Historic Cartier Clock, Given to President Roosevelt by Cartier i n 1943 to be offered at Sotheby's On December 4, 2007, Sotheby’s will offer a magnificent and unique Cartier clock, given as a personal gift by Pierre Cartier to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the thirty-second President of the United Sta
Pierre Cartier’s wish to see a free France would come to fruition in August of 1944. Sadly, President Roosevelt would not live to see the Allied victory in World War II. He died on April 12, 1945, five months before the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan’s surrender on September 2, 1945. A plaque under the dial of the clock (pictured at left) contains a personal inscription to the President: “‘ L’Heure de la Victoire dans le Monde’ Hommage à son Artisan, le Président des Etats Unis, Franklin D. Roosevelt.” (‘The Hour of Victory in the World,’ Hommage to its Craftsman, the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt). President Roosevelt wrote, “I am taking it to Hyde Park to put on the west mantelpiece in the big library where I can always see it.” After President Roosevelt died in 1945, the President’s son, John Roosevelt, chose to keep it. When his mother’s estate was auctioned in New York by Hammer Galleries in 1964, John chose to exhibit the clock alongside her belongings, but it was not offered for sale. On the back of the timepiece is a sticker, reading “Estate of Eleanor Roosevelt, Hyde Park, N.Y.” from that exhibition and auction (Detail image on page 4). The clock was sold privately to the current owner at a later date. The World War II era has been celebrated widely in recent years, in Tom Brokaw’s book The Greatest Generation and Ken Burns’ documentary “The War” on PBS. It was a time of great sacrifice for all Americans, united in a common cause. 3
President Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only president to be elected to four consecutive terms. He served as U.S. president from 1933 to 1943 and is considered, along with Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, to be one of the three greatest presidents. According to Gallup, Roosevelt is the sixth most admired person from the 20th century by U.S. citizens. The present clock relates directly to the historical context in which it was created. Following the May 1940 invasion by Nazi forces, France was divided into two sections. The northern region was occupied and controlled by the Germans, while the southern region was governed by the sympathetic Vichy-based regime led by Marshal Philippe Pétain. In both regions, French officials were forced to hand over civilians deemed ‘undesirable’ by the Nazis. Cartier’s offices in Paris were not exempt from the German aggression. The store on Rue de la Paix remained open with a nominal amount of property, but the most valuable pieces were sent to the temporary office in Biarritz in the Vichy-controlled region. Their London workshop served as a wartime production facility for the Allied forces, and was responsible for the manufacture of items as diverse as airplane parts and photographic equipment for the Royal Navy. Pictured: This historic timepiece contains a numbered key on the back for winding. As a further gesture of their support for the Allied struggle, Cartier extended the use of
