I visit the Cartier exhibition at London’s V&A
It's diamonds galore at the sold-out show
Shakespeare famously wrote, “All that glisters is not gold,” and it’s certainly so with the new Cartier exhibition at London’s V&A. It glitters – or glisters – but it’s not gold, it’s almost all diamonds, in the dazzling collection of jewellery, watches and ornaments, on display.
As Shakespeare also inferred in The Merchant of Venice, it’s absolutely beautiful, but it’s not as memorable an experience as the V&A’s previous fashion and style retrospectives, including Chanel and Dior. Probably that’s down to the minimalistic staging, where all the emphasis is on the display cases, as well as the fact that looking at small items of jewellery is not as physically dominating as fashion. But it also lacked the interactive displays we’ve come to expect at these kinds of exhibitions. I’d have liked to have seen more of the beautiful illustrations of the time, more archive footage and frankly, a bigger exhibition space, as it’s quite cramped, which means lots of queues at each item.
However, don’t let that put you off, if you’re a fashion fan, or a lover of fashion and royal history, then you will enjoy this show, which runs until November and is the first major exhibition of the brand in the UK, in almost 30 years.
With around 350 items on display, it charts the evolution of the French house, from its inception in Paris in 1847 by Louis-Francois Cartier, to its boom-time at the turn of the 20th century when it began producing modern jewellery which captured the hearts of the rich and royalty. So much so, Edward VII called the brand, ‘the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers’ and awarded it a royal warrant, which Charles recently renewed.
It’s full of tiaras and treasures, my favourite of which included the Scroll Tiara, worn by the Countess of Essex to Edward VII’s coronation, and later Clementine Churchill, to Elizabeth II’s in 1953; Grace Kelly’s 10.48-carat diamond engagement ring; the giant snake necklace commissioned by Mexican film star Maria Felix, which contains 2,473 diamonds; the Manchester Tiara, made in 1903 for the Duchess of Manchester and the pretty Opal Tiara, on display for the first time, worn by Mary, Duchess of Devonshire at the late Queen’s coronation.
And don’t miss the astonishing 1928 Patiala Necklace, commissioned by the Maharajah of Patiala, which originally held 2,930 diamonds, rubies and the enormous De Beers yellow diamond as its centrepiece.
I did enjoy the exhibition, but am looking forward more to the next big fashion exhibition which comes to the V&A in September – Marie Antoinette Style. In the meantime, I’m heading over to Kensington Palace to see their royal fashion show, Dress Codes.
Cartier runs until November 16, vam.ac.uk