Jeweled Splendours of the Art Deco Era by Catherine Aga Khan and Pierre Rainero

One Christmas Eve, Prince Sanruddin Aga Khan gave to his wife a magnificent jeweled box made by Cartier in the 1930s. So began the making of perhaps the most remarkable jewelry collection of a remarkable era for jewelry - and for French jewelry in particular. In the 1920s and 1930s, smoky night clubs, cocktails, a new acceptance of make up beyond the boudoir, decor for smart apartments and dinner tables, provided a new landscape for the designs of the great jewelry houses of Europe, with Paris as the superstar of cities.