Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) was a poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, and visual artist, a figure who moved across disciplines in ways that made the Académie Française uncomfortable for most of his career before finally admitting him at sixty-six. He was also a longtime friend and admirer of Cartier, writing in his early twenties that the firm was "a subtle magician who captures fragments of the moon on a thread of sun."
His friendship was with Louis Cartier above all, though it extended to the wider circle: Pierre Cartier and Jeanne Toussaint remained close to Cocteau for the rest of their lives after Louis's death.
The Académie Française Sword
Cartier Paris had been making ceremonial swords for members of the Académie Française since the 1930s. Each sword was the product of extended conversations between a Cartier designer and the future academician, the design intended to reflect the person's life and work. Cocteau's sword was different: he designed it himself.
The sword, made in yellow gold, silver, and steel in 1955, was signed with a star in diamonds and rubies, Cocteau's personal emblem. The handguard was shaped as the profile of Orpheus, his mythological obsession. The scabbard, decorated with blue enamel and onyx, evoked the grille of the Palais-Royal gardens, his home in Paris. At the tip, a hand grasped an ivory ball referencing the snow-covered stone in Les Enfants Terribles, his 1929 novel. The blade came from a swordsmith in Toledo.
As tradition required, the sword was given to Cocteau by his friends upon his election. The emerald was donated by Coco Chanel; the rubies and diamond by Francine Weisweiller, his patron and hostess at the Villa Santo Sospir on the Riviera. The piece is now in the Cartier Collection.
For his two-hour inaugural speech at the Académie, Cocteau wore robes by Lanvin and carried the sword in his left hand. Louis Cartier had died before the occasion; Cocteau was admitted in 1955, thirteen years after his friend's death.
The Trinity Ring
The blog post on Jean Cocteau and his Cartier Paris Sword describes him as one of the Cartiers' most unique clients, "inspirational in more ways than one, including inspiring the Cartier Trinity Ring." The precise nature of that connection is explored at The Cartier Trinity Ring: Its Origins.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Ballantine Books, 2019), ch. 5 (“Stones Paris: Early 1920s”) and ch. 8 (“Diamonds and Depression: The 1930s”)
- Hans Nadelhoffer, Cartier: Jewelers Extraordinary (Thames and Hudson, 1984; revised 2007), pp. 88, 183 et al.
- The Cartier Collection, Precious Objects catalogue: Academician's Sword made for Jean Cocteau, 1955 (materials, provenance, donor details)
- Wikipedia: Jean Cocteau
