|
FIRE IN THE EARTH
|
||
|
|
||
|
popular,
Japanese papier-mache" and terra-cotta wares, umbrellas, walking
sticks, desks, dressing cases, cabinets, fans, fine stationery,
pottery, fancy articles and curiosities of every description. But no
diamonds.
A
little later they took over the store at 260 Broadway and added such
items as cutlery, clocks, "fancy jewelry," Bohemian glassware, French
and Dresden China and porcelain to their stock. With business picking
up, the young men took larger quarters at 271 Broadway, almost directly
across the street and in 1853 moved to 550 Broadway, remaining there
until 1870 when Tiffany erected the building which now houses the
Amalgamated Bank and union offices at Union Square and 15th Street.
Possibilities of a Fifth Avenue location began to intrigue the
officials and this they did attain early in the present century,
putting up a $5,000,000 building of marble, iron, and terra cotta, an
example of the second period of early Venetian architecture, at Fifth
Avenue and 37th Street. There they remained until 1940 when they moved
into their present home, a gorgeous seven-story structure of
brown-colored limestone, trimmed with highly polished maible and dull
stainless steel and with interiors which cannot be matched by any store
of any kind in the world today.
John
Chandler Moore, chairman of the Tiffany board, is the son of Edward C.
Moore, one of the original Tiffany partners, and Charles Lewis Tiffany,
present vice-chairman, is a grandson of the founder.
It
was about the middle of the nineteenth century that Tiffany's began to
make investments in precious gems. During the "political disturbances"
in Paris in 1848 they made large purchases of jewels, a move which
carried them to a front rank among the diamond merchants. Great
purchases of historic diamonds followed. The then famous collection
(156)
|
||
|
|
||