Charles Lewis Tiffany

Charles Lewis Tiffany (February 15, 1812 – February 18, 1902) founded Tiffany & Co. in New York City in 1837. A leader in the American jewelry trade in the nineteenth century, he was known for his jewelry expertise, created the country's first retail catalog, and, in 1851, he introduced the English standard of sterling silver.

His son, Louis Comfort Tiffany, was a decorative glass and lamp designer famous for his stained glass windows and art glass.

In addition to his business, Tiffany was a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and one of the founders of the New York Society of Fine Arts.

Life and career

Born in Killingly, Connecticut on February 15, 1812, Tiffany was educated in a district school and in an academy in Plainfield, Connecticut. Starting at the age of 15, he helped manage a small general store started by his father, the owner of a cotton-manufacturing company. Charles Tiffany later worked at the office of his father's mill. The Tiffany family descended from Humphrey Tiffany, who had lived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1660.



In 1837, with $1,000 borrowed from his father, Tiffany and a school friend, John B. Young, set up a small stationery and gift shop in New......
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