Area jeweler helped craft past Super Bowl trophies with Tiffany & Co.

Trophy presentations are part of most championship sporting events. The presentation ceremony often comes after a hard-fought win, and the trophy is a symbol that the athlete and/or team has won the championship.

But how is that physical trophy crafted? Stephanie Perrotti, the bench jeweler at Vanscoy, Mauer & Bash Diamond Jewelers, has the answer. Before her employment with the Lancaster jeweler in 2019, she had worked for Tiffany & Co. for about seven years and was part of the team of craftspeople responsible for creating the Vince Lombardi Trophy, the trophy presented to the winner of the NFL’s Super Bowl.

She describes herself as a football fan. “I love the Super Bowl, but I don’t really watch football every week. My dad is a big fan, and his team is the {Philadelphia} Eagles,” she explained.

Perrotti, who grew up in Washington Boro and graduated from Penn Manor High School, holds a Bachelor Fine Arts degree in jewelry and metalcraft from Rochester Institute of Technology. While in Rochester, she worked for a local jeweler. “I spent a lot of time in jewelry class, but you learn a lot on the job—the ‘tricks of the trade’,” she said.

After completing her studies at RIT, she starting working for Tiffany & Co. in 2006 in the jeweler’s hollowware department in Parsippany, NJ. Initially she worked on hollowware items such as baby cups In 2012, she became part of the team that crafts the 22-inch high 7 lb. Lombardi Trophy. She was part of the team until she left Tiffany & Co. when the hollowware department moved to Rhode Island. Tiffany & Co. has made the trophy since 1967. The firm’s holloware department also crafts trophies for NASCAR, major league soccer, major league baseball, tennis, golf.

“The beautiful thing about Stephanie is she was here for 18 months before we knew about her Lombardi trophy experience. She is very humble. She is a remarkable jeweler,” said Mark Allan Mauer, president Vanscoy, Mauer & Bash Diamond Jewelers.

The Lombardi Trophy features a three-sided metal base topped by a regulation size football, whose details include the seams, laces and dimples at the laces of a regulation football but in metal. It takes the team of crafters four months to create. “You’re not working exclusively on the trophy; you have other work. It takes a big team of people to put it together; it starts with sheets of sliver and comes together in pieces and parts,” Perrotti said. Those pieces and parts include the metal laces and the NFL shield as well as the engraving.

She said it was a bit intimidating the first time she worked on the Lombardi Trophy, but she had guidance from other people who had previously worked on it. The first year she worked on the Lombardi Trophy, the New York Giants won the Super Bowl. She said having a local team win that year made it all the more special.

. “When you see the trophy presentation on TV, it’s awe inspiring. Because you’ve so closely been involved in making the trophy, you become desensitized; you forget how important it is to the teams. It’s humbling to know you had a hand in that iconic moment,” she said.

During the Super Bowl presentation, the Lombardi Trophy is often passed around between owners, coaches and players of the winning team. After the game and any associated celebrations, the trophy returns to Tiffany & Co, where it’s engraved with the winning team’s name and polished before it returns to the team.

“Being part of the team that made the Lombardi Trophy was such an honor. It’s something I will always remember,” Perrotti said.