Collectible Jewelry - General & Miscellaneous, Consumer Industries - History - Individual Companies, Antiques & Collectibles Industries, Collectible Jewelry - Fine, Design - Jewelry

Cartier, 1900-1939

Name: Cartier, 1900-1939
Author: Judy Rudoe
ISBN: 9780810940475

by Judy Rudoe

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Overview

The firm of Cartier was founded in Paris in 1847 and first came to prominence in the late 1890s, when it opened a new shop on the Rue de la Paix, the heart of the haute couture district, and set up its own design and manufacturing operation. By 1909 the firm had branches in London and New York - each with its own designers and workshops - and Cartier had become the favorite jeweler of European aristocrats and their American counterparts, Indian maharajas, members of the art world, and stars of the stage and screen. Drawing on fresh research and Cartier's extraordinarily complete archives in Paris, London, and New York, author Judy Rudoe traces for the first time the history of individual jewels, identifying the clients who commissioned or purchased them and following the entire creative process from initial designs to finished pieces. Sketches and archival photographs reveal the astonishing variety of Cartier's creations, and previously unpublished original plaster casts document major pieces no longer in existence.

To coincide with an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum, Cartier: 1900-1939 by Judy Rudoe is a lavish volume that chronicles nearly four decades of inventive and opulent jewelry design and other singular creations including watches, clocks and cigarette cases. The author provides a history of individual ornaments and their glamorous owners (Elsie de Wolfe, Gloria Swanson) and more than 450 illustrations.