London’s Victoria & Albert Museum has been transformed into a “spellbinding” venue for this “once-in-a-lifetime retrospective” of Maison Cartier, said Evgenia Siokos in The Telegraph.
Over 350 jewels, watches and “gobstopper-sized gems” are on display until 16 November, spanning everything from the late Queen Elizabeth‘s diamonds to Princess Grace of Monaco’s engagement ring. Visitors are “deftly” drawn into the “spheres of cultural influence” that inspired three brothers, Louis, Pierre and Jacques Cartier, to propel their grandfather’s family business into the world-renowned jeweller it is today.
The “most astounding” piece of all is a beautifully restored platinum and ruby necklace commissioned by the Maharaja of Patiala in 1928, which “mysteriously” disappeared following Indian Independence and was rediscovered in London in 1988 with its largest stones missing. Also of “particular note” is a 1925 vanity case in the shape of an Egyptian sarcophagus, adorned with two carved emerald sphinxes “encrusted with onyx and diamonds”.
It’s a “dazzling” show, said Nancy Durrant in The Times. Curators Helen Molesworth and Rachel Garrahan have “kept it simple”, artfully arranging a collection of “exquisite objects of outstanding beauty, quality and ingenuity”, together with illustrations from the Cartier archives revealing fascinating details about the design process, “all mostly spotlit against black”.
The Cartier-sponsored exhibition could easily have felt like a “foie-gras force-feeding of brand propaganda”, said Joe Bromley in London’s The Standard. But this is “far from the case”, thanks to the “intelligent” curation and “spectacular” treasures on display.
The jewels themselves are “impossible not to obsess over”. Highlights include the “rather magnificent” Manchester Tiara, made in 1903 for the Dowager of Manchester with over 400 rose-cut diamonds, and a series of showstopping “Tutti Frutti” pieces – a “pick-and-mix” of precious gems that look, “in spotless glass cabinets, like the contents of an old-world confectionery shop”.
Fittingly, the exhibition concludes with yet another room of “glittering tiaras”, added Durrant in The Times, one made as recently as 2017. “Who is commissioning this stuff? I’m glad someone still is.”
A ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ display of the French jeweller’s ‘exquisite’ objects
