Cartier
We started our feed to highlight and champion Independently owned businesses in New York City and that is still our main focus today, but we also appreciate small businesses which have grown into big brands as that is a true “mom-and-pop” success story. One business which we love to photograph during the holiday season is the flagship location of Cartier on Fifth Avenue at 52nd Street. Cartier was established in 1847 in Paris when Louis-Francois Cartier took over his master’s watchmaking/jewelry workshop and opened his first boutique store in 1859. Louis-Francois’ son, Alfred Cartier took over the family business in 1874, and introduced Cartier into the royal houses of Europe but Alfred’s three sons Louis, Pierre and Jacques brought the Cartier jewelry💎 designs to worldwide recognition. Pierre, who married a wealthy American socialite, was instrumental in bringing the brand to Manhattan in 1909. He purchased and resold the infamous Hope Diamond 💎, which received much press and then in 1916 cleverly traded a stunning million-dollar two string Pearl necklace at his New York showroom in exchange for a five-story Renaissance marble and limestone mansion owned by Morton Plant, an elderly railroad & steamship magnate who was married to a much younger woman named Masie. Masie was seated next to Pierre at a dinner and told him that she admired the Pearl necklace at his shop but could not afford it. Pierre who knew that Mr. Plant was considering selling his townhouse because he felt that the area was losing its residential feel said to him “Give me your townhouse, and I’ll let you have the necklace.” So two strings of 55 and 73 perfect pearls and $100 were exchanged for a set of keys 🔑 and Cartier moved into the townhouse. After a nearly $900,000 renovation (over $24 million today) to make the space feel like the original opulent Paris shop, their new Fifth Avenue headquarters at the corner of Fifth Avenue at 52nd Street won a gold medal for the best-transformed building in New York. Cartier has occupied the former Plant mansion ever since and the exterior looks very much the same as it did in Plant’s day.
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Cartier
We started our feed to highlight and champion Independently owned businesses in New York City and that is still our main focus today, but we also appreciate small businesses which have grown into big brands as that is a true “mom-and-pop” success story. One business which we love to photograph during the holiday season is the flagship location of Cartier on Fifth Avenue at 52nd Street. Cartier was established in 1847 in Paris when Louis-Francois Cartier took over his master’s watchmaking/jewelry workshop and opened his first boutique store in 1859. Louis-Francois’ son, Alfred Cartier took over the family business in 1874, and introduced Cartier into the royal houses of Europe but Alfred’s three sons Louis, Pierre and Jacques brought the Cartier jewelry💎 designs to worldwide recognition. Pierre, who married a wealthy American socialite, was instrumental in bringing the brand to Manhattan in 1909. He purchased and resold the infamous Hope Diamond 💎, which received much press and then in 1916 cleverly traded a stunning million-dollar two string Pearl necklace at his New York showroom in exchange for a five-story Renaissance marble and limestone mansion owned by Morton Plant, an elderly railroad & steamship magnate who was married to a much younger woman named Masie. Masie was seated next to Pierre at a dinner and told him that she admired the Pearl necklace at his shop but could not afford it. Pierre who knew that Mr. Plant was considering selling his townhouse because he felt that the area was losing its residential feel said to him “Give me your townhouse, and I’ll let you have the necklace.” So two strings of 55 and 73 perfect pearls and $100 were exchanged for a set of keys 🔑 and Cartier moved into the townhouse. After a nearly $900,000 renovation (over $24 million today) to make the space feel like the original opulent Paris shop, their new Fifth Avenue headquarters at the corner of Fifth Avenue at 52nd Street won a gold medal for the best-transformed building in New York. Cartier has occupied the former Plant mansion ever since and the exterior looks very much the same as it did in Plant’s day.
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