‘Mrs Richard Burton came with her secretary... and her father-in-law... to look at the jewels which had been selected as possible gifts to her.’
The date was 28 June 1965. The words appear in the daily account of business at Tiffany & Co. And so, in a couple of lines of supremely uneventful prose, is recorded one of the great jewellery encounters of the 20th century, a moment that united three of the greatest names in precious metals and gemstones: Tiffany & Co, America’s most storied jeweller; Dame Elizabeth Taylor, a jewellery collector of historic significance and insatiable appetite; and Jean Schlumberger, one of the first modern era celebrity jewellery designers.
