When I was a little girl I had a thing for black and white movies and adored all of the glamorous film stars, Greta Garbo, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and Catherine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn to name but a few (the list is quite long) but when the film Breakfast at Tiffany came out my obsession with the company Tiffany & Co began. They are synonymous with quality and for many people that conjure an image of that very famous brand undisputable in classic style and timeless elegance.
The history behind the brand is quite interesting and following some investagatory work behind the company name I will share with you the most interesting of facts. Tiffany & Co is one of Americas most enterprising companies whose very distinctive blue boxes have featured in numerous films worldwide. The very first Tiffany store opened it's doors in 1837 at 259 Broadway, corner of Warren street and was known as Tiffany & Young. The company was established by a Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young and they sold stationary and fancy goods. Some sixteen years later Charles Tiffany renamed the company to the name we all know today Tiffany & Co.
The very famous shade of blue that Tiffany & Co use in their packaging and catalogues remains still in use today. An unmistakable shade of blue and instantly recognisable by all Tiffany & Co connoisseurs. They published their first catalogue in 1845 a very successful enterprise that continues today.
It was Tiffany & Co that adopted the 925/1000 sterling standard in 1851 and attracted buyers from accross the globe giving them the reputation of excellance for selling quality. Tiffany & Co were commissioned to design a presentational pitcher for inauguration of president Abraham Lincoln. You can see pictures of this on their website and it truly looks exquisite. Tiffany & Co now right up there at the top of their field are diversifying into other areas and provided the army with swords, flags and even surgical implements during the civil war. They even designed gemstone encrusted presentation swords for Admiral Farragut and Generals Grant and Sherman.
In 1867 they received an award for excellance of silverware becoming the first ever American company to do so. A few years later in 1871 Tiffany & Co introduced the Audubon silver flatware pattern which quickly became their best selling flatware and remains so to this day. In 1873 the Boston museum acquired a Tiffany & Co pitcher made from copper, silver and niello. This was the first of countless Tiffany & Co designs to be housed in a museum collection worldwide. In 1885 Tiffany & Co redesigns the great seal of America, its design can be seen on the $1 bill.
In 1902 Charles Tiffany dies and his son becomes the companys first artistic director. In 1907 chief gemologist George Kunz helps adopt the metric carat as the standard weight for gems. In 1926 Tiffany & Co standard of purity becomes the official standard for platinum in America.
They made their move to 5th Avenue, at 57th street their most famous store in 1940. The building was designed by Cross and Cross. Something that is quite unique to their stores is the clock above the entrance which is fairly large in size and is held up by Atlas, one of the primordial titans in greek mythology. This design is echoed on most of Tiffany & Co stores, for example the Sanfrancisco store which was opened in 1963. In 1972 they opened a store in Mitsukoshi department store in Japan which was followed with a store in Old Bond Street, London in 1986 but Atlas did not feature here.
In 1878 Charles Tiffany purchased something very rare and beautiful indeed, a very large yellow diamond, he hired a gemologist to supervise cutting the stone a wopping 128.54 carats with 90 facets and it is this stunning diamond that Audrey Hepburn herself wears for the publicity photos of the film Breakfast at Tiffanys released in 1961. Jean Schlumberger's ribbon necklace, centered with a removable clip set with the 128.54 carat diamond. You can again see this superb piece of jewelery on their website, not to be missed it really is breathtaking.
The Tiffany & Co brand name is undeniably world class but what also is of undisputable excellance is their first class service in their 5th Avenue store. The store itself is over several floors and each floor is dedicated to one precious metal, gold, silver, platinum etc each floor is reached by a manned lift which in itself I think preserves a certain charm, all items to purchase are in seethrough glass cabinets which can be taken out by the assistant to be examined further if you wish. All assistants are very polite and helpful and you do not feel overwhelmed by a certain class divide and looked down upon as though you are not quite good enough to be there. There are several armed guards too, I wouldn't say they make me feel uncomfortable however it does take some getting used to. All prices however of items are on a ticket tied to a small piece of string which is either underneath the item or turned over so you have to either buy at your own risk or ask the assistant how much is this? they do say if you have to ask you can't afford it. Whilst this maybe true of the majority of items from Tiffany & Co there are still very many affordable items to be purchased, you can ofcourse cheat and view their website before you go to the store which will enable you to have a really good idea of the sorts of things you can expect to see for sale and also the prices of things.
Tiffany & Co don't just sell their own brand of items they do also sell other very famous brands, such as Paloma Picasso who has had her own jewelery collection at Tiffany & Co since 1980. You can also expect to see Rolex watches and alike giving you the best jewelery shopping experience you could imagine. If you should be lucky enough to purchase anything form Tiffany & Co whether it be a necklace or a fruit bowl each item will wrapped to perfection and extremely fast, I have never seen someone wrap a bow so fast in my life. I was very lucky and my husband on his last trip bought me a heart necklace. It came in the unique blue box with the name Tiffany & Co on the lid of the box, was wrapped in a beautiful white bow which I slid of and inside the box laid on a piece of white fluffy sponge was the necklace. The box was in a blue branded Tiffany bag which also had a blue suede envelope which I opened by use of the popper and inside is the receipt for your item. How classy is that? The necklace itself is silver and is engraved on the reverse with the company name Tiffany & Co. I still wear it with pride to this day.
I am aware that Tiffany & Co is a very expensive store but as I have said it does have some reasonably priced items, they do also have the catalogues for you to browse so if you should ever get the chance I could not recommend this store highly enough. Do be careful with promises of Tiffany jewelery for sale on ebay as I have heard a few horror stories, if you want the best accept nothing less and go to Tiffany & Co for that unique shopping experience.
Tiffany
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