Overstock Celebrity Jewelry

Light on Louis-Francois Cartier (1819-1904)

September 26th, 2006

In 1847, Louis-Francois Cartier takes over the jewellery workshop of this master, Adlophe Picard, at 29 rue Montorgueil in Paris. Over the years, the Cartier Maison becomes an icon with the each generation contributing to jewellery business with landmark pieces and global expansion. In 1997, the Maison celebrated its 150th anniversary under the management of the Cartier brothers: Louis, Jacques and Pierre, grandsons of the founder of the Maison. From World War I onwards, the Cartier designers see the skin of the panther as a source of inspiration for abstract drawings in onyx and in diamonds. CARTIER - The renowned French jeweller and watchmaker in 1968, Cartier is once more a pioneer and launches a luxury lighter with a novel design and a unique mechanism. The lighter is oval with ridges and has a retractable lighting wheel protected by a cover.

The Cartier is a symbol. And in 1969, two well-known performers get involved: for actress Elizabeth Taylor’s 40th birthday, her then-husband Richard Burton gives her a spectacular Cartier diamond ring - a 69-carat, pear-shaped stone. It is the very first diamond sold for over $1 million. The stone was unearthed at the Premier mine of South Africa in 1966. And it was Harry Winston who cut and polished the rough stone from its original size of 244-carats. It has been moving in and out of auction houses, and the last recorded sale was to an anonymous Saudi buyer for $3,000,000.

See a movie about Jacques Cartier and how Cartier sailed farther up the gulf and into the Bay of Gaspé and met a group from the Iroquoian nation of Stadaconé… which is now the site of Québec City.

Entry Filed under: Designers, Celebrity-Jewelry