Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848 – 1933) was the son and eventual heir of Charles Tiffany, founder of Tiffany & Co. Recognized as a master glassworker, metalworker, woodworker, painter, potter and jeweler, his breadth of work defined the fashions of society’s elite at the turn of the 20^th century. Developing his skills as a young man travelling the world, LCT, as he is often referred, drew inspiration from global cultures and techniques, diverting from the rigidity of late Victorian styles. Instead, LCT favored the grace of the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements, as is evident in his jewels.

LCT’s jewelry designs were consumed with color, light and varying hues rarely seen in the mainstream American designer’s palette. LCT was supplied with top quality gemstones through Tiffany & Co.’s chief gemologist George Kunz, namesake of the kunzite variety of spodumene and the leading gemologist of his time. As such, LCT rejected the traditional jeweler’s choice of prioritizing a gemstone’s intrinsic value, instead considering how a gemstone could convey the design and overall feeling that he was trying to evoke. Such a shift allowed lesser-used gemstones, including citrines, to increase in prominence.

LCT established an Art Jewelry department around 1902, first helmed by Julia Munson, with the intention of adorning customers with wearable pieces of art. Naturalistic motifs, color and design were just as important as the prestige manufacturing standards exacted by the Art Jewelry department’s creations. Upon Munson’s retirement in 1914, Meta Overbeck took over as director of the department.

The jewelry made while Overbeck was at the helm tends to be larger in scale than Munson’s style. With the encouragement of LCT and Kunz’s gemological findings, references to nature began to fade out with exquisite faceted gemstones becoming the main feature. Such is the case with the substantial citrine weighing approximately 130.00 to 140.00 carats seen in Lot 66.

Links to the style of early LCT jewels can be seen in Lot 65’s delicate filigree scroll work, an evolution from the grapevines and autumn leaves referenced in earlier jewels under Munson’s direction. The exact design for Lot 65 can be seen in Overbeck’s original sketchbook held by The Charles Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida, a rare opportunity to glimpse into the mind of a jewelry innovator.

Overbeck’s tenure as director of Art Jewelry lasted until 1933 when the department closed upon LCT’s death. She is remembered as a vital contributor to LCT’s legacy at the forefront of jewelry design in the early 20^th century. LCT himself remains a celebrated designer known for his distinct style and his cementing of Tiffany & Co. as an American institution. Recognized as his era’s most fashionable purveyor of taste, collectors today relish the opportunity to own a piece of jewelry history from Louis Comfort Tiffany’s oeuvre.