Pair of Modernist Terracotta "Bone" Candlesticks by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany
View Similar Items
Pair of Modernist Terracotta "Bone" Candlesticks by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany
About the Item
- Creator:Elsa Peretti (Designer),Tiffany & Co. (Maker)
- Dimensions:Height: 14.25 in (36.2 cm)Width: 4.5 in (11.43 cm)Depth: 4.5 in (11.43 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 2
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:1980-1989
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1980
- Condition:
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU79349610481
Elsa Peretti
In an era of social upheaval, venerable Tiffany & Co. designer Elsa Peretti reimagined diamonds as jewelry that working women bought for themselves rather than receiving it from a suitor.
By the time the Italian-born Peretti arrived in New York City, she’d already studied design in Rome, worked for a Milanese architect and taught Italian, French and skiing in Switzerland. She settled on interior design as her potential career path but then chose an altogether different route: modeling. Peretti modeled in Barcelona, Spain, and on the advice of Wilhelmina Cooper — a former model who’d by then founded Wilhelmina Modeling Agency — moved to Manhattan in 1968. When she relocated, Peretti was inspired to pick up jewelry design.
After modeling for designer Halston, the undisputed fashion king of Studio 54, Peretti became his close friend and collaborator, eventually creating jewelry and teardrop-shaped perfume bottles for him. By way of her association with Halston, Peretti took to the disco scene, flourishing in a social circle that included artist Andy Warhol and fashion designer Giorgio di Sant’Angelo.
It wasn’t long before models on di Sant’Angelo’s runway were donning two-inch sterling-silver vases, complete with a rose stem, suspended on leather thongs around their necks. The accessory was Peretti’s inaugural piece of jewelry — she designed it in 1969 after finding a flower vase at a flea market. It was hardly the only time that Peretti found motifs in nature and in organic forms. In the years that followed, her Bean pendant necklace, Starfish earrings and other sensuous accessories would draw on human emotion as well as the natural world around her. Each evocative and wholly versatile design is universally adored decades later, and each was made for a storied American jewelry house with which Peretti would be associated for nearly 50 years.
It was Halston who introduced Peretti to Tiffany & Co. She had her own boutique at Bloomingdale’s by 1972, and her partnership with the firm, which signed the venturesome and unorthodox designer to an exclusive contract in 1974, would cement her place in the lofty annals of jewelry legend. Peretti’s simple but sophisticated designs — the Teardrop collection, her minimalist Diamonds by the Yard necklace and Open Heart ring, to name a few — elevated sterling silver, previously considered unsuitable for fine jewelry, and created an enthusiastic young audience for Tiffany’s offerings. In 1977, Peretti’s designs earned the jewelry house more than $6 million. (In some years, her work has accounted for 10 percent of the company’s sales.)
In 2012, Peretti signed a 20-year, $47.3 million contract with Tiffany & Co., but she passed away in 2021, at age 80. Today, her designs are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the British Museum.
Find an exquisite collection of Elsa Peretti jewelry today on 1stDibs.
Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co. is one of the most prominent purveyors of luxury goods in the United States, and has long been an important arbiter of style in the design of diamond engagement rings. A young Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed to his future wife, Eleanor, with a Tiffany ring in 1904. Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Astors and members of the Russian imperial family all wore Tiffany & Co. jewels. And Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis preferred Tiffany china for state dinners at the White House.
Although synonymous with luxury today, the firm started out rather modestly. Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young founded it in Connecticut as a “stationery and fancy goods emporium” in 1837, at a time when European imports still dominated the nascent American luxury market. In 1853, Charles Tiffany — who in 1845 had launched the company’s famed catalog, the Blue Book, and with it, the firm’s signature robin’s-egg blue, which he chose for the cover — shifted the focus to fine jewelry. In 1868, Tiffany & Co. gained international recognition when it became the first U.S. firm to win an award for excellence in silverware at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. From then on, it belonged to the pantheon of American luxury brands.
At the start of the Gilded Age, in 1870, Tiffany & Co. opened its flagship store, described as a "palace of jewels" by the New York Times, at 15 Union Square West in Manhattan. Throughout this period, its designs for silver tableware, ceremonial silver, flatware and jewelry were highly sought-after indicators of status and taste. They also won the firm numerous accolades, including the grand prize for silverware at the Paris Exposition of 1878. Among the firm’s glittering creations from this time are masterworks of Art Nouveau jewelry, such as this delicate aquamarine necklace and this lavish plique-à-jour peridot and gold necklace, both circa 1900.
When Charles Lewis Tiffany died, in 1902, his son Louis Comfort Tiffany became the firm’s design director. Under his leadership, the Tiffany silver studio was a de facto design school for apprentice silversmiths, who worked alongside head artisan Edward C. Moore. The firm produced distinctive objects inspired by Japanese art and design, North American plants and flowers, and Native American patterns and crafts, adding aesthetic diversity to Tiffany & Co.’s distinguished repertoire.
Tiffany is also closely associated with diamonds, even lending its name to one particularly rare and exceptional yellow stone. The firm bought the Tiffany diamond in its raw state from the Kimberley mines of South Africa in 1878. Cut to create a 128.54-carat gem with an unprecedented 82 facets, it is one of the most spectacular examples of a yellow diamond in the world. In a broader sense, Tiffany & Co. helped put diamonds on the map in 1886 by introducing the American marketplace to the solitaire diamond design, which is still among the most popular engagement-ring styles. The trademark Tiffany® Setting raises the stone above the band on six prongs, allowing its facets to catch the light. A lovely recent example is this circa-2000 platinum engagement ring. Displaying a different design and aesthetic (but equally chic) is this exquisite diamond and ruby ring from the 1930s.
- Pair of Modernist Sterling Candle Holders by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co.By Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co.Located in New York, NYThis stunning pair of Modernist sterling silver candle holders were realized by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co, circa 1985. They feature circular bodies with curved raised sides and a sinuously curved depression on end of each candleholder. The center of each piece offers a cylindrical candle holder...Category
Vintage 1980s American Modern Candlesticks
MaterialsSterling Silver
- Pair of Modernist Candlesticks in Translucent and Acquamarine Glass by LittalaLocated in New York, NYThis elegant pair of candlesticks were realized by the esteemed design firm Littala in Finland. They feature volumetric elliptic bodies in translucent glass with acquamarine glass in...Category
20th Century Finnish Modern Candlesticks
MaterialsMurano Glass
- Pair of Signed Renata Gandini Modernist Clear Glass & 24kt Gold CandlesticksBy Arte VertoLocated in New York, NYThis stunning pair of signed modernist candlesticks was designed for Arte Vetro Soffiato by Renata Gandini in Murano Italy. They feature cup form striat...Category
20th Century Italian Modern Candlesticks
MaterialsGold
- Pair of Modernist Handblown Murano Smoked Glass Candlesticks with 24-Karat GoldLocated in New York, NYThis stunning pair of candlesticks were realized in Murano, Italy- the island off the coast of Venice renowned for centuries for its superlative glass production. They feature subtly...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Candlesticks
MaterialsGold
- Mid-Century Silverplated Candlesticks by Tommi Parzinger for Dorlyn SilversmithsBy Dorlyn Silversmiths, Tommi ParzingerLocated in New York, NYThis gorgeous pair of silver plated candlesticks were designed by Tommi Parzinger for Dorlyn Silversmiths in the United States circa 1950. They feature volumetric square bases; sculp...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Candelabras
MaterialsSilver Plate
- Pair of Single Branch 24-Karat Gold-Plated Bronze Candlesticks by Claude BoeltzBy Claude Victor BoeltzLocated in New York, NYThis stunning pair of Mid-Century Modern candlesticks were realized in France, circa 1970 by the esteemed artisan Claude Victor Boeltz. They offer an exploded form sculpted, by hand,...Category
Vintage 1970s French Mid-Century Modern Candlesticks
MaterialsQuartz, Gold, Bronze
- Crystel "Bone" Series Candlesticks Designed by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & CoBy Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co.Located in Doraville, GAA pair of hand crafted "Bone" series crystel candlesticks designed by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Company in the mid 1980's. Elsa Peretti (1940 - 2021) was an Italian fashion model...Category
Vintage 1980s Belgian Minimalist Candlesticks
MaterialsCrystal
- Blue Crystel "Bone" Series Candlesticks Designed by Elsa Peretti for TiffanyBy Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co.Located in Doraville, GAA pair of handcrafted "Bone" series sapphire blue crystal candlesticks designed by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Company in the mid 1980s. Elsa Peretti (1940 - 2021) was an Italian fas...Category
Vintage 1980s Belgian Minimalist Candlesticks
MaterialsCrystal
- Tiffany & Co. by E. Peretti Sterling Silver Candle Snuffer Mid-Century ModernBy Tiffany & Co., Elsa Peretti, Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co.Located in New York, NYTiffany & Co. sterling silver candle snuffer, designed by the celebrated Elsa Peretti, in Mid-Century Modern style, with an elegant, geometric design. It measures 17'' in length by 2...Category
20th Century European Mid-Century Modern Candelabras
MaterialsSilver, Sterling Silver
- Pair of Modernist Rosewood CandlesticksLocated in San Diego, CAPair of modernist rosewood candlesticks, circa 1970s. The pair are in very good condition and are capped with a round brass candle liner. The diameter of the holders are 3.75" and th...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Candlesticks
MaterialsRosewood
$475 / set - Pair Of Tiffany " Palm Tree " Motif Sterling CandlesticksBy Tiffany & Co.Located in West Palm Beach, FLDramatically fashioned with detailed palm fronds, this is a realistically modeled pair of a " palm tree " candlesticks in gleaming silver. The highly stylized " palm trees " extend u...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Sterling Silver
MaterialsSterling Silver
- Pair of Tiffany Edwardian Georgian Sterling Silver CandlesticksBy Tiffany & Co.Located in New York, NYPair of American Edwardian Georgian sterling silver candlesticks, ca 1910. Retailed by Tiffany & Co. in New York. Bellied socket with bobeche on tapering shaft mounted to domed foot....Category
Early 20th Century American Edwardian Candlesticks
MaterialsSterling Silver
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Reflections on Elsa Peretti, the Visionary Who Changed the Way We Wear Jewelry
Her simple, sculptural designs for Tiffany & Co. have become modern icons.
20th-Century Design Shines at the High Style Deco Auction
New York furniture dealer Howard Williams not only has an eye for top-notch pieces from a range of eras but also meticulously restores them to their original glory.