Diamonds have a long and sparkly history in Arkansas. Some one hundred million years ago, a volcano brought untold thousands of them to the surface in the Natural State. An unsuspecting farmer uncovered the first one in 1906, and in 1926, an eleven-year-old girl found one in Searcy that weighed a whopping 27.21-carats—one of the largest ever discovered in the United States. Tiffany & Co. purchased it, and the so-called Arkansas Diamond has resided at the Tiffany Archives in New York City ever since. Now, as part of a new exhibition at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, the gemstone has traveled home along with two other diamonds discovered in Arkansas, to be displayed alongside other masterpieces from Tiffany, plus art and minerals from Crystal Bridges’ permanent collection.
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All of it is an exploration of the relationship between fine art and jewelry, and how the natural world has inspired both for generations. “The pairings across the Tiffany Archives and Crystal Bridges help us to see both collections in a new light,” says Jen Padgett, the exhibition’s curator. “Comparing how artists draw inspiration from nature—whether depicting an orchid in a painting or transforming its form into a brooch—allows us to appreciate their ingenuity and imagination.”…