Tiffany & Co.

All this talk of Tiffany & Co and their battle with eBay and so I thought a quick little bit of history might not go amiss. In the antiques business we probably bandy around terms and names more than many others and it can sometimes be confusing. Just say the word 'Tiffany' and everyone kind of knows what you mean, although I've known people who think that it's a French company. In actual fact they were founded in New York in 1837 by Charles Tiffany and two decades later introduced the Sterling Standard to America, which later became the legal standard for sterling silverware. Tiffany quickly gained a reputation for diamonds, watches, silverware and gems; Charles also designed the Tiffany setting where the curved prongs hold a diamond in position on a ring.

It was Charles' son Louis-Comfort who founded the design company who specialized in Favrille glass and became famous for their art nouveau vases, bowels and glass shades. At the turn of the century he switched his attention to jewellery and while the interior design side of the business closed Tiffany & Co continued and is still going strong today.