Jean Schlumberger was born in 1907, into a family of textile industrialists. Preferring jewelry design to textiles, his first creations were china flowers mounted as clips, which he gave to his friends. They caught the attention of Elsa Schiaparelli who commissioned Schlumberger to design costume jewelry for her collections. In 1956, Walter Hoving, the then chairman of Tiffany & Co., brought Schlumberger into the firm as a vice president. He also invited Schlumberger to sign his creations with his name, the first designer to be given this privilege. In 1961, the Wildenstein Gallery in New York held an exhibition of his jewelry and objets d’art. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has on permanent exhibit a selection of his jewels and fantasy objects on loan from Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Jean Schlumberger died in 1987, and his creations continue to be offered by Tiffany & Co.