Tiffany Blue: The Color of Money

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- If luxury has a color -- beyond the obvious choices of gold and silver -- it might very well be Pantone No. 1837.

That's the official, patented hue of "Tiffany Blue," which, along with "Tiffany Blue Box," is a registered trademark for the famous jeweler from which they take their name.

Patented aquamarine Tiffany boxes are so popular and iconic that a black market trade has grown up around them.

So popular and iconic are the silver-ribboned boxes that there is even a black market trade in them. The boxes, storage pouches and even shopping bags can be found for sale on sites such as eBay(EBAY) and Craigslist for between about $10 and $50.

A caveat, however, is that just as Tiffany & Co.(TIF) products are often counterfeited, so are the boxes -- often crudely. One recent eBay seller's profile we came across was protested with angry feedback after the promised-to-be-authentic pouch was no more than green felt with a crooked logo stamped on it.

The famous jeweler's use of the color, variously described as "forget-me-not blue" and "robin's egg blue," made its first "appearance" in an 1878 catalog. A history offered by the company suggests it may have been chosen because "turquoise was also a favorite of Victorian brides who gave their attendants a dove-shaped brooch set with turquoise so that they would not forget the bride."

As for the boxes, they too are a tradition that extends back more than a century.

The New York Sun wrote in 1906: "[Charles Lewis] Tiffany has one thing in stock that you cannot buy of him for as much money as you may offer; he will only give it to you. And that is one of his boxes. The rule of the establishment is ironclad, never to allow a box bearing the name of the firm to be taken out of the building except with an article which has been sold by them and for which they are responsible."

That corporate restriction holds to this day, creating the underground marketplace.

In fact, trademark violations and counterfeit goods were the basis of a years-long legal fight between Tiffany and eBay that was only put to rest, in eBay's favor, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal late last year.

Tiffany claimed eBay wasn't doing enough to prevent the sale of counterfeit items using its name. In response, eBay, with its entire business model potentially at risk, successfully countered that reasonable safeguards were in place, that enforcement was taken seriously and that Tiffany could benefit its own cause by working with, rather than against, them.