First of Its Kind, Last of Its Kind tells the story of an exceptional accessory and the archival piece that inspired it.
Born into a textile manufacturing dynasty in German-held Alsace in 1907, Jean Schlumberger resisted his parents’ attempts to steer him into banking or the family business and eventually made his way to Paris in the 1930s. There he began working under the couturier Lucien Lelong (who would later become Christian Dior’s mentor). Known to frequent the stalls of the Marché aux Puces, Schlumberger would collect antiques: hand-painted relics, Victorian serpents and multicolored glass objects. By 1936, he was transforming porcelain flowers from old funeral wreaths into fantastical brooches, which were worn by his circle of artist friends, including Jean Cocteau and Christian Bérard. Schlumberger’s whimsical creations also caught the eye of the Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, who asked him to create buttons shaped like starfish and plumed hats for her winter 1937 collection. That December, his designs were featured in Harper’s Bazaar, including “a gilded chain with jeweled tassels,” “flying fish earrings” and “a brooch made of roller-skating feet.”
Around that time, he met the magazine’s fashion editor, Diana Vreeland. The two became friends and in 1941, after Schlumberger opened his first jewelry salon in New York with his business partner, Nicolas Bongard (which closed a year later when the men joined the Free French forces in World War II), Vreeland commissioned him to produce a piece inspired by a dream she’d had about the architecture of the Place Stanislas, with its chivalric motifs of archery and armor, in the French city of Nancy. The result was his Trophée de Vaillance brooch, featuring a gilded, diamond-studded tunic; an oval shield encrusted with diamonds, amethysts and rubies; and cerulean-enameled arrows. Vreeland treasured it so much that she kept it on her bedside table.
In 1947, Schlumberger and Bongard reopened their shop in a new location on East 63rd Street; nine years later, they were appointed vice presidents of Tiffany & Co. This fall, the house celebrates Schlumberger’s archive with its Céleste high jewelry collection. Focusing on six different themes — from wings to constellations — the vibrant jewels riff on his original sketches and imaginative designs. Among the most striking is a lacelike 18-karat yellow-gold and platinum necklace with five unenhanced Colombian emeralds surrounded by an array of arrows with triangular and kite-shaped diamond tips. Requiring 599 hours of craftsmanship by artisans in New York, the piece is a fitting tribute to Schlumberger’s now iconic Trophée de Vaillance brooch. “It’s exciting,” Vreeland once said of the original. “A Schlumberger lights up the whole room!” This new interpretation does, too.
Photo assistant: Christopher Thomas Linn
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