The Russian imperial family and the broader Romanov aristocracy were among Cartier's most significant clients in the years before 1917. Grand Duchess Vladimir, for whom Cartier made a diamond kokoshnik tiara in 1908, was among the most prominent. Tsar Nicholas II and members of the extended imperial family placed significant commissions across all three Cartier branches, and the Russian connection helped define the firm's Belle Époque reputation.
Documented imperial commissions
Tsar Nicholas II's commissions included a diamond and enamel reliquary cross made by Cartier for the christening of his heir, Tsarevich Alexei, in 1904. He also purchased a number of Easter eggs from Cartier, distinct from the better-known Fabergé examples, often in rock crystal and enamel.
Empress Alexandra Feodorovna's commissions included a kokoshnik-style tiara set with large pear-shaped pearls, which was later sold by the children's tutor Pierre Gilliard after the Revolution. The Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, Nicholas II's mother, received a large diamond stomacher from Cartier in 1907, designed in the garland style.
Princess Zinaida Yusupova and her family were also significant clients. After the Revolution, her son Felix Yusupov sold several pieces to Cartier in Paris, among them the Polar Star diamond (41.28 carats) and a pair of diamond earrings said to have once belonged to Queen Marie Antoinette. Those earrings were later sold by Cartier to Marjorie Merriweather Post and are now held by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
After 1917
The 1917 Revolution ended this relationship abruptly. In the years that followed, pieces made for the imperial household and the aristocracy began to reappear on the market: sometimes through intermediaries, sometimes through émigré families, sometimes through less traceable routes.
Pierre Cartier in particular had developed significant relationships with Russian clients, and the fall of the dynasty was among the factors that reshaped the firm's client base in the 1920s. The Vladimir Tiara, originally made by court jeweller Bolin, was repaired and altered by Cartier for Queen Mary of the United Kingdom after she purchased it in 1921 from Grand Duchess Vladimir's daughter. It has remained in the Royal Collection since.
Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna (1875-1960), Nicholas II's sister, was evacuated from the Crimea in 1919 aboard a British warship at the intervention of her cousin King George V. She settled in Britain at grace-and-favour residences and gradually sold pieces from her collection through London dealers as financial necessity required.
The story of how Romanov jewels moved through the early twentieth-century market is explored in the dedicated webinar, in a blog post on the Cartiers and the Romanovs, and in the entry on the Dispersal of the Romanov Jewels.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Ballantine Books, 2019), ch. 2 (“Louis, 1898–1919”) and ch. 6 (“Moicartier New York: Mid-1920s”)
- Wikipedia: The Romanovs and Cartier
