Consuelo Vanderbilt was born in 1877, the granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had built one of the largest fortunes in American history. In 1895 she married the 9th Duke of Marlborough, becoming one of the first in a long line of "dollar princesses" who brought American wealth to the cash-poor British aristocracy.
The World Cartier Served
Her position as Duchess of Marlborough placed Consuelo Vanderbilt at the heart of the social world that sustained Cartier's London and Paris branches. The late Victorian and Edwardian aristocracy, supplemented by American wealth and Russian imperial connections, was Cartier's primary clientele during the years of the Garland Style and the Belle Époque. The jewels she brought with her to England included pieces that had belonged to Catherine the Great and Empress Eugénie. The scale of jewellery worn and required in this social world was the commercial foundation on which Cartier built its business.
Cartier Connection
Vanderbilt bought an enamelled clock from Cartier, among other pieces. In her memoirs she distinguished between Fabergé and Cartier: Fabergé was more revered for its objets d'art, Cartier for its jewels. Her goddaughter, the Cuban-American Duchess of Manchester, commissioned the Manchester Tiara from Cartier in 1903. When Edward VII was crowned in 1902, Cartier London displayed nineteen tiaras from coronation guests, including the Duchess of Marlborough's.
Vanderbilt also visited the Grand Duchess Vladimir in St Petersburg, leaving a vivid memoir account of the Grand Duchess's jewel collection, much of which Cartier would later handle after its dispersal. The full account appears in The Cartiers.
Later Life
Her marriage to the Duke was unhappy and was annulled in 1920. She subsequently married Jacques Balsan, a French aviator, and spent much of her later life in France. She died in 1964 at the age of eighty-seven.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Ballantine Books, 2019), ch. 1 and ch. 2
- Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, The Glitter and the Gold (Hodder & Stoughton, 2012; originally published 1953)
- Hans Nadelhoffer, Cartier: Jewelers Extraordinary (Thames and Hudson, 1984; revised 2007)
- Wikipedia: Consuelo Vanderbilt
