Jean Schlumberger at Tiffany & Co.: I Am Only a Pencil, in Paris
The Exhibition I Am Only a Pencil in Paris: Jean Schlumberger’s creative process at Tiffany & Co., from sketch to workshop
I Am Only a Pencil is a Tiffany & Co. presentation at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Its subject is how Jean Schlumberger worked. For the first time, the presentation pairs his drawings and personal objects with jewelry. The sequence runs from sketch to gouache, and from the client salon to the workshop.
Three collections supply the material: Tiffany & Co., the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Among the works are pieces from the collection of Rachel Lambert Mellon, known as Bunny Mellon. Mrs. Mellon was a client of Mr. Schlumberger. Tiffany & Co. presents them through its partnership with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
The presentation follows Un Diamant dans la Ville, the retrospective the Paris museum devoted to Mr. Schlumberger in 1995.
Jean Schlumberger before Tiffany & Co.: Mulhouse textiles, Lucien Lelong and Elsa Schiaparelli
Jean Schlumberger was born in Mulhouse, Alsace, into a family of textile industrialists. He trained as a graphic designer in Paris in the early thirties. He became director of perfumes for Lucien Lelong. By 1937 he was designing costume jewelry for Paris couture houses, among them Elsa Schiaparelli.
An international circle of women became supporters of his work. Their support helped him move from accessories to high jewelry. After serving in the French army, Mr. Schlumberger opened a jewelry salon in New York City in 1940. In 1956 Tiffany & Co. appointed him vice president. The partnership lasted more than three decades.
Inside Tiffany & Co.: Jean Schlumberger’s annual collection and the gouaches from Guadeloupe
Tiffany & Co. gave Mr. Schlumberger access to its artisans, diamonds and colored gemstones. He divided his life among New York, Paris and, later, the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. There he made many of the gouache drawings that formed the basis of his annual collections.
He prepared one collection each year. He also took commissions from clients and friends. They included Jacqueline Kennedy, Rachel Mellon, Barbara Paley, Baroness Fiona Thyssen and Lauren Bacall. His subjects were birds, flowers, sea life and imagined creatures.
Pencil sketch, watercolor and gouache: where a Jean Schlumberger jewel begins
Mr. Schlumberger thought of himself first as a draftsman. He relied on artisans to translate his drawings into objects. A piece began on paper before it took shape in gold, enamel or gemstones.
In pencil sketches he refined a curve, a wing, a petal or a setting. In watercolor and gouache he explored how the colors of different stones might work together.
The Fifth Avenue salon and the Tiffany & Co. high jewelry workshop
Mr. Schlumberger presented finished drawings to clients in his selling salon at The Landmark. The Landmark is the Tiffany & Co. store on Fifth Avenue. Designer and client discussed the drawing before the client placed a final commission. From there, high jewelry artisans, gemologists and craftspeople worked through the challenges of making the piece.
Couture and textile in Jean Schlumberger jewelry: lacework and the Sixteen Stone ring
His family manufactured textiles. His early work in Paris brought him close to Lucien Lelong and Elsa Schiaparelli. He later counted Cristóbal Balenciaga, Christian Dior and Hubert de Givenchy among his friends. In New York in 1940 he worked as a designer for Chez Ninon before returning to jewelry.
He was drawn to the structure of seventeenth-century lacework. He did not imitate fabric. He translated its complexity and rhythms into metalwork and gemstone settings. The Sixteen Stone ring of 1959 turns a cross-stitch motif into a piece of jewelry. Tiffany & Co. produces the ring.
Bird on a Rock: how Jean Schlumberger moved from the Phoenix clip to a Tiffany & Co. brooch
Birds appear many times in Mr. Schlumberger’s work. Early in his career he was drawn to the phoenix, a creature associated with rebirth and renewal. He created his first Phoenix clip in 1941 and a second in 1947. By the fifties his interest had moved from myth to motion: birds stretching their wings, perching and turning.
This study of avian motifs led to Bird on a Rock. Mr. Schlumberger selected a large gemstone and left it in its natural form to suggest a miniature rock. A diamond-set bird sits on top. He adapted the design as a series of brooches set with large gemstones. Mrs. Mellon acquired one of the earliest examples in 1965.
Operation Objects: Bunny Mellon, paillonné enamel and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Beginning in 1959, Paul and Rachel Lambert Mellon commissioned Mr. Schlumberger to design sculptural objects in precious materials. He nicknamed the series of commissions Operation Objects. Over the next decade he created sculptures in gold, lacquer, enamel and gemstones.
He drew on the natural world, on Mannerist and Baroque art, and on birds, architectural forms and imagined creatures. Many surfaces carry paillonné enamel. In this technique, pieces of metallic foil sit beneath translucent color.
In 1985 Mr. and Mrs. Mellon presented the objects to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The gift opened them to the public. Mr. Schlumberger added related drawings from his archive. The drawings preserve a record of the ideas behind the finished works.
The Tiffany Archives and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs: conserving Jean Schlumberger, the drawings
The presentation builds on a four-year conservation and digital imaging initiative. It links the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and The Tiffany Archives. The project will preserve more than five thousand of Mr. Schlumberger’s drawings and personal documents. It will also make them accessible.
Editorial Team
