A new book by a family descendant narrates the story of the Cartier family

It’s almost impossible to think of fine jewellery without thinking of Cartier. The legacy French jewellery house, founded in 1847, is behind some of the most iconic haute joaillerie of all time—be it their Juste un Clou and Love bracelets or the Panthère de Cartier pieces. But behind all the dazzle is the story of a family that rose through the ranks to create a formidable jewellery empire, one step at a time—a narrative always told from a third-person perspective, until the release of The Cartiers, that is. As a sixth-generation Cartier, Francesca Cartier Brickell gives readers an exclusive behind-the-scenes insight into the rise and rise of the brand birthed by her ancestors.

For Cartier Brickell, it all started with a visit to her grandfather (Jean-Jacques Cartier, who was the last of the Cartiers to own and manage a branch of the firm, Cartier London) at his home in the South of France for his 90th birthday. As she went down to his cellar to retrieve a bottle of vintage champagne for the celebration, she stumbled upon a long-lost trunk of family letters and documents instead. This set her on a quest to retrace the footsteps of her forefathers to narrate the story of their Maison from an insider’s perspective. “I’d always been interested in the history, and thought I would write it down in some form to preserve it for the next generation. But when I discovered the trunk, it suddenly became bigger than that. It’s funny reading someone’s words from a century ago. They are no longer around, but they suddenly come vividly back to life through their words,” Cartier Brickell told us during her visit to Mumbai. “I understood their worries, felt their hope, and laughed at their jokes. I simply couldn’t keep it hidden. Their unbelievable drive, their passion for their work, their talents, the way they earned the life-long loyalty of their employees; their stories deserved to be told.” Through her book, the former financial analyst explores themes like sustaining a successful company through multiple downturns, creating jewels that break auction records even a century later, and more. “I knew that the Cartier brothers—Louis, Pierre and my great-grandfather Jacques—had shared the dream to ‘build the leading jewellery firm in the world’. My job and my understanding of business meant I was able to look at their success more objectively. One of the central questions in the book is, ‘How on Earth did they actually make it happen?’” Edited excerpts from the interview below.

Tell us more about your relationship with your grandfather

My late grandfather retired just before I was born. So, for me, he was always just a loving grandparent who we visited in the summer. But as he shared his memoirs, he became that nervous soldier fighting in World War II, or the new boss at Cartier London who was missing his late father. It helped me understand him better. I did share my idea of the book with him, and he told me repeatedly that there was now a historian in the family so that our story could live on. He even worked on the initial structure of the book with me, labelled old family photographs, and read my drafts about his father’s trips to India.

Growing up, do you have any fond memories associated with the Cartier family legacy?

Those holidays spent with my grandfather were always peppered with fun anecdotes about the past—like how he fell asleep while waiting to see the royal family at Buckingham Palace and had to be woken by the Queen Mother herself! Or, how he apprenticed during World War II in occupied Paris, studying under Cartier’s extraordinary head designer, Charles Jacqueau, by day (who he told me helped create Cartier’s signature style), and rushing to art school to supplement his training each evening, all the while fending off attempts by the Nazis to send him over to Germany.

Did you want to dispel any assumptions about the family through the book, or was it just to talk about your legacy? 

It was more the latter, but my grandfather felt there were some characters in the Cartier story who had been overlooked. He was keen that those ‘unsung heroes’, as he called them, be recognised through the book. These included the co-creator of the Crash Watch, Rupert Emmerson, and the introverted artistic lead of Cartier London, Frederick Mew, who created the Queen’s famous diamond flower Williamson brooch (which she wore for the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and even a recent meeting with the Obamas at Buckingham Palace). Then, there was the suave French salesman, Etienne Bellenger—a hit with the ladies, who only barely survived a vicious ring robbery in the 1930s before quietly helping General De Gaulle from the Cartier boardroom during World War II—and designer Charles Jacqueau, who is relatively well-known today, and was pivotal to the art deco creations of the ’20s.

What did your research for the book entail, apart from studying your family’s archival belongings?

It involved a lot of time in local and foreign libraries, archives, on the phone, travelling the world to track down addresses from 100-year old envelopes, and online detective work to locate descendants of those who had worked for the firm. It also involved a huge amount of reading. In order to understand the characters and their motivations, I had to understand the social context they were acting in. For example, for the first chapter (based in the late 19th century), I read multiple first-hand accounts of the period under Napoleon III, the Franco-Prussian war and the Siege of Paris. For the 1930s, I read all about the Great Crash, the lives of the Maharajas in India and the coronation of King George VI.

What were the most exciting parts of this research?

I had my family’s account, but I wanted the book to be objective, so I needed the memories of others too. I particularly loved meeting people connected to the past—it was like finding lost pieces of a puzzle. Many of those I contacted were generous with their time; the firm had felt like family to them or their ancestors. So, I was invited into homes all over the world, from America to India, Paris and Sri Lanka.

Tell us about the time you spent in India

My great-grandfather, Jacques, made strong connections here in the early 20th century. I loved travelling in his footsteps. I met descendants of many of the ruling families he had known, such as those from Baroda, Patiala, Kapurthala and Jaipur, among others. There is nothing like sharing stories of our ancestors in the places they had met a century ago. In Kapurthala, I visited the Jagatjit Palace, the former residence of Maharaja Jagatjit Singh. I had always known that the Maharaja was an important Cartier client—his emerald turban ornament is legendary—and I knew from books that he had been a Francophile. But it was only when I was in his French-inspired former home, speaking to his grandson (on and off in French), that I really grasped what that great man had been like as a person. The story moved from being two-dimensional to three-dimensional, and I love the moments when that happens.

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