Cartier Art Deco Minaudière, ca. 1925
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GUEST:
I brought this little... I call it a minaudière. I'm not sure if it is or not. But my mother-in-law gave it to me about 50 years ago. And her father had given it to her as a gift.
APPRAISER:
It's Cartier. I opened it up and looked inside, and I saw the Cartier marks. It's also Art Deco, which are both wonderful things in the auction and in the retail market. A very desirable piece. It also has one extra added element that is really exciting about this, and it's the carved gemstones in here. We have some carved emeralds, carved rubies, and then there's also some rose-cut diamonds. And it also has black onyx links in the chain. Cartier championed this look in the Art Deco era, and they called it Tutti Frutti.
GUEST:
(laughs): I love it.
APPRAISER:
It's as fun as it looks. Really. And the Cartiers had clients in India, the maharajahs.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
And their court. And they would visit them. And the Indian styles inspired the Cartiers. And this is one of the inspirations that came from that, was the Tutti Frutti. And they used this in several different pieces. I've seen stick pins. Most prominently, you'll find them in the larger bracelets that they had, which are very desirable. When you open it up, we can see that it has the marks along the rim here, and then the French mark is in another place. It's like a little eagle's head. Let's go ahead and put this back up here now. It's nearly 100 years old.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And when you get things like this, especially when you wear it around, and it's swinging around and you're out having cocktails and a fun time...
GUEST:
(laughs)
APPRAISER:
You know, you expect to see a little bit of damage. It's amazing that you still have that box, too.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Have you ever sought out to find out what the value might be?
GUEST:
I've just been nosing around a little bit.
APPRAISER:
I see. (laughs) And what did you find when you were nosing around?
GUEST:
Well, I found that it's worth more than I thought it was.
APPRAISER:
I see.
GUEST:
I thought it was just a little thing. I started about, oh, a month ago, I guess, when some people were in from out of town, and I took this over to them, and they did start around $4,000.
APPRAISER:
Wow.
GUEST:
And I said, "Well, it's not for sale."
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
Because I think they wanted to buy it.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
Then I took it elsewhere, and somebody else studied it for a while, and offered me between $12,500 and $14,500.
APPRAISER:
I see.
GUEST:
And I couldn't quite understand that, but I wouldn't let it go for that.
APPRAISER:
It can be a little bit tricky, because when they made these, they didn't make a whole bunch of them, so finding comparables, I kind of had to use a little bit of combined effort. Now, I found other Cartier Art Deco minaudières...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
But nothing quite like this. We thought $20,000 to $30,000 at auction would be a good estimate for it. Even to the point where I found some of these similar items-- not quite as nice as yours-- had estimates of, like, $8,000 to $12,000, but sold for $30,000.
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
So when the desire of the crowd is piqued, it really shows up when you have an item like this.
GUEST:
And when is the crowd piqued? (both laughing)
APPRAISER:
Well, when they see a beautiful item like that, with a great estimate on it, they go after it, and they really want to have something like that.
GUEST:
Well... I like it, too.
APPRAISER:
Well...
GUEST:
Maybe I'll die with it.
APPRAISER:
Yeah... (laughs) Keep it in the family.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
That's always a great idea.
Appraisal Details
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