Meet the Legend

A look into the storied past of Jean Schlumberger, the genius behind Tiffany & Co’s fantastical creations

- Christine Andas

It began with a 128.54-carat fancy yellow diamond, renowned as the largest and finest yellow diamond in the world at the time. Tiffany & Co’s Jean Schlumberger had just begun work at the company then under the chairmanship of Walter Hoving. One of his first artistic assignments was to create a high design for the famous Tiffany Diamond.

Archival sketches show that he initially envisioned three settings for the precious diamond: wrapped in diamond ribbons as the centrepiece, held by diamond-set wings as a clip, and surrounded by diamond daisies on a bracelet. The final design would later be worn by Hollywood’s brightest darling, Aubrey Hepburn, in publicity photographs for Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This was the moment that cut it for Schlumberger’s career.

Later in 1995, the brand re-set the diamond with one of the designer’s most loved creations, the Bird on a Rock brooch, as an homage to his retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.