UNITED KINGDOM: Jewellery along with luxury and fancy goods from Tiffany go on display in London

Since it's humble beginning as a fancy goods store in 1837, Tiffany & Co. has grown into arguably the most famous jewelry designer and seller in the world - the name has become synonymous with glamourous, quality pieces. Now the company is showing off it's most comprehensive display ever to the public - a glittering showcase that helps tell the story of 150 years of the company's history. 'Bejewelled by Tiffany' is an exhibition that will see 180 pieces from the Tiffany Archive, along with a selection of jewels on loan from private collections, go on display at the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House in London. Tiffany's has always promoted itself as a uniquely American brand, a legacy of the company's founder Charles Lewis Tiffany (1812 - 1902), whose staunch patriotism was reflected in many of his earliest collections and creations. This is no more apparent than in the first section of the exhibition, aptly named "The Rise of an American Institution." The section contains examples of a range of some of Tiffany's early collectables - from small mounted lengths of steel cable commemorating the laying of the first transatlantic cable in 1858, to historic diamonds from the 1887 sale of the French Crown Jewels. But it also contains the company's own early creations. Clare Phillips, who is Curator in The Department Of Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics and Glass At The Victoria and Albert Museum, explained the significance of some of the central pieces in the section. "The first impact I hope is the 'Flag Brooch' this wonderful rippling flag in rubies, sapphires and diamonds with 13 stars and stripes, the original Union flag, really celebration the patriotism and the fact that this is a very American story. Charles Tiffany was a great patriot, we can see here his involvement, here we have one of the presentation swords at the end of the Civil War made by Tiffany's workshops. During the Civil War, the Union side had been supplied by Tiffany with military equipment from Tiffany's great network of contacts in Europe. And here summing up the very essence of Charles Tiffany and his entrepreneurial spirit: here his cameo on a brooch of the late nineteenth century, and beneath that the first mail order catalogue in the world. In 1845, Tiffany produced this wonderful catalogue, where if you where living out in the back of beyond you could order luxury and fancy goods from Tiffany & Co. Because, of course, they started not as jewellers but selling fancy goods and jewellery," Phillips told Reuters. Part of Tiffany's success is owed to Charles Tiffany's genius at marketing: he introduced mail order sales, producing the first ever mail order catalogue in 1845. However, the company didn't just stay ahead with shrewd publicity, but by keeping itself out on the cutting edge creatively. Phillips used another one of the exhibition's major attractions to illustrate this point. "Tiffany caused a sensation with this series of jewelled orchids," she explained. "We have seven of them here but in fact the original display there where twenty four different species of orchids, many of which were recent discoveries. The yellow one here was only discovered in the tropics a few years before, here Tiffany is recreating it in gold and enamel and gemstones. Great degree of botanical accuracy was achieved, real life blooms where brought into the workshops and these where electroformed with copper to preserve the shape so that they then could be made in gold. And the colouring, the enamel colouring copied beautifully from the original flowers." Far from being random creations on display, Phillips went on to explain the importance of displaying the collection as a whole: "This Tiffany collection is a sumptuous array. It covers the diamond set, the wonderful diamond set jewellery, right back through the nineteenth century, also the very colourful stones and the American gem stones that Tiffany was particularly keen on using, it comes right up almost to the present day," Phillips said. "It is an amassing archive collection. The wonderful thing about it being part of the Tiffany & Co. archive collection is that you often have the original designs that you can compare with the pieces that have survived and so it makes it a very full archive to have things right through from the drawing board to the completed work." The London exhibition will run from Saturday, 24th of June, until November 26. ENDS. ***SOME BEARDING ON EDIT***

ITN Source | June 23, 2006

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