Holly Golightly's Favourite Store: The History of Tiffany & Co.
April 11th 2008 05:59
NB: This article is available for sale at my page at Constant-Content
Holly Golightly’s Favorite Store: The History of Tiffany & Co.
A beautiful woman in a ball gown walks along a New York street early in the morning and stares longingly into the window of Tiffany & Co. The woman is the great movie-star, Audrey Hepburn, and this is the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This movie reinforced this famous jewelry store’s status as an American icon. Like Holly Golightly, the character Ms Hepburn played in the film, almost every woman wants diamonds from Tiffany’s!
The store is world-famous now, but its beginnings were surprisingly humble. In 1837 Charles Louis Tiffany and Charles Young opened a store called Tiffany and Young in New York which sold stationery and ‘fancy articles’. They were two old school friends from New England who shared the dream of opening their own store and achieved this when Charles’s father lent him $1000.00.
The first sales added up to only $4.38 but luckily the store was in a good position on Broadway. The fine Astor hotel was soon built across the road and more customers visited the store.
Charles Louis Tiffany’s innovative pricing policy also helped sales. In those days most customers bargained to obtain better prices at similar stores, but Tiffany put price tags on his goods and refused to haggle about prices.
The store sold an interesting collection of articles, including Chinese umbrellas, Japanese fans, and horse and dog whips! It also sold more up-market goods, such as perfume. The jewelry sold at the store in the early days was costume jewelry, surprisingly. In the nineteenth century society ladies called this ‘paste’.
In the middle of the nineteenth century the store started to sell real jewelry and another shop was established in Paris. Tiffany attracted attention by giving Tom Thumb and Lavina, two celebrated midgets at the Barnum circus, a splendid miniature silver filigree carriage and horses as a wedding present.
President Lincoln’s wife, Mary, was another famous customer. Lincoln presented her with a beautiful seed-pearl necklace when he became the President and she loved to shop at the store.
Tiffany’s became even more famous during the Civil War when it produced swords, flags and surgical instruments. Afterwards it presented a jewel-encrusted sword to General Grant. Other famous military men, including the Major-General James Blunt, were also given elaborate swords made by Tiffany’s.
Tiffany’s was instrumental in introducing standards for the measurements and purity of jewelry. It was the first to use the 925/1000 standard for silver, and introduced the standard of purity for platinum which became the national standard. Most importantly, Tiffany’s was the first to use the metric carat to measure the weight of diamonds which became the international standard weight measurement for the gemstones.
The store soon became the favorite of the ‘rich and famous’, impressing them even more when Young acquired some of the former French crown jewels. These included a jeweled corset, which belonged to Marie Antoinette, according to legend.
In the twentieth century, Tiffany & Co. became even more successful. It moved to the prestigious Fifth Avenue, became the favorite of movie stars, and enlisted famous designers, such as Paloma Picasso and Elsa Peretti, to design jewelry lines. The company opened shops all over the world. Even the color of its packaging, the distinctive Tiffany blue, which has been used since 1837, became world-famous.
When Michael Kowalski, the CEO of the company, was asked why Tiffany’s is so successful, he answered: “We believe that Tiffany’s is about things that last.” (Yomiuri Online)
Holly Golightly’s Favorite Store: The History of Tiffany & Co.
A beautiful woman in a ball gown walks along a New York street early in the morning and stares longingly into the window of Tiffany & Co. The woman is the great movie-star, Audrey Hepburn, and this is the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This movie reinforced this famous jewelry store’s status as an American icon. Like Holly Golightly, the character Ms Hepburn played in the film, almost every woman wants diamonds from Tiffany’s!
The store is world-famous now, but its beginnings were surprisingly humble. In 1837 Charles Louis Tiffany and Charles Young opened a store called Tiffany and Young in New York which sold stationery and ‘fancy articles’. They were two old school friends from New England who shared the dream of opening their own store and achieved this when Charles’s father lent him $1000.00.
The first sales added up to only $4.38 but luckily the store was in a good position on Broadway. The fine Astor hotel was soon built across the road and more customers visited the store.
Charles Louis Tiffany’s innovative pricing policy also helped sales. In those days most customers bargained to obtain better prices at similar stores, but Tiffany put price tags on his goods and refused to haggle about prices.
The store sold an interesting collection of articles, including Chinese umbrellas, Japanese fans, and horse and dog whips! It also sold more up-market goods, such as perfume. The jewelry sold at the store in the early days was costume jewelry, surprisingly. In the nineteenth century society ladies called this ‘paste’.
In the middle of the nineteenth century the store started to sell real jewelry and another shop was established in Paris. Tiffany attracted attention by giving Tom Thumb and Lavina, two celebrated midgets at the Barnum circus, a splendid miniature silver filigree carriage and horses as a wedding present.
President Lincoln’s wife, Mary, was another famous customer. Lincoln presented her with a beautiful seed-pearl necklace when he became the President and she loved to shop at the store.
Tiffany’s became even more famous during the Civil War when it produced swords, flags and surgical instruments. Afterwards it presented a jewel-encrusted sword to General Grant. Other famous military men, including the Major-General James Blunt, were also given elaborate swords made by Tiffany’s.
Tiffany’s was instrumental in introducing standards for the measurements and purity of jewelry. It was the first to use the 925/1000 standard for silver, and introduced the standard of purity for platinum which became the national standard. Most importantly, Tiffany’s was the first to use the metric carat to measure the weight of diamonds which became the international standard weight measurement for the gemstones.
The store soon became the favorite of the ‘rich and famous’, impressing them even more when Young acquired some of the former French crown jewels. These included a jeweled corset, which belonged to Marie Antoinette, according to legend.
In the twentieth century, Tiffany & Co. became even more successful. It moved to the prestigious Fifth Avenue, became the favorite of movie stars, and enlisted famous designers, such as Paloma Picasso and Elsa Peretti, to design jewelry lines. The company opened shops all over the world. Even the color of its packaging, the distinctive Tiffany blue, which has been used since 1837, became world-famous.
When Michael Kowalski, the CEO of the company, was asked why Tiffany’s is so successful, he answered: “We believe that Tiffany’s is about things that last.” (Yomiuri Online)
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