Francesca Cartier Brickell - The Cartiers: The Untold Story of the Family Behind the Jewelry Empire

Many books have been written over the years on Cartier, but none have delved so deep into the true story of the family behind the firm. When the late Hans Nadelhoffer published his pioneering history Cartier: Jewellers Extraordinary, he told me how much he regretted having to work in the dark, handicapped by the lack of personal information about the members of the family who created this international empire, synonymous with twentieth-century elegance and luxury. Thereafter, although the exhibitions on Cartier over recent decades have shown so many beautiful objects, almost all the people most responsible for designing, making, and selling them have remained in the shadows.

Now the veil has been lifted and the real story of the creation of Cartier has finally emerged. In this book, Francesca Cartier Brickell tells us of her dramatic discovery of old family letters and her ten-year quest to fill the gaps in the family history and provide new insights into both the business and the private lives of the personalities involved. The Cartiers follows four generations, from Louis-Franois, the scholarly founder, to Jean-Jacques, the authors late grandfather, but at its heart are the three brothers, Louis, Pierre, and Jacques, whose close bond and distinctive individual contributions coalesced to create one great name and style in the early twentieth century.

Through their own words, unearthed by Francescas impeccable research, we can understand how Cartier survived revolutions at home and abroad, two world wars, financial crises, and the catastrophic recession of the 1930s, when so many rivals went under. Their history consists of a series of innovations closely linked to changes in fashion, social mores, and the prevailing economic situation. Yet whether in the traditional garland style of the Belle poque, the modernist Art Deco style, or the sumptuous style of the postWorld War II period, every item from the smallest tie pin to the grandest tiara was imbued with a look and finesse that were distinctly different from those of their rivals and could be identified immediately as Cartier.

As the great-granddaughter of Jacques and the granddaughter of Jean-Jacques, the indefatigable author has succeeded in bringing the Cartier story to life. No one could have done it better. Besides drawing upon the incomparable resource of her familys correspondence and journals, she has recorded many reminiscences from Jean-Jacques himself and tracked down veteran employees, who recalled nostalgically that working for Cartier was like being part of a family. She has left nothing to chance, following in her forebears footsteps from Paris, London, and New York to Sri Lankan sapphire mines and Middle Eastern bazaars. She has traveled to the palaces Jacques visited in India, met the descendants of his clients, and examined the jewels he sold them. Her achievement has been to synthesize ten years of intense biographical research into an engaging and accessible account of the greatest success story of twentieth-century jewelry. Jean-Jacques would be immensely proud.