The Tiger Tears are a pair of pear-shaped type IIa diamonds weighing 57.53 and 56.64 carats, respectively. Cartier set them on a necklace displayed in 2004.
Legend has it that several hundred years ago, Sultan Muzafir, attacked and wounded by a tiger, was rescued by one of his officers, who slew the beast with a thrust of his sword. The grateful sultan raised the officer to the rank of rajah and gave him his weight in gold and gems, which included these two diamonds. They were named after the dying tiger.
Their storybook past, the clarity of their type IIa “water,” and the dazzling fire of their grade-D color are sufficiently superlative to set these stones alongside the most beautiful diamonds in Cartier’s history.