Whether showcasing jewelry made for royals or for the wealthy and the celebrated, Platinum by Cartier is an insider's look at a great jewelry house, its remarkable treasures, and the people who made them. It also provides an intelligent overview of historical events, all seen through the lens of this dynamic business, led for generations by the Cartier family. This beautiful book presents the very best in fine jewelry, from the Garland Style and Art Deco period through the classic designs of the mid-20th century and the present day. Sparkling illustrations of the jewels themselves are augmented by archival photographs, sketches, and working designs, many in full color.
“A dynamic group biography studded with design history and high-society dash . . . [This] elegantly wrought narrative bears the Cartier hallmark.”—The Economist The “astounding” (André Leon Talley) story of the family behind the Cartier empire and the three brothers who turned their grandfather’s humble Parisian jewelry store into a global luxury icon—as told by a great-granddaughter with exclusive access to long-lost family archives “Ms. Cartier Brickell has done her grandfather proud.”—The Wall Street Journal The Cartiers is the revealing tale of a jewelry dynasty—four generations, from revolutionary France to the 1970s. At its heart are the three Cartier brothers whose motto was “Never copy, only create” and who made their family firm internationally famous in the early days of the twentieth century, thanks to their unique and complementary talents: Louis, the visionary designer who created the first men’s wristwatch to help an aviator friend tell the time without taking his hands off the controls of his flying machine; Pierre, the master dealmaker who bought the New York headquarters on Fifth Avenue for a double-stranded natural pearl necklace; and Jacques, the globe-trotting gemstone expert whose travels to India gave Cartier access to the world’s best rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, inspiring the celebrated Tutti Frutti jewelry. Francesca Cartier Brickell, whose great-grandfather was the youngest of the brothers, has traveled the world researching her family’s history, tracking down those connected with her ancestors and discovering long-lost pieces of the puzzle along the way. Now she reveals never-before-told dramas, romances, intrigues, betrayals, and more. The Cartiers also offers a behind-the-scenes look at the firm’s most iconic jewelry—the notoriously cursed Hope Diamond, the Romanov emeralds, the classic panther pieces—and the long line of stars from the worlds of fashion, film, and royalty who wore them, from Indian maharajas and Russian grand duchesses to Wallis Simpson, Coco Chanel, and Elizabeth Taylor. Published in the two-hundredth anniversary year of the birth of the dynasty’s founder, Louis-François Cartier, this book is a magnificent, definitive, epic social history shown through the deeply personal lens of one legendary family.
From modest beginnings in Paris to predominance in the world of high fashion, the rise of the house of Cartier is comprehensively chronicled in this lavish volume. In the 1980s Cartier granted Hans Nadelhoffer exclusive access to its archives in order to write the definitive history. Long out of print, Nadelhoffer's exhaustive research has been revived with lush new photography and design sketches of the world's most distinctive and finely crafted jewelry. Through charming and compelling anecdotes, these famed gemsand the elite clientele who don themare brought to life. This fully illustrated account is the essential complement to any jewelry lover's collection, and will satisfy the longings of all those who covet this legendary brand.
Cartier in Motion' unravels the unique story of Cartier?s approach to watchmaking and design. Curated by Lord Norman Foster, the book explores the creativity of Cartier. Whilst telling the story of Cartier watchmaking and the invention of the modern wristwatch, Cartier in Motion explores the change in society at the turn of the 20th century. Amidst upheavals in art, architecture, travel and lifestyles, the traces of a new world could be seen.0.
From their forms to their movements, Cartier watches are unique. They are an enduring combination of the unexpected and the classical. This book chronicles Cartiers constant quest for excellence in the manufacture of complicated watches. From a Tortue single push-piece chronograph, created in 1929, to a contemporary Santos 100 skeleton watch, Cartier interprets complications in its own inimitable way, always with a sense of design. Laziz Hamanis photographs capture these objects of exceptional technicity while author and expert Jack Forster shares the spirit that motivates each craftsman, engineer and artist to create the most stunning complicated watches.
This collectible luxury volume features the master jeweler’s most exquisite objects reproduced in color at actual size and including detailed technical specifications. Presented in a luxurious silk slipcase with ribbon closure, this tome is a tribute to the most precious objects in the Cartier Collection: from opulent gold and black enamel vanity cases set with platinum and rose-cut diamond fleurons to intricate Chinese powder compacts and diamond-encrusted platinum and onyx cuff links, these creations are works of art. This handsome volume recounts the history of the House of Cartier and its sublimation of often everyday items, illustrated with more than 550 pieces along with rare archival material.
A sumptuous exploration of the ways in which the Islamic arts have inspired the famous jewelry house Cartier, this book accompanies a major exhibition at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, and the Dallas Museum of Art. Louis Cartier (1875–1942), the grandson of Cartier founder Louis-François, was an impassioned collector and patron of the arts. He was particularly entranced by Islamic arts, especially Persian book arts: their geometric shapes, color combinations, and motifs are apparent in Cartier jewelry to this day. Louis’s younger brother Jacques—an expert in precious stones—traveled to India and the Persian Gulf in 1911 and 1912 to experience the culture and bring home treasures of the Middle East: natural pearls. This was the pivotal moment when the dialogue between these two worlds opened up, eventually blossoming into a beautiful relationship that has lasted for decades. Published to accompany a major exhibition at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris and the Dallas Museum of Art, Cartier and Islamic Arts delves into the Cartier archives to trace the story of Louis Cartier’s love of Islamic art and the ways in which he incorporated the Islamic world’s stylized motifs into Cartier’s jewelry. Dazzling photographs are accompanied by in-depth texts from a raft of distinguished scholars of both Islam and the decorative arts.
From the creation of its first writing implements in 1868 to today's position as the world's second largest producer of fine writing instruments, Cartier has beautifully combined technical innovation with creative audacity. This volume features a comprehensive selection of pieces from Cartier's incredibly inventive repertoire-- pens, inkwells, mechanical pencils, calendars, stationary and other accessories-- dating from the middle of the 19th century to the present, weaving the story of Cartier's production as a joaillier into the broader fabric of the history of writing instruments and the famous clients who chose to use them. The historical pieces-- many of which are shown here for the first time-- are highly sought after by collectors, and even those made during the last decade are commanding record prices in the salesrooms. The Baron de Rothschild, J. P. Morgan, Mona Bismarck, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and Rudyard Kipling are among the distinguished clients who wrote with magnificent pens and pencils made of gold or platinum, incorporating diamonds, jade, sapphires, emeralds, lacquer, mother-of-pearl, or ingenious timepieces and calendars. One-of-a-kind pieces from New York, Paris and London are thoroughly documented and illustrated with photography specially commissioned for this book. The contemporary writing instruments featured here, from the famous Must to the recent Diabolo de Cartier demonstrate how the company's designers are using the company's long-standing traditions to remain at the forefront of imaginative pen and pencil design for the future. This eloquent testimony to the ingenuity and craftsmanship of Cartier's designers and craftsmen will be essential to collectors of writing instruments and to all those interested in jewelry and the decorative arts.
From M.J. Rose, New York Times bestselling author of Tiffany Blues, “a lush, romantic historical mystery” (Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale), comes a gorgeously wrought novel of ambition and betrayal set in the Gilded Age. New York, 1910: A city of extravagant balls in Fifth Avenue mansions and poor immigrants crammed into crumbling Lower East Side tenements. A city where the suffrage movement is growing stronger every day, but most women reporters are still delegated to the fashion and lifestyle pages. But Vera Garland is set on making her mark in a man’s world of serious journalism. Shortly after the world-famous Hope Diamond is acquired for a record sum, Vera begins investigating rumors about schemes by its new owner, jeweler Pierre Cartier, to manipulate its value. Vera is determined to find the truth behind the notorious diamond and its legendary curses—even better when the expose puts her in the same orbit as a magazine publisher whose blackmailing schemes led to the death of her beloved father. Appealing to a young Russian jeweler for help, Vera is unprepared when she begins falling in love with him…and even more unprepared when she gets caught up in his deceptions and finds herself at risk of losing all she has worked so hard to achieve. Set against the backdrop of New York’s glitter and grit, of ruthless men and the atrocities they commit in the pursuit of power, this enthralling historical novel explores our very human needs for love, retribution—and to pursue one’s destiny, regardless of the cost.
This large coffee table book, about Cartier watches, should be seen as an addition to the collection of excellent books about Cartier, already on the market. Most of these excellent books give an overview of the history of 'La Maison', combined with photographs of watches, jewels tiaras and the famous people that wore those items. 'The 'Gentleman's Files' narrows this down to just men's watches, highlighting the period between 1985 and 2018. It was then that Cartier, for the first time, concentrated on a large range of men's models, from simple time-only models to highly complicated timepieces, often with visually strong ties to their designs from very early years. The watches described in the 'Gentleman's files' are my personal choice and just a selection of what Cartier released in that period. While form and function were united in harmony by 'La Maison' in these creations, it is their unique style that set them apart from any other brand. To do justice to this, the setup of this book is not chronological or aimed to provide you with every single detail of the watches shown, but rather to highlight their style in a unique way. It will, therefore, serve as a visual memento to some of the most stylish and tantalizing watch designs ever created.
