Tiger Necklace

A tiger necklace sets the animal at the center of the chest, and the designs here show it in many moods: deeply sculpted heads with bared fangs, pavé tigers glittering with small clear stones, flat outlines cut into delicate openwork, and a medallion where a tiger squares up to a dragon. The finishes run through gold, silver and rose gold tones in several shades, plus bronze and titanium, and many designs are offered in more than one.

Sculpted heads with bared fangs

The boldest pieces are tiger heads modeled in the round, with plenty of depth. The Tiger Necklace from the Tomb shows a roaring head in an antique bronze tone, with raised stripes sweeping back from the brow and jaws cut right through, so light shows between the fangs. It is offered in bronze or silver, on chains listed at 45cm or 70cm. Other heads snarl in a dark-shaded silver tone on box or braided chains, while calmer faces come in gold tones, one on a wheat chain and another hung from a bail shaped like a flame.

Pavé tiger necklace designs with colored eyes

Some designs cover the whole tiger in tiny clear stones. One is an openwork tiger face set with stones across every surface, with two green marquise stones for eyes and a pavé bail above, and its color options are white gold, yellow gold and rose gold tones. A close relative swaps the green for pink-red eyes. The Zodiac Tiger Necklace takes another pose entirely: a gold-tone tiger curled into a ring, its body paved in clear stones and its eye a single blue stone, with one larger round stone set inside the circle. It comes in gold, silver or rose gold.

A tiger face to face with a dragon

The Yin Yang Tiger Necklace is the most elaborate design in the collection. A curving line divides its round medallion into a dark, brushed half and a bright, polished half, like the yin yang symbol. A dragon coils across the dark side and a tiger rears up on the light side, the two meeting face to face, with a deep red stone held in the dragon's claw and one foot breaking out past the rim. It is offered on chains listed at 50cm, 55cm or 60cm, or as the pendant only.

In Chinese tradition the dragon and the tiger form a classic pair of opposing forces, often linked to yin and yang, and among the Four Symbols they guard opposite directions: the Azure Dragon the east, the White Tiger the west.

Fine outlines and cut-out silhouettes

At the lighter end of the range, several necklaces trace the tiger in outline. The Tiger Necklace for Women is a small openwork face built from geometric lines and attached to the chain at both sides rather than hanging from a single loop, in gold, silver or rose gold tones. Related designs include a gold-tone face fixed the same way, a small silver-tone outline with a tiny clear stone hanging from the chain beside it, and a larger geometric face on a box chain. A head-and-chest silhouette in gold tone rounds out the group, its stripes picked out in black.

Lengths and finishes

Chain lengths are listed on each design and run from 45cm through 50cm, 55cm and 60cm up to 70cm, and one carved piece hangs from an adjustable rope instead. Some designs can also be ordered as the pendant alone. Color names are just as varied, from champagne gold and golden to white silver and antique silver, so the same tiger can often be had in a warmer or a cooler tone.

Stones without stripes

Tiger eye necklaces start from a gemstone instead of a picture: a quartz banded in golden and deep brown, with a sheen that ripples across the bands. They are gathered in our tiger eye necklace collection, which runs from bead strands to a crescent moon. This collection also holds some stone pieces of its own, such as a crescent of golden-brown stone wrapped in silver-tone wire shaped like a tree, with amethyst, rose quartz, aventurine, clear quartz, opal and obsidian among its options, and a tiger face carved in a golden-brown material, hung on a cord with a decorative knot.

Pendants and earrings in the same spirit

For a smaller charm, our tiger pendant collection gathers tigers printed beneath clear domes, engraved discs and tags, and filigree crescent moons. Some necklaces here also have a counterpart among our tiger earrings: the open-jawed head of the Tiger Necklace from the Tomb hangs from hooks there in a silver tone, and the striped head-and-chest silhouette is made as a pair of drops. Rings, bracelets and watches join them in the full tiger jewelry collection.

The tiger as a guardian

Chinese tradition names the tiger king of the beasts, and the dark stripes on its forehead are often read as 王, the character for king. Other traditions treat it as a spirit animal that lends its qualities to the person it guides, an idea explored in our tiger animal totem article, along with the way the tiger's meaning changes from one culture to the next. The Zodiac Tiger Necklace takes its name from the Chinese zodiac, where people born in a Tiger year are traditionally described as brave and confident.

Common questions about tiger necklaces

Can a necklace be ordered without the chain?

Some can. The Yin Yang Tiger Necklace and one of the sculpted silver-tone tiger heads list a pendant-only option next to their chain lengths.

Which designs come in rose gold tones?

Rose gold appears in the options of the Tiger Necklace for Women and the Zodiac Tiger Necklace, as well as on both pavé faces, the one with green eyes and the one with pink-red eyes.

What is the longest chain on offer?

The longest length in the options is 70cm, available on the Tiger Necklace from the Tomb and on a silver-tone head, and the shortest is 45cm.