How does a designer take the wonders of the sea and almost 200 years of legacy and fuse them into a diamond and Cuprian tourmaline necklace that moves as gracefully as the evening tide? Nathalie Verdeille, Tiffany & Co.’s Chief Artistic Officer of Jewelry and High Jewelry explains it in two words: “Savoir faire!”. Tiffany craftsmanship and innovation are on full view in the 2025 Blue Book Collection Sea of Wonder of singular jewels but, as with anything at this heritage rich house, there is of course, more. Each Blue Book turquoise and aquamarine turtle brooch contains multitudes.
The collection’s seahorses are inspired by Jean Schlumberger’s 1968 brooches.
The collection draws inspiration form Jean Schlumberger’s fascination with the sea, and reinvents his legendary archives and drawings with a modern perspective and capabilities. Schlumberger joined the house in 1956 and from the moment he began, he pursued his mission to create jewelry that mirrored nature’s “verve.” His designs are full of the world’s wild palette of colors—see the Hedges and Rows necklace in turquoise and rubellite—and its wonder and surprise—some jewelers look at seahorses and starfish and wonder why, he looked at them and thought why not. At Tiffany, that kind of irreverent spirit, fits right in.
Necklace in 18k yellow gold and platinum with an over 18-carat Fancy Intense Yellow diamond.
“While each creation weaves a story of the ocean and its wonders,” says Verdeille, “these extraordinary pieces also tell a broader narrative of the House’s love of pushing boundaries, our relentless pursuit of that which has never been done before, and the spirit of extraordinary savoir faire that has defined Tiffany & Co. since 1837.”
The sea turtle, with a diamond pattern sublimated by Tiffany artisans.
And there are moments in this Blue Book Collection that make that heritage abundantly clear. Verdeille’s use of moonstone, in one necklace with rows of pink and purple sapphires and in another, a seahorse necklace with Blue Zircon, sapphires, moonstones and diamonds, is for jewelry experts, a tribute to both Schlumberger, who famously made his friend Bunny Mellon a moonstone and sapphire jellyfish brooch after she got stung by one, and, to Louis Comfort Tiffany, son of founder Charles Lewis Tiffany, who championed the use of unusual and translucent stones the way he had pioneered colored glass. The collection of Tiffany in the Metropolitan Museum of Art includes examples of this approach including an often-photographed necklace of Montana sapphire and moonstone dated 1910, part of a series of Louis Comfort Tiffany designs using moonstone, and the now, almost impossible to source Montana sapphire.
Necklace from the 2025 Blue Book Collection in 18k white and yellow gold, with diamonds totaling over 10 carats.
The legacy of both Schlumberger and Louis Comfort Tiffany and the house’s belief in bold talent were all celebrated at the event held in honor of Blue Book 2025 in The American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The celebration for the launch of Blue Book 2025: Sea of Wonder at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The dinner, prepared by Daniel Boulud and Eric Ripert, was held in the Charles Engelhard Court, anchored on one side by the façade of the Branch Bank of the United States, and on the other by the elaborately decorated pillars of Laurelton Hall, the Long Island home of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Also, in clear view of the guests, many wearing the one of a kind pieces from Blue Book Collections past and present, the recently acquired garden landscape window designed by Agnes F. Northrop as part of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s studio.
The pillars of Laurelton Hall, the Long Island home of Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Before he joined the family firm, Louis Comfort was known of course for his glass designs, but also for his work as an interior designer. Laurelton Hall, in the Met American Wing, and right where the Blue Book dinner was held, was designed by Louis Comfort himself (so was the Mark Twain house, and if you have never Googled Louis Comfort Tiffany’s townhouse on 72nd and Madison, do so immediately). One legend has it that Fitzgerald based Gatsby’s parties on the ones Louis Comfort held on Long Island. If the Blue Book 2025 dinner was any indication—Alicia Keys performed live after dessert—his legacy lived on quite splendidly in that way too.
Alicia Keys performing at Tiffany & Co.’s celebration, as Anya Taylor-Joy sings along.
Editor-in-Chief Stellene Volandes is a jewelry expert, and the author of Jeweler: Masters and Mavericks of Modern Design (Rizzoli).
