Bejewelled by Tiffany: 1837-1987 [Hardcover]

Clare Phillips (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2006

Tiffany & Co, since its foundation in 1837, has been a uniquely American brand, famous for its glamour, creative design and fine craftsmanship. Starting modestly as a 'Fancy Goods' store on Broadway, Tiffany rose quickly to international fame, its jewellery winning the medals and stunning the worlds at the great international exhibitions of the nineteenth century. America's new rich delighted in the striking jewels created by Tiffany designer Paulding Farnham and, from 1904, Louis Comfort Tiffany who pioneered a distinctively American aesthetic which delighted in the vividly coloured gemstones newly discovered in America. A great period of naturalism in jewellery was followed by the abstract geometry of Art Deco. Sensitive to new trends and ever at the forefront of design, Tiffany moved confidently into the 1930s and 1940s with large and glamorous colourful stones set in swirling gold. In the post-War 1950s, they boldly backed new designers. The elegant and witty genius of French designer Jean Schlumberger, hired in 1956, brought an originality universally acclaimed. In the 1970s Tiffany turned to the designers Elsa Peretti and Paloma Picasso whose work captured the informality and fun that patrons now looked for in their jewellery. This sumptuous book is edited by Clare Phillips, Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, with essays by a team of leading historians of American jewellery. Their essays chart the early years of the modest New York store, the transformation of the firm under Louis Comfort Tiffany into a world leader, and the re-establishment of Tiffany as a great, international company following the Second World War. Full catalogue entries, all beautifully illustrated and many with specially commissioned photography, cover around two hundred pieces of jewellery dating from the 1850s to the 1980s.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title at the Gilbert Collection in London, this is an all-inclusive account of the house of Tiffany & Co. Essays by curators and jewelry historians look in detail at the house's rich history, especially its innovative role in jewelry design. Tiffany designs, say the contributors, reflect their times and have in turn influenced them, for instance, providing escapist images of glamour and wealth for struggling women during the Depression. The history of Tiffany's is as exciting as its jewels: in 1887, its agent in Paris dominated the auction of the French crown jewels, accounting for over a third of sales. Tiffany helped to define 20th-century glamour in the '20s, and then aided in redefining it after WWII. In the '70s, Elsa Peretti made Tiffany's fresh for and available to a wider public with sculptural shapes in gold and silver, and her famous "Diamonds by the Yard." The quality and breadth of the catalogue's images are only surpassed by the detailed captions, and it is all presented so flawlessly that one needn't be named Holly Golightly to appreciate it. (Sept.)
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About the Author

Clare Phillips is Curator in the Department of Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics and Glass at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Vivienne Becker is an independent jewellery historian and journalist. Ulysses Grant Dietz is Curator of Decorative Arts, The Newark Museum. Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen is Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. John Loring has been the Design Director at Tiffany since 1979. Katherine Purcell is a Director of the London jewellery firm Wartski and a jewellery historian, specialising in French nineteenth-century jewellery.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 310 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; 1ST edition (June 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300116519
• ISBN-13: 978-0300116519
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #481,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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