Hermes Chaine d'Ancre Bracelet (18k gold)

Chains on the Normandy coast

The story every account tells is the same in outline. Robert Dumas, a member of the Hermès family, was looking at the boats on the coast of Normandy and was struck by the shape of their anchor chains. Accounts differ on the details: one says he was strolling along the quays of Normandy's ports, another that he was on a yacht cruise, and the year of that moment is given as 1937 by some and 1938 by others. All agree the first bracelet came out in 1938.

The link he drew is a stirrup or D shape closed by a central bar, set at right angles to its neighbors. That arrangement matters: in 2023 French judges recognized the Chaîne d'Ancre as protected by copyright, finding that Hermès had changed the size, materials and design of the maritime original enough, with links laid out perpendicular to one another rather than flared like a ship's chain.

Dumas wanted the bracelet in silver, which, one account says, jewelers of the time were not using for such pieces. He turned to a craftsman named De Percin, described as the only one willing to work the metal. The first Chaîne d'Ancre was a silver bracelet, and it sold well from the start.

Robert Dumas and the house he ran

Dumas was one of three sons-in-law of Émile-Maurice Hermès who joined the company in the 1930s. He led the development of leather goods and silk, helped create the strapped handbag later christened the Kelly, and took over as head of Hermès on his father-in-law's death in 1951. One auction catalogue gives his tenure as chief executive as 1951 to 1978.

Under Dumas, Hermès introduced handbags, jewelry and accessories, and the anchor chain spread across the house. One account says the motif moved into rings, necklaces and earrings in the 1950s and 1960s. His son, Jean-Louis Dumas, joined in 1964 and ran Hermès from 1978.

The chain never left the line. In 2018, for the motif's 80th year, Hermès jewelry designer Pierre Hardy built a high jewelry collection, Enchaînements Libres, around it, including a necklace in a gold mesh of anchor links with 8.54 carats of diamonds.

1938

The bracelet arrived in a year of gathering crisis in Europe. German troops entered Austria in March 1938, the Munich Agreement in September handed Hitler the Sudetenland, and Kristallnacht followed in November. It was also the year Superman first appeared in a comic book, DuPont named its new synthetic yarn nylon, and Otto Hahn discovered the nuclear fission of uranium.

Hermès itself was in a creative run. It had launched the leather Sac à dépêches in 1935 and its silk scarves, the carrés, in 1937, and its leather goods were moving from the stable to the city.

The medium model in yellow gold

The Chaîne d'Ancre is made in five link widths. This entry is the medium, or MM, model in 18k yellow gold, closed with a toggle: a bar on one end that passes through a ring on the other. One new, unworn MM example in yellow gold measured 8 inches long, with links of about 0.82 by 0.46 inches; another account gives the MM link as about 1.7 centimeters. The same reseller noted that Hermès no longer produced the model in yellow gold.

Genuine pieces are signed Hermès and marked for their metal, 925 for silver or 750 for 18k gold, often with a maker's stamp. Older gold examples can carry the lozenge-shaped mark of the Paris workshop of Georges L'Enfant, whose son Jacques L'Enfant did the chain-work on at least one celebrated example; those workshop-marked pieces are among the most sought after.

Silver remains the most common material. Gold examples are far scarcer, and the house now offers the motif in many reworked forms, from double-wrap chains to versions woven in fabric.

Gold chains at auction

Because the bracelet is a model rather than one object, its record is a set of individual sales of 18k gold examples, and the sizes are not always stated. In February 2016 an 18k yellow gold Chaîne d'Ancre bracelet with a toggle clasp, 34.8 grams and marked Paris, sold in an online sale for $6,875 against an estimate of $2,500 to $3,500.

In December 2021 a heavier example, 9¼ inches long and 55.7 pennyweights, signed Hermès with the Georges L'Enfant maker's mark, sold at auction in New Jersey for $23,750, more than double its $8,000 to $10,000 estimate. At a Philadelphia auction another 18k yellow gold Chaîne d'Ancre bracelet with a toggle closure, 9 inches long and 66.2 pennyweights, sold for $20,000 against a $7,000 to $9,000 estimate.

None of those sales identifies its bracelet as the medium model, so none is recorded here as this bracelet's price. One reseller's new MM example in yellow gold is listed as out of stock.

The numbers

Metal

18k yellow gold (750)

Size

Medium (MM); one example 8 inches long, links about 0.82 x 0.46 inches

Closure

Toggle

Designer

Robert Dumas, 1938

Range

Five link widths, very small to very large

Production

Yellow gold MM described as no longer produced; no production figures published

Timeline

1. 1837

   Thierry Hermès founds his harness business in Paris.

2. 1937

   Robert Dumas is struck by anchor chains on the Normandy coast, by some accounts.

3. 1938

   Hermès launches the first Chaîne d'Ancre bracelet, in silver.

4. 1951

   Robert Dumas becomes head of Hermès on the death of Émile-Maurice Hermès.

5. 1964

   Jean-Louis Dumas, Robert's son, joins the family firm.

6. 1978

   Jean-Louis Dumas takes over the company.

7. Feb 11, 2016

   An 18k yellow gold Chaîne d'Ancre toggle bracelet of 34.8 grams sells online for $6,875.

8. 2018

   Pierre Hardy's Enchaînements Libres high jewelry collection reworks the anchor link for its 80th year.

9. Dec 1, 2021

   A Georges L'Enfant-marked gold Chaîne d'Ancre bracelet sells in New Jersey for $23,750.

10. 2023

    French judges recognize the Chaîne d'Ancre design as protected by copyright.

The world in 1937

• 1937

  Hermès introduces its silk scarves, the carrés.

• Mar 12, 1938

  German troops occupy Austria in the Anschluss.

• Apr 18, 1938

  Superman first appears in Action Comics #1.

• Jul 14, 1938

  Howard Hughes completes a record 91-hour flight around the world.

• Sep 1938

  The Munich Agreement cedes the Sudetenland to Germany.

• Oct 27, 1938

  DuPont names its new synthetic yarn nylon.

• Nov 9, 1938

  Kristallnacht begins in Germany.

• Dec 17, 1938

  Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of uranium.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Hermes Chaine d'Ancre Bracelet (18k gold) is number 54 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 (73 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The first Chaîne d'Ancre was silver, a metal one account says jewelers of the day avoided.
• A French court found in 2023 that the link's perpendicular layout makes it Hermès's own design, not just a ship's chain.
• Robert Dumas, who drew it, also helped create the bag later named the Kelly.
• Gold examples sold at auction have fetched more than double their estimates.
• Some of the most prized gold examples carry the lozenge mark of the Paris workshop of Georges L'Enfant.
• For the motif's 80th year Hermès set an anchor-link necklace with 8.54 carats of diamonds.