Delve Into the Wild and storied world of considered one of luxurious’s most indomitable and protean icons, Panthère de Cartier.

Mom of the Panthère

A free spirit, an emblem of independence, however above all, a strong function mannequin of the 20th century, Jeanne Toussaint was a muse of the artistic and social scene in Paris. Upon hanging up an acquaintance with Louis Cartier earlier than the First World Struggle, Toussaint captivated the jeweller together with her style and originality and was later invited to work for the Maison.

Initially designing purses, she went on to design self-importance circumstances, cigarette circumstances and all method of equipment. Her sharp wit and fierce dedication earned her the nickname “La Panthère.”

Amongst her equipment was an arrogance case embellished with a panther between two cypress bushes, gifted by Louis Cartier in 1917. This was the primary figurative Cartier panther, though an summary rendering – on a watch with a coat of onyx and diamond spots – dates from 1914. 

In 1919, she ordered from Cartier an arrogance case in gold and black Canton enamel that after once more featured the panther; these actions made the creature her private signature. In 1924 he appointed her head of the brand new “S” (Silver) division, which was to supply extra accessible “designer” collections. Jeanne Toussaint henceforth got here to concentrate on jewelry design.

In 1933, she was promoted to artistic director on the Rue de la Paix studio, the place she oversaw an all-male employees of designers, artisan jewellers and gem-setters. Appointed by Louis Cartier himself, she was among the many first ladies to occupy such a outstanding place within the business.

She labored with designer Pierre Lemarchand, a frequent customer to the Vincennes Zoo, and collectively they crafted a brand new sculptural silhouette: the proud and highly effective panther of the Nineteen Forties. They remodeled the motif, turning it into probably the most evocative items of jewelry of the twentieth century.

In 1948, the Duke of Windsor commissioned from Jeanne Toussaint a Panthère brooch as a present for the Duchess. Predatory and imposing on a hanging emerald cabochon weighing greater than 116-carat, the panther made a strong, three-dimensional impression.

The next yr, Toussaint created a sapphire Panthère brooch, on her personal initiative. This new piece was additionally acquired by the Windsors.

Transfigurations of the Panthère

Over time, the Panthère has advanced into many various varieties, proving to be extra protean than meets the attention. As its story continues to unfold, Cartier has streamlined its evolution into three creative expressions: summary, graphic and naturalist.

The shapes, colors, cuts, volumes, posture, and symmetry or asymmetry construction the design, and punctuate and unleash the composition’s energy of abstraction.

The summary panther is the unique type of the panther, which first appeared on the Maison in a watch with noticed pavé-cut stones in 1914.

Unique, daring and chic, the jewelry motif has since develop into a signature. Via its fur coat, Cartier hints on the panther’s wild nature.

All of it lies within the steadiness between black and white, the alternating diamonds and onyx. The association of the spots, their shapes, their dome and their quantity decide the spirit of every creation. The selection of their shapes brings geometry to the motif, whereas a 3rd color provides pigment to the composition.

The naturalist panther is a stylised interpretation. Approached in three dimensions, a designer attracts on actuality to deliver the animal to life and improve its dominating, wild nature.

The aim of the design is to accentuate one facet of its character, by marking an edge, exaggerating a quantity, accentuating its determine or by enjoying with giant stones. It should think about the operate of the jewel on which the panther will function. Whether or not adorning a bracelet, necklace, ring or earrings, it should take up its place organically.

The graphic panther is an architectural imaginative and prescient realised by way of geometry, an integral a part of Cartier’s stylistic vocabulary. When utilized to the panther, it reveals its graphic pressure.

The method includes revealing the construction of the panther – similar to an architect – by way of a up to date imaginative and prescient of simplified volumes. Right here, too, the operate, ergonomics and luxury are fastidiously thought-about.

Respiratory Life into the Panthère

The vitality of the panther stems from a detailed collaboration between the design studios and workshops. Their exchanges are fixed all through the complete improvement course of: collectively, they mix the notions of motion, ergonomics, quantity and structure with realism and class.

The spots give quantity in accentuating or diminishing kind. Their association could seem random, nonetheless every corresponds to a exact order that considers the gap between every spot and the variety of diamonds separating them; if one is moved, so should all of them be.

Polygonal in form, the spots set the tempo and conform to the animal’s musculature. Additionally they produce a way of perspective relying on whether or not they’re within the foreground or stretched out additional within the background to create the impression of escape, an animal in movement, transferring away from the beholder.

The jeweller’s technical problem consists of assembling and coordinating them, every spot is lower one after the other in an irregular trend to supply added life. The diamonds are by no means the identical dimension, as is the case for conventional pavé settings, since a number of totally different cuts are required to acquire the panther’s undulating kind.

The expert jeweller should give the set stones a steady floor when it comes to quantity with the intention to emphasise every of the animal’s options with out overpowering them. Every little thing have to be seen above the gem-setting, from pose to muscle tissue, subduing the steel itself to make sure the sense of motion predominates.

Captured in any variety of poses, the panther sprints, roars, leaps, rises, curls up or lazes. This freeze-frame requires Cartier to undertake a three-dimensional imaginative and prescient, and a sculptural, anatomic method of the physique that extends past ornamentation.

A drawing solely permits a flat and subsequently partial view of an object. Cartier’s sculptors create a large-scale moulded wax sculpture of the panther, which, as soon as scanned, is diminished after which 3D-printed. 

They have to mannequin the muscle tissue, head, toes and ears, utilizing uncommon, delicate and inventive craftwork. Each element of the panther is analysed and scrutinised: the gap from the nostril to the define of the attention, the swell of the cheek all created in harmonious alignment. It’s the spacing and the proportions of the eyes that decide the character of a panther.

Every little thing is a matter of thousandths of millimetres: an emerald-green eye while fringed with gold or platinum lashes is surrounded by flat steel. Ears are polished on the within and pavé-set on the skin and setting grains are intricately polished to make sure the pavé setting seamlessly hugs the panther’s kind.

Every little thing, right down to the ultimate element, provides to the panther’s sense of realism: the phantasm of a silky coat created by Cartier’s “fur” setting. Greater than some other jewelry approach, “fur” setting requires extraordinarily shut collaboration between the jeweller, the gem-cutter and the gem-setter.

The jeweller sculpts the steel and produces the construction of the jewel; the gem-cutter cuts the valuable or fantastic stones one after the other, customising their dimension to create the panther pores and skin motif; the gem-setter mounts the lower stone in its respective place and, utilizing a exact approach, recreates the pure impact of the fur.

Every stone is encircled by minuscule steel grains that safe it; these grains are then elongated and curved, remodeling them into fur threads that evoke the animal’s coat. The steel’s positioning have to be delicate to make sure the setting doesn’t overwhelm the general impression whereas additionally making a concord with the final form to additional spotlight the panther’s character.

Cartier’s use of glyptics and creative crafts have furthered its panther savoir-faire. The creation of the glyptics workshop opened up a brand new world of potentialities for the design workforce, who found hardstone, petrified wooden, and fossilised natural substances, enabling them to design authentic new panthers.

Glypticians work with the pure inclusions and imperfections of the stone, which they use as a motif. In a pale mottled agate, a yellow beryl, a striped agate or petrified wooden, the face of the panther begins to emerge. It takes nearly six months to craft these sculptures, each lower and stroke of the sculptor’s scraper is a definitive motion.

In the meantime the Maison’s creative craft groups draw on revolutionary technical and inventive procedures, or metiers d’artwork, to recreate the panther’s face: gold beads, Etruscan granulation, straw or wooden marquetry, and cloisonné enamel. These newly obtainable types of know-how are principally utilized to fantastic watchmaking, with the work exhibited on watch dials.

Whether or not in enamel, miniature portray, filigree, grisaille gold paste enamel or flamed gold, the panther is reinvented each time. This artistic vocation is utilized to all its guises, together with the perfume. Its bottle is lower and sculptured from the within; the block of uncooked glass reveals the panther’s faceted facial options in counter-relief.

The Jewel of Watchmaking 

Upon its debut in 1983, the Panthère de Cartier watch reinvented the idea of a jewelry watch and proved notably common with the artwork scene. The watch slinks onto the pores and skin in a rippling celebration of triumphant and carefree class.

Outlined by a sq. with rounded corners, horns with seamless curve and visual rivets, the Panthère watch takes its title from the bracelet, which is considered one of its most attribute design options.

Its ultra-flexible construction echoes the actions of the Maison’s emblematic animal. Fashioned from a collection of curved and polished hyperlinks, it’s uniquely supple. The exact proportions of the bracelet and case might be seen in the way in which the Panthère watch is worn, its class decided by its ergonomics because it naturally suits across the wrist.

Over time, the watch has benefited from a number of improvements, some stay undetectable, to deliver it proper updated. These embrace the whiter dial, tighter hyperlinks, the openwork and lacquer pixelated impact. Reaching a tauter bracelet and the removing of the date on the dial additional accentuates its jewelry facets.

Embraced by the subtle icons of the Eighties, the Panthère watch continues to ring a bell with a complete new era of daring and impeccably fashionable personalities right this moment.

This has now impressed Cartier to create 4 new variations in rose gold, yellow gold and metal, with a silky dial in shades of golden plum, midnight blue and black.

4 diagonally crossed dials reverse the play of sunshine and replicate the brilliance of the iridescent and delicate gradations. A valuable luminosity that provides to the jewel-like high quality of probably the most feline watch within the Maison’s repertoire.

 (Pictures: Cartier)

This story first appeared on Augustman Singapore