Tiffany Schlumberger 'Sixteen Stone' Ring

A designer his parents tried to stop

Jean Michel Schlumberger was born June 24, 1907, in Mulhouse, Alsace, then part of the German Empire, into a well-to-do family of textile manufacturers. He sketched constantly as a boy, but his parents wanted him to be a banker and refused to pay for formal art training. In his early twenties he moved to Paris anyway.

By 1936 his brooches made from china flowers, originally meant for funeral wreaths and found at a flea market, had been covered by a fashion magazine. The couturier Elsa Schiaparelli hired him, first for buttons and then for costume jewelry credited 'Schlumberger for Schiaparelli,' including Harlequin clips and a pine cone necklace.

During World War II he served as a French Army officer, survived Dunkirk, and served with the Free French Forces under Charles de Gaulle in England, Syria and Lebanon. After the war he moved to New York and in 1946 opened a fine jewelry salon with his childhood friend Nicolas Bongard.

In 1956 Tiffany's chairman, Walter Hoving, asked him to design for the firm. Schlumberger and Bongard were given wide freedom, with a studio and boutique inside the New York flagship with a private elevator, and Schlumberger was eventually made a vice president. He is one of only four designers Tiffany has allowed to sign their work, alongside Paloma Picasso, Elsa Peretti and Frank Gehry. Sources differ on the year he won fashion's Coty Award, giving 1957 and 1958; both describe him as the first jewelry designer to receive it.

A cross-stitch in gold

Tiffany says the Sixteen Stone design was introduced in 1959 as a wedding ring. Its cross-stitch motif was inspired by Schlumberger's family roots as textile manufacturers in Alsace; he became known for turning precious metal into woven ropes, tassels, ribbons and stitches.

The construction is simple to describe and hard to make. Sixteen round brilliant diamonds are set in pairs around the band, and eight 18k gold X shapes sit between the pairs, so the stones look as if they were stitched together with gold thread. Tiffany says only a few craftspeople with more than two decades of training assemble the cross-stitch.

Schlumberger liked to use both gold and platinum in one piece for the color contrast, unusual in an era when formal jewelry was usually flat platinum set with diamonds, emeralds, rubies or sapphires. The Sixteen Stone ring puts that habit into a single band: platinum holds the diamonds, yellow gold forms the stitches.

It was one of the ready-to-wear designs he developed at Tiffany, along with the Gold Rope X ring and Acorn cufflinks, as opposed to his one-of-a-kind brooches and enamel bracelets.

From Bunny Mellon to Natalie Portman

Schlumberger's clients included the Duchess of Windsor, Babe Paley, Greta Garbo, Mona von Bismarck, Rachel 'Bunny' Lambert Mellon, Jayne Wrightsman, Gloria Vanderbilt, Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn. Jacqueline Kennedy wore so many of his enamel bracelets that the press called them 'Jackie bracelets.'

Bunny Mellon, one of his closest friends, loved her Sixteen Stone rings so much that she had them painted into the potting shed at her Oak Spring estate in Upperville, Virginia, according to a 2026 article.

The ring is also linked, less securely, to Jacqueline Kennedy's 'swimming ring' or 'pool ring.' Little is known about that ring. Some believe it was a 10th-anniversary gift from President Kennedy by another jeweler; others think it was a Schlumberger Sixteen Stone. The question is unsettled, and this page does not settle it.

Schlumberger died in Paris on August 29, 1987, aged 80, and is buried on the island of San Michele in Venice. After LVMH bought Tiffany, his designs returned to Tiffany advertising for the first time in years. In 2026 it introduced a Sixteen Stone solitaire, shown in Tiffany's images on Natalie Portman.

How to identify one

The classic ring is a platinum band set with eight pairs of round brilliant diamonds separated by eight 18k yellow gold X motifs. Tiffany's current listing gives a carat total weight of 1.14. A reseller's description of one pre-owned example gives 1.14 carats total, F-G color, VVS to VS clarity, a width of 6.9 mm and a weight of 9.3 grams, and notes it cannot be resized.

Examples described by resellers and at auction are signed 'Tiffany & Co. Schlumberger Studios.' The family is large: Tiffany also makes narrow, two-row and three-row versions, all-platinum and rose gold versions, versions with rubies or tsavorites, plain metal band rings, and since 2026 a solitaire whose center diamond of 2 to 2.99 carats sits in a basket of X-shaped prongs. When comparing prices, match the exact version.

An all-platinum 'Sixteen Stones' eternity ring signed by the studio sold at auction in London on December 2, 2014, for 1,875 pounds against an estimate of 800 to 1,200 pounds. The source gives no dollar figure, so it is not charted here.

Retail and resale

Because Tiffany still makes the ring, its retail price is the main reference. In October 2026 the maker listed the platinum and yellow gold ring with diamonds at $18,000. A reseller's archived listing for a pre-owned example states a retail price of $15,600 but does not say when that retail figure applied.

Pre-owned rings are offered below retail. One estate listing, titled as a platinum ring, describes a 1.14-carat, F-G, VS example with a suggested retail of $16,600 and an asking price of $12,500. Asking prices are what sellers request, not what buyers paid.

The numbers

Carat weight

1.14 carats total, 16 round brilliant diamonds (current model)

Color/clarity

F-G, VVS-VS on one pre-owned example; not published by the maker

Origin mine

Not published for this model

Cutter

Not published for this model

Width and weight

6.9 mm and 9.3 grams on one pre-owned example

Timeline

1. Jun 24, 1907

   Jean Schlumberger is born in Mulhouse, Alsace, to a family of textile manufacturers.

2. 1936

   His china-flower brooches, made from funeral-wreath flowers found at a flea market, are covered by a fashion magazine.

3. 1937

   Schlumberger begins designing buttons and costume jewelry for Elsa Schiaparelli, per Tiffany.

4. 1946

   Schlumberger opens a fine jewelry salon in New York with Nicolas Bongard.

5. 1956

   Walter Hoving brings Schlumberger to Tiffany & Co.

6. 1957

   Coty Award, the first for a jewelry designer (one source gives 1958).

7. 1959

   The Sixteen Stone ring is introduced as a wedding ring.

8. 1977

   France makes Schlumberger a chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite.

9. Aug 29, 1987

   Schlumberger dies in Paris at 80.

10. Dec 2, 2014

    An all-platinum Sixteen Stones eternity ring sells at auction in London for 1,875 pounds.

11. Jun 5, 2026

    A Sixteen Stone solitaire and the first all-metal Sixteen Stone rings are reported as new from Tiffany.

12. Oct 1, 2026

    Tiffany lists the classic platinum and yellow gold Sixteen Stone ring at $18,000.

The world in 1959

• Jan 1, 1959

  Fulgencio Batista flees Havana as Fidel Castro's forces advance.

• Jan 8, 1959

  Charles de Gaulle, whom Schlumberger had served in the war, is inaugurated as first president of France's Fifth Republic.

• Jan 25, 1959

  American Airlines begins the first U.S. domestic jet service, New York to Los Angeles.

• Mar 9, 1959

  Mattel's Barbie doll debuts in the United States.

• Apr 10, 1959

  Crown Prince Akihito of Japan marries Shoda Michiko, the first commoner to marry into the imperial house.

• Jul 4, 1959

  The 49-star U.S. flag, marking Alaska's statehood, first flies in Philadelphia.

• Jul 24, 1959

  Nixon and Khrushchev hold the 'Kitchen Debate' in Moscow.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Tiffany Schlumberger 'Sixteen Stone' Ring is number 57 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (60 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Schlumberger's parents refused to pay for art school because they wanted him to be a banker.
• His first jewelry to win notice used china flowers meant for funeral wreaths, bought at a flea market.
• Bunny Mellon had her Sixteen Stone rings painted into the potting shed of her Virginia estate.
• Only four designers have been allowed to sign their work at Tiffany: Schlumberger, Paloma Picasso, Elsa Peretti and Frank Gehry.
• Tiffany says only craftspeople with more than 20 years of training assemble the ring's cross-stitches.
• Schlumberger survived Dunkirk and served with the Free French Forces before moving to New York.