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SUMMARY:paul-flato - Date de vente : 09/12/2025
DESCRIPTION:Nom du lots : Paul Flato\n\nDesigned as an articulated and curl
 ed feather of polished gold\, the rachis set with round and single-cut dia
 monds\, signed Flato\; Circa 1940.\n\nSotheby’s New York\, April 4\, 201
 1\, lot 260.\n\nPaul Flato\n\nPaul Flato was one of the biggest names in A
 merican jewelry in the mid-20th century\; yet\, until fairly recently\, ap
 preciation for his work’s distinctive style and exuberance was maintaine
 d by a small circle of knowledgeable collectors.\n\nBorn and raised in sou
 theast Texas to a prosperous family of German immigrants\, Flato developed
  an interest in jewelry from a young age. Elizabeth Irvine Bray\, whose 20
 10 book Paul Flato: Jeweler to the Stars has helped return his work to the
  spotlight\, writes that “his earliest encounter with jewelry both terri
 fied and thrilled him.” While hiking in some nearby woods\, he and his 
 friends came upon a Gypsy encampment. There\, Flato watched with rapt atte
 ntion as a man fashioned a necklace out of silver wire\, an act of creatio
 n that was forever burned into his memory.\n\nHe moved to New York in 1920
  to pursue a business degree at Columbia University but left early to appr
 entice with a Fifth Avenue jeweler.  Soon he was selling his own jewelry\
 , specializing in diamonds and natural pearls. His rise in reputation was 
 nothing short of meteoric and he gained the respect of prominent players i
 ncluding Harry Winston\, himself an up-and-coming jeweler\, who later work
 ed with Flato on a necklace for the legendary Jonker I diamond. (The Jonke
 r VI is offered as lot 160 in this sale.)\n\nA gregarious and charming you
 ng man with a great sense of humor\, Flato was a natural salesman. He open
 ed an elegant salon at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street\, the lo
 cation itself a sign of his growing success. He mixed amongst high society
 \, hosting and attending events\, collecting clients along the way. While
  much of his business was word-of-mouth\, he provided jewels to Vogue and 
 Harper’s Bazaar\, making his name synonymous with high glamour.  He dev
 eloped a fiercely loyal clientele which allowed his business to remain rem
 arkably unaffected by the stock market crash of 1929. In fact\, it was aga
 inst the backdrop of the Great Depression that he created some of his most
  spectacular designs.\n\nFlato’s dramatic designs found a particularly a
 ppreciative audience among the Who’s Who of Hollywood and\, in 1938\, he
  opened a salon on LA’s Sunset Boulevard. His timing was perfect. It was
  the Golden Age of Hollywood\, and the studios expected their stars to rad
 iate glamour both on-screen and off.  Flato’s lavish statement jewels w
 ere easily picked up by the cameras\, serving to enhance the escapist fant
 asies of moviegoers and readers 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 films including Holiday starring Katharine Hep
 burn\, Blood and Sand with Rita Hayworth and Two-Faced Woman with Greta Ga
 rbo.\n\nUnfortunately\, this celebrity status came at a price. In 1941\, 
 his Sunset Boulevard store was robbed by four armed men who made off with 
 nearly $50\,000 in jewels. The financial toll would have been far worse ha
 d he not just lent his most valuable pieces to Columbia Studios for The La
 dy is Willing. Flato did his best to put a light-hearted spin on the thef
 t\, commissioning a drawing of a gunman with the caption “Everybody Want
 s Jewels by Flato” for an ad in the Hollywood Reporter.\n\nThough everyo
 ne did seem to be clamoring for jewels by Flato\, he\, like many jewelers 
 and fashion designers today\, received many requests to borrow—not buy
 —his jewels\, and when his clients did make a purchase\, they were often
  late to pay.  He received a decisive blow\, both personally and professi
 onally\, when a 17-carat emerald-cut diamond that had been entrusted to hi
 m by Fabrikant Jewelers vanished from his safe.  Suspecting Flato may hav
 e played a part in its disappearance\, other members of the trade asked fo
 r their jewels left on memo to be returned immediately. The race to recla
 im these goods revealed that he had pawned many of the jewels to cover ope
 rating 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 po
 ssibly been softened had he not been so generous in extending credit to hi
 s well-to-do clients: Nelson Rockefeller\, Mrs. Alfred G. Vanderbilt\, Mrs
 . Frank Gould\, Lady Isabel Guinness and Brenda Frazier all appeared with 
 outstanding amounts in his ledgers.\n\nTo escape his legal woes\, he went 
 to Central America in 1952\, but he was eventually found by authorities an
 d sent to Mexico to await extradition to the United States. The process dr
 agged on for five years and he eventually found himself in the “Black Pa
 lace of Lecumberri\,” a prison in Mexico City. In 1961\, he was finally
  extradited to the United States and served time at Sing Sing prison. Upo
 n his release\, he returned to Mexico\, the country for which he had devel
 oped a good deal of affection and whose people he admired for their warmth
  and loyalty. Flato wrote in his memoir that “a loyal friend is more pr
 ecious than any of my jewels.”\n\nFlato possessed an optimism that persi
 sted throughout the many peaks and valleys of his career\, and in 1970 he 
 opened a new salon in Mexico City’s fashionable Zona Rosa.  Like his pr
 evious ateliers\, the salon’s enticing window displays lured clients int
 o a beautifully appointed\, character-filled space. The jewels produced du
 ring this period were a significant departure from his high-glamour style 
 of the 1930s and ‘40s\, but his trademark eccentricity remained. He was
  a frequent visitor to the Anthropological Museum where he drew inspiratio
 n from Mayan and Aztec artifacts\; he developed a pared-down\, sometimes r
 aw or “primitive” aesthetic. Some of the jewels continued his earlier 
 exploration of surrealism\, such as a necklace made of brass bells and a b
 racelet with longhorn bull terminals. Diamonds were used sparingly\, and h
 e played with different textures to emphasize the hand-wrought nature of h
 is jewels\, sometimes incorporating gemstones in their rough\, unpolished 
 form.\n\nFlato maintained he wasn’t a draughtsman\, but with no in-house
  designer in Mexico City\, he was the one who created sketches for his cli
 ents’ consideration. One of the keys to Flato’s early success\, howev
 er\, was his ability to recognize talent\, especially in those with fine p
 edigrees. He engaged a crop of highly imaginative designers that ensured 
 his creations remained fresh\, inventive and thoroughly enticing. His chi
 ef designer\, Adolphe Klety\, excelled at creating more formal\, diamond-s
 et jewels\, such as his starburst earclips and entwined rose leaf bracelet
 s (Iots 175 and 176).  Fulco di Verdura who\, after beginning his career 
 with Coco Chanel\, was introduced to Flato by Diana Vreeland. Verdura\, li
 ke Flato\, was embraced by New York society but held additional appeal as 
 the 5th Duke of Verdura. George Headley\, who married into the Whitney-Va
 nderbilt family\, was pivotal to Flato’s appeal with the Hollywood set.
  Serving as designer\, muse and client\, Standard Oil heiress Millicent R
 ogers conceived the “puffy hearts” that Flato fashioned into brooches 
 and earclips. Similarly\, Josephine Forrestal\, wife of James V. Forrestal
  (Secretary of the Navy under FDR) and a former fashion editor at Vogue\, 
 was not a full-time designer but a contributor of ideas and designs. His e
 ye for exceptional talent is further evidenced by his correspondence with 
 Suzanne Belperron during WWII\, entreating her to come to New York to lend
  her genius to his already inspired designs.\n\nThe jewels offered as lots
  171-177 highlight Paul Flato’s independence from the European houses th
 at so greatly influenced American design\, particularly in the early to-mi
 d 20th century. The extraordinary range of his work—from the whimsical 
 to the sensational—suggests that Flato’s desire to delight his audienc
 e may have outweighed any concern for financial stability. We are privile
 ged to present one of the most significant groupings of Paul Flato jewels 
 ever to appear at market and to herald his contributions to American jewel
 ry design to the current generation of collectors.
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