For the new high jewelry collection in its 2024 Blue Book, Tiffany & Co. is shining a spotlight on one of its legendary designers – Frenchman Jean Schlumberger – and his imaginary cosmic universe.
Jean Schlumberger not only gave Tiffany its most distinctive design styles, but he also remains a prominent figure for the House, having spent 30 years with the American jeweler (from 1956 to 1987) and becoming its Vice President. He is even back at the heart of a new storytelling strategy that LVMH has developed for Tiffany (acquired by the group in 2020), with the aim of injecting modernity into the jeweler’s heritage.
Dubbed Tiffany Céleste, the collection is inspired by Schlumberger’s galactic world, which the company’s artistic director – Nathalie Verdeille – has reinvented in a highly poetic way, letting sumptuous stones do the talking. Diamonds are part of Tiffany’s timeless identity, and here they illuminate the 157 pieces in the collection. Then there are the colors, with a rare 10-carat Fancy Brown-Pink, emeralds from Colombia, sapphires from Sri Lanka, cameos of red and pink spinels or aquamarines and blue zircons.
Jean Schlumberger’s icons
Tiffany Céleste comprises six themes: Wings, Apollo, Arrow, Constellation, Ray of Light and Iconic Star. The inspirations dear to Jean Schlumberger are obvious, from the sun, the moon and the stars, to distant galaxies and fantasy worlds. Despite her daring approach, Nathalie Verdeille has remained faithful to the jeweler’s world, with its strong graphic and artistic styles, jewelry with an occasionally sharp and angular design, featuring slender, sharp lines that spring out like brush strokes, majestic center stones and a blend of platinum and yellow gold. Jean Schlumberger’s jewelry is both complex and easy to interpret. Consistently assertive and highly reminiscent of a twentieth-century style, the settings are never “lost” under a rambling heap of stones.
The Wings theme is undoubtedly the flagship of this latest Blue Book. It evokes flight, the celestial ascent that skims the stars, a form of light elegance that gives the jewels an admirable grace. Wings are an omnipresent motif in Jean Schlumberger’s repertoire. The hand-engraving of each feather – visible beneath the diamonds – and the twisted gold rays are iconic details that scream Jean Schlumberger.
In its majestic flight, the Wings necklace with its long wings is the star piece of Tiffany Céleste. Featuring just shy of 2,000 diamonds – including a central D-cut diamond weighing more than 20 carats, 4 trillion diamonds, 131 custom-cut baguette diamonds and 1,841 brilliant-cut diamonds – this piece took more than 1,700 hours to create.
The Apollo theme re-imagines the iconic Apollo brooch that Jean Schlumberger designed for Tiffany. The House’s designers have deconstructed and reimagined the original brooch to preserve its solar, radiant aspect, as well as its aesthetic around a star shooting out its rays while seemingly held in the talons of a celestial eagle. A tribute to the god of light Apollo – who roamed the skies in his chariot – this dazzling collection combines white and yellow diamonds, as on this ring set with a superb Fancy Intense Yellow of over 6 carats.
A sense of rapid, fleeting movement inspires the Arrow collection, as if arrows of light were being launched into the sky, only to land like mikados on spidery jewels. Natural Colombian emeralds add their warm, velvety sparkle to this stunning collection. To reproduce the triangular tips of the arrows, diamonds have been cut to size, while an innovative system of articulated elements helps ensure the flexibility of these angular jewels.
The Constellation line, a galaxy of stars, was inspired by Jean Schlumberger’s archival sketches and drawings. Diamonds, blue sapphires, star sapphires and a remarkable pink sapphire represent the shades of the sky at different times. Tiffany’s gemologists examined more than 1,000 sapphires before making their final selection. The star sapphire reveals a six-pointed star embedded deep in its crystal. With this rare gem, Nathalie Verdeille hints at the mysterious glow of a starry night.
The sun continues its journey, emitting its final light before disappearing over the horizon. The Ray of Light theme is a nod to that last eruption of light before evening, the moment when the sky glows with color. A burst of gold and diamond rays creates beams of light that seem to spring from the heart of the stones. The pear-cut and triangle-cut red and pink spinels add their fiery flare, symbolizing the moment before the sun disappears. The pairing of the 18 spinels on the necklace is something of a miracle, such is the rarity of this gem in the quality demanded by Tiffany. The piece spent 1,379 hours in the workshop, a reminder of Tiffany’s supreme mastery when it comes to sourcing the finest colored gemstones.
Iconic Star is inspired by one of Jean Schlumberger’s sketches from the archives. As an iconic symbol of the universe, the star is characterized here by two suites with inverted colors. One suite presents a starry night of diamonds punctuated by sapphires, while another evokes the evening sky composed of blue zircons, free-form aquamarines, mother-of-pearl and diamonds. The subtlety of this theme lies in the combination of gemstones. Diamonds and cut sapphires bring out all the light in the gems, contrasting with the discreetly sparkling, lightly polished aquamarines that are kept in their original form. The aquamarines have been put together like a jigsaw puzzle and their position has been determined by their nuances to create a harmony of tones. Their sky-like color blends perfectly with the energetic blue of the zircon, while on the setting, the assertive presence of yellow gold on platinum is a distinctive element of Schlumberger’s style.
Models from the Tiffany & Co. archives that inspired the Tiffany Céleste collection
