When
Cartier (800.227.8437, www.cartier.com) introduced its high-jewelry collection at the Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris last September, the event recalled an earlier era, when the French luxury house made worldwide headlines with its artistic and extravagant collections for the World’s Fairs of the early 1900s. The imaginative pieces included in this current series appear to be objets d’art rather than jewelry. Diamond-and-gem-covered chimeras follow the sinuous curves of bangles, necklaces, and rings, while pendants represent the flames of dragons in rare orange padparadscha sapphires. A playful sense of the fantastic pervades this suite of exotic creatures and fanciful abstract designs.
