A jewelled 18ct gold and 'Pékin' enamel vanity case, Henri Lavabre for Cartier, Paris, circa 1920

cylindrical form, oval section, narrowlystriped gold and black enamel, each end in black enamel, embellished with rose diamond rings, diamond and onyx thumbpiece, on rose diamond and black enamel chains depending from a rock crystal ring with black silk tassel, opening to reveal four compartments including one with mirror, maker's mark of Henri Lavabre, eagle's head 3me titre, engraved: Cartier, Paris, Londres, New York, and numbered 361

a few diamonds missing to mounts but overall very good condition
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Cartier's first simple vanity cases were in yellow gold and often embellished with a monogram. During their heyday in the 1920s, they became incredibly sophisticated, having up to four compartments and sometimes also adorned with a watch, thus obviating the need for a handbag, while  their exterior decoration demonstrated the designers' fertile imaginations.

Louis Cartier was known for his passion for exotic cultures. While Islamic art and design truly fascinated him, Egyptian, Chinese and Indian decorative arts were also influential at different periods. Over the years, he had established a remarkable library of reference books and sought authentic examples of ancient art which entered the stock as apprets and were often incorporated into Cartier's modern works of art, such as original Chinese 18th century lacquer panels. As  Guillermo Solana said:' it was the unusual combination of ancient non-European art and modern mounts that led Cartier to a unique interpretation of 1920s Art Deco pieces that incorporated Egyptian, Persian and Indian as well as Sino-Japanese influences' (The Art of Cartier, catalogue exhibition, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2012-2013, p.109).

This vanity case is an iconic model among Cartier creations. The striped gold and black enamel is known as 'Pékin' pattern while its form was inspired by Japense inrō, a box with compartments originally used to carry medicine and worn at the waist. A similar vanity case with matching cigarette holder is now in the Cartier collection and regularly exhibited and published (see G. Gautier, The Cartier Legend, London, 1980, p. 96; F. Cologni & E. Moccheti, L'Objet Cartier, Paris, p. 79; and The Art of Cartier, op. cit., cat.89). An almost identical example, numbered 0109, is in the collections of the Liangyi Museum, Hong Kong, and was published by M. Etherington-Smith in Vanities, 2011, fig. 31. According to Judy Rudoe, the jewelled rose diamond circle at one end was intended to contain a monogram if the client so wished (Judy Rudoe, Cartier 1900-1939, exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997, p. 127).

Henri Lavabre first entered a maker's mark in 1904 and his atelier worked exclusively for Cartier between 1906 and 1921. The association continued until the 1930s and he supplied a large proportion of Cartier's gold and enamel cigarette and vanity cases in the 1920s.