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On Fifth Avenue in New York City, there is a famous building everyone knows. The pale stone building has small arched windows on every side. The windows are filled with displays of glittering gemstones, silver, and gold, and over each is engraved TIFFANY & CO in a very stern font.
There have been famous stories set there, but the most interesting and least famous has been kept a secret for nearly two centuries. The subject of that story remains, to this very day, stationed in a niche at the rear of the store.
When Ignatius X. Tiffany set sail from Luxembourg in 1819, he carried two brown leather valises. One held all his worldly goods, and the other his jewelry samples and knick-knacks. Little did he know upon boarding the ship (according to later records, the Tufted Antler), that the captain had already arranged to divert to the Fiji Islands. These mysterious islands were, at that time, inhabited only by a small colony of primitives and criminals. Upon docking at the eastern island, Ignatius realized his error in allowing a relatively unknown seafarer to control this vital voyage. This so-called captain stranded his twelve passengers, replacing them with eleven grifters and thieves eager to escape the colony. Their story can be found in any encyclopedia, and we will end their account here.
Ignatius Tiffany emerged from the rainforest six years later at the age of twenty-eight, aged before his time. He still carried the heavier of the brown valises, and in the valise was something new. Three months later, Tiffany's arrival in New York was the talk of all the society papers. It is perhaps related that his prize from the jungle traveled with him everywhere. This item has been described as "a solid gold tiki figure, only five inches in height, decorated with more than a thousand precious gems and crowned with a headdress made from a single black Tahitian pearl". The pearl is a stunning example of primitive art, carved in the shape of a wreath of orchids. The fierce expression that graces most primitive idols is nowhere to be seen. Instead, the figure sports a haughty sneer, and holds a silver chain in its left hand.
Ignatius Tiffany consistently refused to answer any questions about his business plan or his seemingly uncanny luck, and took the secret of his tiki idol to the grave. The next mention of the Tiffany's Tiki God comes almost fifty years later, when his great-granddaughter Eliza Tiffany Erickson commented upon the legend during an interview for the Times' society page. Unfortunately, a mere week later, Mrs. Erickson left for a safari adventure in the Congo and was never heard from again. Her cousin, Atherton Tiffany, the business manager for the now-famous jewelry company, could not be contacted for details and the story was swiftly dropped from the front pages.
It would seem, then, that the legendary luck conferred upon the Tiffany family depends upon keeping the idol's involvement hidden from common knowledge. The idol itself has been on display in the main Fifth Avenue store for over a century now, with no explanation. The only clue to its origins lie in the engraved plaque upon its display window, which states, dryly: "Tiffany's Tiki God. Acquired in 1822 by I.X. Tiffany and credited to the People of Fiji." The employees, when pressed, will admit that it has never been removed from its niche, even for cleaning, but know no further details. The family is silent and the employees uninterested in its history.
In 1992, the diary of Ignatius Tiffany was bequeathed to the New York Public Library's Special Collections department, along with several loose pages containing Tiffany's earliest attempts at erotic limericks. The diary is torn in places, and stained in others, but "scientists" have deciphered several pages detailing the capture of Tiffany by a native tribe, and the time between his capture and his intended sacrifice to the native gods. The last twelve pages of the "Fiji" section have been torn out, and the next page reads only, "Booking passage on reputable ship to port of New York." "Reputable", here, has been underlined four times.
Nothing further of interest has been discovered in the diary, although access has been severely limited. The door to the Special Collections Reading Room tends to stick, and there are inexplicable, chilly drafts at odd moments. It is possible to see the diary only during certain hours, but if you are fortunate enough to catch the Special Collections librarian in a good mood, you may be able to read it for yourself. Be sure to bring a pair of preservation gloves, as fingerprinting Special Collections exhibits is punishable by the loss of that hand.
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