More from Cartier at the Denver Art Museum

Platinum and diamond tiara.

Rock crystal, platinum, and diamond bow brooch.

When I first visited the Denver Art Museums current exhibition, Brilliant Cartier in the 20th Century, I told you all I would most definitely be going back for another visit. I did just that this weekend, and spent Saturday afternoon admiring the jewels all over again. I cannot stress enough how beautiful the exhibition, and the jewelry shown within, are and if you live in the area I highly recommend to visit the show. For those who will be unable to see the stunning exhibition in person, today I give you more sparkling photos of the treasures on display...

Vanity case with platinum, emerald, ruby, and diamond accents

Genuine ancient Egyptian faience mounted with platinum, sapphires, enamel, and diamonds

Egyptian faience wings and scarab, both mounted by Cartier in settings of precious stones

Ancient Egyptian faience scarab set with gold, diamond, ruby, citrine, emerald, and onyx wings.

More Egyptian revival items, two vanity cases and a cigarette holder

This vanity case includes an actual ancient Egyptian plaque with hieroglyphs set in coral, onyx, turquoise, lapis lazuli, nephrite, emeralds, and diamonds. 

A bracelet in the Chinese style with carved coral and large emeralds

A Chinese inspired vanity case, the tiny detail is astounding! 

A vanity case featuring Cartier's symbol, the panther

A gold, enamel, and ivory cigarette case and lighter in the Arabic inspired arabesque style motif

A lovely tiger brooch (there were also matching earrings)

Another Cartier panther (Jaguar) in platinum, onyx, and diamonds. It is a bracelet, the tail forms the other end of the clasp.

Actress Maria Felix's custom crocodiles, one in emeralds, the other in yellow diamonds, each containing over a thousand of each stone. They can be clasped together to form a necklace and came with an extra set of  claw-less feet so they wouldn't scratch the neck.

Though I literally covet nearly ever item in the show, the Egyptian revival pieces from the 1920's are my favorite. The fact that the jewels are built around actual pieces of ancient Egyptian faience seals the deal for me, I'd love to own one of those scarab brooches! My other favorite style from Cartier is the tutti frutti with its carved rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. Even the lisner and coro copies of tutti frutti are still so popular that the costume jewelry sells for thousands of dollars. If only someone out there was making costume jewelry like they used to we could all wear such glamorous things!

For anyone who is wondering what exactly a vanity case is, I shall direct you to this blog post I wrote as a Denver Art Museum intern covering the subject! (though I suspect the post had a bit of post editing work done as I don't recognize all of those sentences!) I hope everyone has a wonderful start to the week!