Tiffany & Co. unveils its Empire Diamond in Shanghai
The 80-carat Empire Diamond was acquired by the luxury jeweller in January.
Tiffany & Co. will unveil the largest addition to its offering of precious stones in Shanghai, China this weekend: The Empire Diamond.
The 80-carat aquamarine stone is one of 500 pieces of high jewellery that will be on display as part of the April presentation of Tiffany & Co.’s Blue Book Collection, titled Colours of Nature.
The iconic New York jeweller acquired the Empire Diamond in January 2021. It has announced plans to reimagine Tiffany & Co.’s historic 1939 World’s Fair Necklace with the diamond as its centrepiece. The reimagined design is expected to be unveiled in 2022, when the doors of the company’s newly renovated Fifth Avenue flagship reopen in New York.
The Empire Diamond will become Tiffany & Co.’s most expensive item ever, when it is set in the reimagined World’s Fair Necklace next year.
The design doesn’t yet have an asking price.
At the presentation in Shanghai, the Empire Diamond will be displayed on its own, against a graphic-style background that will showcase what the reimagined World’s Fair Necklace will look like.
“What better way to mark the opening of our transformed Tiffany flagship store in 2022 than to reimagine this incredible necklace from the 1939 World’s Fair, one of our most celebrated pieces when we opened our doors on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue for the first time,” said Victoria Reynolds, Tiffany & Co.’s Chief Gemologist, in a statement.
The Empire Diamond was responsibly sourced from a mine in Botswana, Africa. The diamond’s size and ‘D Colour’ – which means colourless, and is a sign of the stone’s purity – make it extremely rare.
It will be the highlight of the jeweller’s April presentation in Shanghai this weekend, which is open to the brand’s most premium VIP’s from the region. The event will take place in a former wharf space in the city’s North Bund Waterfront area. It is the first time Tiffany & Co. has unveiled its annual high-jewellery line in China.
Over 35 different species of gemstones will be showcased at the Shanghai exhibition, including a number of the brand’s legacy gemstones like tanzanite, morganite and tsavorite, which is a variety of the garnet family.
“Transforming nature’s most vivid chromatic displays into mesmerising works of art, the collection’s bold aesthetic inspires the immersive space, where extraordinary jewels are showcased in an experiential journey through nature – earth, land, sea, sky,” says Tiffany & Co. of the luxurious showcase.