Louis-François Cartier, the founder, was a learned man. Towards the end of his life, he became an expert in oriental languages. He instilled his descendants with the idea that culture is the most important of all values, and that writing is the defining mark of all civilizations. Writing instruments, that started to appear in the 1860s, reached a peak of refinement at Cartier. They included pen holders, fountain pens and mechanical pencils, together with many other office accessories. They could be in gold, silver, guilloché enamel, jasper, jade, coral and sometimes even set with precious stones. Nothing was too beautiful for the art of writing.