Designer ? Who Was He?

DESIGNER : TIFFANY, CHARLES LEWIS (1812-1902).

• 

  NAME: Charles Lewis Tiffany

  
  
• OCCUPATION: Artist
• BIRTH DATE:  1812
• DEATH DATE:  1902
• PLACE OF BIRTH:  Killingly ,Connecticut
  PLACE OF DEATH: New York City, New York
  ALTERNATE NAME(S): Charles Lewis Tiffany,

An American merchant.
He was born at Killingly, Connecticut and after receiving an academic education at Plainfield Academy, and serving an apprenticeship in a cotton manufactory, he removed to New York City in 1837.

There in partnership with a fellow townsman, John B. Young, on a borrowed capital of $1000, he established at 259 Broadway, next door to A. T. Stewart's, a stationery and fancy-goods store.

The venture prospered, and gradually the jewelry part of the business became the most important. In 1847 the firm began the manufacture of gold jewelry. In 1848, when as a result of widespread revolutionary movements in Europe the price of diamonds felt one-half, Mr. Tiffany sent word to his partner. who was then in Paris, to buy all the diamonds he could. This was done; the house reaped a large fortune and became one of the principal firms of diamond merchants in the world. Several times rapidly increasing business necessitated moving farther up town and the firm name was changed somewhat, finally becoming Tiffany & Co. in 1851.

At that time a branch house was established in Paris. During the Civil War Mr. Tiffany placed his store and resources at the disposal of the government, and it became for a time one of the principal depots of military supplies. During the draft riots (q.v.) in 1863 the store was barricaded and the clerks were armed in preparation for a threatened attack of the mob. In 1868 the firm was incorporated and in 1870 removed to a specially constructed building on Union Square. At that time, in addition to the Paris branch, a branch house was maintained in London, and an office and watch factory in Geneva, Switzerland, and the house took rank as the leading importers of gems and works of art as well as the chief manufacturing jewelers in America. In 1905 the firm removed to a splendid new building at Fifth Avenue and Thirty-seventh Street.

Paulding Farnham

Mr. Tiffany was the first to adopt the department-store plan for the jewelry business and was the originator of many ideas and methods in the jewelry trade since generally adopted. The sterling silver standard 0.925 fine, adopted by him in 1851, became the recognized standard throughout the country. Mr. Tiffany was made a member of the French Legion of Honor in 1878 and received at various times decorations from other foreign rulers. He was a liberal patron of the fine arts, and did much to encourage and promote the study and knowledge of art in America