A true source of inspiration, its full, round and fleshy shape inspires Cartier to create a unique collection, just like its vision of nature: rebellious, free and sophisticated, opening up a creative field in its own right that gives rise to the most unexpected and original pieces. This is the origin of the Grain de Café collection: a blossoming of jewellery creations, designed as living, moving, opulent and joyful constructions.
The rings, necklace and bracelet are mounted on a chain in two colours of gold, topped with a single or double crown of beans set with diamonds of different sizes. An ultra-chic version in rose gold features a ring and a necklace where obsidian is alternated with gold, dotted with diamonds. A balance between power and softness, a creative tension that renews the floral genre and offers a new vision of beauty.
Cascading clusters of beans, golden architectures and subtle rattling – the Grain de Café collection electrifies the style and independent spirit that Cartier offers.
WHY THE COFFEE BEAN? THIS MOTIF APPEARED IN 1938 UNDER THE IMPETUS OF CREATIVE DIRECTOR JEANNE TOUSSAINT.
Over the decades, and particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, it was a great success. Despite its miniature dimensions, this enhanced bean represents the unison of two creative registers dear to Cartier: flora recreated in yellow gold and the ordinary made precious by the jeweller’s eye.
SAVOIR-FAIRE at the service of naturalism
All the expertise of the Jewellery Ateliers is focused on a single goal: to bring this flora to life by linking research, movement, mastery of volumes and gold work.
To free the initial potential of this bean of energy, its ebony black colour is transposed into gold. Pure, solar and absolute gold, worked in two shades. Then entrusted to the atelier’s talented craftspeople with the task of transforming this solid beacon of light into living creations. Sculpting oblong shapes and striating their surface on either side of a central rib; studding the end with diamonds and mounting them on yellow and white gold “palm tree” chains to play around with volume compositions. Sometimes moving, ranging from the simplest to the most complex, where pieces with pure lines are adorned with motifs that transform into cascades of clusters. Letting each bean move to the rhythm of a playful elegance.
A DESIGN in keeping with the Maison’s stylistic repertoire
With Jeanne Toussaint, gold was the obvious choice because she knew that it could lend itself perfectly to multiple transformations. Smooth or striated, gadrooned or braided, mesh or articulated, it became the expression of joyful and luminous jewellery that would shine until her departure from the Maison in 1970. A sunny wave that crossed the naturalist vein and saw a precious garden blossom: alongside palm trees laden with precious fruit, laurel leaves in fine gold and explosive bouquets of colour, Grain de Café creations are multiplied. Most often made of yellow gold, although sometimes also sculpted in a noble material such as coral, these first coffee beans are most often studded with diamonds or coloured stones, and sometimes even half-paved.
In the form of necklaces, bracelets and earrings, the Grain de Café was highly appreciated by Princess Grace of Monaco, and became part of her collection of Cartier pieces, which ranged from the most personal to the most formal.
Set to develop over time with many interpretations, the Grain de Café collection demonstrates the Maison’s ability to see beauty in the miniature dimensions of a coffee bean. An expert eye taking pleasure in embellishing life and enhancing its perfection through the preciousness of an abundant and radiant collection.
“GRAIN DE CAFÉ IS CARTIER’S NEW FIGURATIVE COLLECTION; it’s the freedom to surpass literal creative execution and develop a multi-sensory architecture.”
“GRAIN DE CAFÉ INTRODUCES A NEW PRECIOUSNESS BY ELEVATING A SINGLE MATERIAL, GOLD, and playing with light, finishes and volume to create an acoustic collection brimming with soul.”
MARIE-LAURE CÉRÈDE, JEWELLERY AND WATCHMAKING CREATIVE DIRECTOR
cartier Grain de Café
