Boucheron Serpent Boheme Ring (S-motif, yellow gold)

A snake reduced to a drop

Boucheron dates the Serpent Bohème to 1968. Its emblem is a drop: a teardrop shape that, the house says, symbolizes the head of a snake. In the original design the drop was paved with diamonds and crowned with gold beads; over the years it has been made in every size, color and stone, and in plain gold.

The snake itself is older. One dealer's guide calls it the house's oldest talisman and repeats the story that Frédéric Boucheron gave his wife a serpent necklace to protect her while he traveled. The Serpent Bohème pares that idea down to a single, wearable motif.

Sources differ on the date. Boucheron says the collection was born in 1968; one encyclopedia entry says the symbolic snake line was among the first lines created in the 1970s. By 1974 the house had produced a Serpent Bohème sautoir, a long necklace with a flower pendant set with onyx and coral cabochons.

A family house on the Place Vendôme

Frédéric Boucheron, a draper's son, opened his first store at the Palais-Royal in Paris in 1858 and in 1893 became the first of the great contemporary jewelers to move to the Place Vendôme, at number 26. After his death in 1902 his descendants ran the business; his grandson Gérard Boucheron designed the Reflet watch in 1947. The family sold the firm in 1994, the Gucci group acquired it in 2000, and it is now part of Kering.

The Serpent Bohème is the collection Boucheron uses to show off its goldsmithing. The house describes the volumes, texture and suppleness of the gold as the mark of its craftsmanship, techniques passed down since the 19th century.

Claire Choisne, creative director since 2011, has continued to expand the line, most visibly with a 2025 revival of its 1970s designs.

1968

The Serpent Bohème was born in what Boucheron calls a context of growing freedoms, and 1968 was a year of upheaval. The Tet Offensive began in Vietnam in January, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis in April, and Robert F. Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles in June.

In France, student occupations at Nanterre in March set off the May protests that mobilized millions of students and workers. In August Warsaw Pact troops crushed the Prague Spring, and on Christmas Eve Apollo 8 entered orbit around the Moon.

The S-motif ring in yellow gold

This entry is the Serpent Bohème Ring with an S motif in yellow gold, reference JRG03473, from the line's Full Gold variation: a single small drop in plain gold with no stone. Boucheron sizes its drops from XS to XL, and the S motif is one of the smaller.

The gold of the drop is sculpted by hand with hammers and chisels so that it subtly evokes snake scales, and the drop is edged with tiny gold beads. On stone-set pieces the reverse of the drop has a honeycomb pattern that lets light through to the stones; Boucheron calls the hidden side as meticulous as the visible one.

In October 2026 Boucheron's U.S. prices for Serpent Bohème rings ran from $2,690 for this S-motif ring to $7,650 for a Serpent Bohème Vintage ring, with an XS-motif ring at $3,640. Genuine pieces are signed, numbered and hallmarked, according to one specialist buyer.

A 1970s design, revived

The Serpent Bohème has become one of the house's icons, sold in yellow, white and rose gold, with diamonds, colored stones such as onyx, malachite and pink quartz, or in plain gold, across rings, pendants, bracelets and earrings.

In 2025 Choisne revived the 1974 sautoir in a Serpent Bohème Vintage collection of 15 designs, set with brilliant-cut diamonds instead of colored stones, with bolder volumes, sharper links and transformable pieces: bracelets that become chokers and necklaces that become brooches. The same year brought new Classique pieces including ankle chains and two jewelry watches.

The plain S-motif ring remains the simplest form of the design, the snake's head reduced to one drop of gold.

The numbers

Metal

18k yellow gold

Stones

None (Full Gold variation)

Motif size

S, one of the smaller drops in an XS-to-XL range

Reference

JRG03473

Craft

Hand-chiseled gold, beaded edge

Origin

Boucheron, Paris

Production

Current model; no production figures published

Timeline

1. 1858

   Frédéric Boucheron opens his first store in Paris.

2. 1893

   Boucheron moves to 26 Place Vendôme.

3. 1902

   Frédéric Boucheron dies; his descendants take over.

4. 1968

   Boucheron introduces the Serpent Bohème with its teardrop snake-head motif.

5. 1974

   A Serpent Bohème sautoir with onyx and coral appears.

6. 1994

   The Boucheron family sells the business.

7. 2000

   The Gucci group acquires Boucheron.

8. 2011

   Claire Choisne becomes creative director.

9. 2025

   The 15-piece Serpent Bohème Vintage collection revives the 1974 sautoir.

10. Oct 2026

    The S-motif Serpent Bohème ring in yellow gold retails for $2,690 in the U.S.

The world in 1968

• Jan 30, 1968

  The Tet Offensive begins in South Vietnam.

• Feb 6, 1968

  The Winter Olympics open in Grenoble, France.

• Mar 22, 1968

  Students occupy offices at Nanterre, setting in motion the May 68 protests in France.

• Apr 4, 1968

  Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis.

• Jun 5, 1968

  Robert F. Kennedy is shot in Los Angeles.

• Aug 20, 1968

  Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia, ending the Prague Spring.

• Dec 24, 1968

  Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Boucheron Serpent Boheme Ring (S-motif, yellow gold) is number 94 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (81 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The teardrop is meant to be a snake's head, not a drop of water.
• On stone-set pieces, the back of the drop is cut in a honeycomb pattern to let light into the stones.
• Boucheron's twisted chain, used in the line, is made thinner than conventional chains.
• A 1974 Serpent Bohème sautoir was set with onyx and coral; its 2025 revival uses diamonds instead.
• Boucheron was the first of the great contemporary jewelers on the Place Vendôme, in 1893.