Why Tiffany & Co chief gemologist Victoria Reynolds ‘auditions’ every gem for the annual Blue Book collection of high jewellery

Oct 03, 2023

In an age when technology makes anything easier, the company's chief gemologist uses her eyes and hands to judge each gemstone. This feature appears in the December issue, out on November 25.

Sometimes, in this age of efficiency, it's easy to forget that there are still things that are made by hand. Objects that are dreamed up not by bots but by humans who have spent their careers immersed in the field, articulating ideas from a lifetime of experience and study.

Objects that are made with the very best materials, sourced from across the globe via exhaustive and exacting measures. Objects that are rendered by the world's most capable and steady hands, made with impeccable attention to detail.

The Botanica collection includes the Magnolia necklace, price on application.

Victoria Reynolds is one of those humans. As chief gemologist at Tiffany & Co, Reynolds personally judges her stones. "High jewellery is still all about the hand," she says. "And for those of us who know high jewellery well, the greatest compliment is when you can see something that is made by hand and not wholly by CAD [computer-aided design]. You can see that something has been etched by hand, or set by hand."

Technology, says Reynolds, "helps us be more efficient, and you can be more precise with your fit and cut", but ultimately, "high jewellery can really only be done by hand. It needs that human touch."

Reynolds is one of the most senior executives at Tiffany & Co, which was acquired by LVMH last year. She has been with the company since 1987, working her way up the ranks, and is the brand's first female chief gemologist in its 185-year history. Reynolds plays down this achievement, saying only that she was "in the right place at the right time".

Victoria Reynolds is responsible, foremost, for Tiffany's annual Blue Book collection.

Her love of jewellery began early, with a visit alongside her father to buy a birthday gift (a brooch) for her mother, and a grandmother who shared her love of gemstones. "My grandmother had a lot of beautiful jewellery and I shared that love with her," she says. "She passed many of them down to me and I wear them to this day."

Creativity flourished within the young Reynolds, who recalls frequent gallery and museum visits with her mother. "For as long as I can remember, jewellery has been in my life," she says. "And more to the point, gems. I have always felt a connection to them."

Reynolds is responsible, foremost, for Tiffany's annual Blue Book collection – its high jewellery range, representing the best the company has to offer. Here, each piece is unique, set with the best gems Tiffany can buy (which is to say, the world's best).

This year, the collection takes inspiration from the natural world. Botanica has three chapters: Wisteria, Magnolia and Orchid Curve. Each is influenced by Tiffany's history and archival designs, but this is almost beside the point. Because the point, surely, is pure beauty. And that abounds.

"It's hard, at the beginning of a collection, to see where it will end up," says Reynolds. "We begin thinking about them two, two-and-a-half years out. And when you’re talking about a 250-piece collection, it is an enormously collaborative project that takes a very long time to perfect."

Platinum ring with unenhanced ruby and diamonds $685,000.

The process involves much back-and-forth, says Reynolds, with mood boards and illustrations that can change dozens of times before final designs are confirmed. And everything, says Reynolds, revolves around the gem.

"You can have the best designers, you can have the best jewellers," she says. "But ultimately, what makes high jewellery so special is the quality of the gems." She treats every meeting with a gem as "an audition", and says she knows innately when she has found the right one.

Gold and platinum bracelet with enamel and diamonds, $440,000.

"I look at something like the Magnolia necklace in our Blue Book collection," she says. "It has an incredible morganite, which is a Tiffany legacy gemstone. It's that perfect peach colour, with a touch of pink. And I knew, as soon as I saw it, how beautifully it reflected Tiffany's Magnolia vase, one of our archive pieces which now lives in the Metropolitan Museum of Art."

When you find a gem like that, says Reynolds, "you want to lift it up and celebrate it. Seeing the gem is so special, but then when you see it set, finally, is breathtaking. It takes two years and when it is finally ready ... that is truly amazing." Hands down.

The December issue of AFR Magazine is out on Friday, November 25 inside The Australian Financial Review. Follow AFR Mag on Twitter and Instagram.

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