Diamond

Perhaps one of the most famous names in jewelry, Cartier had rather humble beginnings during a very turbulent time in French history, which almost ruined the firm, yet eventually set it on the course to fame and fortune.

The story starts in Paris in 1847, when Louis-Francois Cartier bought the watchmakers store where he had apprenticed for a number of years. He had ambitions to make the store into something bigger and better and purchased the best jewelry he could afford to buy to showcase in his store. However, it was a turbulent time in France and trouble was on the streets. After a severe economic downturn in France triggered the French Revolution, King Louis Phillipe abdicated the throne in 1848. Napoleon III took over first setting himself up as President and then declaring himself Emperor and officially establishing the Second Empire in 1852. Needless to say it was a tough time for Cartier and anyone else in the jewelry or luxury business. The store managed to survive the crisis and was on an upward growth trajectory from there, even though it was slow growth. Louis-Francois’ son, Alfred, joined the firm during this challenging time.

*Belle Epoque foil-backed amethyst, seed pearl, diamond and platinum brooch, circa 1912, signed Cartier Paris Londres, courtesy Castello & Rossi (@castellorossijewels).*

Business was going along quite nicely for the company and by 1856 Cartier was selling to Princess Mathilde, second cousin of Napoleon III, and soon after Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, became a client. Those two clients drew all the right attention to Cartier. Other royals, wealthy bankers and industrialists began to frequent the store. At the time, as was customary, Cartier did not yet design and fabricate jewelry. They purchased from other makers, but only the very best jewels they could find for their store.

In 1870 there was another revolution in Paris (the Paris Commune) that caused the ruling class and other elites to flee for their lives. Unable to access their bank accounts, many of the blue bloods sold their jewels to raise cash to leave town. Alfred Cartier took full advantage of the situation buying spectacular jewelry from desperate aristocrats at rock bottom prices. When all was said and done he had an outstanding collection of jewelry for sale. The revolution didn’t last long and soon it was back to business.

Cartier and Fashion

*Pear shaped, 49-carat cabochon unheated sapphire from Sri Lanka, seed pearl and diamond necklace, circa 1910, signed Cartier, with original Cartier certificate, courtesy Dehres (@dehres).*

By 1899 business was going so well that Alfred decided to move the store to Rue de la Paix a prominent area for fashion houses including the highly regarded House of Worth. Alfred had three sons, Louis, Pierre and Jacques. It was around this time that Louis joined the firm and around the same time that Cartier began to design and manufacture jewelry. It was the beginning of the Edwardian era and platinum was becoming a choice metal for high-end jewelry. Cartier took advantage of the new technology that made it possible to fabricate platinum into jewelry and began creating diamond pieces in platinum settings – especially in garland styles. It was a motif that was very airy and kept the jewelry light enough to wear easily while also capturing the white-on-white style that became increasingly popular in the first decade of the twentieth century.

The firm expanded in the first years of the 1900s with Alfred’s youngest son Jacques setting up a workshop in London. Cartier was a favorite of England’s King Edward VII who proclaimed that Cartier was “The jeweler of Kings and the King of jewelers.” In 1904 the company was honored with the first of fifteen royal warrants appointing the firm the official purveyor to the court of King Edward VII.

Cartier in New York

In 1909 the decision was made to establish a presence in New York. Pierre headed up the venture with Louis. One of the big challenges in New York was finding a space for the business to operate. But once again, luck coupled with a strong business acumen brought Cartier to exactly the right place.

One of Cartier’s clients was industrialist Morton Plant and his wife. The couple had a beaux-arts style mansion at 653 Fifth Avenue, a perfect location for Cartier to set up shop. Mrs. Plant was enamored with a double strand natural pearl necklace. So Pierre made a deal – the pearls, valued at the time at $1 million, plus $100 in cash in exchange for the mansion. To this day Cartier is still housed at that address in New York City.

Cartier and Art Deco

In addition to being innovative jewelers with exacting quality standards, the brothers traveled the world purchasing extraordinary gems, gaining new clients and finding design inspiration from far-away lands. It was the Art Deco movement that really put Cartier on the map as a premier design house.

There were many cultural touchstones at the time that provided inspiration to the firm: Asian and Islamic art, Cubism and Ballets Russes. One of the most important influences was the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922. It sparked a huge interest in Egypt and Egyptology and there was a major Franco-Egyptian exhibition at the Louvre. Cartier was in tune with the trend creating pieces with scarab motifs and lotus blossoms.

*Art Deco diamond and platinum brooch, signed Cartier and numbered, courtesy, Gros Diffusion BVBA (@grosdiffusion).*

Moving beyond Egyptian motifs, Cartier masterfully designed pieces with diamonds and onyx tapping into the black and white trend that was so popular in the 1920s. They also used bold colors in their designs, blending coral, jade and lapis lazuli with diamonds. It was ground breaking at the time.

It was the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationales des Arts Decoratifs et Industrials Modernes that really launched Cartier into the spotlight. Interestingly, the firm chose to exhibit with fashion houses rather than with other jewelers, establishing a connection between jewelry and fashion.

One of Cartier’s most iconic design innovations came about during the 1920s: Tutti Frutti, an exuberant mix of carved emeralds, rubies and sapphires accented with diamonds, first fabricated in 1923. Emeralds were of particular note in this style of jewelry. Many were brought to the design house by Mahrajahs from India. Their emeralds had been imported into India from Colombia since the end of the 1600s. The gems were carved in India by artisans who drew upon the flowers depicted in Islamic art for their carvings. Cartier added to the emeralds with carved ruby and sapphire leaves making up a “fruit salad”.

Cartier continued its expansion and design innovation in the following decades, with the family in control of the business until the early 1970s. Cartier is currently owned by Compagnie Financière Richemont and continues to produce iconic designs based on its archives as well as new innovations.

Featured image (top of page): Carved emerald, sapphire and ruby Tutti Frutti brooch accented with diamonds, signed Cartier, courtesy Palais Royal Collection (@palaisroyaljewels).

Authored by Amber Michelle

Jewelry in this article is available for sale on The Jewelers Circle.

Have you ever wondered about a rare and exquisite antique piece of jewelry and how it came to be for sale today? All pieces of antique and vintage jewelry have a story to tell, but some stories stand the test of time better, either because the jewel is a family heirloom and the story is passed down with the piece, or because the original owner was a famous historical figure. Sometimes it’s a combination of the two.

This is the story of Emperor Maximillian (1832-1867) and his diamonds buttons that have found their way into today’s jewelry collections. Maximillian was born an Austrian Archduke. He was the second son of Archduke Franz Karl of Austria and Princess Sophie of Bavaria. As a second son, his life path was more open than that of a first born, who was destined to become the next ruler. Instead Maximillian had a very successful career as an officer in the Austrian Imperial Navy where he modernized the institution.

Maximillian Goes to Mexico

*Rose cut diamond ring, set in silver topped gold, formerly the property of Emperor Maximillian, House of Hapsburg, 1763.*

In 1859 Maximillian was approached to become the Emperor of Mexico. The country was in tatters from the Reform War and had defaulted on many debts owed internationally. It was thought that having a European ruler would help the country stabilize. Maximillian declined the offer. In order to have its debts repaid, France invaded Mexico in 1862 and a year later the French were in charge of the country. Maximillian was once again asked, by the French, to become Emperor of Mexico and this time he said yes.

He arrived in Mexico with his wife, Charlotte of Belgium in 1864. The country was still reeling from the effects of the Reform War and the dueling factions — liberals and conservatives —continued to disagree. It’s thought that Maximillian genuinely wanted to help the poor people in the country. He made numerous changes including abolishing child labor, restricting working hours and cancelling the debts of peasants. Maximillian also supported religious freedom and voting rights for those who were not land owners.

The French left Mexico and asked Maximillian to leave with them, instead he chose to stay believing that he could actually help the people of the country. The wealthy class opposed the reforms that Maximillian instituted and he was overthrown by Benito Juarez and his followers. In 1867 he was executed.

Boston, 1981

Fast forward to Boston in 1981. A young woman starting out in the industry, Janet Levy, went on her daily visit to see her great Uncle Sydney DeYoung, the patriarch of J.&S.S. DeYoung, a company specializing in antique and vintage jewelry. When he was 89, Uncle Sydney had a series of strokes and was unable to come to the office, so he asked that any new purchases be brought to him for inspection at the Ritz-Carlton Boston where he was living after his stroke.

One day Janet went to show Uncle Sydney the company’s latest purchases and she handed him a beautiful antique rose cut diamond ring. She was having a hard time accurately, estimating the weight of the diamond because it was very different from other diamonds that she had seen. For 70 years Uncle Sydney had kept a series of black notebooks, showing tracings of the perimeter of the diamonds he purchased in the past and also measurements of unusual shaped diamonds. The books were used as references to help estimate the weight of rare and unusual antique shape diamonds. Janet had gone through the series of little black books and there was really nothing comparable in the books to the rose cut diamond she had.

How Uncle Sydney Got Maximillian’s Buttons

*Emperor Maximillian’s button becomes a ring.*

In the early 1930s, during the great depression, one of Emperor Maximillian’s heirs inherited the collection of 76 antique rose cut diamond buttons, belonging to Emperor Maximillian. The antique diamond button collection was brought to Uncle Sydney by one of his customers from the western part of the United States.

Uncle Sydney bought the entire collection of buttons and sold them to Armand Hammer of Hammer Galleries, located on 57^th street in New York. Hammer was an art and jewelry retailer with a great imagination. He realized that many American customers wanted to purchase items with a royal provenance. Hammer converted the entire collection of 76 buttons into rings. He developed an advertising campaign “Own a Royal Ring” and began selling the rings in the early 1930’s and continued to sell them through 1947. A letter, dated 1931, from the Museum and Art Collections of the Late Crown Possession in Bavaria, accompanied the set of diamond buttons, confirming that they can be traced back to 1763.

All of the rose cut diamonds in the buttons are thought to be from the Golconda mine in the Northern region (modern day Hydrabad) of India, where the world’s diamonds came from prior to the mid 1800s. Diamonds from the Golconda region were generally larger and higher quality than those from other mines in the area. Additionally, the style of the diamonds indicate that they were cut in the traditional Indian way and most likely brought to Europe by one of the gem traders who went there in search of jewels for the royal and wealthy. It is most likely that at one point the diamonds in Maximillian’s buttons belonged to an Indian Maharajah. Set in silver-topped gold, each button was slightly different, but they all have rose cut diamonds.

After a long and winding journey, the first of four of Emperor Maximillian’s diamond buttons came back to J.&S.S. DeYoung in 1981. Three others have since resurfaced and each one has its fractional diamond weight inscribed in the shank — it’s not just a ring, it’s a real piece of history that’s very personal and tells the story of bygone eras. And that’s the magic of antique jewelry.

You can find Emperor Maximillian’s diamond button ring on the Jewelers Circle.

Featured video (top of page): Rose Cut diamond ring is made from a diamond button that had previously belonged to Emperor Maximillian of Mexico.