María Félix (8 April 1914 – 8 April 2002) was one of the most prominent actresses in the history of Mexican cinema, known by her screen title "La Doña" after one of her most celebrated roles. Her connection to Cartier centres on an articulated diamond serpent necklace, ordered from Cartier Paris in 1968.
The 1968 serpent necklace, with black, green, and coral plaques on its underbelly symbolising the colours of Mexico, was designed to coil around the neck with a naturalistic fluidity. The technical achievement lay in the articulation: each segment was engineered to flex and move as a serpent does, making the piece as much a feat of goldsmithing as of design. Félix later commissioned a second reptile piece, a crocodile necklace in emeralds and yellow diamonds, completed in 1975.
The serpent necklace sits within a broader tradition of animal-form jewellery at Cartier, a tradition most closely associated with Jeanne Toussaint and the Panthère motif. Serpents had appeared in Cartier's vocabulary well before the Félix commission, and the form would continue to recur in subsequent decades. What distinguishes the Félix serpent is its scale, its three-dimensionality, and the circumstances of its creation.
Félix herself was a figure of considerable presence in the mid-century luxury world, moving between Mexico City, Paris, and the international film circuit. Her jewellery collection, assembled over decades, included pieces from several of the major Parisian houses, but it is the Cartier snakes for which she is most remembered in the context of jewellery history.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Ballantine Books, 2019)
