In 1968, Elsa Peretti bought a modest cottage she had seen in Spain for a few thousand dollars – all she could afford at the time. Since then, her fortunes grew and grew, and now to celebrate her legacy with Tiffany & Co – a match made 50 years ago – the jewellery house has launched three new designs in her memory: a Bone ring, a Split ring and a Bone cuff in 18-carat gold set with a teardrop of pavé diamonds. Organic and sensual, they are as relevant now as they were a half-century ago, and they transport us to the village of Sant Martí Vell, in Spain’s Catalonia region, where Elsa discovered that house.
It was passionate adoration from the moment she first saw the Casa Pequeña, cradled by roses and wisteria, on a starry night. The cottage, part of a ruinous village halfway up a hill, would become both a sanctuary and a place of inspiration. Elsa’s father, Ferdinando, was as rich as Croesus but, scandalised by his daughter turning her back on the family’s conservative ways, left her to make a living for herself.
Elsa taught French and worked as a ski instructor in Gstaad before she took a degree in interior design and worked in Milan for the architect Dado Torrigiani. In 1964, she became a fashion model, working in Barcelona and hanging out with a group of Catalan creatives – architect Ricardo Bofill and sculptor Xavier Corberó among them – who were against Franco’s fascist regime and known as la gauche divine (the divine left). In 1968, Elsa moved .