Harry St Clair Fane (1953–2023), second son of the 15th Earl of Westmorland, founded the Obsidian gallery in Mayfair in 1978, dealing exclusively in vintage Cartier jewellery and objects from the outset. He focused particularly on the period from 1919 to 1939, the years spanning the transition from the garland style through Art Deco to the interwar peak, and maintained that specialism for over four decades.
Operating from a single dedicated gallery rather than as a general jewellery dealer, Fane became one of the few private traders whose knowledge of specific pieces, their provenance, and their position within Cartier's output could stand alongside that of institutional curators. He has been described as someone who knew more about Cartier than Cartier did.
In 1989 he contributed to Reflections of Elegance: Cartier Jewels from the Lindemann Collection, the catalogue documenting a major American private collection assembled by George and Frayda Lindemann. The authorial team brought together Hans Nadelhoffer, as leading independent scholar; Eric Nussbaum, as institutional curator of the Cartier Collection; and Fane, as the principal private dealer in the field. Few Cartier publications have assembled that combination of expertise simultaneously.
In 2000 he organised a loan exhibition at the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show in New York: The Mystery of Time: The Mystery Clocks of Cartier. The accompanying catalogue, which he wrote, remains one of the few texts dedicated specifically to the mystery clock as a form. His opening observation captures the effect these objects produce: a 1925 notice in the Gazette du Bon Ton had described them as "marvels of the clockmaker's art, unreal and seemingly woven from moonbeams," veiling "the mystery of time in the shadow of an ancient divinity." The exhibition was the first time so many mystery clocks had been gathered in one place, allowing a comparative view of the five model groups (the Model A crystal column clocks, the Central Axis single-shaft clocks, the monumental Portique arch clocks, the Screen fire-screen clocks, and the Animal group) across the full period of their production from 1912 to the late 1940s. His catalogue revised the total count of mystery clocks from Nadelhoffer's ninety to just over one hundred.
He died in December 2023. Obituaries appeared in WWD and The Daily Telegraph.
Sources
- Reflections of Elegance: Cartier Jewels from the Lindemann Collection (New Orleans Museum of Art, 1989)
- Harry Fane, The Mystery of Time: The Mystery Clocks of Cartier (loan exhibition catalogue, International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show, New York, 2000)
- Harry Fane, "Surprise surprise" (harryfane.net, 8 May 2021) -- on a previously unknown mystery clock at Piasa
- Obituaries: WWD and The Daily Telegraph, December 2023
