Why Tiffany is still banking on its bird

To gaze upon one of Tiffany & Co’s Bird on a Rock brooches is to feel an overwhelming sense of joy. The figure of the bird, almost cartoonish in design, has an exaggerated crest, feathered ruff and a perfectly conical beak that looks to be mid-peck. It would be silly if it weren’t for the disproportionately large stone it perches on, which brings it into serious high-jewellery territory. The story goes that the former Tiffany chairman Walter Hoving laughed out loud when he was first…