FLOAT 100 · Jewelry · No. 39
Tiffany Schlumberger 'Bird on a Rock' Brooch
A pavé-diamond bird perched on a stone the size of a walnut began as one designer's memory of a cockatoo and became the jewel Tiffany chose, decades later, to hold its most famous diamond.
- Year
- design 1965 (this example 20th c., sold 2025)
- Maker
- Tiffany & Co. (Jean Schlumberger)
- By price in jewelry
- 46 of 100
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Create a free account- Design
- Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany & Co.; Tiffany dates the first Bird on a Rock brooch to 1965
- This example
- Pavé-set diamond bird with a ruby eye on a cushion-shaped amethyst, 18k gold and platinum
- Diamonds
- 2.99 carats total weight
- Amethyst
- About 29.00 x 24.00 x 16.00 mm
- Size and weight
- About 2 1/2 inches long; 32.2 pennyweight
- Marks
- Signed Tiffany & Co., Schlumberger Std, numbered, with box
- Sold
- May 29, 2025, at auction in Marlborough, Massachusetts: $48,640 with premium
- Most famous example
- The 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond, reset in a Bird on a Rock mount in 1995
- Made today
- Tiffany says more than eight artisans spend about 50 hours on a single brooch
A bird that came from the tropics
Tiffany & Co. says the Bird on a Rock brooch was designed by Jean Schlumberger in 1965 and calls it the house's most celebrated brooch. The company ties the idea to the rare birds Schlumberger encountered on his travels in Asia and the Caribbean. One jewelry writer adds that the first version was a small diamond bird perched on a large light brown topaz, inspired by a yellow cockatoo.
The formula has changed little since. A small bird, its body and crest paved with diamonds and its eye picked out by a single colored stone, sits on top of a much larger, simply cut gem. The gem underneath is what varies: amethyst, citrine, aquamarine, turquoise, colored diamonds and, once, the most famous yellow diamond in America.
Not every account gives the same date. Tiffany and the jewelry writer say 1965. An auction catalog in Australia says Schlumberger first designed the brooch in 1961 to display a large topaz, and a seller's essay says 1956, with the Tiffany Diamond in mind. This page follows Tiffany's 1965 date and notes the disagreement.
Jean Schlumberger
Jean Michel Schlumberger was born June 24, 1907, in Mulhouse, in Alsace, then part of the German Empire, into a family of textile manufacturers. His parents discouraged his drawing and refused to let him train formally. In the 1930s he made buttons for the Paris couturier Elsa Schiaparelli, who then commissioned costume jewelry from him, and he moved in the Surrealist circles of that decade.
He served as an officer in the French Army, survived Dunkirk, and served with the Free French under Charles de Gaulle. After the war he settled in New York, and in 1946 he opened a jewelry salon with his business partner Nicolas Bongard, a childhood friend. In 1956 Walter Hoving brought him to Tiffany, where he and Bongard ran an independent department inside the Fifth Avenue store as vice presidents.
His clients included the Duchess of Windsor, Babe Paley, Greta Garbo, Bunny Mellon, Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn. Jacqueline Kennedy wore so many of his bracelets that the press called them 'Jackie bracelets.' In 1958 he became the first jewelry designer to win the Coty Award, and in 1977 France made him a chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite. He died in Paris on August 29, 1987, at 80, and is buried in Venice on the island of San Michele.
Schlumberger is one of only four designers Tiffany has allowed to sign their work. The others are Paloma Picasso, Elsa Peretti and Frank Gehry. On a Bird on a Rock, look first for his name stamped beside Tiffany's.
New York, 1965
The bird arrived in a hard year. In 1965 Malcolm X was assassinated in Manhattan, state troopers attacked marchers at Selma, the first American combat troops landed in Vietnam, and Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare and the Voting Rights Act into law.
It was also the year The Sound of Music premiered in New York, Ed White made the first American spacewalk, and the Beatles played Shea Stadium. Schlumberger's clients were a small circle of American society women, and some of them collected his work the way they collected paintings. One of them, Bunny Mellon, left 113 of his jewels to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which made it the largest public collection of his work.
The bird and the Tiffany Diamond
The design owes much of its fame to one stone. The Tiffany Diamond was found in South Africa around 1878 and weighed 287.42 carats in the rough. Charles Tiffany's Paris agent bought it for $18,000. A cutting team supervised by George Frederick Kunz, then 23, cut it to 128.54 carats with 90 facets instead of the usual 58. Kunz later wrote that the extra facets were meant to make the yellow stone 'less brilliant,' giving it 'a smothered, smoldering fire.' Tiffany has never sold it.
The diamond was first set in 1957, in a necklace worn by Mary Whitehouse at a Tiffany ball in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1961 Schlumberger mounted it in his Ribbon Rosette necklace, which Audrey Hepburn wore in publicity photographs for Breakfast at Tiffany's. For the 1995 Schlumberger retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the stone was reset as the rock under a Bird on a Rock. One catalog notes that the brooch then went on permanent display in the Fifth Avenue store.
The diamond has been reset since. In 2012 it went into a new necklace of white diamonds for Tiffany's 175th anniversary, and in 2023 Tiffany announced a fifth setting. Even so, a small diamond bird on a 128.54-carat yellow diamond is still the image the brooch's name brings to mind.
This brooch and its market
The FLOAT 100 entry is one example, sold at auction in Marlborough, Massachusetts, on May 29, 2025. The catalog describes a pavé-set diamond bird with a ruby eye and 2.99 carats of diamonds in total, perched on a cushion-shaped amethyst of about 29.00 by 24.00 by 16.00 millimeters. It is mounted in 18k gold and platinum, weighs 32.2 pennyweight and is about 2 1/2 inches long. It is signed 'Tiffany & Co., Schlumberger Std,' numbered and boxed. It sold for $48,640, buyer's premium included. The catalog gives no date of manufacture.
A close match sold at auction in Hong Kong on April 4, 2023: a cockatoo on a cushion-shaped amethyst, with diamond plumes and a pink sapphire eye, in platinum and 18k yellow gold, with the same 'Schlumberger Std' signature. It brought HK$355,600 with premium, about $45,295, against an estimate of HK$120,000 to HK$200,000.
The stone under the bird drives the price more than anything else. Tiffany's current catalog lists a new Bird on a Rock brooch in platinum and gold with turquoise and diamonds at $125,000. Since 2025 the company has also made one-off 'Legendary Bird' brooches on rare stones. The first sat on Argyle pink diamonds, and the 2026 version sits on a 38.48-carat unenhanced sapphire from Madagascar.
How to read one
Genuine examples carry both names, Tiffany & Co. and Schlumberger, often with a number. The amethyst brooches sold in 2025 and 2023 are both signed 'Schlumberger Std' beside the Tiffany mark. The bird's eye is a small colored stone: a ruby on the 2025 brooch, a pink sapphire on the 2023 one. The plumes are pavé-set diamonds in gold and platinum.
Each perch is a single large gem, so no two brooches are quite alike. One sold in Australia in 2019 sits on a cushion-shaped citrine of 60 to 65 carats. A citrine brooch described by an American seller has a ruby eye and about 3.00 carats of diamonds. Any written description should record the perch stone and its size, the diamond weight and the signature.
In 2023 Tiffany revived the design as a full collection by its chief artistic officer, Nathalie Verdeille, with rings, pendants, bangles and watches. Those are new pieces, not brooches from Schlumberger's lifetime.
The numbers
- Carat weight
- Diamonds 2.99 carats total; the amethyst's carat weight is not stated (about 29.00 x 24.00 x 16.00 mm)
- Color and clarity
- Not stated in the catalog
- Eye
- Ruby
- Origin mine
- Not stated for this brooch. The Tiffany Diamond set in the 1995 Bird on a Rock came from South Africa
- Cutter
- Not stated for this brooch. The Tiffany Diamond was cut under George Frederick Kunz
- Metal
- 18k gold and platinum
Timeline
The rough diamond that becomes the Tiffany Diamond is found in South Africa, weighing 287.42 carats (the year is given as about 1878).
Jean Michel Schlumberger is born in Mulhouse, Alsace.
Schlumberger begins designing buttons and costume jewelry for Elsa Schiaparelli, according to Tiffany.
He opens a jewelry salon in New York with Nicolas Bongard.
Walter Hoving brings Schlumberger to Tiffany & Co.
The Tiffany Diamond is set for the first time, in a necklace worn at a Tiffany ball in Newport.
Schlumberger becomes the first jewelry designer to win the Coty Award.
Schlumberger mounts the Tiffany Diamond in his Ribbon Rosette necklace, worn by Audrey Hepburn in publicity photographs.
Tiffany's date for the first Bird on a Rock brooch. Other accounts give 1961 or 1956.
France names Schlumberger a chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite.
Schlumberger dies in Paris at 80.
For the Schlumberger retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Tiffany Diamond is reset in a Bird on a Rock mount.
Bunny Mellon's bequest of 113 Schlumberger jewels reaches the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Tiffany launches a new Bird on a Rock collection designed by Nathalie Verdeille.
An amethyst Bird on a Rock with a pink sapphire eye sells at auction in Hong Kong for HK$355,600.
Tiffany introduces the first Legendary Bird brooch, set with Argyle pink diamonds.
This amethyst, diamond and ruby example sells at auction in Marlborough, Massachusetts, for $48,640.
A Legendary Bird brooch is made on a 38.48-carat unenhanced sapphire from Madagascar.
The world in 1965
Malcolm X is assassinated in Manhattan.
The Sound of Music premieres at the Rivoli Theater in New York.
State troopers attack civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, on what became known as Bloody Sunday.
About 3,500 U.S. Marines land in South Vietnam, the first American combat troops there.
Ed White makes the first American spacewalk, on Gemini 4.
President Johnson signs the law creating Medicare and Medicaid.
The Voting Rights Act becomes law.
The Beatles play Shea Stadium in New York, the first stadium concert in rock history.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 4, 2023 | $45,295 | Sold at auctionA comparable amethyst Bird on a Rock with a pink sapphire eye, sold at auction in Hong Kong for HK$355,600 with premium. The USD figure is the source's conversion. |
| May 29, 2025 | $48,640 | Sold at auctionThis example (amethyst, 2.99 carats of diamonds, ruby eye), sold at auction in Marlborough, Massachusetts, with premium. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Tiffany Schlumberger 'Bird on a Rock' Brooch is number 46 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (39 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Tiffany says one Bird on a Rock brooch takes more than eight artisans about 50 hours to make.
- George Frederick Kunz cut the Tiffany Diamond with 90 facets to make it less brilliant, so its yellow would read as 'a smothered, smoldering fire.'
- The Tiffany Diamond was bought in the rough for $18,000 and has never been sold.
- Only four people are reported to have worn the Tiffany Diamond: Mary Whitehouse, Audrey Hepburn, Lady Gaga at the 2019 Academy Awards, and Beyoncé in a 2021 ad campaign.
- Schlumberger is one of only four designers Tiffany has ever allowed to sign their work.
- Schlumberger never had formal art training; his parents would not allow it.
- Diana Vreeland said of his work: 'A Schlumberger lights up the whole room!'
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026