Botanica, Tiffany & Co. 2022 Blue Book, honors Louis Comfort Tiffany’s interest in nature and floral motifs. Showcasing the company’s predilection for gemstones and technical proficiency
Botanica – Tiffany & Co. 2022 Blue Book
Louis Comfort Tiffany was convinced that nature should be the primary source of design inspiration.
Tiffany & Co. 2022 Blue Book is a celebration of flora. Called Botanica, it is a collection of three seasonal chapters. The first has been released in the United States this spring and comprises eighty-five pieces. Botanica is about honoring Tiffany & Co.’s heritage while showcasing the expertise of its workshops. It also addresses today’s high jewelry collectors’ expectations, emphasizing transformability. The lookbook of this debut chapter has been photographed with floral backdrops for in-situ pieces and on models with bouquet headdresses.
The Dandelion series
The Dandelion series is inspired by an early 20th-century Louis Comfort Tiffany-designed hair ornament. Thanks to hidden mechanisms, the necklace can be worn in five different ways. It has two interchangeable pendants; it can become a baguette diamond choker or a long diamond chain. Circular rows of round brilliant-cut diamonds represent the seed head. They are linked by fil couteau to a central band of kite-shaped diamonds. It forms the medallion of the necklace, the double helix bracelet, the hoop earrings, and the jacket of the ring. There is a 12-carat white diamond in the center of the medallion.
A 6-carat diamond can be swapped with a Fancy Vivid Purplish Pink diamond of 1 carat in the ring. In terms of colored gemstones, there is also a step-cut aquamarine of over 31 carats (detachable pendant for the necklace). An unenhanced purple sapphire of 9 carats with successive rows of brilliants creates a large convex band for another bracelet. Finally, a pair of Fancy Intense Yellow diamonds form transformable earrings. These cushion-shaped stones sit atop kite-shaped diamonds. The latter is attached to long tassels (the same flexible mesh design seen in the second bracelet).
Orchid – a transformable design with a lifelike aesthetic
At the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle, jewelry designer G. Paulding Farnham created orchid brooches for Tiffany’s display. Orchid is now the central theme of Botanica, with a contemporary orchid brooch as the showpiece. A transformable design with a lifelike aesthetic. The stem is detachable so that the flower motif can be worn as a pendant. Organic petals are snow-set with various-sized diamonds as a mosaic of round rose-cut, modified rose-cut, and brilliant round diamonds. Sepals are of ribbed yellow gold, and the labellum is a single pear-shaped white diamond. The stem is made of a succession of round brilliant-cut diamonds framed by square bezel-set diamonds.
This same pattern makes the pendant part of earrings set with two cushion-shaped Fancy Intense Yellow diamonds. The platinum rings favor discoidal shapes. There is a cuprian elbaite tourmaline of 15 carats and an 8-carat round white diamond in the other. Orchid’s smooth/sharp duality is present in the next theme, Thistle.
Hand-set trillion-cut diamonds individually placed at precise angles evoke Thistle’s spiky character. When made of plain gold, the spikes frame round brilliant-cut diamonds that are set on two crossing circles. In addition, a 28-carat cabochon rubellite is bezel-set at the front intersection of the bracelet. The spikes embellish round brilliant-cut diamonds, demantoid garnets, green tourmalines, or tanzanites in several earrings when set with diamonds. In each pair, color-matched gems are suspended at the end of long tassels (pearls, tourmaline, or tanzanite elongated drops). The ring features an over 10-carat unenhanced purple sapphire with the corolla set with pyramid-carved sapphires.
A crew-type necklace features alternating round demantoid garnets with square bezel-set diamonds. A projecting trillion-cut diamond adds sharpness to each garnet and the necklace’s row of brilliants. The other neckpiece, Thistle’s pièce de resistance, gathers all the theme’s characteristics. On the left side is a strand of square-set diamond links. The right side is a double rope of brilliant-cut diamonds, each fitted with a trillion-cut spike. They interlace at the crux of the two sides, from where a South-sea pearl and two sapphire-paved spheres hang. The sapphires are inverted (culet up) to represent the prickles.
Jean Schlumberger floral designs
Further dipping into Tiffany & Co.’s heritage, this first chapter of Botanica resurrects many Jean Schlumberger floral designs. Designed initially by Schlumberger in 1958, the Flowers and Leaves necklace has been recreated. It was previewed recently on Lady Gaga at the 2022 SAG Awards. Round brilliant-cut diamonds are set in the middle of successive flowers (all distinct from one another). Petals and leaves are paved with white diamonds with the tip of some petals, pistils, and stems in yellow gold. Matching earrings drawn from two of the flower designs from the necklace. The Fleur earrings have five petals. Between each is an extended gold pistil finished by a round brilliant-cut diamond. The Fleurage earrings have nine-round petals, whose surface is diamond-set, and veins are in yellow gold. In both designs, the largest diamonds sit in the center.
Aquamarines, tanzanites and pearls
Aquamarines adorn two renditions: a bracelet and a brooch. The Fleurage bracelet comprises five flower segments, in the middle of which is a facetted oval aquamarine of 48 carats. The Fleurage brooch features a facetted round aquamarine nestled in a claw-delineated center. These yellow gold petals shield the center stone. The tips of the diamond-paved petals bear yellow gold ingots in staggered rows. Plump yellow gold veins feature on the Vrille Flower brooch, whose heart is set with orange spessartites. Yellow gold enlivens the twisted petal tips in the Vrille brooch, which is decorated with purple spessartites in its center.
Tanzanites are signature ‘legacy gemstones’ of Tiffany & Co. For the Feuillage set – necklace and matching earrings – cabochon drops represent fruits. Vines with little flowers compose the bib neckpiece. The central flower from which a capped cabochon drop hangs is the design for the earrings. The Bird on a Rock brooch has had many iterations. It has been perched on a topaz, an aquamarine, and a tourmaline. For a Jean Schlumberger retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris, in 1995), it featured the Tiffany Yellow Diamond. In Botanica comes a version with a 113-carat morganite for the rock and a pink sapphire for the bird’s eye.
Pearls add a sensuous contrast to the Winged earrings. Feathers of yellow gold and diamond-paved barbs extend behind the flowers: South Sea black pearls wreathed in pear-shaped white diamonds. A double strand of white pearls softens the barbed tassel of the Spikey Tassel necklace. The bell shape body of the jellyfish (diamond and yellow gold) supports diamond-paved tentacles and outward-facing yellow gold strips.
Unveiling next steps of Botanica series
Following this spring chapter launched in the United States, Tiffany & Co. will next unveil the summer part in London. Finally, the third and final fall episode will be revealed in China.
Botanica, Tiffany & Co’s 2022 Blue book, draws from the company’s heritage. It re-asserts the preeminence of nature as a source of inspiration for the American high jeweler. Botanica is a celebration of flora – from archives to contemporary ideas – with a key focus on transformability. Three chapters (spring, summer, and fall) showcase Tiffany & Co.’s predilection for colored gemstones and technical proficiency.
Tiffany & Co.
New York-based luxury jewelry and specialty retailer. Among its products are jewelry, sterling silver, china, crystal, stationery, fragrances, water bottles, watches, personal accessories, and leather goods. Luxury goods are Tiffany’s specialty, particularly diamond and sterling silver jewelry. Tiffany stores sell these goods as well as corporate merchandise and direct mail.
