By Tanya Dukes
Few jewelry designers can count Michael B. Jordan and Elizabeth Taylor, Lady Gaga and Babe Paley among their devotees—but the late Jean Schlumberger is one of them. A French-born polymath, he began designing for Tiffany & Co. in 1956 and became the first ever to sign his creations for the house. His work pulsed with extravagance and vitality with the use of bracing color, nature-inspired forms, and a whisper of wit.
“His design vocabulary is unique. There was nothing like it at the time or before,” says Emily Stoehrer, PhD, senior curator of jewelry at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. “His jewelry has a real, organic quality to it—almost a spikiness.”
The union between America’s premier jewelry house with this singular European aesthete yielded enduring masterpieces—many now housed in museums. Among them is the Breath of Spring necklace from the collection of philanthropist Bunny Mellon, where diamond-set blossoms wind between 16 large sapphires. But Schlumberger’s genius wasn’t limited to gala jewels. He also created classics for everyday life. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis wore her Schlumberger-designed, gold enamel Croisillon bangles so often during her time in the White House that the pieces became known as “the Jackie”—still in production and still irresistible.
That exuberance feels newly resonant today, as fashion shifts from the pared-back to the decidedly bold. This year’s Blue Book collection, the most exceptional jewels the brand produces, looked to Schlumberger’s aquatic sketches for inspiration. The outcome includes a naturalistic starfish ring centered with a six-carat ruby, and pendant earrings cascading with stylized sea urchins in white and yellow diamonds. “These creations pull from the past while drawing on the present,” says New York-based jewelry consultant Mirta de Gisbert. “They offer a beautiful way to bring a fresh perspective while still honoring the heritage and legacy Schlumberger left behind.”
Nowhere is that revival more vivid than in the house’s new Bird on a Rock collection, which elaborates on a clip introduced in 1965: a diamond-encrusted fowl in platinum and 18-karat gold resting atop a jawbreaker-sized topaz. One of Schlumberger’s most whimsical creations, the bird and its precious perch—variously rendered in a limitless palette spanning amethysts to opals—appeared on the lapels of the chic and famous for decades. Tiffany’s chief artistic officer, Nathalie Verdeille, has taken the baton from its creator, giving Schlumberger’s bird a wider range by recasting it in a complete collection. A high-jewelry necklace is composed of a flock with outstretched wings and a central morganite, while new watches make space for the iconic pairing on a flower-engraved mother-of-pearl dial. Petite earrings and pendant necklaces deliver lighthearted glamour for everyday wear. Tiffany’s flight of fancy proves joy is always in fashion.
