Tiffany & Co. has acquired a kunzite crystal weighing more than 7,500 carats, one of the largest examples ever documented, and will transform the rough into ten custom-cut gems for a celebratory capsule of Bird on a Rock brooches. The New York jewellery house revealed that its master cutters will fashion the stone into individually tailored cuts, each destined to perch beneath Jean Schlumberger’s whimsical cockatoo design when the collection debuts next year.
Discovered in Mozambique more than two decades ago, the kunzite boasts exceptional clarity and an entirely natural colour that shifts from violet-rose to deep lavender. “Its size, purity and saturation are extraordinary,” said Victoria Wirth Reynolds, Tiffany’s Chief Gemologist and Vice-President of High Jewelry Diamond and Gemstone Acquisition at Tiffany & Co, noting that the gem is named after Dr. George Frederick Kunz, the house’s pioneering gem expert and gemmologist who first catalogued the crystal in 1902. The acquisition echoes Charles Lewis Tiffany’s purchase of the legendary 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond in 1877 and underscores the brand’s reputation for championing rare coloured stones such as morganite, tanzanite, and tsavorite.
Schlumberger’s Bird on a Rock, introduced in 1965, has become a modern icon, famously alighting on stones from aquamarine to the Tiffany Diamond itself. For the motif’s 60th birthday, ten high-jewellery brooches — each cut, set and hand-finished in the Tiffany workshop — will be offered to select collectors, who can even collaborate on the final silhouette of their kunzite. The project reaffirms Tiffany’s blend of innovative design, inventive artistry, and audacious gems.
