Welcome to Daily TWiP, your daily dose of all the holidays and history we couldn’t cram into The Week in Preview.

To this day, no jewelry company stands for elegance and quality quite like Tiffany & Co. Charles Lewis Tiffany, the company’s cofounder and a dedicated pursuer of unique luxury goods, was born today (Feb. 15th) in 1812.

Tiffany & Co. opened in New York City in 1837 as a high-end stationery store, a joint venture between Tiffany and his school friend John Young. The enterprise was financed with $1,000 from Tiffany’s father, who owned a cotton manufacturing company in New England. From the very beginning, purchases were packaged in the iconic Tiffany Blue Box.

Tiffany and Young soon expanded their inventory to include luxury items like jewelry, china, glassware, clocks, and cutlery, with Tiffany going to great lengths to procure only the finest merchandise for their store. The company’s reputation for excellence was cemented in 1887, when Tiffany successfully negotiated the purchase and sale of several of the French crown jewels.

Tiffany & Co. also began creating its own jewelry. In 1851, the company started using an alloy of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper or other metals for all of its silver jewelry and other silver items. This mixture has since become the standard for sterling silver throughout the industry.

The company had several other notable achievements during Tiffany’s lifetime. In 1845, Tiffany & Co. published the Catalogue of Useful and Fancy Articles, the first mail-order catalogue in the United States. Tiffany also created the famous Tiffany Setting engagement ring in 1886. The setting’s six prongs raised the diamond above the band, making the diamond sparkle like never before.

Since Tiffany’s death on Feb. 18, 1902, the company that bears his name has only grown, opening stores throughout the world, making an appearance in the classic film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” and even designing and producing the Super Bowl trophy. Not bad for a stationery store that sold less than five dollars’ worth of merchandise on its first day in business.

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– Teresa Santoski