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74. CARTIER: SILVER AND GOLD CIGARETTE CASE, DECORATED WITH …
See original version (French)
74
-
74. CARTIER: SILVER AND GOLD CIGARETTE CASE, DECORATED WITH …
See original version (French)
Estimate €6,000 - €8,000
Voluntary lot
Description
74. CARTIER: SILVER AND GOLD CIGARETTE CASE, DECORATED WITH SEVEN CHARMS
Rectangular in shape, fluted, two-tone silver and gold, signed Cartier Paris, numbered S8775 and 5560, French hallmark for the silver and French import hallmark for the 18-carat gold (750 ‰), dimensions 11.0 x 8.3 cm, gross weight 168.91 g.
Accompanied by seven charms added to the case at a later date, in 18-carat gold and platinum: a mouse set with a ruby cabochon and rose-cut diamonds, a mousetrap set with a heart-shaped ruby cabochon, a star adorned with rose-cut diamonds, a floral motif set with a pearl, a fish signed ‘Cartier Paris’ with eyes set with rubies, the body formed from an emerald shaped like a leaf and set with rose-cut diamonds, a turban set with calibrated rubies and rose-cut diamonds, and a bird carved from sapphire and enhanced with rose-cut diamonds.
Provenance:
Madame Paulette’s jewellery box, ‘the queen of milliners, the milliner to the queens’, a gift received from her second husband, Jacques Chopin de La Bruyère, in the early 1950s. Every year, he would give her a new charm representing a symbol of his love for her.
Key to the symbols:
Fish: her star sign
Star: she is his star
Sparrow: a nickname given to her by her husband, ‘my little sparrow’
Mouse: another nickname, ‘my little mouse’
Trap: you have captured my heart
Turban: her success during the war, also known as the ‘bicycle ribbon’
Rose: her favourite flower
Pauline de la Bruyère, known as Paulette (1900–1984), established herself as the most influential milliner of her generation. In her workshops on Franklin D. Roosevelt Avenue, she styled the hair of royalty, high-society ladies and film stars, from Greta Garbo to Princess Grace of Monaco, and also created hats for numerous fashion houses, either anonymously or under her own label. Her ‘bicycle’ turban, launched during the war, remains the emblem of ‘Resistance Fashion’. A close collaborator of Christian Bérard and Cecil Beaton, she designed for the theatre and cinema, notably creating the hats worn by Audrey Hepburn in *My Fair Lady*. Her designs were photographed by Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton for *Vogue* and *Harper’s Bazaar*, and one of her turbans was exhibited in 2009 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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