Jean Schlumberger Jewelry: Designs Beyond Bird on a Rock

Jean Schlumberger is perhaps most famous for setting the 128.54-carat yellow Tiffany Diamond in a brooch that would forever be known as “Bird on a Rock.”

Born in 1907, Schlumberger was initially supposed to join the banking industry. Unable to stop his artistic endeavors but willing to give his parents’ professional preference a chance, it took the artisan three decades before he got serious about jewelry design. Selling his first creations at flea markets, he eventually opened up a shop that soon attracted Europe’s crowned heads.

Continuing on with his career in earnest, he functioned as a button maker for couturier Elsa Schiaparelli in Paris. With a decisively surrealist bend, the buttons created were perfect for her purposes. Flying fish and diamond fins were the norm. By 1939, Schlumberger’s creations caught the attention of Vogue photographers. After the war, the artisan established a business in New York. Once again, Voguefeatured his designs.

Invited by Tiffany & Co. to create jewelry, the artisan joined the company in 1956. He retained the privilege of signing his own pieces, which has only been made possible for three other Tiffany designers. It was a short year later that he would create the iconic brooch previously mentioned. Schlumberger brought a wealth of artistic principles to the company. The New York Times once quoted him as stating, “I try to make everything look as if it were growing, uneven, at random, organic, in motion.”

The artisan typically started each new piece with a simple design. This design was then transferred to a more detailed drawing. The goal of the process was to capture the movement of the form. The drawing would serve as the blueprint for the creation of the setting and the choice and cut of the gemstones. It is interesting to note that the artisan used travel and his desire to create unique mementos as a driving force for the creative process.

Having previously gotten the attention of European royalty, the artisan’s creations now turned the heads of American leaders. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy loved Schlumberger’s designs and opened an exhibit of his pieces at the Wildenstein Galleries in 1961. Cinematic royalty – in the form of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor – also favored his creations.

Just a year prior to his death in 1987, Tiffany celebrated three decades of working with Schlumberger. His creations have been worn by the Duchess of Windsor, Gloria Vanderbilt, Audrey Hepburn and Greta Garbo. Tiffany& Co. considered his undersea life pieces, which feature jellyfish with tentacles made of sapphires and bejeweled dolphins, as meriting the designation of Schlumberger as one of the most gifted artists of the 20^thcentury.

At Peter Suchy Jewelers we are experts in estate and vintage jewelry and carry many pieces from Tiffany & Co. designers. We hope you’ll stop by our showroom located at 1137 High Ridge Road in Stamford Connecticut.

 

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