Cartier: Passing on Heritage and Savoir-Faire. Masterpieces from the Hermitage Museum and Cartier Collection

Partnership with the Hermitage began for Cartier almost 30 years ago, in 1992, when the museum staged the exhibition “The Art of Cartier”. A new stage of collaboration commenced five years ago, when the jewellery house supported the Hermitage’s restoration programme. Since 2016, with the support of Maison Cartier, staff of the Laboratory for the Scientific Restoration of Precious and Archaeological Metals in the State Hermitage’s Department of Scientific Restoration and Conservation have carried out the restoration of five unique works from the museum’s collection of decorative and applied art.

The exhibition in the Picket Hall is constructed around these five restored masterpieces which are being displayed together with 35 items from the historical Cartier Collection, owned by the firm itself – pieces of jewellery and timepieces that have been selected on the basis of a shared material, style or technique.

Staff of the Laboratory for the Scientific Restoration of Precious and Archaeological Metals (headed by Igor Karlovich Malkiel) restored what may well be the world’s only surviving example of a rock crystal lamp created by Arab craftsmen in the 10th century and later embellished by skilled Italian jewellers at the time of the Renaissance. In the exhibition. the lamp is complemented by the works of French jewellers who turned their hands to this amazing material ten centuries later. In the pieces from the Cartier Collection, one can see how the 20th-century craftspeople combined rock crystal with precious stones and preferred platinum over yellow gold.

A gold scent vase from the treasury of the Great Moghuls inlaid with diamonds, emeralds and rubies has also been restored. The vessel was brought to Saint Petersburg in 1741, among the gifts that Nadir Shah, the ruler of Iran, sent to the court of Empress Anna Ioannovna. In the display, it is presented in the company of pieces of Cartier jewellery with Eastern motifs, including an Indian-style necklace made up of 18 little ruby and diamond plaques strung onto five strands of 360 pearls. The kundan technique employed in the making of the necklace is the same method of setting stones as was used in the decoration of the Hermitage scent vase.

In 2018, the Casket of Hedwig (Jadwiga) Jagiellon was restored. This unique object was created in Nuremberg in the 16th century and is of exceptional importance for the history of how the jeweller’s art developed in Europe. A whole range of techniques was used in the finishing of the casket. Each of the mounts that adorn it is unique and embellished with precious stones of various artistic merit worked in different ways. The pieces of jewellery that accompany the casket in the display are just as diverse. Among them is a cameo mounted in gold that was created in 1860, during the period sometimes described as “Cartier before Cartier”. The emeralds, sapphires and rubies on a gold bracelet from 1945 are reminiscent of Byzantine art. The pieces with Christian motifs include a pendant from 1949 that includes a cross dating back to 1934.

The exhibit that was restored in 2019 is Alexander II’s field marshal’s baton, decorated with enamels and set with diamonds and emeralds. It was created in 1878–79 by the eminent Saint Petersburg jeweller Julius Keibel. This badge of rank and honour is accompanied by precious objects from Cartier associated with the symbols of state and the military triumphs of Russia and France.

The year 2020 saw the completion of the fifth joint project – the restoration of a little cabinet that was finished in Augsburg by the celebrated craftsman Johann Valentin Gevers in 1700–05. The upper part of the piece contains a clock with a bronze face framed by little mounted figures. Above them is a wooden ball showing the time of the day or night. The embellishments of the cabinet engage in a dialogue with a Cartier brooch from 1899, while its chief feature interacts with three examples of decorative timepieces made to adorn a writing desk or mantelpiece.

The exhibition “Cartier: Passing on Heritage and Savoir-Faire. Masterpieces from the Hermitage Museum and Cartier Collection” is timed to mark the fifth anniversary of collaboration and the 120th anniversary of the Maison Cartier’s first arrival in Saint Petersburg. It tells about the importance of the preservation of the jeweller’s craft and heritage for future generations – values that are dear to both the Hermitage Museum and Maison Cartier.

An illustrated catalogue has been prepared for the exhibition with forewords by Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage, and Cyrille Vigneron, President and CEO of Cartier.

The exhibition curators are Olga Grigoryevna Kostiuk, head of the State Hermitage’s Department of Western European Applied Art, and Olga Vladimirovna Sedina, a researcher in the same department.

The exhibition “Cartier: Passing on Heritage and Savoir-Faire. Masterpieces from the Hermitage Museum and Cartier Collection” is included in fixed route №2 around the Main Museum Complex (entry by the Church Staircase).