CARTIER PARIS BELLE EPOQUE GOLD, SILVER, STEEL, AGATE AND BLUE GUILLOCHÉ ENAMEL SCRAPER/PAPER CUTTER CUM SEAL, CIRCA 1906-07

oblong-shaped silver handle and sheath guilloché and enameled blue with an agate border running along the bottom. Steel scraper blade. Plain gold end pieces which can be engraved with initials or a coat-of-arms. Etched gold centerpieces with a wave-like edge signed ‘CARTIER Paris Londres’ (on the steel blade), numbered ‘1800’ Hallmarks: French 18K gold hallmark ‘eagle’s head’ (on a centerpiece) 20.5 x 2.1 cm gross weight: circa 110 gr. circa 1906-07 in original red leather ‘Cartier’ fitted case with gold stamp on silk interior with Paris and pre-1910 London addresses Certificate of expertise by Alain Cartier, expert CNE, Paris and LAPADA, London, dated March 28, 2024 Following Fabergé’s example Cartier offered its clientele precious objects of daily use decorated in the Cartier style, and in the style of the day which mainly used guilloché enamel with, or without, hardstones and precious stones. ln an era when wealthy clients wrote their letters with pens dipped in ink in precious inkstands, the envelopes were sealed with molten wax, the seal imprint marked the writer’s crest or initials before the wax cooled and hardened, the scraper scraping away any useless drips of wax or used as a paper cutter to open the envelope. Cartier sold many models of scrapers, often as part of a writing set like the one sold to the soprano Nellie Melba, a great Cartier client, illustrated in ‘Cartier -Exceptional Objects’, O. Bachet and A. Cartier, Ed. Palais Royal, 2019, vol. 1 page 125.