TIFFANY AND THE GREAT SEAL OF THE U.S.

Once upon a time, Tiffany was the name of a person: Charles Lewis Tiffany, who, along with John B. Young, opened a "stationery and fancy goods store" on Broadway in 1837. Over the next 182 years, as the original store moved uptown to Fifth Avenue, and then expanded to over 300 locations, the name transformed into something else entirely: a symbol of striving aspiration, whether it be for love or a more lavish, gleaming life. The name Tiffany became an expression of the American promise of a better future — part of the national myth, captured in the plushy environs of a little blue box.

It has touched everything from the White House to the Super Bowl to the $1 bill, to literature, film and television.

Louis Comfort Tiffany, the founder's son, took over in 1902. He had been Tiffany's first art director, and was so well known for his art nouveau style — embodied by the "Tiffany lamp" — that President Chester Arthur asked him to redecorate the White House in 1882. His father, Charles Lewis Tiffany, soon invented the "Tiffany setting" for diamond rings: Instead of framing the stone with bezels on either side, it displayed the gem solo atop a band. And thus was the modern engagement ring born.

In 1885 Tiffany was responsible for the redesign of the Great Seal of the United States, which made the previously long and skinny eagle's legs more muscular, apparently to match the country's muscular ambitions. The design is still on the back of the currency.

Blake Edwards's 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffany's," starring Audrey Hepburn and based on the 1958 novella by Truman Capote, seared the Tiffany name into the popular imagination.

Since the 1860s Tiffany has had a somewhat unexpected sideline in … sports trophies. Aside from the seven-pound Vince Lombardi Super Bowl trophy, which Tiffany created in 1967, the company also makes the silver cup for the United States Open tennis championships, the silver tray presented to the New York City Marathon winner, and the Belmont Stakes cup, among many others. Oh — and Tiffany designed the interlocking "NY" logo that became the inspiration for New York Yankees branding.

To read the complete article, see:
Tiffany Is More Than a Store (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/business/tiffany-history.html)

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