Gold “Grain de Café” Ring by Cartier, London, circa 1955

Literature

cf. Harper’s Bazaar, October 1956, cover.

Biography

Cartier was founded in Paris in 1847 by Louis-François Cartier. His three grandsons, Louis, Pierre, and Jacques, built the house into a famous international jewelry empire serving royalty, Hollywood stars, and socialites. Cartier has created some of the most important jewelry and objects of art of the twentieth century with many iconic designs such as mystery clocks, Tutti Frutti jewelry and the Panthère line. In 1983, The Cartier Collection was established with the objective of acquiring important pieces that trace the firm’s artistic evolution. Today, Cartier has 200 stores in 125 countries.

Significance

In 1956, Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn were two of the most successful

actors in Hollywood. Both had won Oscars, Hepburn for Roman Holiday and Kelly for The Country Girl. They exuded elegance, style, and simplicity. Hepburn appeared on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar that year with a red lip, dramatic eyebrows, a zebra hat, and Cartier grain de café earrings in coral.

Kelly would marry Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, trading her Hollywood royalty status for a real title in a lavish televised ceremony Vogue called the “wedding of the century.” Kelly was photographed extensively that year, and in one press photo she wears a beautiful Cartier gold grain de café necklace above a pin-tucked off-the-shoulder dress with elegantly upswept hair and impeccable makeup. Kelly was photographed wearing the necklace countless times throughout her life, and her daughter Princess Caroline has also frequently worn the piece that is now part of the Collection Palais Princier de Monaco.

The Cartier grain de café, or coffee beans, are an iconic Cartier design popularized in the 1950s under Jeanne Toussaint, the talented and stylish design director of Cartier responsible for popularizing the panther and the chimera jewels. The beans were usually created in gold, and sometimes coral, occasionally accented with a diamond. The Cartier café design featured an unusual ribbing, chosen to give the gold additional texture. There were bracelets, earrings, brooches, and short collar necklaces made with the motif, a clever take on the popularity of floral jewels in the 1950s. This iconic and sought-after Grain de Café ring is just as wearable today as when it was made.

Audrey Hepburn wearing Grain de Cafe earrings on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar, 1956. Photographed by Richard Avedon.