Possibly The Ultimate Hermes Scarf: “Panthera Pardus” (Leopard)

Simply so beautiful, that this Hermes scarf makes you literally gulp, and your heart beat a bit faster. On sale at this ridiculous price, because it’s very slightly damaged at the bottom (no one would notice if you were wearing it). Or you could cut the bottom off, and frame this absolutely glorious, rare and cherished extrordinary work of art. A mint Panthera Pardus typically sells for around £1,000.

This example has hardly been used, but we’ve sent it to the cleaners to get rid of a couple of very faint marks.  Condition 8.75/10.

The following comes from Vanity Fair:

‘I really like objects or projects or collections that unfold like books with many stories,” says Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the artistic director of Hermès. The year 2016, which Hermès has themed ‘Nature at Full Gallop’, sees one of the most passionate “unfoldings” in Hermès history. It started in 2013, when Dumas invited the entrepreneur and environmentalist Thomas S. Kaplan to lunch. No, it started in 2006, when Kaplan founded Panthera, a global wild-cat-conservation organisation that is today the gold standard for environmental philanthropy. No, it started in 1985, when Dumas’s father, Jean-Louis Dumas, then at the helm of Hermès, discovered the work of Robert Dallet, a French animal artist whose specialty was big cats drawn from nature. Dumas put Dallet on a stipend, and his images regularly graced Hermès designs. In the wild, however, big cats were disappearing, and Dallet was in despair. When the artist died, in 2006, Pierre-Alexis Dumas believed there was something singular to be done with the company’s collection of Dallet’s work. But what? “Over lunch we talked about Panthera,” recalls Kaplan. “Pierre-Alexis pulled out these drawings and paintings. I said, ‘This is extraordinary. Dallet would be ranked among the great cat artists. We should have a coming-out party for him.’ ” And so, the Robert Dallet Initiative for Wild Cat Conservation begins this month, on the 10-year anniversary of both Dallet’s death and the founding of Panthera, with a gala dinner and fund-raising auction conducted by Sotheby’s; a travelling exhibition of Dallet’s art, which opens at Connecticut’s revered Bruce Museum; and, naturally, a Dallet scarf—Panthera Pardus (“Leopard”). “What do Hermès and Panthera want to achieve?” asks Kaplan. “We want Dallet to roar.”

Robert Dallet was an accomplished, self-taught and very humble artist, who collaborated with the Fashion House on numerous projects.

Originally from Normandy, Robert Dallet was born in 1923, and from a very young age, he was passionate about nature and drawing animals. In 1952, he decided to make a career of it, leaving his home region for Paris on a quest for a publisher who would give him a first chance.

However, he had a difficult start. Making the most of his free time, he made frequent visits to the zoos and museums of Europe in order to refine his scientific knowledge. He studied the behaviour and anatomy of every animal, which he observed for hours on end, and drew hundreds of sketches in thick notebooks.

When he was offered his first few contracts, he also drew cartoons for various magazines. He went on to work on numerous books for children, and various nature magazines.

By the 1970s, equipped with his profound understanding of animals, he decided to create a collection of more than 80 coloured plates. It was to be the first of its kind in the world, representing all the species and sub-species of felines. These works would be displayed in an exhibition for the first time at the Museum of Natural History in Rouen in 1980.

In 1985, following his participation in the Salon des Illustrateurs, he was approached by Jean-Louis Dumas, then president of Hermès, who asked him if he would design a scarf. Kenya was to be his first, and the start of a collaboration that would last two decades.

His final exhibition was in 2006 at the Varine-Gincourt gallery in Paris, bringing this self-made man’s immensely rich career to an end.

Though he had started completely from scratch, he always remained incredibly humble and discreet.

Robert Dallet passed away the same year following a long illness, with his wife and only son by his side.