Inside the Cartier exhibition in Paris As 'Cartier: Style and History' opens at the Grand Palais in Paris, Lisa Armstrong discovers the stories behind the baubles Before there was Google, there was the Cartier leather-bound shop journal that charted, in infinite detail, the comings, goings and, above all, the purchases of the rich and famous. Arch-duchesses and doubtless a few arch-villains, movie stars and tragic heroines (some choice Cartier pieces went down, like their owners, with the Titanic) - all were entered into the Cartier annals whenever they bought anything. And in 1906 the company began systematically photographing all of its pieces. It's these magnificent archives that should make the next exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris such a rich source, not just for jewellery-philes but for social historians. There are 600 items in the exhibition - many, like the pebble-sized sapphires once belonging to the Queen of Romania, retrieved, temporarily, from private owners. READ: Cartier recreate Grace Kelly's jewels It's always eye-opening to see at first hand how few qualms the rich seemed to have when it came to displaying their wealth. We know that Maharajas and Aga Khans liked bling, but old European money was highly susceptible, too. Lady Mountbatten, last Vicereine of India, was a valued customer. Not someone who could ever be accused of being a wallflower, Lady Mountbatten supposedly kept an open marriage and was a generous giver of imaginative Cartier commissions to her lovers. She was in good company. Cartier acquired 15 royal patents in the early decades of the last century, including the British, Spanish and Belgian monarchs. Tiaras were huge business, if somewhat doomed as an everyday adornment. Engagement rings, being more democratic, were even bigger business. Prince Rainier of Monaco put a ring on it by giving Grace Kelly a 10.2‑carat diamond. Reader, she married him. Elizabeth Taylor presenting an Academy Award in 1970 wearing a million dollar Cartier diamond, a gift from her husband Richard Burton; a flamingo brooch designed by the Duke of Windsor; the panther brooch, a special commission for the Duchess of Windsor. Photo: Corbis Even austerity hasn't dampened Cartier's appeal. When Kate Middleton married Prince William in 2011, the ravishing twinkly Halo tiara anchoring her veil was courtesy of Cartier, previously worn by Princess Margaret in 1955, having been originally created for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, then still Duchess of York, in 1936. Perhaps Cartier's highest-profile royal customers were the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. With time on his hands, the Duke adored co-creating one-off pieces for Wallis, and Wallis, it must be said, was a talented wearer of jewels. Monastically plain in her attire, she knew just where to position a brooch or how to adorn a neckline to best advantage and boldly mixed traditional antiques with au courant modern designs. Society darling Daisy Fellowes, however, was not impressed. The Duchess, she claimed, had stolen her style, especially when it came to the famous Cartier panther. READ: Cartier's Paris Nouvelle Vague collection is a love letter to Paris Cartier, founded in Paris in 1847 by master jeweller Louis François Cartier, opened its first store in 1899 on the Rue de la Paix, then the most fashionable shopping street in the world, in what was then the most cosmopolitan, richest city on earth. London aquired its own Cartier - on Bond Street - in 1909. Everyone else had to travel - or, if they were Russian aristocrats, await visits from Cartier and his sons and grandsons, who were fascinated by the country and dazzled by the extravagant tastes of pre-revolution White Russians. It isn't only the patina of age and the romance of history that smooth the sharp angles of vulgarity and make Cartier so special, but its unsurpassed craftsmanship, still painstakingly executed in its workshops off the Place Vendôme in Paris, where they use diamond dust to cut and facet their diamonds (80 per cent of the world's diamond production is for industrial use). This is a house that has always championed the avant-garde, hand in hand with the highest grade stones. The house took a century to accept cultured pearls as a viable ingredient in its chokers and still referred to them as "beads" well into the Fifties. Cartier was a pioneer in watch-making - particularly for women who, as they became emancipated, increasingly adopted the male habit of wearing timepieces on their wrists - and relished the challenge of fashioning articulated pieces that could be worn as necklaces or split up into brooches and bracelets. Even the super-rich are swayed by the promise of versatility. The rest of us can press our noses up against those glass cases in admiration at the art, verve and stories behind these pieces - and hope for some decent replicas in the museum gift shop. 'Cartier: Style and History' is at the Grand Palais, Paris, until February 16, every day except Tuesday; grandpalais.fr