Cartier: Two gem-set bird brooches
circa 1990
Estimate: £10,000 - £15,000
Auction: 29 April 2025 from 14:00 BST
Description
Both designed as a bird in flight, 1st: Set with coral corallium rubrum wings, an oval cabochon chrysoprase body, blue enamel tail and head collet-set with a circular-cut ruby eye, 2nd: The body formed of an oval cabochon lapis lazuli, a green enamel head collet-set with a circular-cut ruby eye, to polished wings and tail, both signed Cartier, maker's marks, numbered, French assay marks, lengths 2.3cm and 2.3cm (2)
Accompanied by a Cartier box and one brooch has a Cartier certificate of authenticity dated 1993.
Footnote
Cartier has a long history of the use of birds in their creations. One of the most famous examples was of a caged bird created in the Paris workshops during the German occupation in the Second World War. A large number of Cartier's employees in France, England and America served in the war, but the Paris branch remained open or risked financial ruin. As a subliminal form of protest against the Nazi occupation, they created a bejewelled bird within a golden cage. Following the liberation of Paris in August of 1944, the brooch was transformed into a oiseau libéreé or a freed bird released from a cage. Cartier continued to produce stylised bird brooches throughout the 20th century.