A Rare Gem

TIFFANY & CO.'S SHINING NEW STAR, TEMPLE ST. CLAIR CARR

THE distinguished Louis Comfort Tiffany would certainly have approved of his company's decision to back the dazzling new line of jewelry from Temple St. Clair Carr, the latest design darling of Tiffany & Co. "Show me a piece of jewelry and I'll show you a culture," says Carr, whose pieces are grounded in the contemporary but are distinctly inspired by the past. One can imagine her signature egg-shaped medieval crystal amulets hanging from the neck of Catherine de Medici, or the strong but delicate golden linked bracelets adorning the wrists of Joan of Arc. While Carr muses that Russian bad girl Anna Karenina would be her fantasy client, today her work is collected by such modern-day free spirits as Demi Moore and Susan Sarandon.

It comes as no surprise that Carr draws inspiration from her romantic ancestry. She grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, in a house filled with books and art, where she loved listening to stories about her relatives—such as Cotton Mather, the most renowned of Puritans, and her grandmother Mary Louise St. Clair, who, as a teenager, was courted by a married F. Scott Fitzgerald. While her past has influenced her, it's Carr's sense of adventure that propels her as she traverses the globe in search of perfect gemstones—tourmalines as big as bonbons, hypnotically beautiful aquamarines, and royal-blue moonstones from India. "It's a life's work," she sighs, "this passion for discovery."

ELISSA SCHAPPELL