Exhibitions 3
Cartier 1900-1939 (British Museum, till 1 February 1998)
Alive with sparkles
Andrew Lambirth
The firm of Cartier was founded in Paris in 1847, but until 1900 it operated primarily as a retailer rather than a jew- ellery designer. A move to new premises in 1899 led to inevitable expansion, and with- in ten years there were also branches in London and New York, all now designing in the Cartier style. (The London branch was encouraged by Edward VII, and given its first royal warrant in 1904.) Each of the three branches was run by a grandson of the founder, Louis-Francois Cartier; they were respectively Louis, Jacques and Pierre.
The three emporia maintained separate though closely connected identities, with their own individual archives, all of which have helped to underpin the current exhibition.
The show focuses on the period 1900 to 1939, and is a ravishing display of 300 objects including jewellery, timepieces, objets d'art and working drawings, taken largely from Cartier's own collection and supplemented with loans from private and public collections. Organised by the British Museum in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it has already been shown, this exhi- bition offers not only a thorough guide to a fascinating and popular subject, but a source of speculation as well as study. Just how closely did some of these designs con- form to their prototypes, those works of art held in the world's great museums? Again and again, clocks or objects were based by Cartier's craftsmen on original antique artefacts. We are given some documenta- tion of these stylistic borrowings, but the show quite rightly adopts a populist rather than scholarly tone, with the emphasis squarely on the Cartier creations.
The initial effect is of a bewildering array of tiny objects. Perhaps the best approach is to skim through the different galleries, mark out a few things and return to linger with them. The second exhibit, for instance, is a lily and eglantine devant de corsage, or large brooch made for the central part of the bodice. Constructed from diamonds and platinum it is all ice and fire, brittle- Rock-crystal and diamond bracelets, 1930 looking and bursting with light, like sun on snow on a Christmas morning, (Cartier is famous for pioneering the use of platinum, Which Louis Cartier called the 'embroidery' of jewellery, its toughness allowing it to be beaten thin in delicate and lacy traceries.) Nearby, a rock crystal, or quartz, hatpin is displayed with its original specially shaped scabbard of red leather with gilded tooling.
At this point, the designs were largely Renaissance-inspired, and tended to ignore the prevailing Art Nouveau style. Yet Cartier became shrewdly assiduous in catering to the vagaries of taste. The Rus- sian style came in around 1906. Many fash- ionable accessories were made in gold and enamel. Here are cigarette cases which look like pop- or op-art paintings. The Splendid two-tone enamelling in black and gold of one piece makes the benday dots of the late Roy Lichtenstein look positively crass. Another cigarette case in stripes of Yellow, green and white gold, is reminiscent of Bridget Riley. Animals were a favourite tnotif of this style: a sleeping pig, two pen- guins, a pair of budgies in pale green fluo- rite.
Turning to examples of the Egyptian Style, some incorporate actual Egyptian antiquities such as amulets or blue faience scarabs. This was an innovation. Others seek to replicate in miniature a temple gate or the statue of a deity. A clever vanity case is made from a sarcophagus — the ultimate reminder that all is vanity. The fashion for It all grew out of the continued taste for Egyptian-style jewellery following the Opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. More fuel was supplied by the 1911 Franco-Egyp- tian exhibition at the Louvre, and then the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. The Persian and Indian styles, on the other hand, were largely based on Persian minia- tures and the exotic appearance of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. In the floriate Intricacy, they express a kind of honeyed geometry.
One of the wonders of the exhibition are the 1920s mystery clocks in the Chinese and Japanese styles, for which Cartier is rightly famed. How do they work? The hands seem suspended in the rock crystal, completely unattached to any mechanism. In fact they are subtly moved on invisible tooth-edged discs, but the effect is of magic being done. A different sort of timepiece is the 1928 gentleman's black and white pock- et watch: slim, elegant and wonderfully understated. Diamond and platinum corsage, 1922 Other things of especial note include the fantastic hardstone inlays done in lapis lazuli and turquoise on the gold of a cigarette box, or on the enamelled gold of a bomb-like lipstick case. These are daring colour combinations. A cigarette holder in coral and lapis lazuli, decorated with emer- alds and diamonds set in platinum, is as bright as a parrot though not so vulgar. Two powder boxes made principally from black-lacquered silver with coral detailing, look like masterpieces of Minimalist art. And remark the two flexible expanding bracelets made in 1930 from rock crystal and diamonds in a platinum setting, which Winged scarab brooch, 1924 were .bought by Gloria Swanson and worn in Sunset Boulevard.
There are designs in pencil, watercolour and body colour on tracing paper, richly coloured and detailed. These drawings are intriguing, but without any of the real pres- ence of the objects. As was traditional in the trade, the designers were for the most part anonymous. Cartier is justly celebrated for its originality. It wasn't merely a ques- tion of producing trinkets and baubles for the rich, but first-class objects of exquisite craftsmanship, of a genuine inventiveness. The range is wide; light-hearted novelty alternates with specially commissioned orders as well as exhibits from Cartier stock. It is a hugely enjoyable exhibition substantially accompanied by a well-writ- ten, informative and lavishly illustrated cat- alogue by Judy Rudoe (£25.00 in softback and £50.00 in hardback). Eartha Kitt would love it.
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