Cartier’s Nature Sauvage high jewellery collection tells entrancing tales of a mysterious menagerie.
If only Jacqueline Karachi had motion detector sensors attached to her body as she’s explaining the design process of Nature Sauvage, Cartier’s latest high jewellery collection starring animals in natural and abstract environments. What creature would emerge from her gesticulatory enactments then?
When told that she is a dramatic storyteller, Karachi explains that the design team would stage the animals in unexpected and modern environments. “With this collection, we tried to propose a fresh look for Cartier Bestiaire. We imagine the animals in unexpected locations, in different, surprising encounters. We showcase the spirit, character, vitality – the soul of the animals. It’s a very playful collection. In this way, we bring modernity to Cartier Bestiaire.”
Karachi, Cartier’s director of high jewellery creation, and I are speaking in a make-shift salon at the Kursalon, a 19th-century pavilion in Vienna where Nature Sauvage is being exhibited. It’s an interesting location, given that this jewel of an Austrian city is associated more with culture, art and history than nature at play. That is, until you dive into what it represents.
From the 13th century to the end of World War I, Vienna was the centre of power as the home of the Habsburg Empire. And where power resides, art and culture follow – artists and artisans have to follow the money after all. So, it’s no surprise that some of the world’s most celebrated composers – Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert – made Vienna their home. The waltz was born here, and spread globally as a dance, thanks to the music of Strauss and his sons.
Handicrafts here, too, are made to exceptional standards, moulded by a legacy of supplying the imperial family. Of the some 500 suppliers to the monarchy, about 20 are still operating today. There’s the 200-year old J & L Lobmeyr specialising in hand-crafted glass; Zur Schwabischen Jungfrau, fine linen purveyors since 1720; and Jarosinski & Vaugoin, a silverware producer established in 1847. The Augarten Vienna Porcelain Manufactory, founded in 1718, is the second-oldest ceramic producer in Europe. Many know it for the iconic Melon service designed by Joseph Hoffmann in 1929. In its workshop, however, are other exquisite wares. We spy a black panther on a gold mount – Cartier’s of course – and TWG’s Chinoiserie teapot with its Mandarin head lid. Quality control is rigid, and any product with so much as a hint of imperfection is smashed to smithereens.
Artistry is Vienna’s metier, and in the 87-piece Nature Sauvage collection exhibited at Kursalon, it’s amply demonstrated in the natural poses of the animals and how they blend into their environment – to surprise and delight when their silhouettes are recognised. Every scene is a vignette that transcends ornamentation. The first piece that visitors see is the Celestun necklace. Recalling the emblematic brooch that Cartier created for Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor in 1940, it is a flamingo perched on a rock of aquamarine, amid a bush of emerald reeds. The cabochon-cut emeralds can be twirled in place as if blown by the wind.
In the Amphista necklace, twin heads of sinuous snakes converge on an architectural tower of Colombian emeralds totalling 14.72 carats. Anyone who wears it will exude sensual mystique. And in the Koaga necklace, a zebra fashioned from white gold, onyx and diamonds pursues the ‘fruit’ of a dangling rubellite. The design is simple yet ingenious.
Cartier has had a lot of practice with animal motifs. Since the house was founded in 1847 and through to the 1860s, the fauna reflected the political and social environment of then France. In addition to chimeras and reptiles, the pieces featured horses, as a nod to the thrill of the racetrack, and bees, Napoleon’s emblem.
When Louis Cartier, the founder’s grandson, took the reins of the house in the early 20th century, he sparked an era of innovation that saw diamonds combined with platinum and the creation of exotic novelties that included animals in various striking poses. The Cartier panther first appeared in onyx and diamonds on a woman’s watch in 1914. More than a century later, having been interpreted in myriad ways in Cartier’s jewellery, the symbol of the house again sets a precedent.
Nature Sauvage marks the debut of an innovative piece of hand jewellery. In the Panthère Jaillissante, a bracelet is connected to a ring via a fully articulated body of a panther in diamonds, sapphires and emeralds. Every movement of the wearer’s hand thus gives the animal life. Revealing the challenge of the design, Karachi notes, “In every piece of jewellery, we challenge the craftsman to push the limit of the technique. This one needs to be very flexible because you need to move your hand. It has to be completely articulated and, at the same time, adjustable in length and width because everyone’s hand is different in dimensions. It’s a unique piece.”
The panther motif appears again in another stunning piece. The Panthère des Glaces necklace, which depicts a glittery scene of a snow leopard prowling on an ice floe, is created from white gold, shield-, kite- and square-shaped diamonds, brilliant-cut diamonds, sapphires, onyx and rock crystal.
Says Karachi, “It’s very rare to see a snow leopard [in real life] because they are usually hidden in the landscape. So, we hide it in a sea of ice made of diamonds and crystals.” The piece is technically demanding: every stone is adjusted to convey a frozen ice block, every detail is articulated for the necklace to be completely flexible, and every muscle of the leopard is carefully sculpted to achieve a natural form. “We stage an instance in the life of the leopard, the moment when the ice is breaking under its weight,” says Karachi, in a dramatic flourish. Indeed, you can almost hear the crackling of the ice in the movement of the stones.
As director of high jewellery creation, Karachi’s role is to guide her designers in Cartier’s design code. Having worked at Cartier for four decades, she now has a streamlined vision of house style. “I push further because I understand white balance. Less is more. We search for perfection but it’s impossible; only the stone can be perfect.”
For this particular collection, the selection of the stone is especially important. “You need powerful stones when you stage an animal,” says Karachi. “When we bought them, we tried to imagine the animal that each could go with. So, it was a different way to choose, as the objective was to inspire an animal attitude.”
For the Mochelys necklace that looks like a circlet of fronds, for example, Karachi shares that the pear shape and volume of a 71.9-carat rubellite reminded the designer of a turtle shell. “At the same time, it is the shape of leaves, so he imagined a camouflage effect where the turtle is hidden in a flower necklace,” she notes. “So, when you look at the piece, you don’t see the turtle at first but you can remove it from the necklace, and it becomes a turtle brooch with a flower motif.”
The intriguing vignettes of Nature Sauvage – which also incorporates birds, crocodiles, a scarab beetle in abstract form and even an Asian dragon – are dazzlingly displayed the next evening at the gala held at Vienna’s MAK Museum, a centre showcasing the development of the applied arts, in addition to design, architecture and contemporary art of the past 150 years. A Cartier party the night before took over Kunsthistorisches Museum, where amid the fine art, a collection of exquisite automatons links superlative artistry to ingenious engineering. The Vienna then was ahead of its time.
On this occasion at MAK, models bearing a princely sum in jewellery walk the central hall of the neo-Renaissance building, where moments ago waltzing couples demonstrated the spirit of the city.
Rounding out the glitterati are Hollywood celebrities Sofia Coppola and Elle Fanning, as well as Thai-German actress and model Kimberly Woltemas and Japanese multi-hyphenate artiste Anna Sawai. At the after party, English singer-songwriter Raye holds guests in thrall with her jazz-meets- Amy Winehouse vibes.
It’s an evening of beauty, glamour, art and artistry, where the animal spirit comes alive, whether they be those of the guests or from the exquisite pieces of high jewellery that make up Nature Sauvage.
(Images: Cartier)
This article was first published in Prestige Singapore
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