The legendary film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” was released in 1961, just when the era of Jean Schlumberger, an outstanding jeweler, who is associated with one of the brightest pages in the company’s history, began at Tiffany. At the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, Tiffany noted a decrease in interest in their own products, especially among young people, and Schlumberger jewelry, which at that time had its own jewelry company, was a huge success.

By 1955, they were worn by Countess Mona von Bismarck, Harper’s Bazaar fashion editor Diana Vreeland, socialite Babe Paley, who was part of Truman Capote’s inner circle and became one of the prototypes of Holly Golightly, actress Greta Garbo and others. That is why in 1956 the leader Tiffany, Walter Hoving invites Jean Schlumberger to take over as vice president and gives him complete freedom of expression and unlimited access to the jewelry firm’s precious and semi-precious stones.

The 1960s and 1970s were a time of experimentation, eclecticism, a mixture of haute couture and prêt-à-porter. And Schlumberger, with his wild imagination, inexhaustible ideas and thirst to create the impossible, turned out to be more relevant than ever. His jewelry is catchy and bright, often large and always impressive because the author managed to find interesting combinations of stones and invent complex shapes, while not depriving the jewelry of harmony and sophistication. They were perfect to complement simple solid color outfits that were popular at the time, like Givenchy’s black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s or Jackie Kennedy’s laconic suits.

By the way, during the advertising campaign of the film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, Audrey Hepburn appears in a Tiffany necklace created by Jean Schlumberger. It consisted of precious diamond bands, and in the center was placed the legendary yellow diamond weighing 128.54 carats.

Bird on a stone with a yellow diamond Jean Schlumberger

This diamond was found in 1877 in South Africa and for almost 150 years has been the main treasure of the jewelry company and one of the largest yellow diamonds in the world. “Tiffany” cherish the diamond like the apple of their eye (although once they even tried to sell it, but no one bought it) and only a few are honored to wear it. And until 1957, when the public debut of the stone took place, it was completely lying in storage. Then Jean Schlumberger designed this necklace made of diamond ribbons for him. The necklace was one of Schlumberger’s first works as an employee of Tiffany, which strengthened the master’s position in the jewelry company.

Later in 1976, Schlumberger turned the diamond into a “Bird on a Stone” brooch, making a bird-shaped pin out of gold, platinum and diamonds for it. By that time, Bird on a Stone brooches were considered iconic Tiffany jewelry. And their story began eleven years earlier, in 1965.

One fine day, Jean Schlumberger brought the blue velvet box to his studio at Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue, where his assistants and colleagues gathered in anticipation, eager to take a look at the master’s new creation. Renowned fashion critic and journalist Eugenia Sheppard was among the jeweler’s assistants and described the moment this way:

A few weeks later, the president of Tiffany also laughed out loud when he saw the brooch, to which Schlumberger told him:

“For some reason, this brooch amuses everyone. But it’s not funny, it’s funny. There is a very fine line here and I hate funny things, because jewelry is not a joke.”

Obviously, the effect produced satisfied both Schlumberger and Tiffany, the brooch became incredibly popular and was reproduced with a variety of stones citrine, aquamarine, amethyst, lapis lazuli, tourmaline and the main treasure of Tiffany, the yellow diamond mentioned above.

It is curious that Schlumberger was self-taught in the jewelry business, he had no professional education in this area, but he was an excellent draftsman, able to depict everything that was born in his imagination. It was with the drawing that all his decorations began. First, he drew a sketch in ink on a thin smooth tracing paper, then covered the sketch with gouache, giving soft fluid forms to his products.

Most of all, Schlumberger was inspired by natural motifs flowers and plants, animals, birds, the ocean and its inhabitants, which he observed with great interest in his travels in Bali, India, Thailand and the Caribbean. It was there, in his home in Guadeloupe, that many of Schlumberger’s exotic pieces were created, including the Bird of Paradise, Parrot, Seahorse King, Jellyfish brooches, and more.

Amazing brooch “Dolphin”.

The amazing Dolphin brooch is also one of Schlumberger’s iconic pieces and was made famous by 20th century cinema icon Elizabeth Taylor. She received the brooch as a gift from her husband Richard Burton on August 11, 1964, on the occasion of the premiere of the film “Night of the Iguana” (today her brooch is called the “Night of the Iguana” brooch).

Later, the actress appeared more than once with her Dolphin, preferring it over other jewels from her collection. And the jewelry collection of Elizabeth Taylor, it should be noted, was outstanding.

In 2011, Christie’s auction house sold it for a record $116 million, an amount that no other Christie’s jewelry auction has beaten since. The Dolphin brooch itself cost the new owner one million two hundred thousand dollars, with an average cost of one hundred thousand. According to information voiced in a documentary about the jewelry company Tiffany, today there are only 11 Dolphins in the world.

There were two more nautical-themed Schlumberger pieces in Elizabeth Taylor’s collection the “Sea Flower” with sapphires and diamonds, created in 1956, and sapphire starfish earrings.

One of the hallmarks of Jean Schlumberger’s designs was the use of a revived 18th century enameling technique, paillonné. This is a very laborious technique, which is a multi-layer application of enamel on thin sheets of 18 carat gold foil. The translucent colored enamel is successively applied and fired up to 60 times, resulting in rich hues with extraordinary color depth.

Using this technique, Schlumberger created a series of bright bracelets, which began to be called “Jackie’s Bracelets”, as they were literally adored by the wife of US President John F. Kennedy Jacqueline. She bought her first bracelet in 1962 and from that moment she began to collect them, making this accessory part of her style.

And Jackie received her first piece of jewelry by Schlumberger in 1960, as a gift from her husband for the birth of their son John F. Kennedy Jr. it was an elegant Two Fruits brooch made of gold, diamonds and rubies.