Cartier's tiara production changed shape between the wars. The upstanding diamond forms of the garland period had been designed for a world of elaborate coiffures and court presentations where height above the head carried meaning. By the early 1920s, bobbed hairstyles, dropped waistlines, and a broader shift in the visual culture of dress had made the tall tiara look increasingly out of place. In its stead came the bandeau: a flat-banded ornament worn low across the forehead or temples, suited to the new silhouette and to the geometric vocabulary that was replacing the organic scrollwork of the pre-war years. Cartier's interwar tiara output tracks this transition closely, moving from garland-derived forms into a design language shaped by Art Deco architecture, calibre-cut coloured stones, onyx, and structured outlines.
The Nancy Leeds Diamond Bandeau, made by Cartier Paris in 1912, is an early precursor to this flat-banded form. Its diamond setting places it within the garland style technically, but its horizontal profile anticipates the aesthetic that would become dominant within a decade. Hans Nadelhoffer defined the diamond bandeau as "a ribbon-shaped tiara whose centre is not accentuated", and the Nancy Leeds piece fits that description closely. As the 1920s progressed, Cartier's tiara work encompassed both strict geometric bandeaux and scroll or ribbon forms with some continuity from the garland period, their outlines becoming more architectural and less organic over the course of the decade. Convertible construction remained standard practice: sections detached to wear as brooches or bracelets, a continuity from the pre-war approach.
The years around the coronation of George VI in 1937 generated concentrated tiara work for the British market. Cartier London, under the direction of Jacques Cartier, was well positioned for these commissions through its established relationships with the aristocracy and the court. The English Art Works workshop at 175 New Bond Street built the pieces. The Cartier Halo Tiara of 1936 is the most widely known piece from this period: a diamond scroll tiara set with 739 brilliant-cut and 149 baton diamonds, made for the Duchess of York and later worn at two royal weddings seventy-five years apart. Records from the 1930s are better preserved than for the garland era, and several pieces from this period can be traced in some detail.
The Nancy Astor Tiara of 1930 represents a different kind of commission from the same decade. Adapted by Cartier London from a circa 1915 platinum bandeau, the piece was transformed by the English Art Works workshop with the addition of fluted turquoise plumes, carved turquoise leaves, and fan-shaped turquoise panels. The turquoise and diamond combination sits within a strand of 1930s Cartier London work that used coloured stones as a structural element rather than simply as a contrast accent. It was a country-house piece rather than a state-occasion piece, made for one of the most prominent political hostesses in Britain. Taken together, the Halo Tiara and the Astor Tiara illustrate the range of Cartier London's interwar tiara work: from the formal diamond scroll to the coloured-stone composition, both produced by the same workshop and the same branch of the firm.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Ballantine Books, 2019), ch. 4 ("Jacques, 1906-1919") and ch. 8 ("Diamonds and Depression: The 1930s")
- Hans Nadelhoffer, Cartier: Jewelers Extraordinary (Thames and Hudson, 1984; revised 2007), pp. 61-62
- Geoffrey Munn, Tiaras Past and Present (V&A Publications, 2002), pp. 109, figs. 81-82
- Judy Rudoe, Cartier 1930-1939 (Thames & Hudson / British Museum, 1997), p. 172
