Tiffany & Co

Tiffany & Co, born in New York in 1837

Tiffany & Co simply owes its name to its founder, Charles Lewis Tiffany. Originally, that is to say in 1837, the company was called Tiffany & Young, with John Barnett Young as a partner, whose shares will be bought back in 1853. In New York, in lower Manhattan, the company is not specialized but more generally in the sale of luxury items of all kinds. If Bohemian crystal and porcelain made the reputation of the House, which still today combines tableware, jewelry and watches, Charles Lewis Tiffany has a great passion for diamonds and other precious stones. So much so that his company quickly became, by 1851, the first American jewelry house. In the Big Apple, the man is moreover nicknamed "the king of diamonds". He became known, in particular, by buying jewels from French aristocrats, but also, in 1887, almost a third of the crown jewels at an auction in the Louvre. Charles Lewis Tiffany has a flair for business and communication. He unveils the Tiffany Diamond, a yellow diamond that remains to this day one of the most remarkable in the world. The man is also a designer, who in 1887 imagines the iconic Tiffany Setting engagement ring and makes the diamond ring a symbol of love.

The discovery of precious gems, the reign of colored stones

Tiffany & Co thus became a reference in the universe of jewelry, creating world-famous jewelry, inspired by the Art Nouveau movement when Louis Comfort Tiffany, artist and son of Charles Lewis became the first design director of the House in 1902. The American jeweler also marked another first by hiring the services of a chief gemologist, Dr. George Frederick Kuntz, who gave his name to kunzite. The American House thus built its reputation on the discovery and exploitation of new precious gems, such as morganite. It was one of the first American jewelers to use colored stones in its designs. "The treasures revealed by Kunz form the most extraordinary collection of gems in the world, including exotic yellow beryl, demantoid (green) garnets and luminous aquamarines. To Tiffany & Co, jewelers around the world still owe the unveiling of tanzanite in 1968, a very rare ocean-blue gem, and the green and sparkling tsavorite in 1974. And if the stones have written the history of the House, this tradition remains very much alive in its jewelry creations of today.

Tiffany & Co and its iconic designers

Since 1940, Tiffany & Co has been located on New York's Fifth Avenue at 57th Street. The windows like magical miniature paintings quickly participate in the popularity of the House. But the history of Tiffany & Co will be written above all with its legendary creators. The first of these was Jean Schlumberger, who as early as 1956 distinguished himself with creations imbued with fantasy, often adorned with sea creatures and plants. The "Tiffany revolution" will come especially from Elsa Peretti. The model began her collaboration with the jewelry house in 1974. Between sculptural aesthetics and modern sensibility, the designer innovates with the design of her jewelry and democratizes diamond jewelry with her Diamonds by the Yard collection, whose pieces are worn in everyday life. To Elsa Peretti, Tiffany & Co owes many other iconic jewelry, all in curves and sensual curves: the Bone cuff and its variations, the Open Heart pendant, the Bottle silver bottle, the Scorpion necklace or even the very minimalist Bean, worn as a necklace, earrings or clutch. With her, Tiffany & Co once again elevated silver to the rank of a noble material, and made 925/1000th a standard in jewelry. Another woman left her mark on the history of Tiffany & Co - and the history of jewelry. It was Paloma Picasso who, from the early 1980s, imposed more graphic collections, like Graffiti, inspired by New York buildings and street art. The American House signed other must-haves over the decades, from the Return to Tiffany keychain in 1969, to the a href="https://www.cresus/bijoux/tiffanny-co/colliers">Tiffany Keys pendants forty years later. In the 2010s, Tiffany T and then Tiffany City HardWear reinforced the brand's innovative image.

A brand of the French group LVMH

Alongside jewelry and watches, Tiffany & Co established its international reputation by launching home and accessory collections, followed by fragrances. "Very few global brands have both a reputation and a very strong potential, which is what interested me. So says Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH. In 2019 indeed, Tiffany & Co has joined the fold of the French luxury group, joining Houses like Dior, Bulgari, Chaumet or Louis Vuitton. Tiffany's first jewelry collection under its new banner was released in 2020, under the name Tiffany T1, as a legacy of Tiffany T, and still with clean, graphic lines.