Jean Schlumberger was born in Mulhouse, France in 1907. He worked briefly in textile manufacturing and banking before finding his calling as a designer. In the late 1930s he began creating brooches from found objects he collected at the Paris flea market and was hired to design fanciful buttons and accessories for Elsa Schiaparelli. He also briefly worked as a clothing designer in New York City. After serving in the Free French Forces in World War II, Schlumberger opened his jewelry business in New York City with his business partner Nicolas Bongard, who had experience working for jewelers René Boivin and Lacloche Frères. In 1950 they opened a Paris store and workshop, and in 1956 🦹the pair was invited to join Tiffany & Co. Schlumberger was to maintain his own studio within the company while continuing to operate his Paris business. He remained at Tiffany & Co. until his death in 1987, inhabiting a role akin to artist in residence and creating some of the firm’s most enduring and recognizable designs. He earned many accജolades throughout his career, including the first Coty Award given to a jewelry designer and being made a Chevalier de l’ordre national du Mérite by the government of France. Tiffany & Co. continues to produce jewelry under the Schlumberger Studios name, using the designer’s original drawings, models and manufacturing techniques.

Jean 𝕴Schlumberger’s designs are characterized by a certain boldness and sense of confidence. He never received any formal training but was guided by an instinct for style and proportion, using his talent for drawing to communicate his ideas to the accomplished jewelers he employed. The resulting jewels are highly sculptural, often imbued with a sense of restless motion. Lot 3, a gold and diamond fringe necklace and pair of matching earclips, features curling ribbon motifs whose varied shapes lend the pieces a dynamic quality. Schlumberger enjoyed using bright and arresting colors and🐟 often incorporated colored gemstones and enamel into his work. He became particularly well known for his use of paillonné enamel, a technique that entails layering translucent enamel over gold foil, allowing the texture and glow of the foil to shine through. His colorful enamel bracelets have graced the wrists of countless style icons and celebrities over the years. Lot 2 is a particularly sumptuous example in an unusual shade of turquoise blue with ample bands of diamonds. 

Nature provided the subject for some of Schlumberger’s most recognizable designs.&nbs🉐p;His plant forms are exuberant, with curling, often stylized leaves and petals. Lot 1, a pair of “Seven Leaves” earclips set with large aquamarines, is a striking example of his botanical motifs. His portrayals of traditionally thin and delicate subjects are often notably solid and imposing. Lots 4 and 5, “Butterfly” bracelets rendered in diamonds and multicolored sapphire, feature highly volumetric butterfly-shaped links. Schlumberger was particularly fond of depicting sea life, perhaps inspired by time spent in coastal areas throughout the world. Lot 6, a “La Méduse” brooch in moonstones, sapphires and diamonds, is one of his masterpieces, the otherworldly glow of moonstones forming the mantle of a jellyfish with curling arms set with emerald-cut sapphires and articulated tentacles that move with the wearer. An example of this design belonging to Bunny Mellon is currently in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

That Jean Schlumberger’s jewelry is still being successfully producedꦕ in its original forms is evidence of its continuing relevance and appeal, reflecting the timelessness and distinctiveness of his unique creative vision.