Tiffany and Paris conserve Jean Schlumberger’s archive

The project was unveiled during Paris Fashion Week at an event at the museum, where drawings, documents and a selection of jewels and objects from the Mellon Collection at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond were displayed. Among them were the Jasmine necklace and a pair of butterfly bracelets, which show how Schlumberger could carry a natural motif from one piece to another.

For Tiffany, this archive is more than heritage: it is an active working tool for current collections. Nathalie Verdeille, the chief artistic officer, and chief gemologist Victoria Reynolds regularly turn to gouaches, sketches and pencil drawings to understand how a form is built, where a stone should sit and how movement is created.

That focus on process is what makes the story especially relevant to artists and drawing enthusiasts. Schlumberger began with line before moving to materials, and his jewellery still shows that graphic thinking: volume, rhythm, colour and decorative detail are already resolved on the page.

The archive also shows how an idea travels from a notebook to a finished object. Tiffany says Schlumberger left works in which nature, ornament and invention are closely linked without losing the discipline of drawing, which is why these studies remain a useful guide for makers today.