How Cartier Mastered the Art of Using Rock Crystal in Its High Jewellery Designs

Rock crystal, which was considered too common a stone to be used in jewellery design, started to feature alongside some seriously rare and expensive precious gems in high jewellery collections by the world's most well-known luxury brands What exactly is rock crystal? It is a type of quartz, a mineral that exists in a myriad of colours and forms-of which the most commonly known and popularly used in jewellery are rose quartz, smoky quartz, citrine and amethyst Cartier knew how to make use of a polishing technique from the Renaissance period to give rock crystal a soft shine, and pair it with diamonds to create intriguing light effects.

By the 1930s, Cartier had gone much further in experimenting with rock crystal In more recent years, Cartier has revisited rock crystal within its high jewellery collections-Resonances de Cartier in 2017 as well as the limited‑edition Les Galaxies de Cartier and Magnitude collections from last year Using it in various stunning ways in necklaces, bracelets and rings, the French jeweller has brought the stone into modern times with contemporary forms-encasing diamonds in rock crystal orbs and setting huge emeralds into motifs made of the clear quartz.

These appeal to those with a taste for the bold and also demonstrate how visually interesting rock crystal can be, whether it plays a lead or supporting role-a quality that is also evident in the vintage bracelets worn by Swanson to the Oscars back then. . Source