Weightlifting / Public Place / Chevalière / Gold - Lot 94

Weightlifting / Public Place / Chevalière / Gold Remarkable and unique signet ring in 18-carat gold (hallmark), weighing 68 grams, adorned with an unexpected and powerful motif: a square weight framed by two short ball dumbbells. A singular work of art, with no known signature, but whose history is intimately linked to its owner, Yves Le Boulanger, alias Yves Coudray, nicknamed in Parisian circles between the wars "the king of pliers". Born in Vitré in 1879, he died in Paris in 1954. This indomitable Breton chose to live as a free man, dragging his dumbbells from public squares to boulevards, far from official settings or circus arenas. A self-taught musician, he would rouse onlookers by blasting tunes from Aïda or Michel Strogoff, before delivering his exhibitions of strength on the Boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle or in the Square d'Anvers. His life was that of the asphalt weightlifters, the "placardeurs", those wandering athletes, proud and solitary, living not on charity but on the generosity extracted from passers-by, dazzled by his authentic feats, far from the rigged weights sometimes used by others. Yves Coudray was not one of them. Trained in the classic school of weightlifting - he rubbed shoulders with Paul Pons and set a few promising records - he soon turned away, preferring to roam the streets, adopting as his pseudonym the profession of his youth: Yves Le Boulanger. The public, won over, affectionately renamed him "La Boulange". Accompanied by his apprentice pulling the cart, supported for a time by actor Charles Moulin and Charles Rigoulot, the strongest man in the world, Yves Le Boulanger established himself as a key figure in street entertainment. His specialty: Herculean strength in his wrists and, above all, in his fingers - a talent perhaps inherited from his years of kneading. For almost half a century, he lifted thousands of 20 kg weights, to applause and jeers, but also to coins thrown onto his worn carpet, between two truculent calls: "Another five sous and the show begins", "Cinq sous les bidas", "Cinq sous la nounou, sinon le lardon va couiner". The career of the king of pliers came to an end in 1951, before his discreet disappearance in 1954. The signet ring, unique and moving, remains as a tangible testimony to this extraordinary existence, to his street exploits, and also to his mystery: how many coins were collected on the pavement to buy this jewel? How many meals were sacrificed? A fragment of popular history, from a time when athletic strength was sold at auction, according to the whims of the sky and the spectators. This signet ring, a nod to his 1935 advertisement for Tisane des Chartreux de Durbon, embodies all the panache of a life of struggle, parade and freedom. Without it, Madame, the king of pliers would never have been king.