Tiffany & Co., New York Neo-Gothic “Vesta” case with 18k gold mountings and polychrome champleve enamel details on a “bone” covered case with hand carved foliate details on an 18k gold French “Belle Epoque” long chain, Tiffany & Co. Vesta signed: Tiffany & Co. (2x), LS in a diamond cartouche, mark for Georges Le Sache, 346 rue St.-Honore, 75001, Paris, French Eagle’s head mark for 18k gold (2x), French “Belle Epoque” long chain signed: Diamond shaped makers cartouche (2x), French Eagle’s head mark for 18k gold (3x), French Rhinoceros and Weevil 18k gold assay marks for small pieces, c. 1880
Vesta dimensions: H: 2 inches x W: 1 and ¾ inches x Depth: 5/8 inches
Tiffany & Co., Paris, / Georland, Paris, (Georges Richard and Roland Bouder) solid squared block of lapis lazuli in the shape of a ring and mounted in all eight corners and on the interior of the ring hole in 18k yellow gold, signed: Tiffany France 18k, Ste and a G with a Cornucopia between in a diamond poincon (maker’s mark for Georland), French Eagle’s head assay mark for 18k gold, pre-1952 (when Tiffany & Co. closed their Paris store)
Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany & Co. “Berry brooch” 18K yellow gold, demantoids and cabochon turquoise, signed, c. 1968
Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany & Co. “Berry brooch” 18K yellow gold set with 40 oval cut demantoid garnets (approx. 9 carats TW /G.I.A. certificate) and 7 small oval cabochon Persian turquoise stones, Signed: Tiffany, Schlumberger, 18K, c. 1968
Illustrated: (“Bejewelled by Tiffany 1837-1987”, Clare Phillips, page 279 (Vintage Tiffany Blue Book 1968-1969, ruby version of this brooch priced at $1,475)
American Art Deco ring (likely by Louis C. Tiffany for Tiffany & Co.) set with a large blue zircon (approx. 64 carats by calculation, 20mm x 20mm x 19mm) set in a fancy platinum mount further set with 14 round cut diamonds, four bullet shaped gold/orange citrines and two kite shaped gold/orange citrines, marked: very deeply stamped letters as a maker’s mark on the inside of the shank, c. 1930
***Top quality gem blue zircons over 10 carats trade at a minimum price of $200 per carat and go up from there depending on the size of the stone and the quality of the color. Blue zircon, the most popular color, is produced by heat treatment of brown zircon. But not all brown zircon will turn blue when heated; only some zircon has the right physical structure for this to occur. This is why most blue zircon comes from certain sources in Cambodia or Burma. Blue zircon is a reasonably hard gem with a Mohs hardness of about 7 to 7.5. Blue zircon has some unique properties that make it very popular with gemstone aficionados. Not only does zircon have outstanding brilliance, but it also has very strong dispersion or fire, the tendency to split white light into the spectral colors. Zircon also has very pronounced birefringence or double refraction, with a wide variance between the two refractive indices. This can be often be observed with the naked eye when you look down through the table of a cut zircon; you will observe facet doubling that makes the facet edges appear blurred.
Tiffany & Co Art Deco “Mustache” comb, 14K gold in a contoured form with the original tortoise shell comb and brown alligator slip case, signed: Tiffany & Co. 14K, square bowtie mark (possible maker’s mark), c. 1930’s
Louis Comfort Tiffany for Tiffany & Co. “Oval Moon” brooch set with a large gem quality moonstone (approx. 43 carats) set with 23 Montana sapphires (approx. 8 carats TW), marked: 10% Irid. Plat, c. 1920
Tiffany & Co. “Prince of Wales’ Feathers” made during the reign of Edward VII (he held his title of the Prince of Wales longer than anyone before him and was King of England from 1901 to 1910) brooch pave set with 123 round-cut diamonds (approx. 2.50 carats TW) and all set in a three dimensional brooch of platinum topped gold, signed: Tiffany & Co., c.1900
W. Truman Ltd. / Peter Truman for The Goldsmith’s Company “Chrysanthemum” brooch in platinum and diamonds and natural Mississippi pearls, retailed by Tiffany & Co. New York, signed, c. 2000
Tiffany & Co. / Art Nouveau “Frog on a lily pad” covered snuff box 1880
TIFFANY & CO. New York, NY
“Frog on a lily pad” cigarette case 1880
Hand wrought sterling silver with repoussé and chased gold design of a frog sitting on a lily pad with a dragonfly in it’s mouth, “lap over edge” and hand hammered details, gilt interior and spring action to the hinge when the sides are pressed
Tiffany Archive Illustration: Design for Cigarette Case No. 5804, No. 1019, 249, stamped Tiffany & Co. New York, February 26, 1880
Model and Archive illustration: Bejewelled by Tiffany 1837-1987 Clare Phillips (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006)
For more information see: Tiffany Silver, Charles H. Carpenter, Jr. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1978); The Silver of Tiffany & Co., 1850-1987, Charles H. Carpenter, Jr. and Janet Zapata (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1987).
Marks: Tiffany & Co., 5804, M, 2540, Sterling-Silver, 1019
H: 3/4” x W: 2 7/8” x D: 2 1/8”
The Frog and the Dragonfly
from The Lost Lagoon
by Reg Down, 2010
Once upon a time a dragonfly lived beside a lake high in the mountains. He flitted from bulrush to bulrush – and zipped after mosquitoes. He snapped them out of the air so quickly that no one could ever quite see what he was doing.
One day, as he was flying across the water, his beautiful wings glistening like rainbows, he came across a frog.
“Ribbit!” said the frog. “Come here, Mr. Dragonfly. I would like to have a better look at you.”
But the dragonfly was clever. In fact, he was so clever that his eyes were made up of hundreds of eyes all put together on the top of his head. And each one of those eyes said to him: “That frog wants to eat me!”
So he landed on top of a bulrush where the frog could not get him, and said, “Yes, Mr. Frog, I am close enough for you. What do you want?”
“Ribbit! Ribbit!” croaked the frog, “I think you should come closer because my eyes are not very good.”
So the dragonfly came a little closer. He flitted to a flower floating on the water—but still not close enough for the frog to grab him with his mouth.
“Yes, Mr. Frog, what do you want?” he asked.
“Oh, Mr. Dragonfly,” said the frog, “I have an itch on the end of my nose and my legs aren”t long enough to reach it. But your legs are scratchy—they will be able to scratch my itchiness much better that I ever could.”
The dragonfly found this quite funny. He thought, “That frog wants to eat me! I am sure that frog wants to eat me!” So he flew behind the frog and landed on his back.
The frog could feel the dragonfly crawling on his back, but he could not turn around to grab him. “Oh, Mr. Dragonfly,” he said, “you have to come closer to my nose. In fact, my lips are getting very itchy—please come closer.”
So the dragonfly went and sat between the frog”s eyes. Now the frog”s eyes were looking into the dragonfly”s eyes, and the frog saw that the dragonfly had far, far more eyes than he had. So he said, “Oh, Mr. Dragonfly, you are surely much, much more wise than I am. You have so many eyes that you can see the whole world!”
And the dragonfly replied, “Of course I can see the whole world! I have so many eyes that I am the wisest of all flies!”
“Well,” said the frog, “I have a little tickle in the bottom of my throat—what is happening there?”
And the dragonfly looked, and looked, and looked…….and Snap! the frog ate him up.
Tiffany & Co. / Albert Barney American Art Deco sterling demitasse pot 1936
ALBERT BARNEY (? -1955) American
JOHN C. MOORE (1907-1947) New York
TIFFANY & COMPANY (1868-) New York
“Century Modern” chocolate or demitasse pot 1936
Handwrought sterling silver, fiber handle and finial
Stamped: TIFFANY & Co. MAKERS, 22172 (pattern/date system number), 5244(order number), STERLING SILVER, 925-1000, m (John C. Moore, designer), 5 GILLS
For a related modernist service and information about Century Modern silver exhibited at the 1939 New York World’s Fair see: Tiffany Silver, Charles H. Carpenter, Jr. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1978) pp. 256, 259-261
For more information see: Tiffany Silver, Charles H. Carpenter, Jr. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1978) pp. 256, 259-261; Modernism: Modernist Design 1880-1940, The Norwest Collection, Norwest Corporation, Minneapolis, Alastair Duncan (Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: The Antique Collector’s Club, 1998), p. 240.
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