Cartier London & English Art Works: The Room Where It Happened

Great to share stories about #TheCartiers @Cartier last week. This slide shows the Cartier London workshop, #EnglishArtWorks, that Jacques created in the 1920s. Back then – and for the next half century - it was on the 3rd floor of 175 New Bond Street, the area that is now #LaResidence and – as it turned out - the exact space I was giving the presentation in.

By the time Jacques set up the London workshop, he’d already completed an apprenticeship in Paris; moved to #175NewBondStreet; survived being gassed in WWI and helped Pierre set up the #CartierNewYork workshop.

I loved hearing stories about the Cartier workshops from my grandfather. He spent a lot of time up here…after all, this was the engine room of Cartier London, the far-from-glamorous setting where magic happened: where slabs of precious metals and unpolished gems were transformed into gleaming creations worthy of the elegant showroom below. It was a happy place with chatter, songs and pipe smoke filling the air: those who worked there spoke of it feeling like a family.

The jewels created in this room are legendary: the 1930s emerald and diamond Lady Granard necklace pictured behind me, the Queen’s pink diamond #Williamsonbrooch, the #Halotiara, the Duchess of Windsor’s emerald engagement ring…and when working with such valuable raw materials, it was important not to waste anything along the way. The mounters wore a leather skin draped across their knees like an apron. As they worked, the skins would become ingrained with minute particles of precious metals and when - after months and months - they became too worn to wear anymore, they would be sent off to specialist gold firms and incinerated in order to extract the valuable dust. Even the female polishers had to wash their hair each Friday in the sink at work (not sure how that would go down today!) so the wastewater could be sieved for any fine particles that had made it into their hair while polishing.

Many thanks to @laurentfeniou for inviting me to speak at Cartier London, just over 100 years after the EAW workshop (now on the top floor) was founded – it was such fun to share stories and sign books, especially in #theroomwhereithappened