Property from the Family of the Original Owner
Cartier, Paris
A yellow gold, enamel, platinum and diamond-set cigarette case with lighter and watch, 1929
Auction Closed
June 15, 08:08 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Dial: silvered
Caliber: mechanical, 19 jewels
Movement number: movement under dial stamped 14'310
Case: 18k yellow gold, enamel, platinum, and baguette and rose-cut diamond-set bezel
Case number: watch case back stamped 2125 and 3496, outer bezel stamped 23'328 and 14'310, inside case back stamped 23'328 and inner bezel frame stamped 23'328, inside cigarette case hinge and inside lighter hinge stamped 3267, inside lighter cover stamped 3496
Size: 105 mm, 46 mm, and 15 mm
Signed: movement signed Cartier Paris, case and dial signed Cartier, inside the cigarette case stamped JC and London import marks, inside hinge and inside lighter cover stamped with London import marks
Box: no
Papers: no
A similiar example can be found in Cartier: Exceptional Objects Book II by Oliver Bachet and Alain Cartier, pp. 437.
It is hard to imagine the ubiquity of tobacco today, when during the better part of the 20th century, any fashionable gentleman or lady would be remiss without a cigarette in hand. Driven by the invention of mass-production machinery for cigarettes and a mass-media blitz, tobacco was transformed from a niche indulgence into a cultural phenomenon, becoming a symbol of modernity, and was linked to rugged masculinity, female emancipation, and even supposed health benefits.
As tobacco usage became more widespread, the vessel in which to carry cigarettes, and the instruments with which to smoke them, became ever so important. Maison Cartier, tastemakers to the jetsetting bourgeois since its founding by Louis-François Cartier in 1947, would step up to satisfy their clients’ voracious appetite for de rigueur fashions of the day.
Cartier’s modus operandi of transforming objects into jewels and jewels into objects is perhaps best exemplified by our present cigarette case lighter with an integrated diamond-set watch. While there have been several examples of cigarette cases with lighters, or ‘briquet montre’, lighter watches from Cartier, the combination of all three: a cigarette case, a lighter, and a watch is extraordinarily rare. Even rarer is the original and beautifully preserved condition of the present objet d’art.
Made in France with French assay marks and London import marks for 1929, the integrated watch is accentuated by its fourteen baguette and forty-six rose-cut diamond-set bezel, and houses a Cartier, Paris signed movement. Crafted entirely in eighteen karat gold and decorated with black champlevé enamel, the present objet de vertu no doubt would have been a conversation starter in the salons of the Maison’s well-heeled clientele.
There is only one other similar example known illustrated in Cartier: Exceptional Objects Book II by Oliver Bachet and Alain Cartier on page 437. With the top and bottom enameled panels and dial being the distinguishing factor between our example and the one illustrated.
Sotheby’s is honored to present this remarkable example directly from the family of the original owner, and cherished for the past century, a pinnacle of Cartier’s golden age where the Maison’s incredible ability to aestheticize form and function reached its zenith.