The Denver Art Museum will be the sole venue for a new exhibition of more than 250 pieces of jewelry, watches and other precious objects produced by Cartier between 1900 and 1975.“Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century” is set to open Nov. 16 at the museum and run through March 15, 2015.Curated by Margaret Young-Sánchez and designed by Nathalie Crinière, who also put together the museum’s 2012 exhibition on designer Yves Saint Laurent, the exhibition will be on view in the Anschutz and Martin & McCormick galleries.

It traces Cartier’s history from the turn of the century, when the wealth of America’s Gilded Age prompted Cartier to open a New York branch in 1909.Americans such as banker J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt family patronized the French jewelry house, as did Russian aristocracy, Indian princes, English royalty and celebrities from around the world.Jewelry on display in the collection include pieces from some of the world’s most well-known women, and most avid jewelry collectors: Mexican actress María Félix, Elizabeth Taylor and the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson.

The Cartier Collection, the grouping of nearly 1,500 historical Cartier pieces the company has been reassembling since the 1970s, loaned a number of the objects that will be seen at the Denver Art Museum exhibition. Additional loans came from museums and private collections in the United States and Europe.

Source: National Jeweler