If you thought the Himalaya Birkin is the rarest bag on Earth, think again. The prototype of the now-iconic Hermès purse, custom-made for its namesake, Jane Birkin, is up for auction for the first time in 25 years, hitting the Sotheby’s block on July 10.
The Birkin was created especially for the on-the-go actor and singer in 1984, after she told Jean-Louis Dumas that she needed a bag that accommodated her hectic everyday life. “I think I drew it on the sick bag—or the not-be-sick bag. And [Dumas] said ‘I’ll make it for you’,” Birkin told Vogue from the front row of Hermès’s fall 2012 show.
Birkin, who died in 2023, donated the original purse in 1994 to benefit the French AIDS charity, Association Solidarité Sida. It was purchased again in 2000 by Catherine Benier, a Paris-based collector and vintage store owner.
Sotheby’s sent the bag on a world tour ahead of its impending sale, displaying it in their Paris and Hong Kong maisons. Benier also previously lent it out for exhibitions at the Victoria Albert Museum in London. Now it has returned to New York, and will be viewable at the auction house’s galleries from today through June 12.
While Birkin’s bag is already unique thanks to its provenance—and visible residue from the stickers she used to decorate its leather body—it has several distinct features that never made it past the prototype phase. The black leather purse is as tall as a Birkin 40, as deep and wide as a Birkin 35, and features a crossbody strap. But perhaps most special of all is the front flap, stamped with the initials “J.B.” Now that is priceless.
