Only four clocks of this type were made by Cartier, one of them being the pride of Elsie de Wolfe. Literature: A similar dock is illustrated in: T w Power of Style by Annette Tapert and Diana Edkins, Crown Publishers Inc., (USA), 1994, page 53 (Lady Mendl). Egypforrrania, Catalogue of the Louvre Exhibition, in Ottawa and in Vienna, Paris, 1994. Cartier Jewelers Extraordinary, by I-lans Nadelhoffer, published by Thames and Hudson 1984 and reprinted 1988 - ©1984 Hans Nadelhoffer - pages 149-155. ELSIE DE WOLFE (LADY MENDL) FIRST LADY OF STYLE It's no surprise to learn that Elsie de Wolfe selected an extremely fine and rare Cartier Egyptian style carriage dock as part of her decor since she is credited with introducing more tasteful and stylish ideas into American homes than any other person. In 1939, by then Lady Mendl, having married the press attaché for the British Embassy in Paris, Sir Charles Mendl (1926), Elsie was photographed in front of a Cartier Egyptian style carriage dock very similar, though not identical, to the one featured in this auction. Born in New York in 1865 to a middle-class family of professionals, Elsie was determined to become financially and personally independent. She rose through society as a trendsetter, woman of style and taste-maker. Elsie de Wolfe is recognized as America's first lady of interior design. Today, her turn-of-the-century inventions are considered the standard, traditional American forms of decorating. Parquet floors, reclining chairs, radiator cabinet covers, small throw pillows embroidered with words of wisdom, even the concept of a switch by a door to light the lamps in a room were unheard of before Elsie. She convinced Americans that the best and most comfortable shapes in furniture were found in English and French 18th Century antiques (and if you couldn't afford the real thing, a copy would do). Her reputation for style, however, was not limited to interior design. As a hostess, Elsie had more ideas than most people had guests. She was the first to popularize cocktail parties, serving her own concoctions she called "Pink Ladies." She was also the first to show movies at home, champion the fox-trot and introduce the parlor murder gaine. And in the bedrooms of each of her weekend house-guests, she would supply stationery, cigarettes, tubes of toothpaste and fresh bars of soap. When it came to fashion, Elsie was considered one of the best dressed women in America. In the Sumner of 1912, she even started the fashion for walking suits when she had her skirt raised six inches off the ground. She was regularly written about in decorating and fashion magazines, including Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. She even wrote a regular column on interior design and entertaining in Del ineator and later the Ladies Home Journal and produced several books on the topics. Cecil Beaton wrote, "Lady Mendl was so successful that she became a living factory of chic". Almost 50 years after her death Elsie de Wolfe's influence is still with us and it can be said that she was the first person to sell what is today called lifestyle. Literature: The Power of Style, by Annette Tapert and Diana Edkins, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, ©1994 by Annette Tapert and Diana Edkins, pages 30-53.