Cartier and America at the Legion

Sometimes all that glitters really IS gold -- and emeralds, rubies, turquoise and every other gem or precious stone on the planet. When Monroe and Russell, clad in pink satin that clung to every luscious curve, sang their hymn to "Diamonds are a girl's best friend," the jewelry firm was already over 100 years old. From high class royalty to low class (but expensive) Grand Horizontals of the Belle Époque, Cartier has made jewelry, vanity cases and assorted billet doux ornaments for the life styles of the rich and infamous, from crowned heads of Europe like Edward VII to Hollywood divas like Gloria Swanson and Elizabeth Taylor. The Hope Diamond (now on display at the Smithsonian) was originally part of a Cartier designed necklace.

While all of the pieces are priceless, some are gaudy and vulgar -- an occasion to show off unbelievable wealth. It's particularly glaring in the over-the-top pieces made in the 1930's. While millions were starving, living in shacks and lining up at soup kitchens for a meager bowl of food, Lady Granard was ordering a diamond-and-platinum necklace with an emerald of 143.23 carats as a centerpiece. Cartier is very discrete about prices but the Star of South Africa, the centerpiece of one of the necklaces featured in the exhibit, cost 20 million at auction.

The spectacular array of more than 200 objects, mostly from the private Cartier Collection now housed in Geneva, includes jewelry of the Gilded Age and Art Deco periods, as well as freestanding works of art such as the famous Mystery Clocks. Marking Cartier’s 100 years in the United States, the exhibition concentrates on pieces owned by Americans, including a pair of rock crystal and diamond bracelets worn by Gloria Swanson in the movie Sunset Boulevard, Daisy Fellowes’s famous “Tutti Frutti” necklace, and the exotic flamingo brooch made for the Duchess of Windsor.

Private lenders in the United States and France have contributed significant pieces to the exhibition. For the first time, an American museum will feature the personal jewelry of Princess Grace of Monaco from the time of her wedding to Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, in 1956. These, generously lent by H.S.H. Prince Albert II, include her engagement ring—a 10.47-carat emerald-cut diamond set with two baguette diamonds mounted in platinum––a grand diamond necklace, and more informal gold brooches in the form of birds. The Lindemann Collection of Palm Beach is sharing some of its incomparable clocks, and the Hillwood Museum in Washington, D.C., is lending jewelry made for cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, a longtime Cartier patron. Post’s brooch, one of the most spectacular pieces of jewelry made in the 1920s, incorporates Indian carved emeralds, one of which dates from the Mughal era.

One of the more fascinating part of the exhibits is a room full of the original drawings, exquisitely painted on thin brown tracing paper and complete down to the last tiny detail. As Humphrey Bogart said in The Maltese Falcon, "this is the stuff that dreams are made of." Go for the fantasy, go for the bling, go for the social history, go for the designs and prepare to be dazzled.

December 19, 2009 — April 18, 2010
Information: legionofhonor.org
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San Francisco, CA 94121
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Other reviews:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/17/DDDV1B47RT.DTL
E-mail Nancy Ewart at namastenancy@hotmail.com