See the first images of the 2026 Tiffany Blue Book collection
Top: Tiffany & Co. Jasmine Hidden Garden kunzite necklace from the 2026 Blue Book collection, 800-843-3269
There is a Tiffany & Co. necklace, circa 1878, on view in Gallery 743 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is marked by multicolored gold birds and flowers applied to openwork plaques. Steps away is Dogwood, a circa 1902–15 Louis Comfort Tiffany glass window noted for its “asymmetrical composition”—and for having nature as its primary inspiration.
Man seated at a table holding a wooden object.
NAME THAT KUNZ
George Kunz is someone I think about all the time,” says Tiffany chief gemologist Victoria Reynolds of her legendary forebear, whose name was given to the pink crystal specimen sent to Tiffany from a mine in San Diego and identified in 1902. (He also assembled J.P. Morgan’s stone collection.) Using Tiffany’s legacy gemstones is a deeply considered act. “It has to be right for the collection, and clearly it was for this one,” Reynolds says of the Brazilian stones—all cut from the same rough—in a necklace (see top) from the 2026 Blue Book: Hidden Garden collection.
It is always tempting when considering a jewelry house with more than a century of legacy to connect the dots between eras, to trace the relay of inspiration and ideas between creative imaginations. How did the birds of that Charles Lewis Tiffany–era necklace beget Louis Comfort Tiffany’s peacocks, Jean Schlumberger’s Bird on a Rock, and Nathalie Verdeille’s Wings? Did the asymmetry of that window find a way into Schlumberger’s mantra to “try to make everything look as if it were growing, uneven, at random, organic, in motion?” Is its palette of purples and blues the source of the amethysts and sapphires in Schlumberger’s Arrows clip? And where do all these heritage codes and clues lead today? The answers are written in a blue book.
The Tiffany Blue Book itself has deep roots. This annual ritual began in 1845 with the house founder, as a catalog of jewelry and other offerings, but it soon evolved into a showcase for Tiffany & Co. High Jewelry, the one-of-a-kind pieces unveiled each year that are handcrafted from rare stones procured around the world, each collection years in the making. (As the 2026 Blue Book reaches us, the team is already masterminding Blue Book 2029.)
Tiffany & Co. Butterfly fancy vivid yellow diamond necklace and earrings from the 2026 Blue Book collection, 800-843-3269
Elegant necklace featuring a prominent yellow gemstone.
THE COLOR OF DIAMONDS
Nathalie Verdeille, chief artistic officer at Tiffany since 2021, is respectful—even reverent—but she’s not intimidated by history. She faces it head on. Starting with her first Blue Book collection, 2023’s Out of the Blue, she has paid open homage to Schlumberger. The 2026 Blue Book, Hidden Garden, is equally inspired by the legendary designer, who joined Tiffany in 1956 and set off a jewelry revolution. His voluptuous color palette is still evident—as are the wonder and wildness of nature—but this is not repetition or strict nostalgia.
“Over time,” Verdeille says, “my relationship with Schlumberger’s legacy has become less literal. It was by studying his drawings, his creations, and his mechanisms in depth that I was gradually able to detach myself from them, retaining only the essence. It’s an energy and mindset that still have a Schlumberger-esque tone but are entirely my own. What interests me is finding the balance between heritage and that touch of unexpected flair. Schlumberger’s legacy becomes a starting point—an invitation to dare.”
Let’s put words to jewelry. In 1962 Schlumberger designed the Jasmine necklace for his friend and patron Rachel “Bunny” Mellon. The focal point is a suite of colored sapphires woven together by buds and hanging blossoms and intertwined with diamond ribbons. It’s an iconic piece. A Tiffany High Jewelry collection titled Hidden Garden and inspired by Schlumberger’s legacy would be a natural place for it to bloom once more. The seeds, so to speak, remain, but it is now Verdeille doing the planting. “My approach begins,” she says, “with the reinterpretation of heritage pieces. In this collection the Jasmine necklace takes on a more graphic, structured quality, expressed through a geometric platinum trellis motif. We have also steered it toward a more contemporary expression with two streamlined versions: one monochrome, crafted in platinum and diamonds; the second, bicolor featuring kunzites warmed by yellow gold.”
Tiffany & Co. Butterfly padparadscha sapphire earrings, necklace, and ring from the 2026 Blue Book collection, 800-843-3269.
Jewelry piece featuring blue gemstones and moonstone.
THE SAPPHIRE STATE
“Tiffany’s heritage encompasses a realm of pure imagination—a bestiary of winged creatures that I have continued to evolve,” says Nathalie Verdeille, chief artistic officer. Her 2026 Blue Book adds to the menagerie with a butterfly composed of Padparadscha sapphires and punctuated by Montana sapphires, a stone championed by Tiffany in the early 20th century (an example can be seen in a necklace by Louis Comfort Tiffany on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Verdeille has applied a similar method to some of Schlumberger’s most recognizable motifs: the Butterfly presented here in Padparadscha and Montana sapphires, the Birds free from their perches, above moving chrysoprase beads, the two-tone palette another “essential playground. These codes are not static signatures,” Verdeille says. “They are a living language. My role is to evolve them, to stretch them, to shift them.”
In this “living language” the stones remain an unwavering lexicon. At Tiffany they speak history. Say kunzite, say tanzanite, say tsavorite, say morganite at any jewelry house, and Tiffany automatically enters the chat. The house, beginning with its first chief gemologist, George F. Kunz (he of kunzite fame), discovered or introduced these gemstones to the market. “It is part of our DNA,” says Victoria Reynolds, Tiffany & Co.’s current chief gemologist (and first female one). “It really sets us apart. It’s very important to the house code. But what makes it so wonderful is that through Nathalie’s lens they are recreated. The stone is constant; the design is exceptional and innovative.”
The Hidden Garden kunzite necklace pictured at top evidence. A High Jewelry collection begins—often years before it is officially presented—with a moodboard. The one Verdeille created for Hidden Garden was, according to Reynolds, replete with images she described as “juicy, succulent. Nathalie has a great eye for color, and she really takes me inside her head, what she’s looking for from a color standpoint and a texture standpoint. This one was a lot of fun—it sent our minds to Guadeloupe, it brought us into the forest.” And so began an almost six-month journey during which Reynolds and her team scoured the world and presented the stones.
Tiffany & Co. Twin Bud unenhanced emerald necklace from the 2026 Blue Book collection, 800-843-3269
Floral brooch featuring pink stones and intricate metalwork.
SOMEONE SAID EMERALDS
The pear-shaped emeralds are from Zambia. “It’s beautiful material,” says Reynolds. “Very clean.” Verdeille wanted to use small cabochons to achieve a thorn effect. The search was on for cabochons of high quality but also small enough to create the detail. And then—and this is why they call it High Jewelry—a piece of rough was found and custom-cut, and these beautiful emerald cabs were born.
The primary stones of a design come first. The kunzites were discovered in Brazil, all cut from the same rough. Like Schlumberger, Verdeille uses the spectrum of stones in the Tiffany arsenal the way an artist uses a palette. Schlumberger was not overly concerned with the cash value of his rocks. “That he painted with gemstones is the best way I can describe it,” Reynolds says. Verdeille explains that for her, “each stone becomes a pigment. I work like a pointillist painter.” The eye and the hand, however, are each their own. A Butterfly suite in Verdeille’s Hidden Garden collection takes the well-known Schlumberger creature and sets it free on a lariat-style necklace. Its body is composed of a rare suite of Padparadscha sapphires found by Reynolds and her team and punctuated with Montana sapphires, another Tiffany legacy gemstone, which were in a company safe. (To further underscore the kind of time travel a jewel can inspire, not far from the vitrine at the Met that holds that gold Tiffany necklace inscribed with birds is a Louis Comfort Tiffany moonstone and Montana sapphire necklace, circa 1910.)
As with so many pieces in this collection, it weaves many stories into one. As does Verdeille. Legacy, Schlumberger, stones, artisans—all are voices in Verdeille’s mind when she’s creating. “I like to think of this Blue Book collection,” she says of her fourth High Jewelry endeavor, “as a form of interpretation, much like a conductor before a musical score. And finally there is one last voice: that of the client. When a piece of jewelry is worn, it comes alive. It is at that moment that everything becomes harmonious—when all these voices merge into a single emotion.”
