Jean Després, born June 15, 1889 in Souvigny (Allier), and died in 1980 in Avallon (Yonne), is a French goldsmith, creator of jewelry, objects and furniture of Art Deco style, specializing in the work of the silver.Jean Després was born into a descendant family of master glassmakers, Després de Loisy, and glaziers, Turlin. The family moved in Avallon in 1890 to open an articles of paintings and art store at no. 27 rue de Paris and then at no. 20 place Vauban.He attended school and college in Avallon without being a very bright student. His passion was cycling and competitions. He obtained his patent in 1905. His father placed him in apprenticeship with a friend, goldsmith in Paris in the Marais district.

At the same time, he completed his training by following the drawing classes in the schools of the city of Paris and frequented the Bateau-Lavoir, where he met Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Paul Signac, Giorgio De Chirico, Marie Laurencin, Chaim Soutine, Maurice Utrillo and Georges Braque, whom will be his best friend. He is passionate about cubism.

During World War I, Jean Després was assigned as a draftsman mechanic in the workshops of the military aviation. This double experience will durably mark him and feed all his work. He participated in the Art Deco movement. He had many friends in the avant-garde of the time, such as Paul Jouve or Maurice de Vlaminck.

In the 1920s and 1930s, he took over his parents' store in Avallon and set up his studio where he created motor jewelery, whose pure forms inspired by aeronautical mechanical parts were part of the avant-garde movement. Craftsman of metal, gold, silver, tin, Després shaped material, invented new forms. Like his contemporaries Marcel Sandoz or Raymond Templier, he was one of those pioneers who renounce the codes of high jewelery and the use of precious stones. He participated, with the help of Paul Signac, in his first Salon des Indépendants in 1926.