Are These the Most Beautiful Pearls in the World?
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Charles Lewis Tiffany was always a “just do it” kind of guy. One need only trace the early history of the house he founded in 1838 to see a theme emerge. If Charles Lewis Tiffany was going to do a company town hall he might issue the philosophy forth as such: “What is the best there is? Let’s go out and get it.” See: the acquisition of the French crown jewels in 1887, the opening of a store in London in 1891 when the jewelry world was dominated by European houses, then Paris in 1910, the discovery of the largest diamond in its history in 1878, the unearthing and naming of a pink stone called kunzite and a peachier specimen called morganite, and the generous use of rare materials like Montana sapphires and Russian demantoid garnets. Oh and tanzanite, that rich blue stone found on Mt. Kilimanjaro in the 1960s? They introduced and named that too.
It is difficult to chronicle Tiffany’s historical insistence on premiere stones and materials without mentioning the name George F. Kunz who on one fateful day around 1876 sold a rare tourmaline to Charles Lewis Tiffany and joined the family firm soon after as an executive and chief gemologist. Sourcing the best and the most unusual was Kunz’s job, and his eye proved to be unparalleled. (Ask another client of his named J.P Morgan whose stone collection curated by Kunz is now the property at the American Museum of Natural History. When news was unveiled this morning of a suite of Tiffany Schlumberger Bird on a Rock designed with the world’s rarest pearls my first thought was: George Kunz would be proud.
Bird on a Pearl is an exclusive high jewelry capsule collection created with remarkable natural saltwater pearls from Mr. Hussein Al Fardan’s private collection. Natural pearls from the Gulf region are recognized as the world’s most exquisite. They are also, largely, impossible to find. These are the pearls so prized by royalty across the world, the kind you see draped over a Queen’s bodice in a portrait hanging in a museum. They are actual treasures harvested naturally from the sea, a process that has been impacted so drastically by changes in the ecosystem that it almost never occurs anymore (without the nudging by the process that creates cultured pearls). And the pearls that were discovered in the Gulf? They were the best. And so Tiffany, as is their tradition, went out and found them.
Included in the Bird on a Pearl collection, which will be unveiled in Doha Qatar this month, is a three-strand necklace of graduated natural saltwater white cream pearls of over 316 total carats. There is also the iconic Bird on a Rock pendant with baroque, button and near-round pearls a pendant, earrings, and rings—set with rare natural saltwater dark gray, gray, light cream, light pinkish-brown, and white pearls. The idea of setting a gem studded bird on a stone—hence the name—was the brainchild of Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany. His first designs included a lpais center stone and a bird with an emerald eye. The modern classics include amethyst, citrine, and tanzantite. Last year for the first time, a bird sat on a white diamond. Could Schlumberger, whose imagination knew no bounds and followed no set rules, imagine this latest incarnation? Given how rare natural pearls are, even Schlumberger himself might not have believed it could happen.
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