53
diamond florets. 134 The Cartier ornament features the same bifurcated scroll pattern, but centers on sapphire florets rather than diamond.135 Additionally, three pendants hang from the main body of the Cartier stomacher. The central pendant is the largest, and resembles a wide-mouth urn from which a large pear-shaped sapphire is suspended. This is flanked by two sapphires in pendeloque settings accented by curly ribbons. The playfulness of these ribbon forms and of the individual leaves springing out of the scrolled garlands, as well as the used of airy negative space on the Cartier brooch, may be viewed as a departure from the dense and orderly structure of the Dreicer festoons.
Why shop Dreicer?
In spite of these slight differences in approach, that Dreicer jewels were considered equal in quality to other top firms of the day can be confirmed by a 1913 advertisement from the small San Francisco jeweler J. Magnum Co.: it stated that the designs of Magnum & Co. bar pins could be “compared most favorably with Cartier, Dreicer, and Tiffany.”136 The Blackstone Hotel shop in Chicago was the westernmost Dreicer location, and with competition from so many long-established purveyors of similar wares, it is intriguing to ponder what exactly gave Dreicer the edge for recognition as a standard of excellence all the way in California. What enticed a customer to shop with Dreicer over their competitors?
134 135 136
"Fashion: Old Stones in New Settings." Vogue 42, No. 9, November 1, 1913, 55, 92. Hans Nadelhoffer, Cartier, (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007), 43.
J. Magnin & Co., “Advertisement,” San Francisco Call, March 2, 1913, 46.