JEWELLERY

The Cartier Red Box

10 March 2025

Veronica Olszowska

The Cartier red box is possibly the most recognised jewellery box in the world. The colour conjures up ideas of love, passion, danger, courage and splendour and of course the highly valued gemstone ruby, so all at once it sends a message of opulence before it has even been opened.

In the early 1900s, advances in the use of platinum in jewellery allowed designers, such as Louis Cartier, to develop settings with previously impossible to achieve fine details and settings. Thus the famous Cartier Garland Style was born. These garland designs were then transferred on to the decoration of the red box. It is this finishing touch, the richness of the red with the gold garland, which makes the Cartier jewellery case one of a kind and it has almost superseded the company’s logo for instant recognition.

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By the 1930s red had become Cartier’s official colour. Prior to that jewels could be presented in green, rose and black leather cases as well. Proof that no detail wasn’t considered in presenting their designs, the story goes that it was felt that rubies didn’t stand out as effectively in red cases. So rarely Cartier had tooled green leather boxes created specially to present ruby-set jewels.

The shape of the red cases, with their velvet and silk linings, were designed to mirror a gemstone, in the cut-cornered or octagonal-cut, and as such, reflected the work of the artisan jewels that are contained within.

The three original Cartier boutiques were listed on the inside of the lid of the box, printed in gold on the silk lining. The addresses - London, 175 New Bond Street; Paris, 13 Rue de la Paix; and New York, 712 5th Avenue - were rotated, with the store where the purchase was made appearing at the top.

Today, a simple “Cartier” loops across the inside lid of the case as there are now countless stores across the world, far too many to fit into the lid of a beautiful box. The red awnings over the windows at these addresses and the large red bows that adorn these buildings at Christmas are a larger-than-life nod to the Cartier corporate identity and packaging.

In the 1966 film How to Steal a Million the Cartier box made a cameo appearance when it is thrown at Audrey Hepburn in the now well-known proposal scene.

In 2019, it was the golden garland, that scallops around the edge of the box, that was the inspiration for the Guirlande de Cartier range of handbags. The bags were the visual and practical embodiment of the house of Cartier, and with eight facets, the golden borders and of course the shape of the bag itself mirroring the little red box, the collection was a hit.

Political, cultural, industrial and social changes come and go but the Cartier red box ever endures and so perhaps unsurprisingly they are valued in their own right and sought after by collectors across the world to this day.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Veronica Olszowska

Sale Coordinator, Jewellery

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