A Hermès Birkin Once Owned By Jane Birkin Is Up For Auction

Though you may have missed out on buying the original Hermès Birkin, you could nab another owned by Jane Birkin herself.

A Birkin 30 that once belonged to the handbag’s namesake will be auctioned off at Bonhams Paris in late November. It bears her handwritten inscription and signature, making it a truly one-of-a-kind collector’s piece.

The original Birkin was custom-made in 1984 for the late, great Franco-British actress, singer, and fashionista. Legend has it that Birkin sat next to then-Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight from Paris to London and told him she needed a practical yet elegant bag to carry all her personal belongings. Dumas made her exactly that, presenting her with an all-black leather prototype that subsequently sold for a record US$10.1 million at a Sotheby’s auction in 2025.

Dating to 2009, the present Birkin is not the first created, but does hold its own distinction. Birkin took to the black Togo leather with a white pen, adding her autograph and a message to her friend (in French): “Georgia, so that you may be safe, for us, your friends. Jane B Athens.” According to Bonhams, Birkin had travelled to Athens, Greece, in April 2010 to attend the 11th Francophone Film Festival and promote her album Jane Birkin au Palace. During her visit, the Eyjafjöll volcano in southern Iceland erupted, causing widespread flight cancellations that prevented Birkin from joining her daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, in the U.S. Instead, she decided to visit her friend Georgia in Athens and gift her the bag. (Bonhams did not disclose Georgia’s last name or identify the consignor.)

Of course, this isn’t the only bag that Birkin put her mark on. She famously used white pens to write on her bags or those of her friends. She did exactly that to a Birkin belonging to her longtime friend Midori Senga, who, along with her husband, owned the Agnes Hotel in Tokyo. She also gave that bag the special “Birkin” treatment, stepping on it to soften the Courchevel leather.

“Jane Birkin’s relationship with the Birkin bag remains one of fashion’s most enduring stories,” Hubert Felbacq, director of fashion and accessories at Bonhams Paris, said in a statement. “An English-French actress, singer and style icon, she transformed the bag into an emblem of effortless Parisian chic, embracing a personal, lived-in aesthetic that challenged traditional notions of luxury.”

Georgia’s Birkin offers a direct connection to the woman behind one of, if not the, world’s most iconic bags. It is expected to hammer down for between 40,000 and 70,000 euros (about US$45,000 and US$78,8000) at the Bonhams Fashion & Handbags sale in Paris on November 25, but could well fetch more. Birkin’s own Birkin 35 in black Togo leather sold for 119,000 pounds (roughly US$160,000)—five times its pre-sale estimate—at Bonhams in 2021.

This article was originally published on Robb Report USA.

Photos: Bonhams