Set in Memory

Peter Schneirla
Chief gemologist, Tiffany & Co.

"When I joined Tiffany, 30 years ago, the company was relatively small, and one of my responsibilities was overseeing the estate and appraisal department. One afternoon in 1984, some people walked in with their grandmother’s garland-style brooch. It was stamped Tiffany & Co. and struck me as quite unusual. I noticed that the pearls were Mississippi River pearls and that the Montana sapphires were unusually fine and large and of such uniform color that they appeared to have been cut from the same rough stone. The company was short on cash, but I went to the chief executive’s office and, after a lot of pleading, was told I could buy the piece. The brooch proved to be by Paulding Farnham, the firm’s gifted late 19th-century designer, and to have been shown at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900. It became the first piece in what is now the company’s world-class collection. There had originally been no thought of making a permanent collection—we are not a museum—but these jewels are part of our legacy."

Courtesy Tiffany & Co.