,” she says. It looked like a molecular project, a folding ladder of sorts with spheres, and it could expand and collapse, making it wearable but also fun to handle, Branch explains. “It was a sculpture as much as it was a piece of jewelry.”

But the business of Particulieres isn’t “just about finding pretty things,” says Branch, who is entirely self-financed and not the product of a generational family business.

“I own all of the pieces that you see on my page,” she says. “I feel very strongly about owning the jewelry that I sell because it shows people that I’ve made an actual investment and the piece has to pass muster with my standards, which are very high. I’m selling my own collection of things that I’ve paid money for.”

While prices are intentionally omitted from Particulieres’ Instagram posts with the aim of inviting people to have a conversation about the pieces, they start around $3,000 and extend into the six figures. They can climb even higher in instances where she’s sourcing a piece of jewelry for a client.

Branch’s presence in the business is almost as rare as the pieces she’s procuring, but she’s adding representation where there still isn’t much.

“It’s a very male-dominated business. And there are very few Black people in this business. On the vintage, high-end side, I have not been able to find another Black person selling at the level I’m selling,” she says.

At that level, quality of service is as important as quality of product and Branch prides herself on the relationship she has with her clients, who include a list of people very much in fashion.

Lauren Santo Domingo, entrepreneur and cofounder of Moda Operandi, is one of them. She says Branch “manages to unearth incredible treasures” and that “she knows my taste so well by now, I buy almost everything she shows me.”

“Sometimes she’ll even make me reconsider designers or eras I had never been drawn to or had overlooked — her point of view always adds a new shine to anything,” she says. “She helped usher in the bold gold jewelry trend and it seems it’s here to stay.”