Cartier’s sources of inspiration for jewellery collections range from the literal – cacti, for example, or big cats – to the esoteric. And why not? It’s not like beautiful jewels need to be understood from a historical perspective to be appreciated.
Resonances de Cartier, the maison’s latest high jewellery collection, is one such example – a range of extraordinary jewels with echoes of the company’s vast archives. More importantly though, it is rife with extraordinary stones.
Launched at the Reform Club in London this summer (the first time a Cartier high jewellery collection has launched in the capital in a decade) with a second wave of pieces to be launched in New York later in the year, Resonances de Cartier is comprised of over 100 pieces in a truly eclectic variety of styles and materials. There are major diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and rubies, of course, but also carved smoky quartz, gold-flecked blue lapis lazuli, vibrant fire opals, watery green beryls and even deep purple sugilite.
I last saw this relatively unknown (in the world of high jewellery) material in its uncut state in Cartier’s Paris workshops earlier this year, looking for all the world like something from the prop department of The Dark Crystal. In Cartier’s artisans’ hands, it has been carved into a quartet of the most ladylike pansies, which can be strung on a multi-strand necklace of diamonds, amethyst and moonquartz beads, or worn scattered across a lapel as brooches.
Echoes of Tutti Frutti, that icon of the Art Deco years characterized by a jumble of carved gemstones, can be found in the Eclosion suite, only there isn’t an emerald or sapphire to be found. Instead, the necklace, earrings, bracelet and rings in the range consist of semi-precious stones in a muted palette of greys, greens and pinkish reds in the form of carved rubellites, peridots and garnets, moonstone beads, flecks of black onyx, and of course diamonds.
There are convertible pieces, including the Bengalore necklace which can be transformed into a petite tiara, a brooch, earrings, and hair pins. Utilising the much more traditional sapphire, ruby, and emerald combination of the original Art Deco tutti frutti pieces, but distinctly different in design, echoes of the maison’s archives are beautifully evident here, whilst still managing to look entirely new.
Bolder, more contemporary pieces include a ring which pairs a large black diamond with a matching white one, set in a surround of swirling black lacquer and diamonds. Unusual diamond shapes – like two half-moons – are set facing each other, surrounded by rubies and diamonds in a ring, or, as in the case of the Ecume suite, plump, fancy yellow diamond briolettes tremble from a convertible necklace or – if their owner so fancies – from white diamond earrings.
Resonances de Cartier is a vast and eclectic collection, but the Cartier codes and motifs are deeply entrenched within every piece – although you don’t need to know that to love it.
[“Source-telegraph”]