One of my favorite activities in NYC is looking at the jewelry store windows. There are so many beautiful objects from different time periods and places that it feels like you are taking a trip to many exotic locations. On one of my trips I came across a window with a beautiful diamond Cartier Tiara. The tiara was stunning with perfect details in platinum and diamonds. What really made this piece special was a note accompanying the tiara. A representative of Cartier had reached out to the store owners asking to borrow the tiara for an exhibit May-July in Beijing.
This exhibit is a follow up to the 2009 ‘Cartier Treasure’ exhibit, the second Cartier exhibit held at the Forbidden City. I read the note and some of the history and thought how fortunate this store (L’etoile Royale) is to get to share a piece they bought in this exhibit. For this post I will look a little at the history of this Cartier Tiara and then talk about partnerships and marketing.
History of Cartier Tiara
The tiara was made in 1908 for Miss Ada Ismay for her wedding to Henry Anthony Chandos Pole in October of that year. Miss Ismay’s father, Thomas Henry Ismay was founder of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company (also known as the White Star Line), one of their most famous ships was the RMS Titanic. Ada’s brother Joseph was on the maiden voyage but survived. Both of Ada’s parents had passed before her wedding. She had two children. Her husband was a Brigadier-General that passed away in 1934.
The Cartier Tiara was made by Georges Harnichard in the London workshop. A perfect piece from the Belle Epoque era. It was auctioned at Christie’s London Important Jewelry Auction in November 2003. The estimate was 50,000-70,000 Great British Pounds (GBP) and sold for 103,810 GBP (with buyer’s premium).
The tiara also made an appearance at the ‘Diamond Divas’ exhibit in Antwerp in 2008. It has made it into the care of L’etoile Royale on Madison Street and will again be seen by thousands of people in Bejing for the summer! The Cartier Tiara can be taken apart to have a piece be made into a stomacher. And comes in its original box!
Marketing and Partnerships
This is a great opportunity for the store. The publicity is one plus and forming relationships with people who can see you as a credible source in the future is important in any business. For those that are not as fortunate to buy a tiara that a major jewelry house wants for its exhibit here are a few ideas to find your own opportunities:
- Partner with another business to create an event that would serve your customers better than if you were to do it alone.
- See about loaning you space to a group that would be your ideal client (women entrepreneur’s, bloggers etc.)
- Offer to customize an item just for that store (look at my post on how Weitzman worked with a boutique to create a shoe that he hoped Jennifer Aniston would buy)
If you are still looking for more ways contact me at [email protected] and we will put or thinking caps ( or tiaras) on and come up with ways to grow your business. Thank you for following and please return soon for more Data in the Rough!