1928

Bird brooch

Creation details

While this brooch is illustrative of the numerous depictions of birds made by Van Cleef & Arpels during the 1920s, it stands out for its use of the Art Deco style that was coming to the fore in the arts at that time.

The bird’s silhouette is stylized here, reduced to its drawn contours, and represented by a row of calibrated diamonds set in platinum, with a few additional rows marking the division of the tail feathers. The wings and tail are of openwork, while the body, beak, and eye are adorned with onyx. A pear-cut diamond crowns the bird’s head. The brooch was produced in a number of different versions prior to this one, as the Maison’s archives attest. In its first version, the bird’s head and the base of its quills were decorated with buff- top emeralds, while a line of rubies, also buff-top, and emeralds, accentuated the tip of the tail feathers.

Realistics Birds brooches

In the early years of the twentieth century, Van Cleef & Arpels dreamed up an aviary of “magnificent birds from far-off lands,” whose “gleaming colors sparkled” thanks “to the blazing light”¹ of the brilliant-cut diamonds. While a form of stylization was already starting to be seen at that time, the animal’s anatomy and volume were nonetheless respected and hinted at thanks to the use of thin units of platinum set with brilliant-cut diamonds that gave a sense of movement and flexibility in an attempt at realism.

1927

Bird of Paradise brooch

1927

Bird of Paradise brooch

This Bird of Paradise brooch dating from 1927 is part of a set of “exotic birds from distant lands” and other species living in France that adorned brooches and hat pins initiated during the 1910s and the 1920s.

It is an outstanding example of 1920s white diamond jewelry and renders the bird’s anatomy as realistically as possible. The plumage is finely executed in platinum edged with a beaded thread, and set with rose- and brilliant- cut diamonds throughout.

Page from the Van Cleef & Arpels catalog presenting diamond Bird brooches and hat pins, 1922.

A patented jewel

The patent reproduced here highlights the technical inventiveness of these pieces of jewelry where “the setting of round, brilliant-cut diamonds on solid mounts” brings the bird to life. This brooch also stands out for its extremely pared-down design, thanks to the “baguettes set in a metal mount that outline the contours”.