A blockbuster exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum dives into Cartier’s dazzling archive

Photography by Lewis RonaldText by Olivia Barrett

The Ancient Greeks believed that diamonds were the tears of the gods and goddesses, dripped down from the heavens above. Amethysts, they believed, protected the wearer from intoxication – the Greek word “amethystos” means “not drunk”. And according to Hildegard of Bingen, sapphires could be used to remedy eye problems – she claimed that a person suffering from conjunctivitis should place a sapphire in their mouth and place the gem on the affected eye. 

Before they become talismans, healers and objects of myth, diamonds and other precious stones form beneath the Earthen epidermis in a much more infernal conception than the Ancient Greeks would have you believe. Made from a singular element, carbon, diamonds are the result of atoms being squeezed under monumental pressure – approximately 50,000 times the pressure at the surface of the Earth and at around 1,600 degrees – so much that these squashed atoms bond with four others. Amethysts form in the hydrothermal veins below the surface where magma and other hot, mineral-rich fluids fill geological cavities, crystallising silica components over time. As trace elements of iron and other transitional metals work their way into the growing quartz (mineralogically, amethyst is referred to as purple quartz), these intercepting impurities subsume light wavelengths, providing the amethyst with its royal violet or glassy lavender hue.  Diamonds and gems have both a market and sentimental value, rich in symbolism, but they also embody a timelessness that emerges from their geologic formations – one that defies shifting aesthetic tastes and economic patterns.

Yet while they’re formed by magma or under unfathomable atmospheric pressure, precious stones only exist in their current elevated form because of human intervention. In a letter to his salesman in 1922, Louis Cartier, then heading Maison Cartier along with his two brothers, Pierre and Jacques, declared that “You must make your client obsessed with stones”. Over 100 years later, the seeds of Louis’ instruction continue to be sown, and the Maison’s own obsession with stones comes to light in a blockbuster V&A exhibition that details the house’s epic growth across the 20th century.

From a workshop in Paris to the necks of Maharajas, the exhibition charts Cartier’s history across an anthology of over 350 jewellery pieces and timepieces. The gallery walls are coated with black paint, and the overhead lights are lowered; the darkness draws out the brilliance of the artefacts.  Like moths to a flame, you could always tell where the sparkliest objects in the room were as they invited groups of visitors to peer through the glass; at a diamond and sapphire sautoir, perhaps, or the Patiala Necklace, commissioned by Bhupinder Singh, Maharaja of Patiala, in 1928. At times, you might assume that a glint in your peripheral vision was a camera flash, when, more often than not, it’s a tiara of monumental carats catching the light. Precious stones sparkle because of their high refractive indices and the way that light bounces off their internal facets. Although held in place with a platinum setting, the pieces are infused with a sense of kineticism as their light extends from beyond their protective windows to glance off the gallery walls or flicker across the faces gazing through the glass. 

Throughout the exhibition, it becomes clear that movement was integral to the Cartier story. The exhibition’s lead curator, Helen Molesworth, sought to emphasise the Cartier family’s globalised spirit and the importance of their international network, from producers to clients. The Manchester Tiara was chosen as the exhibition’s inaugural piece; Molesworth argued that, despite it not being necessarily Cartier’s most famous piece, the tiara embodies the globalisation that the Cartier family championed in both their personal and professional operations. Commissioned in 1903 by the Duchess of Manchester, Consuelo Montagu, the tiara is made of seven graduating heart motifs set in gold and silver. The Duchess supplied over 1,000 brilliant-cut and 400 rose-cut diamonds for the piece, and stepping into the first gallery room, the tiara, centrally displayed, is dazzling. A roving light orbits its perimeter, picking up on the glinting light and the three dangling diamond ornaments at the tiara’s apex.

Like moths to a flame, you could always tell where the sparkliest objects in the room were as they invited groups of visitors to peer through the glass

Yet the first artefact to open the exhibition is not a piece of jewellery, nor a watch. Stepping into the darkened mouth of the gallery, you are met with the Cartier family: a photo of Alfred Cartier (born in 1841, and who died in 1925) arm in arm with his three boys, Louis, Pierre and Jacques. Here, we are welcomed into the domestic origins of this international business. It also introduces us to the trinity at the heart of the Cartier empire, the three brothers and the relationships between them. Accompanying the photograph is a letter from Pierre Cartier to Jacques in January 1915, in which he writes, “My two brothers are everything to me. Together, we dreamed of the greatness of our family business, and together we developed and spread its renown to all four corners of the globe”. While the exhibition certainly touches the very ends of the earth, the curation is consciously set up to engender a sense of homecoming.

Wandering through each room and considering each object, the pieces’ previous owners recede into the background (or owners,
multiple – see a Cartier Tank watch owned by both Jackie O and Kim Kardashian). The pieces, displayed on notably “non-human” stands, are temporarily detached from their past lives, given the chance to shine as individual facets of beauty. Yet a singular, unnamed brooch shines as a standout amongst the exhibition’s more exuberant pieces. Commissioned in 1933 by Jacques Cartier for his wife, Margaretha “Nelly” Harjes, this brooch is made of an emerald-cut amethyst, Nelly’s birthstone, flanked by four diamond corner accents, one to represent each of the couple’s four children. It’s finished with a delicate row of sapphires, Jacques’ birthstone, hugging their way around all corners of the “children”. Embodying family, humility, intimacy, ambition – harking back to Pierre’s earlier statement on the “four corners of the globe” as much as the love Pierre expresses towards his siblings – this brooch is the summation of the innate spirit of Cartier.  In the days before the exhibition’s opening, we were given access to photograph the brooch and a few of Cartier’s “Mystery” clocks. Soon enough, they’d be swarmed by museum guests and phone cameras, but for now, they were in quiet hibernation, disturbed only by the gloved handlers.

It’s somewhat sobering to leave behind Cartier’s cave of wonders, stepping into the brightness of the museum’s foyer and turning your back on some of the finest and most innovative precious stone creations in existence. Exiting through the gift shop and leafing through postcards and fridge magnets, a singular piece prevails as the exhibit’s shining motif: Nelly’s brooch, plastered across button badges, wrapped in cellophane and stamped onto keyrings. Though Louis Cartier might have said “Only create, never copy”,  perhaps he would have made an exception. A true ambassador of the Cartier journey, the amethyst brooch translates their stories of travel, family, success and status into something precious, but possible to share. .