• Title
  Cartier hairpin box belonging to Nellie Melba, 1918
• Creator
  Cartier (Firm)
• Call number
  R 69
  Status: On display. Objects Gallery. Case 3, Shelf 61
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  1918
• Type of material
  Objects
• Reference code
  872756
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 hairpin box - gold and enamel, cylindrical with flip-top lid, ornamented with diamonds and jade - Approximately 9 cm x 2 cm diameter
  
• Collection history
  Donor's letter of offer (undated, received 1953) states the hairpin box was "presented to me by my friend the late Dame Nellie Melba"
• General note
  
  Digital order no:Album ID : 888100
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  Inscribed "Cartier" and "NM Feb 15 1918 New York" in a circular design on the base
• Attributions / conjectures
  
  "We have tried to connect the date engraved on the case, February 15, 1918, with some event in Melba's career, but have been unsuccesful" -- Mitchell Librarian's letter of acknowledgement to donor, 20 April 1953
  
  "She was also appointed to The Order of the British Empire, Dames Commander, on 15 March 1918 for giving fund-raising concerts to assist war wounded during the First World War."
  
  Reference: The Australian Women's Archives Project online. http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0003b.htm (accessed March 13, 2009)
• Subject
  Jewelry.
  Melba, Nellie, Dame, 1861-1931
  
• Topic
  jewellery
  boxes & cases
  gold
  diamonds
  decorative art
  
• Exhibited in
  
  Possessed : an exhibition of treasures - State Library of New South Wales (4 March - 29 June, 1997)
  Stranger than fiction - State Library of New South Wales (November, 2009 - November, 2010)
  A fine possession: jewellery and identity - Powerhouse Museum
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE568733

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