Diamond reptiles
I just got home from the Cartier exhibit at the San Francisco Palace of the Legion of Honor, where I discovered that Queen Elizabeth I wasn't the only little-known herp-lover in history.
Mexican movie star María Félix apparently had a thing for herps and jewelry, and Cartier was only too glad to create the pieces one of the most famously beautiful, exotic and eccentric women of the day designed.
Félix kept a number of exotic pets, including crocodiles, and it's said she brought a bowl of crocs to Cartier to help him design her crocodile necklace (shown above right) -- a story that's certainly not true, but lives on regardless.
The exhibit included the crocodile pieces as well as a snake necklace studded with the 2,473 diamonds (shown in the photo and the video below the jump). It took Cartier one year to make it.
