Cartier’s peerless designers have continued to amaze decade afterdecade—from the 1930s into the twenty-first century—with their fancifuland trendsetting creations. Figurative pieces comprise a significantportion of the house’s collection—a veritable menagerie that includesbejeweled roosters and cobras cohabitating with tigers and angelfish.In addition to whimsical fauna and resplendent flora, Cartier crafteditems of precisely mastered abstraction, from virtuoso work in gold tochromatic harmonies ranging from subtle to bold. The second half of thetwentieth century was to provide an inexhaustible repertoire of formsfor decorative objects and finery. Close-ups of hundreds of Cartierpieces are supplemented with archival drawings, as well as society andfashion photographs. This volume chronicles the rise of a pioneeringfirm and illustrates the power of constantly renewed styles based on afine balance between imagination and know-how, creativity andexperience. Fashion writer Nadine Coleno situates the emergence ofCartier’s creations in their historical and stylistic context. Thisvolume offers an eloquent tribute to the multiple talents that havetransformed the name of a dynasty of jewelers into the universal goldstandard in jewelry design.
