Die Cartiers

It began with a small, fine jewelry store that Louis-François Cartier founded in Paris in 1847. Just a few years later, the French Empress Eugénie became his client. And when Princess Mathilde, the cousin of Napoleon I, dazzled at one of her salons with Cartier in 1856, it opened the door for the company to Parisian society and the international elite. At the beginning of the 20th century, the founder's three grandsons opened branches in London and New York. They transformed Cartier into an iconic luxury brand and created a global empire. They supplied royal courts and catered to the actresses and fashion divas of the 20th century – from Grace Kelly, Wallis Simpson, and Coco Chanel to Elizabeth Taylor and Romy Schneider: It had to be Cartier.

The great-granddaughter of Cartier pieced together her family's history from many mosaic fragments. It reads like a social novel, not only about outrageously expensive jewelry but also about arranged marriages and secret romances, dynastic intrigues, and disgraceful betrayals. The captivating story of four generations of jewelers behind the Cartier empire and of three brothers who transformed their grandfather's modest jewelry business into an iconic luxury brand in the early 20th century – told by a great-granddaughter with exclusive access to a long-lost family archive.