Cartier Lever-Back Earrings

Vintage Cartier earrings have forever been a favorite of celebrities and royalty alike. Apart from its statement pieces, the house’s offerings include understated accessories, such as diamond-studded hoops, delicate danglers and classic stud earrings that feature diamonds, pearls and brilliant colored gems. Cartier’s signature designs have transcended time and trends, appearing everywhere from red carpets to royal courts.

Ordained “the jeweler of kings and the king of jewelers” by King Edward VII of England, Cartier is the brand behind some of the world’s most iconic, luxurious and regal designs. It was founded in 1847 by master jeweler Louis-François Cartier and expanded considerably under Louis-François’s son, Alfred, who took over in 1874. While Alfred’s three sons Louis, Pierre and Jacques later grew the business on an international level, Cartier’s associations with royalty can be traced back to its early days.

Commissions from Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, niece of Napoleon Bonaparte, for earrings and other accessories began in the late 1850s, and relationships between Cartier and Czar Nicholas II of Russia, King Edward VII and others took shape in the decades that followed.

For more than 100 years, Cartier jewelry has been a favorite of the British Royal Family. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, inherited Cartier chandelier earrings as well as a pair of Cartier-designed pear-drop diamond earrings, which feature two pear-shaped diamonds weighing approximately 20 carats each, from Margaret Greville during the early 1940s. They would in turn be inherited by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002. (Diana, Princess of Wales, borrowed them in the 1980s from time to time.) Meghan Markle favors her Galanterie de Cartier studs.

Cartier earrings are defined by the bold design sensibility and attention to detail for which the fine jewelry house is known. Earrings that have origins in its revered collections, such as the Love collection’s modernist Love earrings, Trinity earrings, the Panthère earrings and others, are everyday classics for women who want jewelry that is elegant and tells a story. Angelina Jolie has been spotted in the audacious Juste un Clou earrings, which were designed during the 1970s and inspired by carpenter nails, while filmmaker Sofia Coppola has touted her affection for Cartier’s Paris Nouvelle Vague collection and the brand’s Art Deco diamond earrings. (The luxury house helped define the Art Deco era — the look that Cartier was favoring in post–World War I Paris, London and New York was a radical departure from the Belle Epoque garland style it had once popularized.)

New and vintage Cartier earrings are an important part of its grand heritage — find your next pair on 1stDibs.