It was an offer they couldn’t refuse. The young, dashing but reserved French jewellery designer Jean Schlumberger and his urbane business partner, Nicolas Bongard, had been summoned to meet Walter Hoving, chairman of Tiffany & Co., in 1956, and seemingly out of the sapphire- blue were offered their own department in the famed Fifth Avenue store, access to a wondrous treasury of gemstones, and the freedom to create the fantastical masterworks for which Schlumberger (who was also offered title of vice president) was fast becoming known.
This was a momentous step forward for both parties – Schlumberger would become Tiffany & Co.’s first named designer, and, in turn, the company would embark on an entirely new business model for a fast-changing post-war world, one that would dovetail the brand’s long and rich heritage with modernity, innovation and individuality.
Born in Alsace, France, in 1907, Schlumberger, who sketched from a young age, was expected to join the family textile- manufacturing business or pursue a banking career, but stood firm in his decision to forge his own artistic path. During his early twenties, he left a brief stint in a Berlin bank and headed for Paris, working first for French couturier Lucien Lelong, then subsequently at an art-publishing house. He immersed himself in the city’s pulsating, hedonistic, rebellious creativity, which was alive with new ideas and cultural influences, from African art, jazz music and Josephine Baker to cubism, Russian émigrés and the blossoming of couture. Originality was worshipped; the only sin was to be boring.
While there, Schlumberger began making fashion jewellery, all the rage at the time, using antique fragments, coral, shells, cameos and Meissen porcelain flowers discovered at the flea market. They were admired and worn by Schlumberger’s sophisticated circles, which included model Natalie Paley, socialite Daisy Fellowes and fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who went on to become a lifelong friend and supporter.
Around 1937, a pair of his earrings worn by Marina, Duchess of Kent apparently attracted the eye of celebrated couturier Elsa Schiaparelli, who subsequently commissioned Schlumberger to create whimsical, figurative fantasy buttons for her collections – the most notable of which was perhaps the flying acrobat for the 1938 Circus Collection. In doing so, Schlumberger joined an illustrious roll call of artists who worked for Schiaparelli, including Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau and Louis Aragon. These surrealist ornaments gave birth to the phenomenon of ‘bijoux fantaisie’.
The association with Schiaparelli brought Schlumberger international renown, particularly in the United States, where he was celebrated as the “tall, darkly fascinating Parisian.” He turned to precious jewellery as early as 1938, the year in which Fellowes commissioned him to produce a diamond flower brooch, which she wore with a real flower; meanwhile, in 1939, his articulated goldfish lighter became the must-have accessory in Paris and New York.
So, even though Schlumberger’s early start as a designer was soon upended when he enlisted during World War II, a period in which he survived Dunkirk and went on to serve in Charles de Gaulle’s Free French forces, when he moved to New York, in 1946, he had a ready-made clientele, and, in partnership with his childhood friend Bongard, was able to open a small boutique on East 63rd Street. (The nephew of couturier Paul Poiret, Bongard understood the business, having worked for both Lacloche Frères and Boivin.)
High-fashion, upper-crust clients, including Babe Paley, Bunny Mellon and Vreeland, beat a path to their door, with the latter being a recipient of one of the most celebrated pieces in jewellery history: the ‘Trophée de Vaillance’ brooch, which featured a three dimensional, diamond-encrusted armour-breastplate that was set against an amethyst-smothered shield, with a bow, arrow, and various blades jutting out at all angles. Inspired by the escutcheons found in Nancy, France, as well as symbols of war and gallantry, Vreeland saw it as an emblem of protection for “the beautiful women of the world” and kept it on her bedside table.
Schlumberger rejected prevailing modernist, monochrome and mechanistic rigour, and instead injected jewellery with movement, life, colour and emotion. He subtly introduced historical and cultural references and revived the use of rich sun-yellow gold, as well as vibrant enamels, particularly with his paillonné enamelling technique, whereby translucent, coloured enamel is applied over gold foil.
Schlumberger pinned the colour with gold studs. Resultingly, all elements coalesced into an imaginative, individualistic style of exuberant yet refined rococo. And, above all, Schlumberger created an entirely new expression of nature, an unsentimental depiction of earthly wonders – fish, flowers, birds, vegetation – interpreted through a mix of fantasy, whimsy and stylised realism. When capturing the energy and unstoppable growth of nature, he balanced abundance with restraint, taming overgrown chaos through the perfection of form and proportions. He explained, “I try to make everything look as if it were growing, uneven, at random, organic, in motion. I want to capture the irregularity of the universe.”
Schlumberger surely drew on the fantasy and freedom of costume jewellery to unleash his imagination, and his lack of formal training meant he was unrestrained by conventions, instead pushing technical prowess to its limits and beyond to bring his creative visions to life – something he was able to do when he joined Tiffany & Co., revelling in the palette of colour, light and personality of the magnificent gemstones put at his disposal and maximising the skills of the country’s finest artisans.
One of his first challenges at the company was to create different settings for ‘The Tiffany Diamond’, a glorious yellow rock, acquired by founder Charles Lewis Tiffany, that was the finest and rarest in the world at the time. To this end, Schlumberger came up with a trio of solutions: entwined ribbons; a flight of diamond wings; and daisies on a bracelet, all of which would help envelop the stone. The former option eventually won out when, in 1961, for publicity stills for Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Audrey Hepburn wore a majestic necklace featuring ‘The Tiffany Diamond’ in this setting.
In his personal studio on the mezzanine of the Fifth Avenue store, Schlumberger sketched each creation on ultrafine tracing paper, using India ink, and was self-taught in the art of gouache, as he was with every aspect of jewellery making.
He lived in a 19th-century wooden house on 92nd Street, and travelled extensively to Bali, India, Thailand, and Guadeloupe, where he had a home. He drew, sketched and painted everywhere, drawing inspiration from his surroundings, especially from the sea. He created jewels and objects designed as sea urchins, starfish, sea anemones and cockleshells – and rather famously, Elizabeth Taylor wore his gold-and- diamond dolphin pin to the premiere of The Night of the Iguana. If he wasn’t already, Schlumberger had become the quintessential celebrity jeweller. Gloria Guinness was an enthusiast; and Jackie Kennedy wore his ‘Croisillon’ bangles (which were defined by their rich enamel bands stitched in gold) so frequently that they were – and still are – known as the ‘Jackie’ bracelets.
The first lady became a close friend and in 1961 opened a retrospective exhibition at the Wildenstein & Co. gallery to showcase 20 years of Schlumberger’s jewels and objects. For Bunny Mellon, Schlumberger created, among many other jewels and objects, the charming ‘Pot de Fleurs’, which fearlessly set a rare Kashmir sapphire, called the ‘Dancing Girl of India’, at the centre of a shaggy gold flower that was planted in garnet dust and grounded in a pot caged in gold– a reference to Mrs. Mellon’s love of gardening.
Other masterpieces, now regarded as classics, include the ‘Morning Glory’ necklace, heavy with blossoms in sapphire; starfish brooches, the creature’s arms entangled in seaweed; a jellyfish clip, glistening with moonstones and sapphire tentacles; bracelets encrusted with shells or butterflies; gold basketweave-patterned compacts and boxes; earrings and brooches shaped as feathered wings; and most iconic of all, ‘Bird on a Rock’, the jaunty cockatoo, with its jagged golden crest, perched on a monumental gemstone. The first yellow and white diamond version, made in 1965, sat on a chunk of lapis lazuli, and was bought by Mellon. For the 1995 retrospective of Schlumberger’s life and work, held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, in Paris, a special version was created, with the bird sat atop ‘The Tiffany Diamond’.
Today, Schlumberger’s designs continue to be recreated and re interpreted in Tiffany & Co.’s high-jewellery workshops, and, alongside his enduring classics, more esoteric and extravagant masterworks are selected to take pride of place in each year’s Blue Book collection. In the 2022 ‘Botanica’ edition, a series of jewels was re-imagined from Schlumberger’s original daisy design for ‘The Tiffany Diamond’, a sure sign that his star is once again in the ascendant.
His work is being re-appraised and appreciated once more, his name back on the lips of collectors and connoisseurs, many of them discovering his genius for the first time. Maybe there’s a parallel between the newly wealthy collectors of the 1960s and 1970s, who sought exciting, unconventional, less formal jewels, and today’s new wave of adventurous devotees. And perhaps, also, the re emergence of his genius is because our current eco concerns are generating a new genre of naturalistic jewels.
One thing is certain: Schlumberger’s creative vision and design dynamism remain at the heart of Tiffany’s high-jewellery repertoire, his influence an integral element of the brand’s legacy, his boundary-breaking use of coloured gemstones and celebration of natural wonders constantly reinvented for each new generation.
As Vreeland observed of her close friend, “He so well understands the fantastic beauty of the world that he is not a fantasist. The world is a fantasy; Johnny is a realist.”
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