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After his father's death in 1902, Tiffany became vice
president and artistic director of Tiffany and Company. His familiarity
with jewelry manufacturing at the firm, as well as the collaboration with
his father on several pieces for the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900,
undoubtedly inspired him to produce jewelry at his own workshops. He began
experimenting, in much secrecy, with the design and fabrication of jewelry
intending to introduce his work at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition
in St. Louis.
Tiffany broke new ground with his work in jewelry. In the necklaces, brooches,
and other forms he made, Tiffany, like his counterparts in Europe, transformed jewelry from mere
jeweled ornament to art. He used semiprecious stones—opals, moonstones, garnets, amethysts,
and coral—in contrast to the precious gems set in pieces by Tiffany and Company. The semiprecious
stones embodied the properties that he valued in other media. The milky quality of moonstones, for example,
resembled his creamy opalescent glass, and the fiery glow of opals, the glowing iridescent surfaces of his
Favrile vases. Tiffany set the stones in novel and inventive ways, often in combination with color, combining
one or two hues with subtle variations.
Beginning in 1907 jewelry designed by Tiffany and fabricated under his direction was
made at the workshops of Tiffany and Company, where production was supervised by Julia Munson, who had
transferred from the enamels department at Tiffany Furnaces. When Munson retired in 1914, her post was
filled by Meta K. Overbeck. Tiffany, who valued the dexterity and skill that women demonstrated in delicate
handwork, staffed the jewelry department predominately with female designers and artisans.
Jewelry
introduction: 1
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