monture Schlumberger

Jean Schlumberger was born in Mulhouse, France in 1907 into a prominent family of textile manufacturers. After studying business and banking, he turned to creative pursuits. By the late 1930s, Schlumberger was designing costume jewellery and buttons for Elsa Schiaparelli encouraged by a network of friends and supporters including Diana Vreeland and Marie-Laure de Noailles. Following World War II, he established a jewellery workshop atelier in New York together with his associate Nicolas Bongard and also had a shop in Paris from the early 1950s onwards.  Nature often inspired Schlumberger's work. He loved using gemstones with unusual, fresh colours and metal forged into unexpected, sharp lines. This brooch perfectly represents Schlumberger’s signature style.

In 1956 Tiffany & Co invited Schlumberger to the head his own, independent design unit within the renowned firm. There he developed some of his most iconic designs such as the paillonné enamel bracelets, the jasmine necklace, basket-weave boxes, the fish brooch or the "bird on a rock", first created to enhance the Tiffany Yellow Diamond. Rachel "Bunny" Mellon and Jacqueline Kennedy were among the leading patrons of Schlumberger at this time. Next to magnificent jewels, Schlumberger also excelled at whimsical objects d'art. Jean Schlumberger passed away in Paris in 1987.

Fiona Thyssen-Bornemisza 

Tall, willowy and timelessly elegant, Fiona Thyssen-Bornemisza embodies the spirit of haute couture from the 1950s and 1960s.

She was born in 1932 near Auckland, New Zealand as Fiona Campbell-Walter, into the ancient Scottish Campbell clan. In London she attended the Lucy Clayton Charm Academy, a famous finishing school and modelling agency that counted Jean Shrimpton and Joanna Lumley among its alumni. As a model in the early 1950s, Fiona Campbell-Walter quickly became a favourite of the photographers Cecil Beaton and Norman Parkinson. She appeared on the pages of Vogue and Life magazine, working with major designers of the period such as Christian Dior, Jacques Fath, Norman Hartnell and Nina Ricci. Universally celebrated for her elegant dress-sense, Fiona Thyssen-Bornemisza was included on the International Best Dressed List in 1962, 1963 and 1966.

Fiona Campbell-Walter married Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (1921-2002) in 1956 on the shores of Lake Lugano. Thyssen was the heir of an important industrial fortune, with a baronial title of Hungarian extraction bestowed by Emperor Franz-Joseph. The Thyssen family is custodian of one of the most important private art collections in the world.

Baron Thyssen greatly enjoyed gifting exceptional jewels to the women he loved. The pink Ceylon sapphire at the centre of this brooch was acquired while he was still married to his previous wife, Nina Dyer, but he never came around to offering it to her. Instead it was presented to Fiona, as the stone perfectly matched her complexion and style. She in turn had it mounted by a friend, the famous designer Jean Schlumberger. In the 1950s, ordering a bespoke piece of jewellery was carried out in the same manner as ordering couture gowns. Schlumberger sometimes required up to five fittings for one single jewel. Fiona Thyssen-Bornemisza owned several key Schlumberger jewels including a ‘Plumes’ necklace. In 1962, she was photographed by Henry Clarke wearing this piece for Vogue.