Nature Adorned: The Artistry of Tiffany & Co. and the American Imagination — Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, 9 October 2026 – 29 March 2027

Tiffany & Co. was founded in 1837, and for most of its history its designers looked at American landscapes and American stones as closely as European jewellers looked at the courts. Nature Adorned at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art brings pieces on loan from The Tiffany Archives together with paintings, glass, books, minerals and sculpture from the museum’s own collection, to show how native flora, fauna and gemstones sourced across the United States became jewellery and decorative objects.

The centrepiece is the Arkansas Diamond, 27.21 carats, discovered in 1926 and acquired by Tiffany & Co. in 1946 — shown here in the state where it was found. Around it are two of George Paulding Farnham‘s best-known designs: the Orchid Brooch of 1889–1893 and the Tiger Orchid Brooch of 1889, one of the enamelled orchids Tiffany showed at the Paris Exposition Universelle that year, where the firm’s naturalism first astonished a European public. From a later generation comes the Hedges & Flowers Necklace by Jean Schlumberger.

The exhibition is in Bigelow Bridge Box A and is free; no tickets or reservations are needed. The trade press reports that it is curated by Jen Padgett, the museum’s Windgate curator of craft.

Practical details

• Dates: 9 October 2026 – 29 March 2027
• Where: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bigelow Bridge Box A, 600 Museum Way, Bentonville, AR 72712, United States
• Organised by: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, with loans from The Tiffany Archives
• Admission: free; no tickets or reservations required

Cultural Heritage Online lists this exhibition for readers who follow Art Nouveau and the decorative arts of the Gilded Age. Farnham’s orchids of 1889 belong to the same moment as the first Paris galleries of the new style, and this is a rare chance to see them beside the minerals and landscapes that fed them.