LONDON — If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, then Cartier is the British royal family’s best cousin.
On April 12, when the Victoria & Albert Museum in London opens the doors to its “Cartier” exhibition that runs until Nov. 16, 2025, there will be plenty of diamonds with royal history attached.
At a press preview at the museum, co-curators Rachel Garrahan and Helen Molesworth showcased what’s to come, including Queen Elizabeth II’s Williamson diamond brooch from 1953; the Patiala necklace from 1928 that was commissioned by Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, and Wallis Simpson’s flamingo brooch from 1940.
Queen Elizabeth II wearing her Williamson diamond brooch from 1953 with Barack and Michelle Obama.
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Another showstopper in the collection will be the Manchester tiara from 1903 that Consuelo, Dowager Duchess of Manchester, had ordered. The tiara features over a thousand cut diamonds and more than 400 rose-cut diamonds.
The exhibition will feature more than 350 objects including jewelry, watches, clocks, drawings, imagery and other special objects.
The items in the exhibition are not limited to diamonds worn by royalty, even though each piece has had some sort of history with various royal families around the world. There is the Scroll tiara commissioned in 1902 that Rihanna was wearing on the cover of W Magazine in 2016; the Crash wristwatch that was designed in 1967 at the brand’s London boutique on Bond Street, and Mexican actor María Félix’s snake necklace from 1968.
Kate Middleton wearing the Manchester tiara next to Xi Jinping and Queen Elizabeth II.
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“María’s necklace is a dazzling network of two-and-a-half thousand diamonds, but beneath that is this complex structure that makes it move like a real snake, which we will show in the exhibition alongside Cartier’s Mystery Box, which dates back to 1912 and appears to work by magic,” said Garrahan.
Items will be lent to the exhibition by King Charles III, U.K. and international museums and private collectors.
The “Cartier” exhibition will focus on the brand’s art, design and craftsmanship legacy at the turn of the 20th century.
