More feline than ever, the Panthère de Cartier collection continues to grow with fully articulated sculptural creations. Remarkably supple, these necklaces and bracelets featuring powerful volumes can unfold without revealing a hinge. An invisible system developed by Cartier and that adds even more magic to the collection.
These flexible jewellery pieces hug the body as closely as possible thanks to their magnetic and sinuous design, just like Cartier’s emblematic animal, which the Maison displays in a fabulous tête-à-tête.
VITALITY OF PANTHÈRE DESIGN
Through the articulated Panthère, with its clean lines and essential design, Cartier cultivates jewellery simplicity, embodied by a bangle made of yellow gold marked with octagonal black lacquer spots, or white gold paved with diamonds and set with onyx spots. Its long, curved design stems from two heads of sculptural panthers with emerald or tsavorite garnet eyes.
SCULPTURE AND FLEXIBILITY:
THE CHALLENGES OF SAVOIR-FAIRE
Bringing the pieces to life, the movement of the articulated Panthère necklace and bracelet is made possible by the composition of two different components crossed with two gold blades which are linked to two springs positioned in the heads of the panthers. A real challenge in terms of craftsmanship that requires the Maison’s jewellers to respect the distribution of the Panthère’s spots. For the versions set with diamonds, the setter’s job consists of encircling each stone with small metal grains to secure it. Next, using the Cartier “fur” setting, they skilfully cut around the onyx to give the impression of the animal’s silky coat.
CARTIER AND THE PANTHÈRE:
DESTINIES INTERTWINED
The Panthère has been a creative signature for Cartier since the first sighting of her distinctive markings on a watch in 1914. The Panthère graduated from abstract to figurative representation three years later when it was depicted, flanked by cypress trees, on a case gifted by Louis Cartier to Jeanne Toussaint in 1917.
This was the beginning of a tale of symbiosis between the Panthère and Jeanne Toussaint, who two years later she ordered a case in gold and black Canton enamel that once again featured the Panthère. She made the animal her personal signature.
An eccentric, emancipated visionary, in 1948 she fleshed out the creature in three dimensions. The Panthère has prowled the annals of the Maison ever since.
Figurative, graphic, wild, the Panthère renews itself, adapts jewellery expertise, and expands the repertoire of its design and wear. Over the course of the collections, its design evolves.
Cartier cultivates the wild, sophisticated and rebellious nature of this jewellery ingenuity through its collections. The Panthère’s strength and desirability, inherited from Jeanne Toussaint, are still present in the jewellery to this day.