Boucheron has for a long time been closely linked to the history of French jewelry. The firm started 1858 in Paris and when the other jewellers were inspired by acient Egypt and Etruscan digs, Boucheron set a new trend with his theme of nature. Tsar of Russia, the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandronova, Sarah Bernhardt as well as Napoleon III's empress, visited the Boucherons salons in the Palais Royal. Also Oscar Wilde, in the days before his misfortune, chose rings with coloured gemstones for himself and his intimate friends. In 1893 Frederic Boucheron opened his Place Vendome shop. His son Louis was equally talented and his international reputation earned him the epithet "jeweler of the Thousand and One Nights". The Maharajah of Patiala arrived at Boucheron's in 1927, accompanied with six caskets filled with diamonds, pearls, emeralds, sapphires and rubies of incomparable beauty. Boucheron was commissioned to transform this mass of precious stones, with a value at that time of eighteen hundred million francs, into various fabulous jewels.