A pair of platinum Art Deco style double clip brooches, Cartier, London, circa 1935

We find this pair of clips absolutely emblematic of the designs coming out of the Cartier London workshop in the early 1930s.

Ziggurat, pyramid and arrowhead motifs quickly became part of the design vocabulary of Art Deco and can be found in all forms from architecture to jewellery.

The temple of Kukulkan, at Chichen Itzá, the large pre-Columbian city located in Yucatán State, Mexico

As we wrote in Understanding Jewellery The 20^th Century referring to clips of the same period by Cartier: ‘We see a clear link between the design of this clip and the outline of the pyramid of Kukulkan at Chichen Itzá in Mexico. It is interesting to note that works of excavation and exploration on this pyramid started in 1931, as the combined effort of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. and Mexican archaeologists’.

Princess Marina of Kent (1906-1968) wearing 1930s Cartier clips

For comparable examples of Cartier diamond clips of the 1930s, see: David Bennett, Daniela Mascetti Understanding Jewellery The 20^th Century (Publisher: ACC Art Books, 2021) pages 82-84.

Vogue, Paris, May 1930, clips, brooch and handbag by Cartier, couture by Redfern

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Further details:
A pair of platinum and diamond Art Deco style double clip brooches, Cartier, London, circa 1935

The outer edge with stepped baguette-cut diamonds, with an inner pavé-set A frame section centred with a single, round-cut diamond, weighing approximately 1.75cts, within a frieze of brilliant-cut and baguette-cut diamonds

Signed Cartier, London, with a fitting so the clips can be worn as a single ‘bow’ shaped brooch

Dimensions: each clip – height: 33.8mm | width: 33.8mm

For further information on the pair of platinum and diamond Art Deco style clip brooches:
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