Grandson of the Maison founder, Pierre Cartier (1878-1964) played an important role in the commercial development of the Cartier boutique that opened on Rue de la Paix in Paris in 1899. In 1902 Pierre also oversaw the opening of the London branch, which he headed in conjunction with his brother Jacques (1884–1941) until 1906. Thanks to this success, in 1909 he left for New York to begin a new chapter in Cartier history, running the American branch until 1947.
Cartier in Paris, London and Russia
Pierre was involved in the family business right from the opening of the Rue de la Paix store in 1899. He assisted his father Alfred (1841–1925) and brother Louis (1875–1942) in making sales. His name was notably linked to purchases by the American and Russian clients who thronged to the Paris boutique.
Pierre soon displayed his entrepreneurial talent and sharp flair for business. He oversaw the launch of Cartier’s first subsidiary, at 4 Burlington Street in London, in 1902. He and his brother Jacques (1884–1941) jointly ran the London branch until 1906.
Assigned to improve coordination between Russian workshops and Cartier designers when it came to production of enameled accessories and items in semi-precious stone, Pierre traveled to Russia in 1904 and 1905.
Cartier New York
It is hard to say exactly when Pierre Cartier went to the United States for the first time. But the fact that he left the running of the London branch entirely to his brother Jacques in 1906 suggests that the question of a transatlantic branch was already being explored.
Under Pierre’s leadership, the American subsidiary officially opened on the fifth floor of 712 Fifth Avenue, New York, in July 1909. Assisted by ace salesman Jules Glaenzer, Pierre soon had people talking about the boutique—with masterful skill, he pulled off the sale of the Hope diamond to the social celebrity Evalyn Walsh McLean.
In 1917, Pierre set his heart on a mansion at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street. A keen negotiator, he acquired the property in exchange for a necklace of two strands of natural pearls (fifty-five and seventy pearls, respectively), valued at one million dollars and coveted by the wife of the building’s owner, Morton Plant. After a brief period of renovation, the new Cartier premises opened at 653 Fifth Avenue in October 1917.
Political life and personality
Pierre was a made a knight of France’s Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur in 1921. In New York, aware that he was representing the interests of a French Maison on a distant continent, he assumed an authentically political role as a representative of France abroad. He became vice president of the Alliance Française in New York, served as president of the French Chamber of Commerce from 1935 to 1945, and was president of the Franco-American committee for the international exposition in Paris in 1937, to mention just of a few of his offices. This political role was crucially important, notably enabling him to insure good visibility for Cartier at the world’s fair hosted by New York in 1939.
In the United States, Pierre and his wife Elma attended official ceremonies, even frequenting the White House. For that matter, Pierre sent an annual Christmas gift to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945). The desk clock he gave the president in December 1943 told the time in five different time zones, and bore a French inscription on the base that translates as: “The hour of worldwide victory. In tribute to its architect, the president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
Pierre swiftly adopted the pace of life of his American clientele and their seasonal migrations. He was thus at the right place in the right time. He went to Florida in the winter and spent most of his summers in France.
Private and family life
Pierre was the grandson of company founder Louis-François Cartier (1819–1904) and the second son of Alfred Cartier (1841–1925) and Alice Griffeuille (1853–1914). In addition to his older brother Louis-Joseph Cartier (1875–1942) and younger brother Jacques-Théodule Cartier (1884–1941), he had one sister, Suzanne Cartier (1885–1960).
In 1908 he married an American woman from Saint Louis, Elma Rumsey (1878–1959). They had a daughter, Marion, who took over Cartier Paris after World War Two and ran it until it was sold in 1966. Pierre had five granddaughters—Violaine, Dominique, Marie-Pierre, Marie and Michèle.
In 1947 he handed the reins of the New York subsidiary to Louis Cartier’s son, Claude. He then retired to the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, where he lived at the Villa Elma until his death in 1964.