The castle, a symbol of Victorian courtship rituals and punk inattention, has received a jeweler’s treatment.
While Tiffany has long been associated with an addictive sense of nostalgia – especially a certain game immortalized in books and films that bear the company’s name in the title, and its legendary late designers Jean Schlumberger Herre and Elsa Peretti – are associated, its products have always been innovative and contemporary. . Tiffany’s accomplishments include discovering and introducing gemstones, including kunzite, tanzanite, tsavorite and morganite (named after a JPMorgan frequent visitor and collector) into the jewelry world, as well as creating artfully blended designs that transform in many ways.
Tiffany Lock will make its world debut in September. It consists of four unisex bracelets that reinterpret the padlock, a motif often found in the Tiffany archives, and transform it into a shining symbol of inclusion. Crafted from 18K yellow, rose and white gold, set with or without diamonds, the bracelet features an innovative clasp that mimics the rotating mechanism of a functional padlock. “No rules. Welcome everyone” was the opening slogan for the ad campaign, starring Dutch model Imaan Hammam of Moroccan and Egyptian descent and American professional skateboarder Tyshawn Jones.
Padlocks have been used in jewelry since the Regency, when they appeared as accessories on women’s necklaces, pendants and bracelets, as well as on luxurious collars for noble dogs, many of which were decorated with engraving. “I am His Highness’s dog at Kew Gardens; tell me, sir, whose dog is this?” – read the epigram, which the poet Alexander Pope wrote on the hair of one of his pampered dogs. This trend picked up again during the reign of Queen Victoria at the end of the century, when elaborate padlocks were placed on coveted pendants. Some versions come with keys, a gift from the gentlemen when they are away for a long time. (Not all of these historical trinkets are so romantic: padlocks, of course, were an important part of the brutal chastity belts used in the 15th and 18th centuries.) There are bridges in Europe to this day where lovers add their initials to padlocks on railings. and throw the key into the water below as a token of their love.
In high fashion, padlocks have been included in the collections of many top designers, from Elsa Schiaparelli and Franco Moschino to Alexander McQueen and Schiaparelli’s current successor, media darling Daniel Roseberry. Away from high runways, despite being associated with restraint, they have been fashionable provocateurs ever since punks wore them on bike chains and dog collars in the late 1970s and 80s.
Countess Marie-Tecle de Nieuwerkerke, née Mademoiselle de Montessuis, 1840, painting by Franz Xavier Winterhalter.
But the roots of Tiffany’s lock design – including artist Daniel Arsham’s limited edition due out next year – are closer to home. Since its founding in 1837, the company has been selling padlocks as part of its line of items and household items. Beginning in the 1950s, Tiffany brought functional hardware such as key rings, brooches and necklaces to the world of personal jewelry. Even gender-inclusive marketing is in the company’s DNA. In an advertisement for “useful and distinctive” gifts from the 1950s, the accompanying copy takes pains to point out that the items, including an elegant wallet with a 14-karat gold lock, are “perfectly suited to masculine taste.” If this intuition is confirmed, the all-encompassing appeal of the new castle will help expand Tiffany’s circle of supporters.
© Courtesy Shirley Baker Estate/Mary Evans Image Library; Chestnut/Getty; with permissions Tiffany: Tiffany Archives; with permission Rand Museum, Germany.
Post time: Sep-30-2022