Jewellery

Behind the Cartier Curtain

17 April 2025

Sarah Duncan, Head of Jewellery, London

Head of Jewellery, London, Sarah Duncan shares her thoughts on what's behind the “curtain” or more accurately behind the workshop door, in the lead up to our unique Cartier Curated auction, taking place live online on 29 April, with viewing in London.

Cartier Curated

Explore our 29 April 2025 live online auction.

There are so many parts of the jewellery world which fascinate me. I have been lucky enough to handle and learn from both exceptional and ubiquitous items, both of which can teach the jewellery historian a substantial amount. It has been a constant that the study of jewellery has been dominated by the wear, the end user as it were, as through them we see the jewels shining in the limelight.

However more and more I’m drawn to what’s happened behind the “curtain” or more accurately behind the workshop door. The French firm of Cartier has made jewels for kings, queens, maharajas, dukes, sultans, princesses and the modern royalty of Hollywood. However its worth remembering that the vast majority of all Cartier items sold were “made for stock”. Although this phrase can be seen as devoid of the glamourous indications of the above, to me it illustrates the ingenious and magnificent skills of the individuals who made these works of art. Today the creation of a new jewellery line is composed more of focus groups and market research than of artistry. Prior to the 1960s most jewels came from the imagination and technical know-how of an individual or a small group of designers and goldsmiths working together.

As the daughter of a craftsman, this speaks to me so much more than the alien lives of “A listers” and rocks the size of plums. More and more I’m fascinated by those tiny, sometimes frustratingly poorly struck, navette shaped marks or poinçon de fabricant. These “marker’s” or “workshop” marks were legally required to be stuck on jewels manufactured and sold in France. Basic information on workshops in the UK which the Cartier London branch relied on are at times available from the London Assay office. However generally speaking, information is scarce and rarely enough to understand the person behind the mark. Who were the genius men and women who dreamt up the Mystery Clock or figured out how to make metal look like lace? Coming from a Classical archaeology background, I used to joke that we knew more about 2nd century BC Athenian potters than we do about late 19th century goldsmiths.

Information about these workshops has in the past been fiercely protected by those lucky enough to have factual references. Most of us in the industry will have encountered a team member with libraries they wouldn’t share and when one would naively ask “how do we know that?” the response would be simply “because I do.” However, I personally feel that we’re lucky enough to be living through a change in the winds. Information is starting to emerge both in published works and digitally, however sadly not from the big corporate firms who still keep their archives very much behind lock and key.

In the Cartier Curated catalogue, wherever possible, I’ve given the names of the workshops or maker’s and as much context as I can. This is by no means a comprehensive study and I’m hopeful that should I be lucky enough to revisit a large collection such as this in the decades to come, my knowledge and contributions will be significantly enhanced. A personal thanks must go to individuals such as Francesca Cartier Brickell and Judy Rudoe whose published works have shared so much information on this subject in particular.