The Designers Behind Tiffany & Co.: A Guide to the House's Most Iconic Names

Discover the creative minds who brought artistic flair and avant-garde edge to New York's most famous jewelry brand. 

Tiffany & Co.'s reputation is owed almost as much to the designers it works with as the house name itself. Those who were given the freedom to experiment with new styles, push the house in new directions and sign all of their own work include Jean Schlumberger, Elsa Peretti, Paloma Picasso, and Angela Cummings.

Jean Schlumberger 

Who he was

Born in 1907 to a well-to-do family in Mulhouse, France, Jean Schlumberger exhibited an early aptitude for design, but his parents refused to allow him formal drawing and painting training. Undaunted, he continued to develop his skills on his own and was soon designing buttons for the couture garments of designer Elsa Schiaparelli, who then asked him to fashion costume jewelry for her catwalk shows. On a trip to America, he bumped into an old friend, Nicolas Bongard, who had also been designing buttons. Together they opened their own New York City salon in 1947 where Schlumberger began producing fanciful and fantastic jewelry. 

 

Why he's iconic to Tiffany

By the mid '50s, Jean Schlumberger’s jewelry had caught the eye of Walter Hoving, the legendary head of Tiffany & Co., who invited him to open a workshop there. He became one of the few designers ever invited to create and sell his own signed jewelry at the salon. His bold-colored, primarily gold-based designs with nature and sea-life motifs are instantly recognizable, as is his famous paillonné-enamel jewelry, inspired by a 19th-century technique that creates saturated, luminescent color.

 

Signature pieces 

Bird on a Rock Brooch

Created in 1965, Jean Schlumberger’s Bird on a Rock brooch features a diamond-encrusted gold bird sitting on a large vibrant gemstone. It was inspired by the exotic birds the designer had seen during his travels to Asia and the Caribbean. In 1995, the legendary 128.54-carat yellow Tiffany diamond was famously set into the brooch for Schlumberger’s retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

 

Jackie Bracelets 

Jackie Kennedy was such a big fan of the enamel bracelets Jean Schlumberger made for Tiffany that she owned them in a rainbow of hues, with the press dubbing them “Jackie bracelets.”

 

Rope & X

Twisted ropes and Xs feature heavily in Jean Schlumberger's designs. Inspired by nautical and maritime themes, he often merged twisted gold ropes with diamond-encrusted X shapes to link the ropes together.

 

Materials & Techniques 

Jean Schlumberger's Tiffany pieces are most commonly crafted from 18k gold and feature colorful gemstones and paillonné enamel, which has a glossy surface with gold and silver motifs seemingly floating within it. 

 

Timeline

1940s - Designing for Schiaparelli

1947 - Opens his NYC salon

1956 - Joins Tiffany

1976 - Retires from designing 

 

Value

Tiffany pieces signed by Sclumberger command a premium at auction and resale. Bird on a Rock brooches vary widely in price depending on the central stone, which can be as valuable as a fancy yellow diamond or as modest as citrine.

 

Identification 

All genuine Tiffany Schlumberger pieces feature the classic Tiffany & Co. hallmark paired with the Schlumberger signature. This is sometimes written as Schlumberger Studios.

 

Elsa Peretti  

Who she was

Elsa Peretti was born in Florence, Italy, and spent several years in the 1960s working in Milan as a model for fashion houses including Balenciaga and Dior. Following the advice of her agency, she moved to New York City and quickly began making innovative jewelry for fashion designer pals, including Oscar de la Renta, Halston, and Giorgio di Sant’Angelo. She soon ascended to jewelry fame and in 1971 won the Coty Award for her highly sculptural designs. Elsa Peretti's pieces appeared in Vogue magazine, and in 1972 New York City’s trend-setting department store Bloomingdale’s opened a Peretti boutique.

 

Why she's iconic to Tiffany

In 1974, Elsa Peretti partnered with Tiffany & Co. in a trailblazing collaboration. Where Jean Schlumberger was maximalist and colorful, Elsa Peretti was defined by restraint. Her style was known as wearable minimalism, and her organic sculptural forms drew from the body and nature and often included unusual bone, teardrop, and bean motifs. During her time at the house, she pioneered sterling silver as a legitimate fine-jewelry material.  Before her arrival, Tiffany hadn't sold silver jewelry since the Great Depression.

 

Signature pieces 

Bone Cuff

Designed in 1970, Elsa Peretti's Bone Cuff is a sculptural design that follows the natural contours of the wrist bone. It was inspired by the designer's childhood visits to a Capuchin crypt in Rome and her passion for the organic architecture of Antoni Gaudí. It is so anatomically precise that it's sold in two shapes specifically fitted to the left or right wrist.

 

Open Heart 

Available as a pendant or bracelet, the Open Heart design is an homage to the beauty of keeping an open heart. Elsa Peretti intentionally left the center open to allow the wearer to emotionally fill it with their own personal meaning.

 

Diamonds by the Yard

The Diamonds by the Yard collection featured small, simple diamonds spaced out on a long gold chain and transformed diamond necklaces from eveningwear-only pieces into everyday moments.

 

Apple, Bean, Teardrop

Apples and bean motifs feature heavily in Elsa Peretti's jewelry and represent the beginnings of life. Teardrops are also a prominent motif and are said to be symbols of morning dew.

 

Materials & Techniques 

Elsa Peretti's Tiffany pieces are frequently found in sterling silver and are often diamond-set. 18k gold designs can also be found within her most famous collections. 

 

Timeline

1971 - Wins Coty award

1974 - Joins Tiffany

1980s - Creates Tiffany home designs and decorative objects

2021 - Passes away

 

Value

Since her passing in 2021, Tiffany pieces signed by Elsa Peretti are becoming increasingly collectable. Gold and diamond pieces hold more intrinsic value than sterling silver designs, but cultural relevance and popular collections affect resale prices.

 

Identification 

All genuine Tiffany Peretti pieces feature the classic Tiffany & Co. hallmark paired with the Elsa Peretti signature. All Tiffany sterling silver will also be stamped with 925.

 

Paloma Picasso   

Who she was

The daughter of Pablo Picasso and his mistress, the artist and writer Françoise Gilot, Paloma Picasso was born in Vallauris, France. While working as a costume designer, she fashioned some rhinestone jewelry from flea market finds and those pieces caught the eye of critics. Bolstered by the positive response to her work, she decided to pursue jewelry-making as a career and trained formally. Paloma Picasso created jewelry for designer Yves Saint Laurent’s runway shows and soon she was collaborating with the Greek jewelry company Zolotas. She moved to New York in the early 1970s and became a defining style icon of the era. 

 

Why she's iconic to Tiffany

Paloma Picasso was originally invited to design a table setting for Tiffany & Co for an exhibition in 1979, but within a year she had entered into an exclusive relationship with the house to create a jewelry collection under the name Paloma's Graffiti. Her designs brought a bold, graphic sensibility to the house, inspired by New York street art, calligraphy and brush strokes. At Tiffany & Co, Paloma Picasso was renowned for her ability to find beauty in unexpected places and she is quoted as saying she believes her purpose in life was to make everything more beautiful. 

 

Signature pieces 

X 

Tiffany's Paloma Picasso X pendant features arguably her most memorable motif, a replication of her own handwriting of the letter X. The expressive piece is inspired by graffiti scrawled on New York buildings and is seen as a graphic and artful take on the X as a universal symbol for a kiss.

 

Scribble 

Inspired by the idea of someone scribbling on a piece of paper, this wavy motif is most commonly featured on pendant necklaces. It is also known as the 'zigzag' and was crafted in both sterling silver and 18k gold. 

 

Loving Heart

Heart-shaped motifs in her own cursive handwriting are common in Tiffany's Paloma Picasso collections. The Loving Heart and Double Loving Heart designs both play on the idea of turning a doodled heart most commonly seen on a love note into a piece of sentimental jewelry.

 

Materials & Techniques 

Paloma Picasso's Tiffany pieces are frequently found in sterling silver or 18k gold. Much of her work also features brightly colored semi-precious gemstones,  although these pieces are often unconventional and overlooked.

 

Timeline

1979 - Creates Tiffany table setting

1980 - Joins the house

1980s - Adopts colorful gemstones

2026 - Continues to design with Tiffany today

 

Value

Tiffany pieces signed by Paloma Picasso vary in collectability depending on their age and condition. Gold and colorful gemstone pieces hold more intrinsic value than sterling silver designs, but cultural relevance and scarcity affect resale prices. 

 

Identification 

All genuine Tiffany Paloma Picasso pieces feature the classic Tiffany & Co. hallmark paired with the Paloma Picasso signature.

 

Angela Cummings 

Who she was

Austrian-born Angela Cummings immigrated to the United States at age three and returned to Europe to study at the Art Academy in Perugia, Italy, and at the Zeichenakademie in Germany. A skilled designer and metalsmith, she trained in goldsmithing and gemology before moving to New York to begin her professional career. She walked into Tiffany & Co. in 1967 and showed her portfolio to the house's then chairman Walter Hoving who is claimed to have told her "You want to work for us? Go ahead and try!" After joining Tiffany & Co. as an artisan and assisting designer Donald Claflin with his collections for eight years, Angela Cummings then designed her own collection for the house.

 

Why she's iconic to Tiffany

Tiffany allowed Angela Cummings to design collections for the house under her own name, a rare honor that is only bestowed to a few very special designers. Her innovative use of stones like lapis lazuli, jade and mother of pearl were so popular that the New York Times ran an article stating that in 1982 her designs accounted for a total of more than 45,000 sales, generating $10 million of revenue for Tiffany & Co and that 1983 looked set to break that record. She left the company in 1984 to start her own brand directly across the street from Tiffany within the department store Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue.

 

Signature pieces 

Rose Petal

Anglea Cummings designed the Rose Petal collection for Tiffany in the 1970s. It is defined by soft, sculpted, and slightly crumpled 18k yellow gold petals linked together to mimic real, natural flowers. She is said to have come up with the idea after accidentally crushing a rose petal in her hand. 

 

Nature forms

Angela Cummings' Tiffany jewelry is often flowing, sculptural and inspired by nature, often leaves and shells. Inlaid hardstone often features alongside 18k yellow gold set with inlaid semi-precious gemstones like tourmaline.

 

Materials & Techniques 

Tiffany pieces designed by Angela Cummings are frequently made from gold. Much of her work also features hardstone and semi-precious stone inlay as well as more unexpected materials such as coral, wood and opal.  

 

Timeline

1967 - Works as a Tiffany artisan

1975 - Creates her first own Tiffany collection

1984 - Leaves the house

2026 - Continues to design for her own brand today

 

Value

Tiffany pieces signed by Angela Cummings vary in value depending on their collectability and rarity. Resale prices vary depending on the individual item.

 

Identification 

All genuine Tiffany pieces designed by Angela Cummings will feature the classic Tiffany & Co. hallmark paired with the Angela Cummings signature.

 

How To Spot an Authentic Tiffany Piece

 

Mismatched hallmark placements, signatures with strange spacing or fonts that don't match genuine reference photos, and jewelry made from materials that don't match what a given designer actually worked in are all red flags that should not be ignored. If you have any suspicions about a piece's authenticity be sure to have it evaluated by a professional, ideally one with Tiffany specific knowledge.

 

Which Tiffany Designer Should You Collect?

All four of the Tiffany designers mentioned in this blog have created iconic jewelry designs that have a strong resale value. Jean Schlumberger pieces often fetch the highest at auction due to their bold originality and iconic status. Many Tiffany fans collect Elsa Peretti pieces because of their timeless minimal aesthetic. Those with a special interest in New York and graphic art will be most drawn to Paloma Picasso's designs while Angela Cummings' nature-inspired collection have a cult-like following, particularly because she only produces jewelry in such small quantities today. 

 

Sell Your Tiffany Designer Jewelry 

Those looking to sell Tiffany & Co. jewelry created by any of these four designers should remember that pieces in good condition with minimal signs of wear are the most sought after. If you have any relevant boxes or paperwork relating to your purchases, these are always beneficial to have when selling.

If you're interested in selling your Tiffany jewelry, please contact us. We will provide authentication, an accurate valuation and competitive offer to ensure you receive the best possible price.