Cartier’s connection with Australia has been shaped through its distinguished clientele, its fascination with Australian fauna and its engagement with materials, notably opals. Through historical figures such as internationally celebrated opera singer Dame Nellie Melba GBE, the incorporation of Australian-inspired animal imagery, and contemporary associations with Australian celebrities, Cartier’s relationship with Australia has been longstanding.
The early twentieth century marked a period of innovation for Cartier with the emergence of the Garland Style. Drawing heavily upon the decorative arts of eighteenth-century France, the Garland Style was characterised by delicate floral swags, wreaths, ribbons and scrolling motifs rendered in platinum and diamonds. One of Cartier’s most prominent Australian clients during this period was Dame Nellie Melba. Born Helen Porter Mitchell in Richmond, Melbourne, in 1861, Melba became one of the most famous sopranos of her era and developed a close association with Cartier as her fame expanded across Europe and North America. Cartier jewels frequently accompanied Melba both onstage and during public appearances, reinforcing her image as a figure of glamour and refinement.
Among the most spectacular pieces acquired by Melba was a platinum, pearl, and diamond devant-de-corsage, commonly known as a stomacher, designed to adorn the central front panel of a woman’s bodice. The piece exemplifies the opulence and theatricality of the Garland Style. Following World War One, women’s fashions changed irreversibly, with the corseted silhouette replaced by free-flowing lines. Some time later, Dame Nellie’s granddaughter, Pamela(Lady Vestey), had the stomacher adapted to be worn as a necklace. This transformation reflects the evolving nature of jewellery and the potential for it to be reinterpreted across generations. Melba also possessed several jewels featuring striking turquoise cabochons, whose smooth, rounded surfaces provided vivid contrasts to the diamonds and platinum. Significantly, one such piece was designed to convert from a tiara into a necklace, allowing Melba to transition seamlessly from the operatic stage to social engagements. Cartier’s relationship with Australian celebrity culture continues to the present day, with contemporary figures such as actor Jacob Elordi frequently wearing Cartier watches on the red carpet.
Beyond the Maison’s clientele, Australia’s unique wildlife has provided Cartier with rich sources of artistic inspiration from as early as the beginning of the twentieth century. Inspired in part by the work of the Russian jewellery house Fabergé, which produced small hardstone animal figurines in the early twentieth century, Cartier recognised the appeal of such objects and began to produce its own range of Nellie Melba, her father, David Mitchell, and her niece Helen Melba Patterson, Melbourne, 1903 animals in a pastel palette of hardstone such as amethyst. These whimsical creations became highly fashionable objects among Cartier’s wealthy European and American clientele. Notable among the range were the kangaroos, of which Cartier produced two examples now held in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Unique to Australia, the kangaroo was somewhat of a curiosity to European makers. Fabergé also produced a jewelled hardstone kangaroo figurine, reflecting the European fascination with distant lands at that time.
Cartier’s archives reveal the enduring appeal of Australian fauna within the Maison’s creative imagination. Scrapbooks dating from the 1930s preserved in the Cartier Archives contain images of Australian wildlife alongside depictions of other unusual animals from around the world. These visual references reveal the extent to which unusual fauna informed Cartier’s design inspiration. This engagement with Australian wildlife continues in contemporary creations, most notably in the Rotonde de Cartier wristwatch from 2012, designed with a koala on the dial. Part of a series dedicated to showcasing specialist techniques, the watch dial is made in straw marquetry, a craft involving the soaking, flattening and arrangement of coloured straw to create intricate decorative patterns. This unusual piece highlights the specialised skills of the craftspeople working with Cartier today.
Unique Australian materials have also formed part of Cartier’s design history. During the 1920s, the main source of high-quality black opals was Lightning Ridge in New South Wales, Australia. Cartier produced a small number of works featuring black opals, such as a bracelet made in 1928. While superstitions around opals as a symbol of misfortune had prevented such jewels from being widely popular throughout the twentieth century, in more recent years, the desire for the multicoloured stone has rapidly increased and opals can often be seen as the centre stone in contemporary Cartier pieces.
Imogen Mallia-Valjan is NGV Assistant Curator, International Decorative Arts and Design.
This essay was first published in NGV Magazine | Issue 59 Jul–Aug 2026.