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SUMMARY:paul-flato - Date de vente : 09/12/2025
DESCRIPTION:Nom du lots : Paul Flato\n\nFeaturing a sapphire double cabocho
 n\, in a tapered gold mounting\, size 7¾\, signed Flato\; circa 1940.\n\n
 Accompanied by a copy of GIA report no. 6224366420 dated March 23\, 2022 s
 tating that the sapphire shows no indications of heating.\n\nPaul Flato\n\
 nPaul Flato was one of the biggest names in American jewelry in the mid-20
 th century\; yet\, until fairly recently\, appreciation for his work’s d
 istinctive style and exuberance was maintained by a small circle of knowle
 dgeable collectors.\n\nBorn and raised in southeast Texas to a prosperous 
 family of German immigrants\, Flato developed an interest in jewelry from 
 a young age. Elizabeth Irvine Bray\, whose 2010 book Paul Flato: Jeweler t
 o the Stars has helped return his work to the spotlight\, writes that “h
 is earliest encounter with jewelry both terrified and thrilled him.” Wh
 ile hiking in some nearby woods\, he and his friends came upon a Gypsy enc
 ampment. There\, Flato watched with rapt attention as a man fashioned a ne
 cklace out of silver wire\, an act of creation that was forever burned int
 o his memory.\n\nHe moved to New York in 1920 to pursue a business degree 
 at Columbia University but left early to apprentice with a Fifth Avenue je
 weler.  Soon he was selling his own jewelry\, specializing in diamonds an
 d natural pearls. His rise in reputation was nothing short of meteoric and
  he gained the respect of prominent players including Harry Winston\, hims
 elf an up-and-coming jeweler\, who later worked with Flato on a necklace f
 or the legendary Jonker I diamond. (The Jonker VI is offered as lot 160 in
  this sale.)\n\nA gregarious and charming young man with a great sense of 
 humor\, Flato was a natural salesman. He opened an elegant salon at the co
 rner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street\, the location itself a sign of his g
 rowing success. He mixed amongst high society\, hosting and attending even
 ts\, collecting clients along the way. While much of his business was wor
 d-of-mouth\, he provided jewels to Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar\, making hi
 s name synonymous with high glamour.  He developed a fiercely loyal clien
 tele which allowed his business to remain remarkably unaffected by the sto
 ck market crash of 1929. In fact\, it was against the backdrop of the Grea
 t Depression that he created some of his most spectacular designs.\n\nFlat
 o’s dramatic designs found a particularly appreciative audience among th
 e Who’s Who of Hollywood and\, in 1938\, he opened a salon on LA’s Sun
 set Boulevard. His timing was perfect. It was the Golden Age of Hollywood\
 , and the studios expected their stars to radiate glamour both on-screen a
 nd off.  Flato’s lavish statement jewels were easily picked up by the c
 ameras\, serving to enhance the escapist fantasies of moviegoers and reade
 rs of the Hollywood press. His contributions to the movie industry were so
  significant that he was credited for jewelry design in no less than six f
 ilms including Holiday starring Katharine Hepburn\, Blood and Sand with Ri
 ta Hayworth and Two-Faced Woman with Greta Garbo.\n\nUnfortunately\, this 
 celebrity status came at a price. In 1941\, his Sunset Boulevard store wa
 s robbed by four armed men who made off with nearly $50\,000 in jewels. Th
 e financial toll would have been far worse had he not just lent his most v
 aluable pieces to Columbia Studios for The Lady is Willing. Flato did his
  best to put a light-hearted spin on the theft\, commissioning a drawing o
 f a gunman with the caption “Everybody Wants Jewels by Flato” for an a
 d in the Hollywood Reporter.\n\nThough everyone did seem to be clamoring f
 or jewels by Flato\, he\, like many jewelers and fashion designers today\,
  received many requests to borrow—not buy—his jewels\, and when his cl
 ients did make a purchase\, they were often late to pay.  He received a d
 ecisive blow\, both personally and professionally\, when a 17-carat emeral
 d-cut diamond that had been entrusted to him by Fabrikant Jewelers vanishe
 d from his safe.  Suspecting Flato may have played a part in its disappea
 rance\, other members of the trade asked for their jewels left on memo to 
 be returned immediately. The race to reclaim these goods revealed that he
  had pawned many of the jewels to cover operating costs. He was arrested 
 and charged with theft and was later forced to sell the company’s assets
 . The depth of his misfortune could have possibly been softened had he not
  been so generous in extending credit to his well-to-do clients: Nelson Ro
 ckefeller\, Mrs. Alfred G. Vanderbilt\, Mrs. Frank Gould\, Lady Isabel Gui
 nness and Brenda Frazier all appeared with outstanding amounts in his ledg
 ers.\n\nTo escape his legal woes\, he went to Central America in 1952\, bu
 t he was eventually found by authorities and sent to Mexico to await extra
 dition to the United States. The process dragged on for five years and he 
 eventually found himself in the “Black Palace of Lecumberri\,” a priso
 n in Mexico City. In 1961\, he was finally extradited to the United State
 s and served time at Sing Sing prison. Upon his release\, he returned to 
 Mexico\, the country for which he had developed a good deal of affection a
 nd whose people he admired for their warmth and loyalty. Flato wrote in h
 is memoir that “a loyal friend is more precious than any of my jewels.
 ”\n\nFlato possessed an optimism that persisted throughout the many peak
 s and valleys of his career\, and in 1970 he opened a new salon in Mexico 
 City’s fashionable Zona Rosa.  Like his previous ateliers\, the salon
 ’s enticing window displays lured clients into a beautifully appointed\,
  character-filled space. The jewels produced during this period were a sig
 nificant departure from his high-glamour style of the 1930s and ‘40s\, b
 ut his trademark eccentricity remained. He was a frequent visitor to the 
 Anthropological Museum where he drew inspiration from Mayan and Aztec arti
 facts\; he developed a pared-down\, sometimes raw or “primitive” aesth
 etic. Some of the jewels continued his earlier exploration of surrealism\,
  such as a necklace made of brass bells and a bracelet with longhorn bull 
 terminals. Diamonds were used sparingly\, and he played with different tex
 tures to emphasize the hand-wrought nature of his jewels\, sometimes incor
 porating gemstones in their rough\, unpolished form.\n\nFlato maintained h
 e wasn’t a draughtsman\, but with no in-house designer in Mexico City\, 
 he was the one who created sketches for his clients’ consideration. One
  of the keys to Flato’s early success\, however\, was his ability to rec
 ognize talent\, especially in those with fine pedigrees. He engaged a cro
 p of highly imaginative designers that ensured his creations remained fres
 h\, inventive and thoroughly enticing. His chief designer\, Adolphe Klety
 \, excelled at creating more formal\, diamond-set jewels\, such as his sta
 rburst earclips and entwined rose leaf bracelets (Iots 175 and 176).  Ful
 co di Verdura who\, after beginning his career with Coco Chanel\, was intr
 oduced to Flato by Diana Vreeland. Verdura\, like Flato\, was embraced by 
 New York society but held additional appeal as the 5th Duke of Verdura. G
 eorge Headley\, who married into the Whitney-Vanderbilt family\, was pivot
 al to Flato’s appeal with the Hollywood set. Serving as designer\, muse
  and client\, Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers conceived the “puffy
  hearts” that Flato fashioned into brooches and earclips. Similarly\, Jo
 sephine Forrestal\, wife of James V. Forrestal (Secretary of the Navy unde
 r FDR) and a former fashion editor at Vogue\, was not a full-time designer
  but a contributor of ideas and designs. His eye for exceptional talent is
  further evidenced by his correspondence with Suzanne Belperron during WWI
 I\, entreating her to come to New York to lend her genius to his already i
 nspired designs.\n\nThe jewels offered as lots 171-177 highlight Paul Flat
 o’s independence from the European houses that so greatly influenced Ame
 rican design\, particularly in the early to-mid 20th century. The extraor
 dinary range of his work—from the whimsical to the sensational—suggest
 s that Flato’s desire to delight his audience may have outweighed any co
 ncern for financial stability. We are privileged to present one of the mo
 st significant groupings of Paul Flato jewels ever to appear at market and
  to herald his contributions to American jewelry design to the current gen
 eration of collectors.
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