Cartier Panthere de Cartier Ring (yellow gold, onyx, tsavorite)

1914: spots before a body

Cartier dates its panther to 1914. That year the animal's spotted pattern, made of onyx and diamonds, appeared on a woman's wristwatch at the house's Rue de la Paix address in Paris. Also in 1914, Louis Cartier asked the illustrator George Barbier to draw an invitation to a jewelry exhibition. Barbier's 'Lady with Panther' shows a woman in a Poiret-style gown with a black cat at her feet, and Cartier went on to use the picture in its advertising. One account dates this first advertisement to 1913 instead. Most sources, including Cartier, say 1914.

The first full figure of a panther came in 1917, on a cigarette case of diamonds, onyx and platinum that Louis Cartier gave to Jeanne Toussaint. In 1928 a panther clasp appeared on a bracelet. One account says Cartier made a ring with two three-dimensional panthers in black enamel and gold around a star ruby in 1935. Cartier itself credits the first fully three-dimensional panther to a 1948 brooch commissioned for the Duchess of Windsor. In it, a gold panther crouches on an emerald cabochon of more than 116 carats.

The ring on this page continues that line in a modern form. It is a stylized panther head in 18k yellow gold with two tsavorite garnet eyes and an onyx nose. Cartier calls it the medium model.

La Panthère

Jeanne Toussaint was born in Charleroi, Belgium, on January 13, 1887. Her nickname, Pan Pan, is said to date from a 1913 trip to Africa with the aristocrat Pierre de Quinsonas. She wore a leopard-skin coat early and owned a panther vanity case. Louis Cartier, her companion for many years, is said to have called her his 'Petite Panthère.'

She joined Cartier Paris in 1918 and ran its department of small luxury objects from the mid-1920s. One account says 1924, another 1925. In 1933 Louis Cartier put her in charge of high jewelry, a controversial choice inside the firm. She did not draw jewels herself. She commissioned them from designers, above all Pierre Lemarchand, who sketched animals at the Vincennes zoo and gave the post-war panthers their sculptural form. Francesca Cartier Brickell, a descendant of the family, writes that the record does not settle whether the panther started with Toussaint or whether she was one of several people who shaped it.

Sources also disagree on how long she stayed. A Cartier family history says she married in 1954 and left in the years after Pierre Cartier persuaded her to stay past 1955. Other accounts say she held the post until 1970. She died in Paris in 1976.

The women who wore the panther

The Duchess of Windsor made the panther famous. After the 1948 emerald brooch, she acquired a second brooch in 1949, a platinum panther paved with diamonds and sapphires sitting on a 152.35-carat Kashmir sapphire. In 1952 she bought the diamond and onyx panther bracelet that later set records at auction. One account says she owned seven panther jewels in all.

Other collectors followed. Barbara Hutton, Daisy Fellowes and Princess Nina Aga Khan owned Cartier panthers. In 1958 Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned the first pair of panther-head earrings and an early double panther-head bangle. The Mexican actress María Félix commissioned a bracelet with two overlapping panthers.

In 1914, the year the panther first appeared, Europe went to war. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28, and Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia a month later. The Panama Canal opened in August, and in September the First Battle of the Marne stopped the German advance into France.

From high jewelry to an everyday ring

Cartier introduced the Panthère de Cartier watch in 1983. In 2005 the panther got a makeover as an angular, faceted ring in yellow gold, onyx, peridot and black lacquer. Cartier's 2012 film L'Odyssée de Cartier follows a panther that comes to life in a shop window, and a La Panthère fragrance with a sculpted panther head on the bottle followed in 2014.

Today's medium-model ring is part of that everyday range. It comes in yellow gold (CRB4085900), white gold (CRB4099500) and pink gold (CRB4215900). Austin Butler wore CRB4085900 at the 95th Academy Awards on March 12, 2023, together with a matching Panthère bracelet.

The panther range runs far beyond this ring. One guide puts Panthère jewelry at around $8,000 for gold and enamel rings and more than $200,000 for rare colored-diamond necklaces.

How to read one

The yellow gold medium model is a panther head 11 mm wide at size 52, with two green tsavorite garnet eyes and an onyx nose. Cartier notes that dimensions and stones vary with the size ordered and sells the ring in sizes from 44 to 68 mm. The reference number tells the metal: CRB4085900 is yellow gold.

Check the stones against the reference. Over the years Cartier has made panther-head rings with tsavorite, emerald or peridot eyes and with black lacquer or onyx accents. A ring with the wrong stones for its reference may be a different model, not a fault.

Pre-owned gold, tsavorite and onyx Panthère rings are offered in New York at well above the price of a new medium model. Two were listed at $23,000 each, weighing 24.70 and 25.70 grams. Neither listing gave a reference number, so they cannot be confirmed as this model, and their asking prices are kept out of the price history.

The numbers

Carat weight

Not published by Cartier; stones vary with ring size

Stones

Two tsavorite garnets (eyes) and onyx (nose)

Color and clarity

Not published by Cartier

Origin mine

Not disclosed by Cartier

Cutter

Not disclosed by Cartier

Metal

18k yellow gold (750/1000)

Motif width

11 mm (size 52)

Timeline

1. Jan 13, 1887

   Jeanne Toussaint is born in Charleroi, Belgium.

2. 1914

   The panther's spots appear on a Cartier wristwatch, and George Barbier draws 'Lady with Panther' for a Cartier invitation.

3. 1917

   Louis Cartier gives Toussaint a panther cigarette case, the first full figure of a panther in Cartier's work.

4. 1918

   Toussaint joins Cartier Paris.

5. 1928

   Cartier makes its first bracelet with a panther clasp.

6. 1933

   Louis Cartier puts Toussaint in charge of high jewelry.

7. 1935

   Cartier makes a ring with two three-dimensional panthers around a star ruby, according to one account.

8. 1948

   The Duke of Windsor commissions a gold panther brooch on an emerald cabochon, Cartier's first fully three-dimensional panther.

9. 1949

   The Duchess of Windsor acquires a panther brooch on a 152.35-carat sapphire.

10. 1952

    The Duchess buys her diamond and onyx panther bracelet.

11. 1958

    Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissions the first panther-head earrings.

12. 1976

    Jeanne Toussaint dies in Paris.

13. 1983

    Cartier introduces the Panthère de Cartier watch.

14. 2005

    The panther returns as an angular, faceted ring in yellow gold, onyx, peridot and black lacquer.

15. 2014

    Cartier launches the La Panthère fragrance.

16. Mar 12, 2023

    Austin Butler wears CRB4085900 at the 95th Academy Awards.

17. Oct 1, 2026

    Cartier lists CRB4085900 at $8,000 in the United States.

The world in 1914

• Mar 10, 1914

  A suffragette slashes Velázquez's Rokeby Venus at the National Gallery in London.

• Jun 28, 1914

  Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo.

• Jul 28, 1914

  Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, the official start of World War I.

• Aug 15, 1914

  The Panama Canal opens with the passage of the SS Ancon.

• Sep 5, 1914

  The First Battle of the Marne begins near Paris.

• Dec 24, 1914

  An unofficial Christmas truce begins on the Western Front.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Cartier Panthere de Cartier Ring (yellow gold, onyx, tsavorite) is number 72 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (45 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Cartier's panther appeared as spots, on a 1914 watch, more than thirty years before it appeared as a whole animal in the round.
• Jeanne Toussaint did not design jewels herself; she commissioned them, above all from Pierre Lemarchand, who sketched at the Vincennes zoo.
• Toussaint's nickname, Pan Pan, is said to date from a 1913 trip to Africa.
• The Duchess of Windsor's 1949 panther brooch sits on a 152.35-carat sapphire.
• Austin Butler wore this exact reference to the 2023 Academy Awards.
• In Cartier's panthers the leopard counts too: the house treats both as members of the Panthera genus.