Baubles, Bangles and Beads

I went to the Cartier exhibit at the Legion of Honor the other day. I kind of liked it at first. Seeing all those over the top jewelry pieces loaded with diamonds was awe inspiring in a way. But then about half-way through I started to feel that this was all very creepy. It was excess for the purpose of excess. I feel somewhat the same way when I go to the Vatican. My response is half "now that is beautiful" and half "this group has way, way too much money and way, way too little taste."

Somehow, and this is both my snobbery and old lefty side showing through, the Cartier exhibit is creepier though. These baubles are not the excessive accumulations of boy kings (see King Tut) or the church (see the Vatican) or a long line of royalty (see the Tower of London). To thoroughly mix up cultural references, there is no yeechus (look that one up if you're interested; it's a Yiddish word) at work. Instead it's the stuff of spoiled rotten newly rich people.  They accumulated these ridiculously expensive gaudy pieces of jewelry in a time period when ordinary Americans were struggling and starving.

I mean look at this:

Basically, Cartier threw together an ungodly number of jewels in a statement that isn't about beauty, but simply conspicuous consumption.  And who exactly bought this stuff?  People like Mrs. Irving Berlin and Mrs. Cole Porter and the heiress to the Post cereal fortune, Mrs. E.F. Hutton (until she married some other rich dude).  I note that two of those people were at least loved by some wonderful songwriters.  But really now, this is all about people with bad taste more than anything else.

In the exhibit mix, there was some tasteful and carefully crafted jewelry, but mostly this exhibit was about heaping one jewel on top of another.  The exhibit gives you a window into how some of the obscenely rich live.  They apparently spend their time buying a lot of junk.  It's almost enough to turn me into a...socialist.  But not quite.