Cartier: A diamond 'Love' bangle
Estimate: £4,000 - £6,000
Auction: 29 April 2025 from 14:00 BST
Description
The polished bangle accented at intervals with alternating screwhead motif and brilliant-cut diamonds, signed Cartier, maker's mark, numbered, Cartier size 19
Accompanied by a Cartier case, box and screwdriver as well as a certificate of authenticity dated 2016.
Footnote
Born out of the cultural revolution happening in late 1960s America but also the transformation happening internally at Cartier, a drastically different jewel was created.
In 1962 Claude Cartier took the monumental step to sell Cartier New York. For the first time in history a branch of Cartier was not under the control of the family. By 1968 Cartier New York was owned by Kenton Corporation, and the chairman Robert Kenmore was keen for a fresh take on the historic French house.
When the charismatic young Italian American Aldo Cipullo (1935-1974) left Tiffany & Co. and joined Cartier in 1969, he brought with him the design for a simple gold bangle that screwed onto the wrist, designed never to be removed. Cipullo had offered the design to Tiffany & Co. while working there, but they had passed on it.
Kenmore saw the potential in the simple gold bracelet and Cipullo’s first creation for Cartier was put into production. The romantic notion behind the “Love” bangle was coupled with the advent of a far greater output of machine-made fine jewellery entering the market. It was an instant sensation, retailing for $250 dollars initially.
To market the Love Bangle's release in 1970, Cartier gifted twenty five pairs to famous couples including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and Steve McQueen and Ali Macgraw. Many of whom would go on to wear those bangles for years to come.
The range was expanded quickly, platinum Love bangles were released in 1970, white gold in 1973, diamond-set versions in 1979 and finally rose gold in the 1990s. Ordinally only available in the US, it's popularity meant that it was soon released in Europe via the Cartier Paris branch in the early 1970s where it was called the Bracelet à Vis. Finally by 1982 it was available to purchase worldwide.
It has been suggested that the Love bangle was a homage to the Menotte bangle designed in 1939 (see lots 49 and 50). However, as the original Menotte bracelets were heavily gem-set and devoid of the working screw mechanism, both features so intrinsic to the later Love bangle, this attribution seems doubtful. It would have also been unlikely that Cipullo, who was working for Cartier in New York which at that time not an affiliate company of Cartier Paris, would have had access to the French archives. The more realistic archival inspiration integrated into both the contemporary Menotte and the Love bangles' design was the screwheads that decorated the original Santos watch’s bezel, designed by Louis Cartier in 1904.
For further reading see Cipullo, Renato and Becker, Vivienne, Cipullo; Making Jewellery Modern, Assouline, 2001.