Shining Example: How Tiffany & Co.’s Glittering History Influences Its Bold New Creations

In the lead up to the historied jewellery house’s exhibition at Saatchi Gallery in London, Charlotte Brook explores the role its heritage continues to play within its newest pieces

I try to make everything look as if it were growing, uneven, organic, at random, in motion,” Jean Schlumberger once said of his famously flora-and fauna-inspired jewellery. Having been scouted by Elsa Schiaparelli as a young man for his decorative porcelain brooches and buttons, the artist and designer was summoned to New York by Tiffany & Co. in 1956, where he was charged with bringing his trademark colour and wit to the brand’s designs.

Inspired by wildlife’s vitality and the shapes and shades of plants, he took this brief and more than fulfilled it, using vibrant gemstones to transform nature’s fleeting beauty into timeless wearable treasures: shimmering gold camel and sapphire jellyfish brooches; butterfly-adorned bracelets; delicate diamond jasmine buds blooming from a necklace. One such masterpiece is his Bird on a Rock brooch, conjured up in 1965.

“He travelled extensively, especially to Guadeloupe, and we believe a cockatiel influenced this piece, which is perhaps his most iconic,” says Vicky Reynolds, Tiffany’s chief gemmologist. “As well as having this wonderful plumage – reimagined in yellow diamonds and looking rather like a pineapple – cockatiels are very witty, chatty birds. Together, those qualities are quintessential Schlumberger.”

Over the decades, there have been many iterations of this sprightly avian, but a particularly fine, new edition is currently to be found atop a 54-carat tourmaline in electric blue – the signature Tiffany hue. From early June, it will be awaiting visitors at London’s Saatchi Gallery, where the brand is holding an exhibition showcasing its creativity, craftsmanship and the role it has played in popular culture since Charles Lewis Tiffany founded his eponymous boutique in 1837.

The show offers a whistlestop tour of the house’s history and greatest hits: chic black and white advertising photography from the archive; a selection of the former French crown jewels; and Audrey Hepburn’s own, annotated Breakfast at Tiffany’s script, along with the sensational 128-carat, buttercup-yellow Tiffany diamond she wore while promoting the film. All these will be joined by other members of Schlumberger’s magical menagerie, including Elizabeth Taylor’s sapphire Fleur de Mer sea-creature brooch and a theatrical clip made for the former Bazaar fashion editor Diana Vreeland, a lifelong friend of the designer. The magnificent Trophée de Vaillance – otherwise known as the Trophy of Love – is a brooch bearing a fringed mediaeval breastplate, spears and shield, fashioned from rubies and amethysts. As Vreeland put it: “It’s not at all subtle. A Schlumberger lights up a whole room!”

Fifty years on, the fruits of Schlumberger’s exceptional imagination will illuminate this summer’s landmark exhibition, and they have also inspired several spectacular pieces in Tiffany’s latest Blue Book high-jewellery collection. With the summer flowers beginning to unfurl, this seems a perfect moment to pay homage to the living legacy of a designer who celebrated the Earth’s bountiful beauty.

Tiffany & Co.: Vision & Virtuosity is at London’s Saatchi Gallery, from 10 June to 19 August, saatchigallery.com

Photographs courtesy of Tiffany & Co, Gettyimages, Shutterstock

From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s June 2022 issue.