Cover of Amaz­ing Cartier by Nadine Coleno

In this well-documented and visu­ally spec­tac­u­lar book, we learn about the birth, evo­lu­tion, and legacy of jew­elry firm we’ve come to know with rev­er­ence and not a lit­tle admi­ra­tion as CARTIER. Estab­lished in 1937 by three broth­ers, Louis, Pierre, and Jacques, the author, Nadine Coleno, does a won­der­ful job of bring­ing them and their leg­end to life. When Louis met Jeanne Tou­s­saint, the woman who would develop sig­na­ture jew­elry col­lec­tions for the firm, she was a client and a designer of tapes­try evening bags. The two formed a bond of inter­ests, Louis intro­duced her to eighteenth-century art, and Tou­s­saint brought with her the love of the sculp­ture and line of Romanesque and Gothic. She was also inti­mate with Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel — social con­nec­tions with over­ar­ch­ing benefits.

Flamingo Brooch, Plat­inum, rubies, sap­phires, emer­alds, and cit­rines, Cartier Paris 1940

Through Coleno’s descrip­tive writ­ing and the book’s mar­velous images we trip through time on a magic car­pet ride of rain­bow hues and motifs so inven­tive one for­gets that these seem­ingly tran­scen­den­tal pieces were painstak­ingly crafted by the hand of a crafts­man. Let’s not for­get that these were wear­able works of art for those lucky enough to have owned them. In truth, the images are quite large and the details so well pho­tographed that the per­spec­tive in and of itself is almost as sat­is­fy­ing as hold­ing one of Cartier’s iconic leopard’s in your palm.

Amaz­ing Cartier, page 221. Hindu neck­lace. For­merly the col­lec­tion of Daisy Fel­lowes and the Count­ess Casteja. Cartier Paris, spe­cial order 1936, altered 1963

Being a strong pro­po­nent of this genre of books, mine included, that illus­trate jew­elry being worn, I was happy to see that Amaz­ing Cartier does not dis­ap­point. In fact, many of the fash­ion images (some are from adver­tis­ing, oth­ers are vin­tage pho­tographs) are fab­u­lous time cap­sules that depict the pieces when newly cre­ated, and paired with styles, hair and make-up that were con­tem­po­rary for the time. While there are a sub­stan­tial num­ber of these period pho­tos, it made me yearn for even more. Next time. But for now, this book is pre­cious — in jew­elry, con­tent and all.