It was over 80 years ago that Cartier’s former creative director Jeanne Toussaint—fondly known as La Panthère for her style, demeanour, and role in transforming the panther into an emblem of majestic beauty—turned the humble coffee bean into a gorgeous symbol of desire.
Toussaint’s coffee seed jewels consisted of tiny concave ovals in yellow gold (sometimes with ornamental stones) with ribbed textures and creases in the centre. The Grain de Café collection, introduced in 1938, comprised necklaces, bracelets, and earrings that were popular among mid-20th-century jet-setters. Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn were huge fans.
Despite their long absence from Cartier’s oeuvre, the coffee beans are back in a six-piece collection highlighting the maison’s creativity. In gold and accented with sparkling diamonds, the new Grain de Café collection is as playful as the original. Intricate goldsmithing technique and voluminous curves create a creative tension that redefines the floral style.
It comprises two necklaces, a bracelet, and three rings adorned with yellow or rose gold beans tipped with diamonds. In the yellow gold designs, a chain of yellow and white gold ropes dangle the precious beans, and for the rose gold designs, obsidian pieces sculpted like coffee beans alternate with the gold ingots.
As a collection set to develop with many interpretations, Grain de Café expresses Cartier’s ability to capture beauty in the smallest details. “Grain de Café is Cartier’s new figurative collection; it’s the freedom to surpass literal creative execution and develop a multi-sensory architecture,” says Marie-Laure Cérède, the maison’s jewellery and watchmaking creative director.
Indeed, with their wonderfully tactile surfaces, dazzling shapes and subtle rattling, one can almost smell the coffee.
