Did you know that Tiffany & Co.’s Blue Book began as a fancy goods catalogue?

So everyone recognises Tiffany & Co’s famous Blue Box, within which certainly lies a bejewelled treasure. The same soft teal shade, also known as robin’s egg blue, also colours the equally iconic but less accessible Tiffany Blue Book, which in its physical form is a presentation of the luxury US jeweller’s annual high jewellery collection.

To understand the Blue Book is to discover the brand’s evolution, and all the wonders that come with its heritage. While this year marks the book’s 180 years of publication, few actually know that it began as a mail-order catalogue. 

Age of glory

In 1837, Charles Lewis Tiffany and his business partner John B. Young opened Tiffany & Young, a fancy goods emporium in Broadway, New York City. By 1845, it had begun printing what was then the country’s first-ever luxury catalogue. Unlike today’s stylish iteration, the original was a modest reference — a simple list describing both locally made and imported curiosities, stationery, lifestyle products, and gemstones — bound in that now-emblematic blue.

The colour itself was no accident. Tiffany Blue, as it is now trademarked, was inspired by the hue of a robin’s egg — a symbol of renewal and rarity. In the 19th century, when colour printing was in its infancy, the distinctive hue became synonymous with Tiffany’s exclusivity. 

Mailed to well-heeled clients across the country, the Blue Book allowed them to peruse the store’s offerings without setting foot in Manhattan. An invaluable tool in a nation still developing its retail landscape, this catalogue also signalled a kind of aspiration: an invitation for American households to bring European sophistication into their lives. 

When Charles Lewis Tiffany took sole control of the company in 1853, it was renamed Tiffany & Co. in line with his growing recognition as a precious gemstone dealer, and the repositioning of the business to centre entirely around jewellery, diamonds, and luxury silverware. And his timing was perfect: The US was just entering its Gilded Age, as coined by Mark Twain, which alludes to the post-World War II era of economic boom and rapid industrialisation.

The Blue Book’s decisive transformation into a high jewellery collection guide was born out of serendipity, vision, and fortitude. In the late 1800s, Charles Lewis Tiffany was traversing the world for the finest baubles, including the 287.42-carat fancy yellow Tiffany Diamond rough from South Africa, Kashmir sapphires, Colombian emeralds, Burmese rubies, and natural pearls.

Since the early 20th century, the house was also responsible for the commissioning of geological surveys that resulted in several major gemstone discoveries: kunzite in 1902 (named after its in-house gemologist George Frederick Kunz), morganite in 1910 (in tribute to its patron J.P. Morgan), tanzanite from the Merelani Hills of northern Tanzania in 1967, and tsavorite garnet in 1974 from the Tsavo region of Kenya.

In 1956, Tiffany struck jackpot again with the hiring of French jewellery designer Jean Schlumberger as its creative director, who was given his personal design studio and salon on the mezzanine floor of the still-standing Fifth Avenue flagship store. His genius would prove so extraordinary that he would forever go down in history as one of the most celebrated jewellers of all time. And what’s even more remarkable is that he was self-taught with no formal training.

Magic of Schlumberger 

A foil to his shy and reclusive personality, Jean Schlumberger’s one-of-a-kind creations were everything a jewellery lover could dream of: whimsical, theatrical, sculptural, and unapologetically bold. Drawing inspiration from nature, mythology, and the surrealist art movement, he created masterpieces that not only defied the traditions of mid-century jewellery, but have remained ever relevant and appealing today.

In the modern volumes of the Blue Book, his legacy remains firmly, with faithful reissues of his greatest hits and reimaginations of his countless stupendous designs. “I try to make everything look as if it were growing, uneven, organic,” he once said. “I want to capture the irregularity of the universe.”

With an incredible arsenal of gemstones in his pocket, one of Schlumberger’s first artistic moves was to mount the Tiffany Diamond on the high jewellery Ribbon Rosette necklace, which became a house signature. Another iconic and evergreen creation was the cheeky Bird on a Rock brooch, which has been reinterpreted several years ago as Bird on a Pearl, and in the 2024, the Owl on a Rock. 

Inspired by the flora and fauna on his many trips to exotic destinations such as Guadeloupe, Bali, India, and Thailand, his creations were conceived as dynamic, exuberant entities. From the ocean’s depths came fantastical, textural marine creatures — think jellyfish and anemone — that have again been honoured in this year’s Blue Book.

Paillonne enamelling, a 19th century technique, was one of his favourites, which he modernised by designing colourful Croisillon bangles punctuated with gold motifs and coloured gemstones. And with gold, he turned the metal into ropes, tassels, stitches, and ribbons that capture the dynamism found in nature, as well as honour his family’s legacy in textile manufacturing. 

Needless to say, Schlumberger’s clientele read like a who’s who of the glamour set, including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Duchess of Windsor Wallis Simpson, Diana Vreeland, Greta Garbo, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. Audrey Hepburn famously wore a replica of his Ribbon Rosette necklace in the movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

While the shadow Schlumberger cast is long and pervasive, kudos have to be given to Tiffany’s contemporary creative and craftsmanship teams for not just honouring his virtuosity, but reinventing it. In 2019, his phoenix brooch was revived in 2019 as a diamond-and-ruby bird with wings that actually fluttered. Last year, a majestic unicorn was born. And for this year’s Blue Book, named Sea of Wonder, there are more incredible versions of his beloved seahorses, turtles, and starfish.

Says Nathalie Verdeille, Tiffany’s current chief artistic officer of jewellery and high jewellery, “With the Sea of Wonder collection, we are charting new paths within the legacy left by Jean Schlumberger, taking a more abstract approach. Rather than revisiting his iconic pieces directly, we aim to embrace his philosophy and poetic vision, building upon his work to create an artistic movement at Tiffany that captures the spirit of Schlumberger’s aesthetic.”