Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

SCHLUMBERGER FOR TIFFANY & CO: GEM-SET SALAMANDER BROOCH, CIRCA 1960 image 1
SCHLUMBERGER FOR TIFFANY & CO: GEM-SET SALAMANDER BROOCH, CIRCA 1960 image 2
Lot 86

SCHLUMBERGER FOR TIFFANY & CO: GEM-SET SALAMANDER BROOCH, CIRCA 1960

1 December 2022, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

£10,000 - £15,000

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Jewellery specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

SCHLUMBERGER FOR TIFFANY & CO: GEM-SET SALAMANDER BROOCH, CIRCA 1960

The stylised salamander with textured decoration, set with step-cut tourmalines and turquoise eyes, accented with brilliant-cut diamonds to the claws, signed Schlumberger Studios and Tiffany & Co, length 6.0cm

Footnotes

Jean Schlumberger (1907-1987), the French artist-jeweller par excellence was born in Alsace to a family of prosperous textile industrialists. His Meissen flowers mounted as clips caught the attention of Elsa Schiaparelli who commissioned him to design costume jewellery during the 1930s. After establishing workshops in New York and Paris, Tiffany appointed Schlumberger Vice President of the firm in 1956. While at Tiffany, Schlumberger was given total artistic freedom with his own department on the mezzanine of their Fifth Avenue store, and he was the first designer at Tiffany permitted to stamp his creations with his name. Through exceptional draughtsmanship and remarkable imagination, Schlumberger translated the inspiration he drew from the flora and fauna of the natural world into the vibrant and whimsical jewels that are his trademark. His choice of materials and textures creates a beautiful balance, even in his most unconventional designs.

Within European folk tradition, the salamander is symbolic of immortality. Said to be born from flames and invulnerable to fire, salamanders have been hailed by occultists as the 'elemental spirit of fire'.

Additional information

Bid now on these items