Black Opal at Tiffany's

Tiffany Black Opal Jewelry

The use of Black Opal in the designs of Tiffany & Co have been outstanding works of craftsmanship.
Tiffany & Co of New York city have spent 170 years making iconic jewelry for everyone but noticeably celebrities, stars and world leaders.

Louis Comfort Tiffany, born in 1848 in New York, had an affinity for hard work and a fertile imagination. He created his own magnificent designs using nature as his inspiration. The son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, who started Tiffany & Co. in 1837, Mr. Tiffany was the leading American designer working in the Art Nouveau style. Art Nouveau was an arts movement that was predominant in Europe and America in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Louis Tiffany designed his jewelry of blackberries, grapes and  flowers made with colored gemstones, he felt his depictions of lakes, hills and flower-filled gardens sustained the human spirit.

To capture their brilliant color and beauty, he mixed precious metals, enamels and colored gemstones such as opals, moonstones and sapphires.

A necklace of Black Opals from Lightning Ridge, gold and enamel designed in a grape motif reflects the foliage of New England in the autumn. 

This necklace now a permanent display of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History a gift of Mrs. F. R. Downs, Jr. & Mrs. R. O. Abbott, Jr. in memory of Ruth and Townsend Treadway, 1974.

Mr. Tiffany amassed a collection of objets d'art from many cultures, including Babylonian and Egyptian necklaces and bracelets, Benin arm bands, Spanish and Greek earrings and Hindu jewelry. 

These cultures influenced many of his designs as can bee seen in this beautiful Black Opal necklace.

Louis Comfort Tiffany died in 1933 and was an internationally recognized artisan and has shown Black Opal in its finest light.