Harry Fane, Vintage Cartier Expert Who Traveled the World Hunting for Treasure, Dies at 70

Samantha Conti
·6 min read
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LONDON — Harry Fane, the vintage Cartier expert and bohemian British aristocrat known for his world travels and adventures with Don McCullin and Queen Camilla’s brother Mark Shand, has died aged 70.

For nearly half a century, Fane was the owner of Obsidian in London St. James’s, a showroom for vintage jewelry with a heavy accent on his area of expertise, Cartier watches, clocks and objects.

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Fane, who had founded Obsidian with his old pal Shand, also represented the Verdura jewelry house in the U.K., and for years had also worked with the Jaipur-based Gem Palace.

Fane had art and jewelry in his DNA. His father, the 15th Earl of Westmorland, served as chairman of Sotheby’s in the early 1980s, and his mother, Jane Findlay, was a member of the Garrard family, the former crown jewelers. Fane’s elder brother, Anthony, is founder of the London art advisory Watson Westmorland.

Fane met Shand when the two were young and working at Sotheby’s. They would later crisscross the globe, charming socialites on the dance floors of Studio 54, and at dinners hosted by Jackie Onassis and Diana Vreeland.

They traveled to South America with bags full of antiques and objects bought at Portobello Market in London and resold to the wealthy bourgeoisie. They traipsed through India and Indonesia looking for local treasures, often getting into trouble along the way.

“We nearly got killed many times,” Shand told W Magazine in 2008.

In his book “Skulduggery,” Shand describes a trip he took with Fane and Don McCullin in 1987 to the jungles of Indonesia because Shand had wanted to buy a shrunken head.

He succeeded — not without numerous mishaps that included his constant hypochondria, run-ins with cannibals and squabbles over everything from the itinerary to the food.

Asked why he took the trip, Shand told M magazine in 1988: “We certainly don’t do it for any macho reason because basically we’re terrified all the time.”

Ward Landrigan, former head of the jewelry division at Sotheby’s who now owns the Verdura and Belperron jewelry houses, was a lifelong friend of Fane’s. Landrigan had worked for Fane’s father at Sotheby’s, and remembers meeting the young Harry, who was dressed in his pajamas and serving canapés before dinner at the family’s country home.

Years later, Landrigan and his wife Judith let Fane and Shand stay at their Hollywood home for a couple of months. Landrigan recalled that, at one point, they asked the two young adventurers to house sit for a while, feed the cat and water the garden.

When Landrigan and his wife returned “the cat was fine, but the garden wasn’t. All the plants had been replaced” with ones that Fane and Shand had chosen themselves, and which didn’t suit Landrigan’s, or his wife’s, taste.

“It was a nice gesture, though,” Landrigan said of the emergency garden redo. “And they certainly were characters. They were wild, they were out every night. It was like having two crazy nephews.”

At the time, Landrigan said, Fane and Shand were selling “objets d’art, buying and selling things from India. Everybody knew them. The old ladies loved them, and they were good company. Harry was one of the most charming men in the world, and became such an important part of my personal and professional life.”

When they returned to London, Fane and Shand founded Obsidian, although Shand didn’t last long in business because he couldn’t bear the thought of wearing a suit every day.

Shand continued to travel the world (he would eventually write books, and found Elephant Family, a London-based charity that works toward the preservation of Asian elephants), and Fane went on to become a world renowned expert in vintage Cartier watches.

“Harry got really serious about the business, he was very acute, a hard worker,” Landrigan said. Fane then approached him about representing Verdura, and their business partnership was born.

Fane and Landrigan hosted their first Verdura show in 1987 at a gallery in St. James’s, and the annual event quickly became a fixture on the London social calendar. The two would continue to promote and sell the brand for more than 30 years.

Fane was a natural host, and salesman, welcoming guests ranging from Elizabeth Hurley to Lady Victoria de Rothschild, Baron and Baroness Bentinck, Prince Maximilian and Princess Angela of Liechtenstein.

He worked those VIP crowds with ease, and flashed his bohemian colors, too, telling WWD, “I’d rather be on a beach in Tahiti” before the start of his lunch for 100 people at Harry’s Bar in London in 1998.

He was a colorful character, a cross between David Niven and Indiana Jones. He sported a scruffy beard, and opted for the Soho tailor John Pearse, cofounder of ’60s boutique Granny Takes a Trip on London’s King’s Road, over the more traditional names on Savile Row.

Cartier and Verdura weren’t his only passions. Fane also worked closely with the former Asprey silversmiths on special pieces and, at one point, he represented Gem Palace, the jeweler and one of the world’s largest fine-quality stonecutters.

In 2006, Fane organized a monthlong selling exhibition for Gem Palace at the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House in London. It showcased the Gem Palace’s traditional Indian jewelry, as well as more contemporary items like chandelier earrings.

“There were diamonds, emeralds, spinels, rubies and pearls the size of gobstoppers,” said Susan Farmer, a PR consultant and De Beers veteran, who worked with Fane and Munnu Kasliwal, then principal of Gem Palace, on the show.

“It was the first selling exhibition that Somerset House had permitted, and visitors were queuing round the block,” Farmer said.

She added that Fane will be missed “by his many friends and admirers around the world for his hospitality, incredible tales and, not least, his jaw-dropping jewels. We were all wild about Harry,” she said.

His international fan club was big, but Fane was always a discreet operator and professional to his core.

After he took over the U.K. side of the business Verdura jewels all of a sudden began appearing on the necks, wrists and fingers of women including Princess Diana, Jerry Hall, Princess Caroline of Monaco and various other European royals.

He was a straight talker, and had a great sense of history and sensitivity about the jewels and clients alike.

In 2014, for Verdura’s 75th anniversary and New York show, Fane told WWD how much he admired Fulco di Verdura.

“He was inspired by beauty and wasn’t constrained by a need to make something big or small or pink or blue. Most [jewels] are bound within their era. What I find constantly fascinating is that 90 percent or more of what Fulco made is timeless,” Fane said.

Fane died on Dec. 15 following a long illness. He is survived by his wife Tessa Fane, children Sam and Sophie, elder brother Anthony, the 16th Earl of Westmorland, and younger sister, Lady Camilla Hipwood.

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