The Diamond Menagerie

During its long history, Cartier has offered the world an entire menagerie of highly refined, gem-set animals, from snakes to crocodiles, parrots and flamingoes to ladybugs. No creature, however, is more inextricably linked to the legendary French Maison - and indeed to twentieth century jewellery design - than the panther and its 💙majestic feline cousin the tiger.

Lead-designer Jeanne Toussaint famously de꧅veloped the first fully three-dimensional panther in 1946 for the Duchess of Windsor. This panther rested defiantly on top of a round cabochon sapphire globe and was decorated wi🧜th buff-top sapphire spots. Earlier in its history, the panther had already crept into Cartier’s lexicon in the form of a lady’s wristwatch with discreet polished onyx spots and as a two-dimensional feline featured on a cigarette case.

Following her initial sapphire and diamond panther brooch, the Duchess of Windsor commissioned several declinations of the panther as well as the tiger, featurin♓g polished onyx stripes and diamonds of yellow tint, set in yellow gold. In 1956, she acquired a tiger bracelet and requested a matching clip in 1959. Other major jewellery collectors followed suit, and the panther and tiger haven’t left Cartier’s active repertoire ever since. In recent years, Cartier has created a plethora of variations on this theme, incorporating a range of new, innovative shapes and colours as exemplified by lots 654 and 655.

The𓂃 Duchess of Windsor was equally responsible for the legendary flamingo brooch s🌳et with diamonds and calibrated sapphires, rubies and emeralds which Cartier created in 1940. During the 1940s and 1950s, Cartier produced a large number of bird brooches. Over the years, the bird has remained an often-revisited source of inspiration as exemplified by lot 653.