Elsa Peretti’s snakes began in silver, but over the years she made them in a range of materials—this carved green jade version was a favorite. Peretti said the initial inspiration for her snake design was a rattlesnake’s rattle given to her by an American friend; she carried it for years as a talisman. By the 1970s, Peretti had begun buying and meticulously restoring crumbling properties in the Catalan village of Sant Matí Vell, where snakes and scorpions became part of her daily life. In 1990, Peretti admitted “it’s not that I love snakes, but I’ve seen so many of them that I really think they’re beautiful.”