Over 100 years ago, Jacques Cartier traveled to Bahrain to search for natural pearls. This began the legacy of Cartier jewelry and many famous pearl pieces.

In the early 1900s, Jacques' travels to the Middle East were to investigate the natural pearl. He spent most of his time talking to pearl families and pearl divers. He spent days on boats with the divers who brought up boat loads of oysters to open for the prize of one single natural pearl. He would spend all day on a boat and the entire crop wouldn't produce even a single usable natural pearl. He came to understand how very rare pearls were.

Jacques was one of three Cartier brothers that really fulfilled the dream of taking the Cartier name to the world. Louis and Pierre and Jacques each had a special contribution to this goal. Jacques was the brother with the artistic eye. But all of the brothers were obsessed with detail.

Beyond his work in the Persian Gulf, Jacques traveled and photographed in the Middle East. He was a man of details and used many of his photographs of images for inspiration for his jewelry designs.

If you are intrigued by the Cartier story, you must read Francesca Cartier Brickell's book, The Cartiers. She is Jacques' great grandaughter, who has traveled the world to research her families history. It is a spell binding story.