Passion Investments: Gems & Jewelry
The Jewels in the Cartier Crown
Jill Newman
09/01/2004

As the 19th century turned into the 20th, the Cartier brothers, Jacques, Louis and Pierre, embarked on audacious journeys around the world from India and Russia to Persia and the Far East. Not content to simply follow in the footsteps of their great-grandfather, Louis-Francois, who founded the House of Cartier in 1847, the three scions were refined young men in search of both adventure and new aesthetic influences.

Louis went to Russia to learn about the fine enamel work of Peter Carl Fabergé and the great artistry of the Russian Ballet. He also journeyed to Africa, where he found his most legendary inspiration, the panther. Jacques explored the Persian Gulf in search of the finest pearls and visited India to learn of the colorful stones used in jewels for the maharajas. Pierre trekked to North America to establish relationships with its powerful tycoons.

VALUE JUDGMENT
150 years, the Cartier name has been synonymous with exquisite jewelry. Designs proffered in the early 20th century  by the great-grandsons of the founder are among the most desirable pieces.
• Although the modern iteration of the brand is becoming more ubiquitous, vintage Cartier pieces continue to fascinate collectors and command impressive prices at auction.
• Keeping a Cartier jewel in the original red leather box will help maximize its resale value.
•Art Deco began early at Cartier, before World War I, and fine deco pieces represent its most innovative era.
• Pieces that adorned famous owners will command dazzling prices for generations.

By this time, the crowned heads of Europe and the international elite had long adored the family’s creations. Cartier jewels illuminated the lavish balls and parties that were a mainstay of Napoleon III’s reign. Louis-Francois Cartier, who created Renaissance-style adornments for Empress Eugenie and Princess Mathilde, taught the family trade to his son, Louis-Francois Alfred, who in turn passed the skills on to his child, Alfred. In 1899, Alfred entrusted his three sons with the future of the brand. In their well-schooled hands, the French luxury jeweler became truly one of the most innovative and dynamic design houses in the world during the first half of the 20th century. This era marked Cartier’s golden age, when the brothers’ willingness to experiment in myriad mediums and their African, Asian and Middle Eastern influences ushered in an extraordinary new design movement.

The passion and innovation of Cartier’s creations will be on display for U.S. audiences next month, when a traveling exhibition of the family’s work arrives in the United States. Beginning October 31, the show will be at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (MFAH) through March 2005.

Devotees will be particularly eager to examine the work of Louis, who possessed a skill and passion for decorative arts and international culture. He introduced platinum into jewelry making, enabling Cartier to refine the iconic garland-style diamond necklace using a more durable metal. As early as 1906, he pioneered Art Deco design, with strong geometric silhouettes and bold colors. He pursued the world’s supreme clockmakers to collaborate on ornamented timepieces. The sleek panther that informed some of Cartier’s most celebrated jewelry, watches and objets d’art, most famously in the Duchess of Windsor’s panther brooch, remains as captivating today (in vintage pieces and new panther collections) as it did at its debut nearly 90 years ago. The cat first appeared in 1914 on a jeweler’s display card that depicted a black panther crouched at the feet of an elegant woman. In subsequent years, the panther became a Cartier icon, seen often as an actual feline motif, but also in the “panther skin” watch bezel of onyx and pave-set diamonds, and the watches and necklaces with links coiled like a cat.

(Photograph courtesy of Cartier.)
World War I’s devastating impact may have played a pivotal role in prompting Cartier and other luxury brands to forge new design paths, notes Peter Marzio, director of the MFAH, the institution coordinating the traveling exhibition. “After the war, many people felt liberated from the notion of conservative values and protecting physical assets that were so easily destroyed. There was a strange sense of liberation and openness developing among many artists and their patrons.”

From around 1915 through the early 1950s, Marzio adds, the House of Cartier was “truly avant-garde, almost radical, and yet the company was financially successful, which is a rare combination. Usually, there is a big lag between groundbreaking design and the commercial success of a designer or product.”

Eyes of the Beholder
The museum exhibition examines the cultural and symbolic importance of Cartier’s creations through the eyes of one aesthetician, the renowned Italian architect and designer, Ettore Sottsass. The choice of Sottsass is particularly intriguing because, by his own admission, he bears neither specialized knowledge of nor appreciation for jewelry. Yet, enigmatically, Cartier invited the designer to view its archives of more than 3,000 pieces and select designs that represent his vision of the brand.

DIAMONDS, EMERALDS, sapphires, coral, onyx, mother of pearl, gold, platinum and enamel embellish vanity cases made by Cartier in the 1920s. (Photographs courtesy of Cartier.)
“I tend to ignore everything about an object apart from its design,” the 86-year-old Sottsass notes, describing his criteria for inclusion in the 200-piece exhibition. “I care nothing for the social importance of pieces or their material value. My choice was made on the basis of colors and the quality of design.” Marzio observes: “Through Ettore’s eyes, you see Cartier exclusively for its originality, blending of styles and cultures, and avant-garde design aesthetic.”

The exhibition, which has appeared in the Vitra Design Museum in Berlin, the Palazzo Reale in Milan and Daigo Ji, a Buddhist Temple in Kyoto, features garland diamond jewelry from the early 20th century, geometric Art Deco designs and pieces that portray African, Asian and Egyptian inspirations. The Houston show is a testament to the continuing worldwide interest in the Cartier design aesthetic, particularly in the period from the early 1900s through the 1940s. It is the latest in a series of important Cartier exhibitions staged over the past decade from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

The Stratospheric prices commanded by Cartier pieces in recent years demonstrate the house’s continuing desirability as a collectible.
Two of the most outstanding pieces from the post-World War I era in the exhibition are a Chinese floral vase brooch with carved coral and emerald leaves and rose-cut diamonds, circa 1928, and an Indian-inspired Tutti Fruitti bracelet of carved sapphires and rubies, emeralds, onyx beads and diamonds that Cole Porter gave his wife and muse, Linda Lee Porter, in 1925.

CARTIER DESIGNED this necklace and bracelet set, made of platinum, peridots and diamonds, in 1936.
Elusive and Elite
The stratospheric prices commanded by Cartier pieces in recent years also demonstrate the house’s continuing desirability as a collectible. At the Christie’s auction of heiress Doris Duke’s jewelry in June, for example, several Cartier pieces sold well above their estimated value. A Belle Epoque diamond necklace, circa 1908, estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million, sold for $2.3 million, a world auction record for a Cartier diamond necklace. An Art Deco diamond bracelet, circa 1927, (estimated at $350,000 to $500,000) sold for $1.2 million.

The extraordinary price of Cartier’s delicate diamond, pearl and platinum Belle Epoque necklace, which features three pear-shaped diamond tassels, even caught the interest of François Curiel, chairman of Christie’s Europe and international head of Christie’s Jewelry Department. “Its design and period, and use of extremely old Indian diamonds no longer available today, made it effortlessly eclipse its intrinsic value,” he remarks.

Camilla Dietz Bergeron, a New York-based estate jewelry dealer and a Cartier collector in her own right, is a disciple of the house from the late 19th century through the 1950s. While others produced beautiful pieces during that period, she maintains, “Cartier’s designs were superb, not radically different. But they achieved an unrivaled beauty throughout every period, and their craftsmanship was always impeccable.”

Dietz Bergeron is so fond of some of her Cartier acquisitions that she staunchly refuses to part with certain pieces, such as her Edwardian pearl and diamond bracelet. She figures it is worth more than double what she paid about 10 years ago. “Cartier pieces, especially from the Edwardian and Art Deco periods, are hard to find, and there are no good deals around anymore.”

She recalls a moment a few years ago when she came across a simple Cartier gold leaf brooch from the 1940s. “My business partner said I must have paid a world-record price for a plain gold brooch,” she remembers. “But it was perfect.” Ultimately, she sold the brooch at a profit—but she wishes she still owned it.

“You don’t buy a Cartier design like that for its intrinsic value,” Dietz Bergeron says. “You buy it for the design, workmanship and the way it lays perfectly on a woman’s clothes.”

Modern Cartier pieces, Dietz Bergeron said, do not have the same cachet of most of the older pieces. While she contends that the house has maintained its quality, she also counsels that a buyer cannot expect to acquire a new item and sell it for a profit today. “They are making so much jewelry today at a wide range of prices,” she explains. “The brand’s image has a much broader appeal than it did during an earlier era, when only a select few could afford to wear a Cartier design.”

THE MAHARAJ of Nawanagar once owned this 1928 Elephant Mystery Clock, made of jade, gold, pearls, diamonds, onyx and rock crystal.
Admirers Abound
The number of worldwide Cartier collectors is rising, notes Stanislas de Quercize, Cartier’s president and CEO, as a result of a growing appreciation for period jewelry and the brand’s increasing exposure in museum exhibitions and at auction. The most desired pieces are indeed jewelry from the Edwardian and Art Deco periods, along with limited watches and the Mystery Clocks. Jewelry with a provenance, such as the pieces that belonged to the Duchess of Windsor, bring top dollar.

American Cartier collectors are particularly enthusiastic of late, according to Rainero. One such client is buying anything with a dragon theme and also custom-ordering dragon pieces. “Jewelry collectors can be compared to art collectors,” he explains. “Some people collect Impressionists and other modern artists, just as some Cartier clients only want dragon themes, Art Deco styles or panther pieces. The best collections are made around passion. A person should fall in love with the object or design.”

Cartier’s Mystery Clocks, made in the 1920s, seem to be among the most valuable collector’s items of late, if market prices are any indication. The clocks are to Cartier what the Imperial Eggs are to Fabergé, a symbol of the brand’s imagination and masterful craftsmanship. Master clockmaker Maurice Couet developed the system using the earlier principles of clockmaker Robert Houdin. Cartier created approximately 90 clocks, all of which feature hands that appear suspended in air. (Hence the name Mystery Clock.) Collectors especially covet the six original Portico models; these are valued in the range of $2 million each.

The Cartier family continued running the business until the 1960s when the three flagship stores—Paris, New York and London—were sold separately. In 1972, a group of investors, with Robert Hocq as president, took over the Paris operation with the intention of maintaining the brand’s luxury position while growing on an international scale. The stores in London and New York were brought back into the fold, and the modern Cartier now answers to a corporate board of directors for Richemont Group, the current owner, which looks to increase profits and market share. Meanwhile, Cartier cognoscenti wonder how the new house will delicately balance its desire to build the brand into a global powerhouse against the need to maintain the cachet that made Cartier one of the greatest jewelers of the 20th century.

“We keep the past alive by celebrating our roots,” reflects de Quercize. “When designing the new Collection Panthere de Cartier, we built upon Cartier’s rich heritage, while reinterpreting the designs to make them relevant, not only for today but for years to come.”