The Cartier's Secret Code

Guess the odd one out? It's the only object not inextricably connected to the Cartiers' history. So it's not the brooch or the watch of course... nor is it the notecard in the hand of my great-grandfather, Jacques Cartier, but, perhaps most surprisingly, neither is it the jam. ‘Confiture’ as jam translates in French, was deeply woven into the Cartier family history from the very early days. Not only was this ‘Bonne Maman’ one an absolute favourite of my grandfather (with good reason...) but as far back as the 19th century, his ancestors developed a code so that they could secretly record the prices they had paid for gems, jewels and other objects. The code needed to be a 9 letter word with no repeated letters: they selected 'CONFITURES': where C=1; O=2; N=3 etc all the way to E=9 and S=0 (K was chosen to symbolize a repeated number).

The code was used by many generations of Cartiers: in Jacques' small card on the table here (from the 1920s), he records the price he paid in francs for certain gems with the following letters: "TUI.SKS," alongside the price in British pounds he hoped to sell it for (£35,000). As he and his brothers and their teams were buying and selling all the time, they couldn't possibly remember the price they paid for each gem so Jacques would take cards like this - along with the jewels in question - to sales meetings as a reminder to himself. That way, even if the client caught sight of it, they would have no idea of the margin he was making.

The second image shows another example of one of these cards (within a montage of other letters, top left). For decades, there was absolute secrecy surrounding the family’s code. Although it has long since been revealed in books, back then, it was treated almost like a state secret. And yet, for my grandfather, Jean-Jacques, it had a less serious side too: "It always amused me", he told me, "applying the word for jams to jewels. I think it showed the Cartiers' tongue-in-cheek sense of humor!” So the odd one out?