Welcome to the GiltTrips podcast. I'm your host, Kendra Lockhart. As a goldsmith and
gemologist, I'll be speaking 24 karat on all things jewelry, metals, and gems. Join
me plus a few friends to demystify both materials and designs as your private jeweler. Let's
tune in on these topics and get golden. Never imitate, always innovate. Cartier, the second
iconic jewelry call out in the 1953 song and dance number, Diamonds Are A Girl's Best
Friend, famously referred as Jeweler to the Kings, King of Jewelers. Today the brand is
in over 125 countries, has three temples, yes, that is the word they use, gotta love
the French and their passion. And now is owned by the mega conglomerate Richemont, a luxury
goods holding company, mainly for fashion, watches, and jewelry. Let's cover the origin
of the brand, the generational accelerations, historical complications, successes and scandals,
and impact on the industry. Time stamps of chapters will be in the show notes.
Who was Cartier? Ten years after the founding of Tiffany and Company in America, Louis François
Cartier took over his employees' atelier in Paris in 1847. Patriarch Cartier was the
son from Modest Money, who desperately wanted formal education. His father was able to place
him in an apprenticeship for watchmaking with Adolf Picard. While the experience of doing
journeyman work was usually demoralizing or psychologically difficult, Cartier's was
positive and he brought new ambition to the shop when he purchased it with family money.
Was it smooth sailing? Absolutely not. Problem one is he didn't have elite clientele. So
despite the idea of broadening the portfolio of products, he often ended up wholesaling
it to other shops who had higher circles of patrons, missing out on the extra profit as
well as the ideal people. However, Cartier was a Scorpio and he made some stealth decisions
that would come to fruition as his long game. First, he registered his makers mark with
the government at the time of acquisition. Secondly, he publicized himself as successor
to master Picard. He watched his country get ravaged by war. Less than 60 years after the
French Revolution, the 1848 rebellion swept through Paris. France had overthrown monarchy,
founded its first republic, deposed a child king, restored the royal family, had a third
ruling family member with the same name, Napoleon III, or Nappo III for ease, who had held presidency
in the second republic attempt and now is becoming emperor after this current rebellion,
who promised and executed the rebuild of Paris as well as restructuring the middle class
so that they wouldn't have a repeat of Marie Antoinette, Lin Miserable, and the never ending
Game of Thrones. So, they finally have a power shift from the aristocracy that was fleeing
or liquidating. Remember last episode when Tiffany scooped up some European assets in
1848? That was when Cartier was busy closing his shop. But now it's 1853 and time to reopen
in the eve of the industrial age. Wisely, he moves to a bougie address. Determined to
gain the attention of his needed following, he had some savvy strategies. First, gold
plating was working its way into the mainstream, just in time for the rise of salary for craftsmen
as well as the spending ability of the middle class. Second, expand into home goods of new
aristocracy and not just jewelry. So, he featured silver tea sets and ivory or bronze art objects
of the same quality that he stood for. Last, he went counterculture on customer service.
Cartier and his son Alfred would not treat any patron differently. Blending all the classes
and pulling a real anti-snob move at just the right time for the nouveau riche, who now
have the cash but have yet to learn the etiquette. This worked for two years straight and he would
finally get a break with a very important client. A countess would come to the shop and purchase
a fair amount of cameos at her visit. For the next three years, she became a regular and not
only would she acquire 50 pieces in that time frame, but she would wear them to esteemed events.
And whose eye does she catch? Princess Matilda, niece of the original Napoleon,
not to be confused with Nappo III, whose wife, Empress Eugenie, was a catalyst for Tiffany's.
Matilda had great taste and style and she would go on to own over 200 pieces from Cartier. Her
happiness in jewelry and hosting salons in her home to the elite was her counterbalance to a
less than enjoyable marriage to a Russian nobleman who would not honor her title nor ditch his mistress.
Eventually, she would issue a brevet, which is a real warrant, which is bragging rights that you
serve regal clients. In 1874, Cartier's son Alfred took over the company. Now it would be Alfred's
sons, Louis, Pierre, and Jacques, who established the brand name worldwide. But let's give Alfred
his dues and his points. First, platinum was now showing up in the jewelry world. It was found to be
durable and flexible and lighter pieces could be made, so larger jewelry would be more comfortable.
By 1890, the company Cartier would introduce all platinum garland style necklaces,
combining new material, fresh technology, and current design into its offerings.
This also established the brand as innovating because they were embracing neoclassical and later
art deco movements into their product line. While it was Alfred's dream to go international with
a family company, the grandsons of the founder had the drive like their patriarch. So his next
generation, Louis the oldest, stays in Paris and is the creative inventor brother. His legacies
would be the Trinity ring, Panther motif, and the first ever wristwatch. Here goes to New York and
opens a branch at a time when no competition was thinking of global expansion. This brother was
the networker and the deal maker. He would secure a large order ahead of the London store
to popularize the demand before the arrival. Jacques, the baby brother, would be at the
helm of the London location. He was the traveler and was deep into inspiration from India and its
colors and its gems. It was Jacques who would blend Eastern jewels and tones into Western
art deco pieces and his Tutti Frutti collection still commands top dollar at auction houses today.
Let's discuss famous patrons. At the turn of the century, Edward VII, whose mother did not allow
her son to rule in her lifetime, yet he would ascend the throne at the time of her death,
happened to be a very stylish guy who liked public appearances and inclusion. His coronation at
Westminster Abbey in 1902 featured 27 commissioned tiaras from Cartier, a brand that had brilliantly
established ties because Alfred, self-exiled to London from 1871 to 73 during the Franco-Prussian
War, made high-level contacts and connections before he would return and take over from his father.
The desire for the house's jewels made its way up English society and onto the prince's radar.
Now he would travel to Paris and when it came time to take the throne, his advisors said no
more running off to France and Cartier synchronistically opens in London, gets the big fat tiara project
and in two years wins the royal warrant to become jeweler to the kings, the king of jewelers.
Now this is a triple win where the royalty to have Cartier in London for Cartier to expand
internationally and for Cartier to hire local talent and craftsmen.
Before we go across the pond and discuss the American presence for this company,
let's walk through the rest of the British crown. Edward VII dies nine years into ruling and his
second son George V is now going to be king because his first son died. The 1900s were a mix of old
world diseases and new medical advances so surviving was not a high percent yet.
Pneumonia, influenza, and typhoid could still take out the population of Europe.
George V has to rule through World War I and dies prior to World War II.
Cartier secured a second coronation in mere decades and was heading into its third.
The deceased king's eldest, Edward, is to take the throne but he's not big into the protocol.
That will sound like someone else in the future. The conflict he had of being in love with a
previously divorced American, mashed with how she could be received as queen consort, stopped being
an issue when Edward proposed with a Cartier-Amerald engagement ring and then left the crown two
months later. Was Cartier making a statement? Was it simply servicing an agreement to be
jeweler to kings? It was the latter. So Edward steps down. His brother George ascends with
his wife Elizabeth the Queen Mother. They are parents to the future Queen Elizabeth,
mother of Prince Charles. Yet another coronation and another tiara from future George VI who had
this made for his brother's coronation but his brother stepped down. It would be his turn at the
crown. And this time Cartier makes something that is multi-generational, the halo tiara.
Alas, another king does not master longevity and by 1952 a 25 year old first born daughter would
become Queen Elizabeth II now that the Queen Mother is widowed. And in case you're counting,
this is coronation number four in 50 years. But Elizabeth wears the same tiara from Cartier
that her mother wore at her father's coronation that she received for her 18th birthday and now
it's two generations. And most of us know that Queen Elizabeth II lives a very long time past the
acquisition of Cartier and her son Prince Charles uses a very different jeweler for Diana's ring
and Diana wore her own family tiara despite being the commoner marrying into royalty. So now
we have a king who left for a divorcee, a prince and princess divorcing before taking the crown,
Diana's death and their kids are now adults. Diana's first son William proposes with his
mother's ring and the queen-loaned Catherine, Princess Kate, the Cartier halo tiara for her
wedding in 2011. Now it's three generations and as for William's brother Harry, wedding gifts of
earrings and a bracelet from Cartier were worn by Meghan Markle completing the appreciation
of the royal lineage of jeweler's 100 year relationship with the monarchy of Europe.
Now while we can't claim the crown in America, our own cultural styles of Jackie Onassis'
Andy Warhol and Michelle Obama being long and loyal patrons in the same half century as Queen
Elizabeth II creates that global influence that the son of Patriarch Cartier had had and now
the third generation of his own line had executed.
This brings us to important commissions. In 1925, you may or may not know your history,
but India was British-owned for the first half of the 20th century. The Maharaja, meaning great ruler
of Patalia or Patalia region, commissions Cartier of London to lump all of his father's jewelry
into one mega piece. The necklace had five chains, all platinum had almost 3,000 gems, featured the
yellow De Beers 234-carat diamond and white diamonds ranging from 18 to 73 carats and many
Burmese rubies. It took three full years to make and it would go missing a year after Gandhi and
a nonviolent revolution restores India's independence. The De Beers stone would be found in an auction
in the 1980s and then a section of the necklace, stripped of its stones, would be recognized by
none other than a Cartier employee in 1998 at a London secondhand shop. The theory being it was
deconstructed to finance the break from European wealth and salvage India's financial estate.
The Greville chandelier earrings, which were elongated platinum drops with modern cuts like
half moons, were gifted to the Queen Mother and from her to her daughter Queen Elizabeth as a
wedding gift. They are the epitome of the 1920s aesthetic and the techniques which are still
being timeless and tasteful in today's designs. Next we have the Williamson brooch, a Canadian
geologist named Williamson who also was a mine owner gifts Queen Elizabeth II a large pink raw
diamond and she is advised to have it cut. When that's completed Cartier sets it into a Jean-Claude
brooch. Camilla, Prince Charles's mistress, then wife, then Queen consort would wear it after Queen
Elizabeth II's death. It would also be replicated in the costuming in the Crown miniseries.
Lastly Pierre, the brother who ran the New York office,
sells the Hope Diamond to Harry Winston, America's king of diamonds and that will get covered in
next week's episode. On to the scandals. Now remember the king who left the throne to be with
the American divorcee? It's now after World War II in 1946 and she has a visit to England
during which her Cartier travel pieces go missing. Was this a royal inside job? Was it family
retaliation? A possible insurance fraud? Cartier did get a large deposit of loose stones from Edward
and Wallace the following year. Now in 1960 a professional thief confessed. In 2024 the Cartier
website erroneously listed its rose gold and diamond hoop earrings for about $14 instead of $14,000.
A man in Mexico purchases two pairs, one for himself and one for his mother. Now in America
we have legal precedents for e-commerce and truth in advertising but remember this is a Swiss-owned
company that was formerly French doing business in Central America. He won his case by the way.
Lastly in its breaking news this month of May in 2024 a Cartier relative is indicted on crypto
laundering with Colombia through the United States. I invite you to google that for more
information since it's not necessarily jewelry related. Before I discuss the contemporary jewelry
collection I have to briefly mention that Jean Toussaint after World War I began working in the
sterling department and would ascend to creative director 1933 was a bit overboard about Panthers.
Cartier would earn a mascot of sorts since her house was decorated in Panther skins and she even wore
a panther pelt coat. This would spawn a jewelry collection and watch style for the Cartier company
in addition to her jewel encrusted animal commissions that would become a movement after
World War II. Today Cartier's collections that also perform very well in secondary markets
or pre-owned sales and auction houses are Love. Originally a two-part locking bracelet with
screwdriver allegedly fashioned after medieval chastity belts but made to represent love bonds.
The designer Aldo submitted to Tiffany's which passed on the prototype before Cartier would launch
it and it now expresses as rings bracelets necklaces and earrings. Just to include the same
clue the same designer Aldo comes up with a singular motif he finds aesthetic and creates
with the form of a nail symbolizing sacrifice as a type of love. It too would iterate into rings
bracelets necklace and earring items. The Clash de Cartier released a year before the pandemic
lockdown it captured opposites with attitude in all four categories of jewelry and then Trinity
originally a rolling combination of three circles this stock item from 1924 would become a timeless
staple in different colors of golds and come to mean love friendship and fidelity. It turns 100
years old in 2024 and as for current watches let's remember Cartier was originally a timepiece master
the Santos was Lewis's response to the Brazilian aviators request for a hands-free pocket watch
named for Alberto Santos Dumont in 1904 it went public in 1911 and led to a female version with
diamonds which would birth the style known as jewelry watch. The Tank Watch in 1917 also by
Lewis, re-envisioning a battle machine while breaking from the standard circular dial
would become a favorite for over a century. The Balan bleu which would look like an elegant balloon
with a sapphire crown embellishment and rapidly became a classic after its debut in 2007 in both
women's and men's styles. The Benoit then oval timepiece which translates to bathtub has held
strong appeal since the turn of the century. Finally the Pasha rumor has it that a ruler
requested a more water-resistant timepiece. There's no perfect storyline on this but the
screw-down crown and the grid projecting the crystal would align with the idea of form following
function in this matter. In 1964 the great grandchildren and offspring of the three brothers
sold the company and it was no longer a family asset. Fast forward to the 1980s and each branch
would be reunified and finally acquired by the luxury goods company in switzerland as a Richemont
holding. Today the legacy is that it was a founding member in the responsible jewelry council which
is standardizing ethical sourcing and global compliance in the industry of jewelry and in
2022 the brand explosion creating an 88 rise in value was due to remodeling the shops during
lockdown while getting with the times online and in e-commerce during covid. According to the brand's
vision quote, Cartier's creations symbolize the fusion of exceptional savoir-faire and timelessness.
Thank you for listening and learning with me. I would love you to share this project with
people finding rare beauty in today's world and throughout our times. Until the next episode,
keep your own story sparkling.