Cartier Art Deco Tutti Frutti Flower Vase Brooch, ca. 1930s

A beautiful and rare Cartier Tutti Frutti brooch depicting a flower vase with carved ruby and carved emerald leaves. The rest of the brooch has round brilliant cut and step cut diamonds, accented with swinged black enamel work.

Probably Cartier New York. Signed, numbered.

Cartier’s Tutti Frutti is one of Art Deco’s most instantly recognizable motifs. Conceived during the 1920s, this exuberant riot of colored, carved gems reflected a society shedding the rules of the past and embracing unadulterated glamour and modernity. In the ’20s, exoticism was the rage. India’s princely families had their magnificent gem collections refashioned by Cartier and other Parisian jewelry houses. The Europeans, in turn, fell in love with India’s precious gems and its crafts, including the Mughal tradition of intricately carving stones as leaves, flowers, berries and fruit.