Thank you to all who joined for the #jewelrywebinar I did on Wednesday. It was my first one so I was slightly wary – used to speaking to an audience I can see! - but given travel and lectures aren’t happening any time soon, I figured it was worth a go. And it sure was – was very touched to see so many people tuning in and leaving all those comments and asking such interesting questions.
Read More#VEDay, 75 years ago today, marked the end of WW2 in Europe. But for many, the beginning of the end had started some months earlier: “On 18 August the Cartier firm closed until further notice” the head Cartier Paris salesman wrote in 1944. “The Germans occupied the Place de la Concorde and the Tuileries and fired on all the passers-by who wanted to cross over.” A few days later, the French Resistance and Allies advanced into Paris under the cover of darkness.
Read MoreAs we approach #veday , I have been thinking about what it must have been like approaching the end of WW2 in Paris. Years of occupation had taken its toll on the ‘city of light’: electricity and gas were scarce, water was often cut off and as the head Cartier salesman wrote to his wife "the supply is more and more difficult…we subsist by the black market."
Read MoreAn iris to celebrate 1st May. This brooch was made by Cartier London c. 1940: a flower in war time.
Read MoreThis is my grandfather, Jean-Jacques Cartier. I know I'm biased but he really was one of the most generous, moral, kind men you'd ever meet - a true gentleman. As I discovered when I recorded his memoirs he also lived a fascinating life - a peace-time baby born just at the end of the devastating First World war…
Read MoreAnd it’s in the shops! Signed copies now available in Daunt Marylebone and Hatchards in London now... If you’re in the UK just heard that Amazon.co.uk is already out of stock which is both great and not great (!) but they will be restocking soon or you can try Waterstones or independent bookstores too.
Read MoreThank you to @skynews for having me on the show today to talk about my new book. Hadn’t been the studios before and was quite overwhelmed by how enormous it all was!
Read MoreHow uplifting is this tiara?! Currently sits in the V&A museum where I’m excited to be giving a talk later this month. Made in 1903 for Consuelo, the Cuban American Duchess of Manchester (pictured, centre), using over a thousand of her own diamonds, it was designed in the elegant 18th century garland style for which the Cartiers were just becoming so well known.
Read MoreGuess the odd one out? It's the only object not inextricably connected to the Cartiers' history. So it's not the brooch or the watch of course... nor is it the notecard in the hand of my great-grandfather, Jacques Cartier, but, perhaps most surprisingly, neither is it the jam.
Read More200 years ago this year, my great-great-great grandfather was born into a poor working class Parisian household. With a mother who was a washerwoman and a metal worker father, his prospects weren’t exactly great. Instead of the education he longed for, he was sent out to earn his keep.
Read MoreChoosing images for my book. Not an easy task. But a lovely one...nothing like a photo to whisk you back in time. Here I am holding a sketch of the eldest of the three Cartier brothers: my grandfather has written "Uncle Louis" on the back in soft pencil and still now, nine years after his death, seeing that handwriting brings back a sudden unexpected pang of missing him.
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