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SUMMARY:paul-flato - Date de vente : 09/12/2025
DESCRIPTION:Nom du lots : Paul Flato\n\nOf lattice design\, suspending arti
 culated French-cut diamond\, signed Flato\; circa 1940.\n\nPaul Flato\n\nP
 aul Flato was one of the biggest names in American jewelry in the mid-20th
  century\; yet\, until fairly recently\, appreciation for his work’s dis
 tinctive style and exuberance was maintained by a small circle of knowledg
 eable collectors.\n\nBorn and raised in southeast Texas to a prosperous fa
 mily of German immigrants\, Flato developed an interest in jewelry from a 
 young age. Elizabeth Irvine Bray\, whose 2010 book Paul Flato: Jeweler to 
 the Stars has helped return his work to the spotlight\, writes that “his
  earliest encounter with jewelry both terrified and thrilled him.” Whil
 e hiking in some nearby woods\, he and his friends came upon a Gypsy encam
 pment. There\, Flato watched with rapt attention as a man fashioned a neck
 lace out of silver wire\, an act of creation 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 apprentice with a Fifth Avenue jewe
 ler.  Soon he was selling his own jewelry\, specializing in diamonds and 
 natural pearls. His rise in reputation was nothing short of meteoric and h
 e gained the respect of prominent players including Harry Winston\, himsel
 f an up-and-coming jeweler\, who later worked with Flato on a necklace for
  the legendary Jonker I diamond. (The Jonker VI is offered as lot 160 in t
 his sale.)\n\nA gregarious and charming young man with a great sense of hu
 mor\, Flato was a natural salesman. He opened an elegant salon at the corn
 er of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street\, the location itself a sign of his gro
 wing 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 developed a fiercely loyal cliente
 le which allowed his business to remain remarkably unaffected by the stock
  market crash of 1929. In fact\, it was against the backdrop of the Great 
 Depression that he created some of his most spectacular designs.\n\nFlato
 ’s dramatic designs found a particularly appreciative audience among the
  Who’s Who of Hollywood and\, in 1938\, he opened a salon on LA’s Suns
 et Boulevard. His timing was perfect. It was the Golden Age of Hollywood\,
  and the studios expected their stars to radiate glamour both on-screen an
 d off.  Flato’s lavish statement jewels were easily picked up by the ca
 meras\, serving to enhance the escapist fantasies of moviegoers and reader
 s 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 fi
 lms including Holiday starring Katharine Hepburn\, Blood and Sand with Rit
 a Hayworth and Two-Faced Woman with Greta Garbo.\n\nUnfortunately\, this c
 elebrity 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 had he not just lent his most va
 luable 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 of
  a gunman with the caption “Everybody Wants Jewels by Flato” for an ad
  in the Hollywood Reporter.\n\nThough everyone did seem to be clamoring fo
 r jewels by Flato\, he\, like many jewelers and fashion designers today\, 
 received many requests to borrow—not buy—his jewels\, and when his cli
 ents did make a purchase\, they were often late to pay.  He received a de
 cisive blow\, both personally and professionally\, when a 17-carat emerald
 -cut diamond that had been entrusted to him by Fabrikant Jewelers vanished
  from his safe.  Suspecting Flato may have played a part in its disappear
 ance\, other members of the trade asked for their jewels left on memo to b
 e returned immediately. The race to reclaim these goods revealed that he 
 had pawned many of the jewels to cover operating costs. He was arrested a
 nd 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 Roc
 kefeller\, Mrs. Alfred G. Vanderbilt\, Mrs. Frank Gould\, Lady Isabel Guin
 ness and Brenda Frazier all appeared with outstanding amounts in his ledge
 rs.\n\nTo escape his legal woes\, he went to Central America in 1952\, but
  he was eventually found by authorities and sent to Mexico to await extrad
 ition to the United States. The process dragged on for five years and he e
 ventually found himself in the “Black Palace of Lecumberri\,” a prison
  in Mexico City. In 1961\, he was finally extradited to the United States
  and served time at Sing Sing prison. Upon his release\, he returned to M
 exico\, the country for which he had developed a good deal of affection an
 d whose people he admired for their warmth and loyalty. Flato wrote in hi
 s memoir that “a loyal friend is more precious than any of my jewels.”
 \n\nFlato possessed an optimism that persisted throughout the many peaks a
 nd valleys of his career\, and in 1970 he opened a new salon in Mexico Cit
 y’s fashionable Zona Rosa.  Like his previous ateliers\, the salon’s 
 enticing window displays lured clients into a beautifully appointed\, char
 acter-filled space. The jewels produced during this period were a signific
 ant departure from his high-glamour style of the 1930s and ‘40s\, but hi
 s trademark eccentricity remained. He was a frequent visitor to the Anthr
 opological Museum where he drew inspiration from Mayan and Aztec artifacts
 \; he developed a pared-down\, sometimes raw or “primitive” aesthetic.
  Some of the jewels continued his earlier exploration of surrealism\, such
  as a necklace made of brass bells and a bracelet with longhorn bull termi
 nals. Diamonds were used sparingly\, and he played with different textures
  to emphasize the hand-wrought nature of his jewels\, sometimes incorporat
 ing gemstones in their rough\, unpolished form.\n\nFlato maintained he was
 n’t a draughtsman\, but with no in-house designer in Mexico City\, he wa
 s the one who created sketches for his clients’ consideration. One of t
 he keys to Flato’s early success\, however\, was his ability to recogniz
 e talent\, especially in those with fine pedigrees. He engaged a crop of 
 highly imaginative designers that ensured his creations remained fresh\, i
 nventive and thoroughly enticing. His chief designer\, Adolphe Klety\, ex
 celled at creating more formal\, diamond-set jewels\, such as his starburs
 t earclips and entwined rose leaf bracelets (Iots 175 and 176).  Fulco di
  Verdura who\, after beginning his career with Coco Chanel\, was introduce
 d to Flato by Diana Vreeland. Verdura\, like Flato\, was embraced by New Y
 ork society but held additional appeal as the 5th Duke of Verdura. George
  Headley\, who married into the Whitney-Vanderbilt family\, was pivotal to
  Flato’s appeal with the Hollywood set. Serving as designer\, muse and 
 client\, Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers conceived the “puffy hear
 ts” that Flato fashioned into brooches and earclips. Similarly\, Josephi
 ne 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 eye for exceptional talent is furt
 her evidenced by his correspondence with Suzanne Belperron during WWII\, e
 ntreating her to come to New York to lend her genius to his already inspir
 ed designs.\n\nThe jewels offered as lots 171-177 highlight Paul Flato’s
  independence from the European houses that so greatly influenced American
  design\, particularly in the early to-mid 20th century. The extraordinar
 y range of his work—from the whimsical to the sensational—suggests tha
 t Flato’s desire to delight his audience may have outweighed any concern
  for financial stability. We are privileged to present one of the most si
 gnificant groupings of Paul Flato jewels ever to appear at market and to h
 erald his contributions to American jewelry design to the current generati
 on of collectors.
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