Howard Carter's discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in November 1922 triggered a wave of Egyptomania across the decorative arts. Cartier was among the most active in translating Egyptian motifs into jewellery and decorative objects; scarabs, lotus flowers, falcon heads, winged sun discs, and hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared in brooches, bracelets, vanity cases, and small objets in the years that followed.
The Egyptian revival was one of several source traditions Cartier drew on in the 1920s, alongside Persian, Indian, and Chinese influences. What distinguished the firm's approach was the tendency to combine these sources: a piece might carry an Egyptian scarab in a setting influenced by Indian gem-cutting traditions, mounted in the geometric platinum-and-diamond framework of the emerging Art Deco aesthetic. The result was rarely pure revivalism but rather a synthesis that looked like nothing made before.
Cartier London produced some of the most distinctive Egyptian revival work, reflecting Jacques Cartier's particular interest in ancient and non-Western sources. A blog post explores a specific Cartier London Egyptian revival brooch.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Ballantine Books, 2019), ch. 5 (“Stones Paris: Early 1920s”) and ch. 7 (“Precious London: Late 1920s”)
- Hans Nadelhoffer, Cartier: Jewelers Extraordinary (Thames and Hudson, 1984; revised 2007), pp. 135, 143 et al.
