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Cartier and America
Cartier and America is at the Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco, through April 18th, 2010.
The exhibition celebrates a hundred years of the jeweler’s presence in the USA. It includes many of the famous jewels made by Cartier for socialites and movie-stars and shows the beauty and innovation of the great jewelry firm founded by Louis-Francois Cartier in Paris in 1847.
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He had served his apprenticeship with jeweler Adolphe Picard and his beautiful designs, often of such insects as glittering scorpions, or animals, impressed the wealthy. Princess Mathilde, a cousin of Napoleon III, patronized the Cartier store. She introduced rich friends and other royalty and soon even the wealthiest Russian royals were buying Cartier jewelry.
Louis-Francoise’s grandson, Louis, developed and extended the business further. His innovations included using platinum as a setting, which compressed more diamonds. He also designed the Santos watch for his friend, the aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont. Aviators could not use pocket watches because they needed both hands for the controls so the Santos became the world’s first wrist-watch.
King Edward VII called Cartier a ‘jeweler of kings’ and asked them to become established in England (the firm had designed tiaras for his coronation and granted them the Royal Warrant in 1904). Cartier expanded to the USA in 1909 when it established a store in New York because so many wealthy Americans were interested in buying its jewelry but they did not want to travel all the way to Europe to have to do so.
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Cartier thus become extremely popular with the American elite, including the Astors and the Vanderbilts. Taj Campton Place San Francisco is official hotel of Cartier and America – and it is also one block from Union Square and some of the city’s best shopping.
Now a Leading Hotel of the World, this timeless property dates back to 1909 but it has been lovingly kept up to the minute. There are 110 rooms and suites and we particularly like room 901 as it is right next to the outdoor gym, which operates 24 hours a day (room 901 like a loft, and very comfortable).
Concierge Leigh Anne is tremendously helpful, and GM Vikram Singh, whose career includes Four Seasons, is one of the most alert in the business.
Campton Place Hotel, A Taj Hotel, San Francisco, United States
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