aptured in a fleeting moment, they tell us their stories. From the pendant of a necklace, a turtle escapes to become a brooch, whilst a pink flamingo points its head towards the centre of a bush of emerald reeds.
The style is varied, free and figurative, as a snow leopard treads softly across an icecap formed of diamonds and rock crystal. This becomes even more radical and abstract under the watchful eye of the designer who, inspired by the scales of a crocodile, creates a ring with an incredible sense of architecture.
There’s a playfulness about it, a joyful game of hide-and-seek where creatures appear where you least expect them. Cartier further blurs boundaries as animals break free from their natural environment to enter new worlds. A snake splits in two to become a necklace, while its scales are transformed into an urban chessboard; meanwhile, the silhouette of a beetle emerges from a necklace with an abstract motif, reminiscent of a skyscraper.
They owe their wild side to the intensity of their personality, an energy that is expressed without restraint through the brilliance of these unique pieces.
You can’t help but feel its presence, it shines. Its stripes, profile, ears and muzzle are all enhanced by the precise, stylised lines of the design. The zebra, an animal dear to Cartier, holds an emerald-cut diamond and a 6.25-carat pear-shaped rubellite in its mouth. Its emblematic coat creates a graphic play of alternating onyx stripes; lines paved with brilliant- and emerald-cut diamonds allow openwork to reveal the skin.
The panther has been tamed and made docile enough to be handled and played with, in the form of a hybrid jewel with magnetic elegance. This fully articulated ring-bracelet adds a wild energy to even the smallest of gestures. Its suppleness, resulting from a true feat of craftsmanship, reinforces the power of an animal whose anatomy is expressed by expert sculpting. With its slender limbs, diamond coat flecked with sapphires, and emerald eyes, Cartier’s art lies in its ability to give life to this daring and original piece of hand jewellery.
Combining surprise and creativity, a turtle is concealed within a seemingly entirely abstract necklace, enhancing an imposing 7 1.90-carat rubellite. At first, the eye cannot grasp its outline. You have to look closely to make out certain clues to its anatomy, like the roundness and volume of its shell and the detail of its scales. The game of camouflage is revealed alongside its versatility: the animal appears in its entirety, head and legs included, when detached to turn it into a brooch.
Sinuous and symmetrical, two reptiles snake around the neck. Side by side, their diamond scales are set with emeralds, and their heads crowned with kite diamonds. Between them are nine octagonal emeralds from Colombia totalling 14.72 carats. A hybrid composition in which the organic blends with the urban through an interplay of perfectly geometric, highly vertical motifs.
A familiar species in the Cartier menagerie, the pink flamingo is the subject of creations that are at once poetic and joyful, like the emblematic brooch created for the Duchess of Windsor in 1940. Through a play of materials and perspective, the long-necked bird, with a beak enhanced by black lacquer and rose gold, takes shape within a stylised landscape. A myriad of emeralds evokes a bed of reeds, while punctuations of aquamarine recall an aquatic environment.
However, when you look closely at the clasp, it all becomes clear: a beetle has just landed on it. This sparkling architecture, with its Art Deco take on geometry and symmetry, emerges from the beating wings of a delightful insect, drawing a slender, graphic shape in space, with a thousand details. Onyx, diamonds: Cartier has turned this emblematic stylistic duo on its head and taken us into sublime territory, where surprise mingles with the imaginary.
The choice of stones contributes both to the realism of the scene and the graphic strength of the design. A set of kite diamonds - encircled by rock crystal borders - stand out in relief against the geometric structure of the piece as if sculpted from ice. The transparency of the creation and the sparkle of its diamonds contribute to the icy metaphor. This enhances the play of light to better accentuate the rare D IF Type IIa certified diamond, a treasure that the feline jealously clutches.
While the jeweller is able to tame the Chinese dragon, valued for its positive virtues, they also have to play with fire... With its piercing gaze and slender jaw, this symbolic creature holds in its mouth a pendant adorned with two rubies from Mozambique. Around its neck, the stylised scales playfully depict the creature’s outline. The contrast of red and black, characteristic of Asian arts and indistinguishable from the Maison’s colour palette, instils energy and vigour into the piece.
The combination of emerald and brilliant cut diamonds, and precious metal with a pointed edge is unmistakable: the eye is drawn as much to the rough scales of a reptile as to the intense sparkle of a glass structure. This complex design, conceived as a pyramid of angles and levels, finishes around a 3.48-carat D IF Type IIa diamond.
