Jeanne Toussaint, one of Cartier’s most famous jewelry designers was born in Charleroi, Belgium in 1887. Her family was apparently makers of and traders of Brussels lace. She was also a contemporary and friend of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel.
Toussaint possessed a style that was unique, flamboyant yet modern style-combining turbans and long strands of pearls with an evening uniform of silk pajamas or a Chinese suit-combining turbans that had her lauded by the artistic circles in Paris.
Initially Toussaint headed up the accessories department and then in 1933 Jacques Cartier promoted her to director of Cartier High Jewelry.
Jeanne Toussiant was a woman of exquisite elegance as imaginative as she was demanding.
It was her identification with the jungle cat, the panther, that her name became synonymous: nicknamed the Panther.
Designers and Master jewelers were in awe of her and she was nicknamed “The Panther” by Louis Cartier, as every new idea had to first be submitted to her merciless judgement.
Jeanne Toussaint reveled in the combination of different colored stones, juxtaposing precious stones next semi-precious.
In the 1940s Jeanne Toussaint revived the fashion for yellow gold, since the turn of the twentieth century, platinum had been the precious metal of choise.
In 1948 the panther motif went 3-D when the Duchess of Windsor commissioned a golden cat perched on the top of a cabochon emerald.
This cemented the trend, also indulged by luminaries such as heiress Barbara Hutton and Princess Nina Aga Khan, whose husband ordered a whole collection of pieces featuring the panther.
The French government paid a tribute to Toussaint’s influence on jewelry and modern design by awarding her the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1955.
