Schlumberger Twenty Stone Earrings

Jewelry designer Jean Schlumberger once said that he strived to “make everything look as if it were growing, uneven, at random, organic, in motion.” His jewels interpreted the vitality of the natural world with lively designs that included a moonstone-topped jellyfish brooch with sapphire tentacles exuding a watery shimmer and a ring encrusted with a burst of diamonds that “bloomed” like a flower bud.

A self-taught jeweler, Schlumberger’s mastery of color as well as his expertise as a draftsman brought his fantastic ideas to life. Born to a leading textile manufacturing family in Alsace, France, Schlumberger took to drawing as a child and showed promise as an artist, but his parents instead sent him to study banking in Berlin in the 1930s. Uninspired, he departed for Paris and began creating buttons for Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, who also commissioned him for costume jewelry.

One of Schlumberger’s early pieces — a cigarette lighter in the form of a fish whose head opened to reveal the flame — demonstrated his skill for capturing the vivacity of nature in precious metal. The designer’s imaginative jewelry was in contrast to popular geometric lines of Art Deco, an independent vision he affirmed in the extravagant 1941 Trophée de Vaillance brooch created for fashion editor Diana Vreeland. An extravagant confection of diamonds, amethyst, rubies and gold, the brooch featured gemstones adorning an intricate intersection of tiny spears and a breastplate over a glittering shield.

After serving in the French army and the Free French forces during World War II — and surviving the Battle of Dunkirk — Schlumberger left war-torn Europe for New York and in 1946 established a jewelry salon with Nicolas Bongard. There, his vibrant work caught the eye of Tiffany & Co. After joining the American luxury jewelry house in 1956, he soon had his own studio on the mezzanine of Tiffany’s Fifth Avenue store that he accessed by a private elevator. In his workshop, Schlumberger used a rainbow of gemstones, gold and diamonds to create some of the company’s most beguiling designs.

From striking earrings shaped like soaring wings to diamond birds perched on glittering gemstones, each of Schlumberger’s Tiffany designs dazzled. His supporters included Bunny Mellon, whose love for horticulture inspired commissions such as the Jasmine necklace with diamond blossoms flowering from a garland of colored sapphires, and Jacqueline Kennedy, who wore his Croisillon bracelets so often they became known as “Jackie bracelets.” Schlumberger retired from Tiffany in the late 1970s, but decades after his designs were introduced many of his popular pieces remain in production.

On 1stDibs, find an extraordinary range of vintage Jean Schlumberger jewelry designed for Tiffany & Co.

It is almost impossible to overstate how popular hoop earrings are today. They are routinely seen adorning the ears of high-profile women, ranging from Michelle Obama and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Jennifer Lopez and Cardi B.

The roots of the hoop-earring phenomenon literally stretch back to the dawn of civilization. On view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Ancient Near Eastern Art gallery is a pair of simple gold hoops from Mesopotamia dating to 2,600–2,500 B.C. that experts agree is among the oldest known examples. Hoop earrings can also be found in the Met’s Egyptian art gallery as well as in the museum’s displays of Greek and Roman art.

What inspired the original hoop design and why it was adopted by so many jewelers in the ancient world are unknown. It doesn’t have an origin story, feeling rather like the jewelry equivalent of the wheel. There just seems to be a logic to a circle that goes from the front to the back of the lobe.

“Hoops have been worn for millennia because they are unfathomably chic,” says Annabel Davidson, the editor of Vanity Fair UK’s special jewelry edition. “The way they accentuate the jawline, elongate the face and add a touch of flamboyance to a look is clearly a timeless expression of confidence, femininity and sartorial savvy.”

Throughout the ages, there have been countless decorative variations of hoop earrings. While the style can be found in just about every era, it was far more popular in some periods than others. Certain looks from yesteryear reflect cultural interests, while others are purely glamourous.

On 1stDibs, shop vintage diamond hoop earrings, gold hoop earrings, contemporary hoops and many more varieties of this wildly popular accessory.