Standing Straight at Tiffany's

In all the history of U.S. business, few trade names have reached a loftier eminence than Tiffany's. For a century the name of Manhattan's famed jeweler has stood as a sterling symbol of quality and good taste. During all its 118 years it has been owned and managed by the families of Founder Charles Lewis Tiffany and an early partner, Silversmith Edward C. Moore. Thus, when Manhattan Real Estate Operator Irving Maidman and Bulova Watch Co. talked of taking over Tiffany's and replacing its genteel tradition with the code of the hard sell (TIME, Aug. 8), Tiffany's Fifth Avenue neighbors shuddered with well-bred distress.

The neighbor most concerned was Bonwit Teller's President Walter Hoving. As soon as he read about the plans of Maidman and Bulova, Department Storeman Hoving rode right out to Oyster Bay, L.I. to suggest to Tiffany President Louis de Bebian Moore that he take over. Hoving armed his offer with a pledge to preserve Tiffany's character and traditions, and leave management unchanged.

For Tom Thumb & Bride. There was a lot of Tiffany character and tradition to preserve. The company's elegant pattern was fashioned by Charles Tiffany, then a 25-year-old country storekeeper from Connecticut who borrowed $1,000 from his mill-owner father, and with a friend set up a fine stationery and pottery shop on lower Broadway. Though the partners took in only $4.98 in the first three days, sales picked up when they started importing Dresden porcelain and Parisian jewelry. Then, with political upheavals in France, diamond prices tumbled 50% in Europe, and Tiffany's bought all it could, including Marie Antoinette's diamond belt and $100,000 worth of jewels owned by Hungary's Prince Esterhazy.

By choosing the best from the international jewel market, young Tiffany soon built up a worldwide reputation. The great, the gaudy and the merely rich flocked to Tiffany's. In 1850, when Jenny Lind first came to the U.S., one of her first stops was at Tiffany's, where she ordered a silver tankard for the captain of the ship that had brought her from Sweden. P. T. Barnum was so impressed that he commissioned Tiffany's to design a silver chariot as a wedding present for his two famous midgets, General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren.

After gold and silver were discovered in California, Telegraph Tycoon J.W. Mackay brought in three tons of silver from the Comstock lode and had Tiffany's make it into 1,000 pieces of table silver. One day President Lincoln dropped in to pick up a strand of pearls for the First Lady. Diamond Jim Brady earned his nickname with Tiffany diamonds, and an admirer of Sarah Bernhardt ordered for her a bicycle set with diamonds and rubies. Tiffany's even made horseshoes for the thoroughbreds of Tobacco Millionaire P. Lorillard. Steelmaker Charles Schwab once strolled into Tiffany's to buy a trinket for his wife, saw a 60-carat diamond pendant he liked, wrote out a check for $91,000 and strolled out with his gift.

From Swords to Aircraft. Most of all, Charles Tiffany wanted a reputation for quality. To guarantee it, he opened his own factory. Most silversmiths of the day adulterated their wares with copper alloys, but Tiffany's guaranteed that all its silver was .925 pure, thus introduced into the U.S. the hallmark, "sterling silver." Not only did the Tiffany factory turn out lustrous table silver and gold filigree, but in the Civil War it made swords and rifles; in World War I it turned out surgical instruments, and in World War II aircraft parts.

Through the years, even Tiffany's stationery department brought distinction, e.g., its engraved invitations for the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty, for the parties of the Vanderbilts and the Morgans. Tiffany's has always been a place where the well-bred aristocrat felt at home.* Its atmosphere of well-mannered opulence is more like a diplomatic reception than a trade mart. A greying, well-groomed clerk will compare the merits of two solitaires in a well-modulated murmur, but never, never press a customer to buy. Since cash registers are noisy, Tiffany's does not permit them; when money must be handled, clerks take it to unobtrusively placed cashiers.

And thus it will continue to be, even though last week came the announcement that Tiffany's will finally change hands. From Tiffany and Moore heirs, Hoving Corp.* bought for some $3,825,000 more than 68,000 of Tiffany's 132,451 shares outstanding. But President Moore, Executive Vice President William Tiffany Lusk (great-grandson of the founder) and the entire Tiffany staff will remain. Said Walter Hoving: "Tiffany management is worth as much as the company."

*It also exerted a fascinating appeal for some aristocrats' playmates. Sang Gold-Digger Lorelei, in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes:

Time rolls on and youth is gone

And you can't straighten up when you bend.

But stiff back on stiff knees

You stand straight at Tiff-ny's,

Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

*The owner and operator of Bonwit Teller, Hoving Corp. is 65% controlled by Philadelphia's Bankers Securities Corp., whose board chairman is Financier Albert Greenfield.

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