Tiffany & Co. is heading to Arkansas — and bringing an Arkansas diamond along with it.
The jeweler and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., are partnering on “Nature Adorned: The Artistry of Tiffany & Co. and the American Imagination,” an exhibition opening Oct. 9 and running through March 29, 2027.
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Rather than presenting Tiffany’s nearly 190-year history as a traditional house retrospective, “Nature Adorned” will place jewelry and gemstones spanning 1885 to 1987 from the Tiffany Archives in dialogue with works from Crystal Bridges’ collection. Nature — both as design inspiration and as raw material — provides the through line.
“Crystal Bridges is presenting masterpieces from The Tiffany Archives in dialogue with exceptional works of American art and design, revealing the enduring influence of nature across generations of creativity,” said Victoria Reynolds, chief gemologist and vice president of high jewelry diamond and gemstone acquisition at Tiffany & Co.
Among the exhibition‘s highlights is the 27.21-carat Arkansas Diamond, one of the largest diamonds discovered in the United States. Unearthed in Arkansas in 1926, it was acquired by Tiffany in 1946.
That distinctly American provenance extends throughout the exhibition. Under Tiffany’s first chief gemologist, Dr. George Frederick Kunz, the jeweler championed American gemstones at a time when they were largely overlooked by European jewelers. Arkansas diamonds, Maine tourmalines, Montana sapphires, North Carolina emeralds and California kunzite trace a geological map of the country and Tiffany’s use of its natural resources.
Tiffany & Co.’s Arkansas Diamond.
The dialogue between jewelry and American art continues through a series of pairings. George Paulding Farnham’s naturalistic enameled orchid brooches from the late 19th century will be shown alongside paintings by Martin Johnson Heade and William Jacob Hayes Sr., revealing a shared fascination with botanical observation.
Jean Schlumberger’s 1965 Bird on a Rock brooch and Hedges and Flowers necklace, created between 1978 and 1987, are also among the archival loans. Schlumberger’s organic approach will be considered alongside Hope Gangloff’s “Queen Jane Approximately,” while paintings by Carmen Herrera and Leon Polk Smith draw connections between abstraction, geometry and the crystalline forms of gemstones.
“This exhibition reveals the power of seeing the Tiffany Archives and Crystal Bridges collection in conversation,” said Jen Padgett, Crystal Bridges’ Windgate curator of craft.
Tiffany & Co.’s Tiger Lily brooch.
The exhibition follows Crystal Bridges’ acquisition of “Mountain Landscape (Root Memorial Window),” a monumental 1917 Tiffany Studios stained-glass work attributed to Agnes F. Northrop. The museum‘s circa 1905-06 Wisteria table lamp by Clara Driscoll will also be on view.
For Tiffany, “Nature Adorned” continues a history of bringing its archives before the public. Recent large-scale exhibitions have included “Vision & Virtuosity” at London’s Saatchi Gallery in 2022 and “Tiffany Wonder” in Tokyo in 2024. At Crystal Bridges, however, the house is considered within a wider continuum of American art — connecting what came out of the country’s ground with what its artists and designers imagined from it.
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