TIFFANY & YOUNG IS FOUNDED IN NEW YORK CITY IN 1837

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Tiffany & Co., the American jewelry company, that was founded on a day like today in 1837.

Tiffany & Co., colloquially known as Tiffany's, is an American luxury jewelry and specialty design house headquartered on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. 

Tiffany is known for its luxury goods, particularly its sterling silver and diamond jewelry. These goods are sold at Tiffany stores, online, and through corporate merchandising. Its name and branding are licensed to Coty for fragrances and to Luxottica for eyewear.

Tiffany & Co. was founded in 1837 by the jeweler Charles Lewis Tiffany and became famous in the early 20th century under the artistic direction of his son Louis Comfort Tiffany. In 2018, net sales totaled US$4.44 billion.

As of 2023, Tiffany operated over 300 stores globally, in many countries including the United States, Japan, and Canada, as well as Europe, Latin America, and the collective Asia-Pacific region, and is exploring opportunities in Africa. The company's product line features fine jewelry, sterling silver, watches, porcelain, crystal, stationery, haute couture fragrance and personal accessories, and leather goods.

On January 7, 2021, French conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton acquired a majority stake in Tiffany & Co. for US$15.8 billion and delisted Tiffany's stock from the New York Stock Exchange. It remains headquartered in New York City.

Tiffany & Co. was founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young, in New York City, as a stationery and fancy goods emporium, with the help of Charles Tiffany's father, who financed the store for only $1,000 with profits from a cotton mill. The store initially sold a wide variety of stationery items and, as of 1837, operated as Tiffany, Young and Ellis at 259 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.

The name was shortened to Tiffany & Company in 1853, when Charles Tiffany took control and established the firm's emphasis on jewelry. 

The company has since opened stores in major cities worldwide. Unlike other stores at the time in the 1830s, Tiffany clearly marked the prices on its goods to forestall any haggling over prices. In addition, against the social norm at the time, Tiffany only accepted cash payments, and did not allow purchases on credit. Such practices, fixed prices for ready money, had first been introduced in 1750 by Palmer's of London Bridge.

The first Tiffany mail order catalog, known as the Blue Book, was published in 1845 in the United States (U.S.), and publishing of the catalog continues in the 21st century.

In 1862, Tiffany supplied the Union Army with swords (Model 1840 Cavalry Saber), flags and surgical implements. 

In 1867, Tiffany was the first U.S. firm to win an award for excellence in silverware at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. 

In 1868, Tiffany was incorporated.

In 1902, after the death of Charles Lewis Tiffany, his son, Louis Comfort Tiffany, became the company's first official design director.

The Tiffany & Co. Foundation was established in 2000 to provide grants to nonprofit organizations working in the areas of the environment and the arts.

In June 2004, Tiffany sued eBay, claiming that the latter was making profits from the sale of counterfeit Tiffany products; however, Tiffany lost both at trial and on appeal.

Tiffany & Co. established their subsidiary Laurelton Diamonds in 2002 to manage Tiffany's worldwide diamond supply chain.

In 2009, a collaboration between the Japanese mobile-phone operator SoftBank and Tiffany & Co. was announced. The two companies designed a cellphone, limited to ten copies, and containing more than 400 diamonds, totaling more than 20 carats (4.0 g). Each cellphone cost more than 100 million yen (£781,824).

Also in 2009, the company launched their Tiffany Keys collection.

Since 1940, Tiffany's flagship store has operated at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City. The polished granite exterior is well known for its window displays, and the store has been the location for a number of films, including Breakfast at Tiffany's, starring Audrey Hepburn, and Sweet Home Alabama, starring Reese Witherspoon.

Beginning in 2019, the store underwent an extensive renovation, concluding in 2023 and reopening to the public on April 27. The project was designed by American architect Peter Marino.

The former Tiffany and Company Building on 37th Street is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

When it opened in 1990, the Tiffany & Co. store at Fairfax Square in Tysons Corner, Virginia, became the largest outside of New York City, with 1,350 m2 of retail space.

After the initial publication of the Blue Book Tiffany catalog in 1845, Tiffany continued to use its catalog as part of its advertisement strategy. The Tiffany catalog, one of the first catalogs printed in full color, remained free until 1972.

Tiffany's mail-order catalogs reached 15 million people in 1994. Tiffany also produces a corporate-gift catalog each year, and corporate customers purchase Tiffany products for business gift-giving, employee-service and achievement-recognition awards, and for customer incentives.

As of 2013 Tiffany still produces a catalog for subscribers, but its advertisement strategy no longer focuses primarily on its catalog.

Tiffany is known for its luxury goods, particularly its diamond and sterling silver jewelry.

More information: Tiffany & Co.

God has given us our talents,
not to copy the talents of others,
but rather to use our brains and imagination
in order to obtain the revelation of true beauty.

Louis Comfort Tiffany