Fashion

A yellow cockatoo spotted during Jean Schlumberger’s travels across Asia and the Caribbean became, in 1965, one of Tiffany & Co.’s most recognisable design signatures, and more than sixty years later the House has returned to that same silhouette with a new collection that pushes the Bird on a Rock motif into fresh territory. Under the creative direction of Nathalie Verdeille, Senior Vice President and Chief Artistic Officer for Jewelry and High Jewelry at Tiffany & Co., the brand has unveiled a suite of fine and high jewellery pieces that reinterpret Schlumberger’s original brooch through both figural and abstract forms, unveiled in Paris on July 7.

The new figural pieces stay closest to the spirit of the 1965 original, with birds hand sculpted and hand polished in 18k yellow gold so that no surface is left untouched, their wing tips, bodies and collars engraved with chevron detailing that catches the light like solar flares. Diamonds of varying sizes are set by hand in a deliberately nonlinear arrangement across the pendant and earrings that anchor this part of the collection, animating each piece with a sense of movement that has become a hallmark of the design since it first served as the setting for the Tiffany Diamond in 1995.

Alongside the figural pieces, Tiffany & Co. introduces Wings, an abstract fine jewelry expression of the same motif that distills the bird down to the essence of flight itself. Each wing alternates between 18k gold and platinum, continuing Schlumberger’s own practice of combining multiple metals within a single design, with three individually crafted feathers nestling into the neighbouring wing to create continuity across the piece. On the platinum sections, diamonds of varying sizes are channel set without prongs or beads, a technique intended to maximise brilliance while keeping the wing’s silhouette uninterrupted. The Wings collection extends across a narrow necklace, ring, drop earrings, an articulated bracelet, a pendant and three metal-only rings available in 18k yellow or rose gold and platinum.

At the high jewelry level, the collection debuts Feathers, a suite developed over close to three years that translates the bird’s collar plumage into sculptural compositions of platinum, 18k gold and diamonds. The designs sit deliberately between abstraction and naturalism, with engraved textures echoing the original 1965 brooch while 18k yellow gold accents build depth and contrast against the diamonds. Tiffany & Co. will also present additional high jewelry creations within the Bird on a Rock line featuring figural birds positioned as though interacting with one another, extending the storytelling beyond a single form.

Bird on a Rock has functioned as something closer to an emblem than a single design since its debut, and Tiffany & Co. frames this latest expansion as a continuation of that legacy rather than a departure from it, with each new piece intended to carry forward the same spirit of optimism and imagination that defined Schlumberger’s original interpretation. The new Bird on a Rock pieces are now available in select Tiffany & Co. stores.

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Images: Supplied & Feature Image: Supplied