Breakfast at Tiffany’s: jewels, lamps and trip residence home windows
Oh, the bustle, the glitter, the animated window exhibits. Is there one thing larger than Manhattan at trip time? Properly, maybe Manhattan with a pair jewelry previews thrown in.
I schedule December visits to coincide with the Magnificent Jewels product sales at Christie’s or Sotheby’s and this yr, every fell on the an identical weekend. Hallelujah! (Cue Messiah.)
We started at Christie’s in Rockefeller Coronary heart first, on a regular basis a madhouse this time of yr, then strolled uptown by the use of Fifth Avenue to the so much quieter neighhood the place Sotheby’s has its showrooms.
Christie’s was previewing historic jewelry, part of their December antiquities sale, and every houses weren’t solely having “Magnificent Jewels” product sales nonetheless Tiffany lamp product sales too. It was arduous to remember the place we had been sometimes.
In actuality, there was so much Tiffany, I’ve decided to start with a tribute to that New York legend, starting with its flagship retailer at 57th and Fifth Avenue, arguably Manhattan’s most important retail nook – undoubtedly for jewelry. Van Cleef & Arpels, Harry Winston, Cartier are steps away, along with the stateside flagship retailers of the rest of the world’s most celebrated jewelry houses.
Tiffany doesn’t really compete with them in luxurious gadgets any further nonetheless that’s nonetheless their nook, and has been as a result of the retailer relocated proper right here in 1940. The company goes once more a century sooner than that, becoming Tiffany & Co. in 1853 when its focus shifted to jewelry.
It’s a little bit of Americana now and the crowds flocking in and out of the grand entrance closing weekend attested to that. Proper right here’s how T&Co. adorned for the holidays this yr.
Tiffany jewelry has gone noticeably downscale and the exhibits kitschier since Gene Moore designed the pared-down, mid-century trendy residence home windows Audrey Hepburn (as Holly Golightly) was peering into at 5 a.m. in 1961.
“What I found does basically essentially the most good is solely to get proper right into a taxi and go to Tiffany’s. It calms me down instantly, the quietness and the proud look of it. Nothing very harmful would possibly happen to you there,” Holly Golightly said by the use of Truman Capote, in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
One different Holly Golightly quote about Tiffany involved “… these selection males of their good matches, and that stunning scent of silver and alligator wallets.”
We’re capable of’t help questioning what she would have manufactured from this yr’s doorman.
Maybe we had Tiffany on the thoughts after Fifth Avenue window buying nonetheless every Christie’s and Sotheby’s seemed to be presenting a historic retrospective, notably regarding the third period. Considerably refresher: Louis Comfort Tiffany, born in 1948, began as a result of the founding family’s rogue artiste. After discovering out painting at dwelling and abroad, he produced some great paintings jewelry, swept up throughout the Paintings Nouveau craze that overtook in Europe during the last decade of the 1900s.
Having found his calling throughout the decorative arts and established a distinctly American deal with Paintings Nouveau, Louis took over the design division at Tiffany & Co. in 1902, after his father died. With the help of the company’s resident gemologist-extraordinaire, George Frederick Kunz, who helped him uncover distinctive colored stones to work with, he breathed new life into the venerable company.
New life obtained right here as soon as extra when designer Jean Schlumberger joined the company in 1956. We found a little bit of of all that at Christie’s and Sotheby’s closing weekend. Proper right here’s a mode.
Brooch of platinum, moonstone and sapphire designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, c. 1920, supplied for $62,500 (on estimate of $20,000-30,000) at Sotheby’s New York on Dec. 9.
This Tiffany & Co. bracelet of platinum, rose gold and diamonds supplied for $56,250 at Sotheby’s New York on Dec. 9, 2014.
This parrot brooch by Jean Schlumberger of enamel, tsavorite garnet, turquoise and pink sapphire supplied for $17,500 at Christie’s New York on Dec. 10, 2014.
This bracelet inside the kind of stylized metropolis skyline by Tiffany & Co. of jadeite, sapphire, diamonds in platinum supplied for $47,500 at Sotheby’s New York on Dec. 9, 2014.
And proper right here’s a peek on the non-jewelry auctions of Tiffany & Co. treasures, primarily the paintings glass and stained-glass lamps designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, first at Christie’s…
Then at Sotheby’s…
“I don’t want to private one thing until I uncover a spot the place me and points go collectively,” Holly Golightly said in Breakfast at Tiffany’s:
Nevertheless… not even a Tiffany lamp with a base throughout the type of a Maryland crab? This one is anticipated to advertise for $250,000-350,000 at Sotheby’s New York on Dec. 17. I’m contemplating Holly would possibly make it work.
[Update: Dragonfly lamp, c. 1910, at Christie’s sold for $245,000. At Sotheby’s, the Wisteria lamps, c. 1901-1905, sold for more than $1.1 million each and crab-base Peony lamp, c. 1905, sold for half a mil.]Related merchandise
