Judy Rudoe worked as a curator in the Department of Prehistory and Europe at the British Museum in London. Her research interests centred on the history of jewellery and the decorative arts in Britain and Europe, and her scholarly attention to Cartier produced what became one of the two foundational reference works on the firm.
Cartier 1900–1939
In 1997 Rudoe published Cartier 1900–1939, issued simultaneously by the British Museum Press in London and Harry N. Abrams in New York, with the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a co-organising institution. The book runs to 344 pages and is available in a British Museum Press paperback edition (ISBN 978-0714105888) and a Harry N. Abrams hardback (ISBN 978-0870997808). It draws extensively on the Cartier Collection, the firm's own holdings of historical pieces, as well as major private lenders, to document the company's output from the Art Nouveau period through the height of Art Deco.
The chronological focus distinguishes Rudoe's work from Hans Nadelhoffer's Cartier: Jewelers Extraordinary (1984), which surveys the full arc of the firm's history. Rudoe concentrates specifically on the four decades between 1900 and 1939, giving her catalogue greater depth within that period and making it a more precise tool for the study of Art Nouveau and Art Deco production. The two books are complementary rather than competing: Nadelhoffer for breadth, Rudoe for density within the pre-war period.
The Exhibition
The catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name that travelled to three venues over three years. It opened at the British Museum in London in 1997, moved to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for the 1997–1998 season, and closed at the Field Museum in Chicago, where it was shown in 1999–2000. The exhibition was among the largest retrospectives of Cartier's work staged in the twentieth century and drew on institutional and private lenders alongside the Cartier Collection.
The Scholarship
Rudoe's broader research at the British Museum encompassed European jewellery beyond Cartier, and she contributed to the department's publications in the history of decorative metalwork and gemstone use. The Cartier 1900–1939 catalogue remains the standard reference for the firm's output in the period it covers and is cited in subsequent exhibition catalogues and collector literature.
Sources
- Judy Rudoe, Cartier 1900–1939 (British Museum Press / Harry N. Abrams, 1997)
- British Museum Press catalogue entry, ISBN 978-0714105888
- Harry N. Abrams hardback edition, ISBN 978-0870997808
