Tiffany and Musée des Arts Décoratifs Begin Four-Year Jean Schlumberger Archive Project

The partnership turns a designer archive into a sustained conservation programme rather than a one-off retrospective. For Tiffany, the drawings document how ideas became some of its most recognizable jewelry.

For the museum, cataloguing and restoration can improve the long-term preservation of material that spans Schlumberger’s working process as well as his finished designs. Why the Archive Matters Schlumberger joined Tiffany in 1956. His designs include the Bird on a Rock clip and the house’s distinctive enamel work.

Tiffany’s own designer history says the Musée des Arts Décoratifs received more than 3,000 Schlumberger drawings in 1995, the year it mounted a retrospective of his work.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts holds a major collection of Schlumberger objects, giving the project an institutional scope beyond Tiffany’s corporate archive. Tiffany thanked Clara Roca, head of the museum’s drawing, wallpaper and photography collections, and Dr…