The Cartiers : The Untold Story of the Family Behind the Jewelry Empire

“A dynamic group biography studded with design historical past and high-society sprint . . . [This] elegantly wrought narrative bears the Cartier hallmark.”–The Economist The fascinating story of the household behind the Cartier empire and the three brothers who turned their grandfather’s humble Parisian jewellery retailer into a worldwide luxurious icon–as advised by a great-granddaughter with unique entry to long-lost household archives

“Ms. Cartier Brickell has carried out her grandfather proud.”–The Wall Road Journal

The Cartiers is the revealing story of a jewellery dynasty–4 generations, from revolutionary France to the 1970s. At its coronary heart are the three Cartier brothers whose motto was “By no means copy, solely create” and who made their household agency internationally well-known within the early days of the 20th century, because of their distinctive and complementary abilities: Louis, the visionary designer who created the primary males’s wristwatch to assist an aviator good friend inform the time with out taking his fingers off the controls of his flying machine; Pierre, the grasp dealmaker who purchased the New York headquarters on Fifth Avenue for a double-stranded pure pearl necklace; and Jacques, the globe-trotting gemstone knowledgeable whose travels to India gave Cartier entry to the world’s finest rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, inspiring the celebrated Tutti Frutti jewellery. Francesca Cartier Brickell, whose great-grandfather was the youngest of the brothers, has traveled the world researching her household’s historical past, monitoring down these linked along with her ancestors and discovering long-lost items of the puzzle alongside the best way. Now she reveals never-before-told dramas, romances, intrigues, betrayals, and extra. The Cartiers additionally affords a behind-the-scenes have a look at the agency’s most iconic jewellery–the notoriously cursed Hope Diamond, the Romanov emeralds, the traditional panther items–and the lengthy line of stars from the worlds of trend, movie, and royalty who wore them, from Indian maharajas and Russian grand duchesses to Wallis Simpson, Coco Chanel, and Elizabeth Taylor. Printed within the two-hundredth anniversary 12 months of the delivery of the dynasty’s founder, Louis-François Cartier, this guide is an impressive, definitive, epic social historical past proven by the deeply private lens of 1 legendary household.