Two hundred years ago, Napoleon, frustrat-ed by his failure to conquer Moscow, ordered his retreating troops to destroy the magnificent 16th Century Ivan the Great Bell Tower, in the Kremlin. The 81 metre bell tower took the pounding but suffered little damage. The French emperor’s troops however did manage to destroy parts of the adjacent Assumption Cathedral, which was quickly rebuilt. Modern-day historians would see the irony in the fact that these days another French institution, which is probably as well known and even better loved, around the world, has laid siege on the minds of the discerning Muscovites through an exhibition in these two very historic buildings. Located across the walls from the famous Red Square and the iconic multi-domed St Basil’s Cathedral, and within walking distance from where Vladmir Putin rules Russia, Ivan the Great Bell Tower and the Belfry of the Assumption Cathedral, which are now part of a complex called Moscow Kremlin Museums, are currently playing host to an eye-popping jewellery exhibition mounted by Cartier, the revered Parisian jewellery and watchmaker.

The official opening of the three-month long exhibition, on May 23rd, in fact featured a performance by the Presidential Orchestra and a parade of the Foot and Mounted Guards of the Presidential Regiment. Cartier, whose relations with Russia, goes back to over a hundred years to the time of the Tsars, thus became the first jewellery house to be invited to exhibit inside the hallowed portals of the Russian government, where for the first 40 years of communist rule, even ordinary Russians were not allowed in. And befitting this privilege, Cartier has put up a show that is dazzling, to say the least. On show are 165 of some of the greatest pieces of jewellery, watches and accessories that were ever created. Titled, ‘Cartier, Innovation Through The 20th Century’, the exhibition is a sumptuous journey through Cartier’s glittering history of jewellery making, a testimony to the sublime creativity, pioneering innovation and unparalleled craftsmanship of its founders, who in the words of King Edward VII , were “jewellers to kings, and king of jewellers”. As Elena Gagarina, General Director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums stated at the opening, “Cartier can claim all the most important innovations and achievements which belong to the jewellery art of the 20th century. That is why we decided to show this exhibit here in the Kremlin, in the place where we keep plenty of ancient jewellery art treasures.”

The pieces on show represent the entire gamut of Cartier’s stylistic periods – from the garland style to the Art Deco; from the Indian-influenced Tutti Frutti designs of the 1920s to the white Art Deco of the 1930s and the yellow gold of the 1940s; from the vast range of men’s and women’s accessories to the flora and fauna influenced jewellery pieces of the 1950s and 60s. In the words of Pascale Milhaud, curator of the Cartier Collection, the exhibition brings out three unifying features of the ‘Cartier Style’: “…the primordial importance of design…next, design must be served by a technical virtuosity that constantly seeks to transcend itself, because that is what distinguishes a fine creative jeweller from a simple jewel merchant. Finally every creation by the House of Cartier displays balance and harmony. From a stomacher brooch to a mystery clock via a Tank watch – everything hinges on finely balanced proportions and harmonious colours.”

Milhaud and his colleagues spent two years curating the Moscow exhibition, sifting through the historic pieces ‘one by one’, in his words, from the 1,300 items that now form part of the Cartier Collection, and are stored in bank vaults in Europe. The collection itself was started in 1973 by Robert Hocq, the then president of Cartier, and the man who was responsible for unifying the three Cartier branches in Paris, London and New York, which had gone their own ways after the death of Pierre, Louis and Jacques Cartier, the three grandsons of the founder Louis-Francois Cartier. In 1973 Hocq bought back, at an auction in Geneva, the first of the six ‘Portique’ mysterious pendulum clocks, made in 1923. This started the Cartier Collection, and since then the jeweller has rarely missed an opportunity to buy back old creations which have been up for sale anywhere in the world.

The 1,300 pieces don’t sit in any permanent museum, but pieces from it are periodically exhibited around the world, with items chosen around a particular theme. The first showing was at Paris’s Petit Palais in 1989, followed by the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg in 1992, and then in Tokyo, London, New York and several other cities. Says Patrick Normand, Cartier’s Managing Director of the Middle East and South Asia, “Cartier is usually invited by the most prestigious museums to exhibit the Cartier Collection in the major capitals of the world and we can host only two exhibits per year. In 15 years Cartier has organised expositions in London, New York, Tokyo, Mexico, Berlin, Shanghai and many other cities. The theme and criteria depends on different factors. One way is by choosing the pieces that would be best suited for the theme of the museum itself. The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, for example, is known for exhibiting early American artefacts. So Cartier chose early American treasures dated from the end of the 20th century featuring decorative arts and jewellery. Each piece was chosen based on its significance and its history based on that theme.