Tiffany & Co. Reveals a Never-Before-Seen Schlumberger Necklace
Some of the best Tiffany’s treasures never reach the stores. These one-of-a-kind jewels and rare gems are reserved for VIP clients, who are invited to private previews of the house’s Blue Book collection. If they can’t find their dream piece, clients can select an exceptional stone and collaborate with a designer who is waiting on-site to sketch their vision and have it custom made.
To get this kind of intimate experience, you need to be one of the house’s top clients, and that’s a worthwhile goal. That designation gives you access to the house’s exclusive events at places like the Tiffany’s Townhouse, an Upper East Side mansion where the Blue Book collection was unveiled earlier this month. Guests were greeted in the foyer by the famous 128.54-carat Tiffany diamond, last worn by Beyoncé Knowles in the house’s new campaign. The ads feature the singer and her husband Jay-Z pictured alongside a Tiffany blue Basquiat painting (also on display). All five levels of the townhouse were transformed into a series of immersive salons that showcased the skills of the house’s diamond setters, intricate hand-engraving techniques, and—of course—the jewels. Just like at home, high tea was served and there was a Champagne and caviar bar for lounging.
Over the weekend, Blue Book will make its West Coast debut in Tiffany’s Beverly Hills store, which has been transformed for private appointments with an abundance of flowers and a backdrop of contemporary art from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 150 limited edition series, featuring works by Siah Armajani, Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Xu Bing, and more.
This year's Blue Book also notably features a jewelry lover’s holy grail: the never-before-seen Jean Schlumberger Fish Tail necklace (pictured above), made from the designer’s archival sketches for what is believed the first time. This masterpiece epitomizes Schlumberger’s imaginative style with a red paillonné enamel and diamond fish wrapped around cascading strands of tanzanite and demantoid beads representing the sea.
“Jean Schlumberger’s Fish Tail Demantoid Tassel necklace has all the elements that make his designs truly extraordinary,” says Victoria Reynolds, Tiffany’s chief gemologist and vice president of global merchandising, High Jewelry. “It bursts with energy and life, with his signature use of paillonné enamel, and a dramatic splash of colored gemstones.”
Only a limited number Schlumberger’s original designs are created annually, and each one takes several months to complete. Word is some of Schlumberger’s pieces have already sold, so it pays to be among the first appointments.
Tiffany’s pulls out the best stones for Blue Book, the kinds of investment pieces worth millions, that can’t be duplicated. Those include collector’s stones like a pair of vivid blue emerald cut diamonds weighing 33.13 carats, with a value over $20 million. Just one of these blue diamonds is a rare discovery, but a matching set is once-in-a-lifetime. A saturated red diamond of 1.75 carats in a rectangular-modified-brilliant cut from the Argyle mine is among only about 20 known red diamonds in the entire world.
If a 25.14-carat internally flawless Type IIA stone responsibly sourced in Lesotho, Africa catches your eye, you can have the oval stone set in design of your liking. Pro tip: The team is already working on next year’s Blue Book, so make sure you make the cut.
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