A coloured diamond and onyx lovebirds brooch by Cartier, circa 1960, the birds pavé set throughout with yellow diamonds of varying hues, the wings with white brilliants, with onyx beaks and eyes, perched on an onyx branch, with two prong fitting to reverse, signed ‘Cartier’, numbered ‘635097Z’, with French guarantee marks, length 38mm. £5,000-£7,000

Provenance: Christie’s, Lot 107, sale No. 7454, 13 June 2007, London.



Literature:
Hans Nadelhoffer: Cartier, Jewellers Extraordinary, pub. Thames & Hudson, London 1984, plate 51.




Cartier’s novelty bird brooches

In July of 1940, a tiny bird brooch appeared in the window of Maison Cartier, Paris - it depicted a little bird trapped in a golden cage.

The Germans had occupied France since July 1940, bringing hardship and humiliation to a proud nation. The little bird brooch’s symbolisation was not lost on the Germans, who summoned Cartier’s director of Jewellery, Jeanne Toussaint, to see them. The story goes that Jeanne Toussaint told the Nazis that the bird brooch was a type that Cartier had always made, (partially true - Cartier had made bird brooches since the late 19th century, and several were made in the Art Deco period - Mia Farrow wore a 1920s Cartier lovebird brooch in The Great Gatsby - and of course the most famous bird brooch of all, being Cartier’s Flamingo brooch, commissioned by the Duke of Windsor in 1940 for the Duchess of Windsor’s birthday)… so the Germans did not pursue the issue.

In 1944, after the Liberation of Paris on 25 August, another bird brooch appeared in Cartier’s Paris window - its colours of coral, lapis lazuli and diamonds almost echoing the French flag. This time, the bird cage door was open and the bird’s wings were spread, ready for flight - the symbolism was obvious to all.

In the late 1940s and 50s, animal and bird themed jewellery became increasingly popular, with jewellery design moving away from the geometric Art Deco forms of the previous decades. A new optimism was returning and Cartier’s bejewelled bird brooches reflected the glorious return to glamour and the New Look styles of the post-war period.