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SUMMARY:paul-flato - Date de vente : 09/12/2025
DESCRIPTION:Nom du lots : Paul Flato\n\nComposed of ribbon-motif links set 
 with old European-cut diamonds\, length approximately 7½ inches\, signed 
 Flato\; circa 1935.\n\nPaul Flato\n\nPaul Flato was one of the biggest nam
 es in American jewelry in the mid-20th century\; yet\, until fairly recent
 ly\, appreciation for his work’s distinctive style and exuberance was ma
 intained by a small circle of knowledgeable collectors.\n\nBorn and raised
  in southeast Texas to a prosperous family of German immigrants\, Flato de
 veloped an interest in jewelry from a young age. Elizabeth Irvine Bray\, w
 hose 2010 book Paul Flato: Jeweler to the Stars has helped return his work
  to the spotlight\, writes that “his earliest encounter with jewelry bot
 h terrified and thrilled him.” While hiking in some nearby woods\, he a
 nd his friends came upon a Gypsy encampment. There\, Flato watched with ra
 pt attention as a man fashioned a necklace 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 jeweler.  Soon he was selling his own j
 ewelry\, specializing in diamonds and natural pearls. His rise in reputati
 on was nothing short of meteoric and he gained the respect of prominent pl
 ayers including Harry Winston\, himself an up-and-coming jeweler\, who lat
 er worked with Flato on a necklace for the legendary Jonker I diamond. (Th
 e Jonker VI is offered as lot 160 in this sale.)\n\nA gregarious and charm
 ing young man with a great sense of humor\, Flato was a natural salesman. 
 He opened an elegant salon at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street\,
  the location 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 Vog
 ue and Harper’s Bazaar\, making his name synonymous with high glamour. 
  He developed a fiercely loyal clientele which allowed his business to re
 main 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 partic
 ularly appreciative audience among the Who’s Who of Hollywood and\, in 1
 938\, 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 star
 s to radiate glamour both on-screen and off.  Flato’s lavish statement 
 jewels were easily picked up by the cameras\, serving to enhance the escap
 ist fantasies of moviegoers and readers of the Hollywood press. His contri
 butions to the movie industry were so significant that he was credited for
  jewelry design in no less than six films including Holiday starring Katha
 rine Hepburn\, Blood and Sand with Rita Hayworth and Two-Faced Woman with 
 Greta Garbo.\n\nUnfortunately\, this celebrity status came at a price. In
  1941\, his Sunset Boulevard store was robbed by four armed men who made o
 ff with nearly $50\,000 in jewels. The financial toll would have been far 
 worse had he not just lent his most valuable pieces to Columbia Studios fo
 r 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 “Everyb
 ody Wants Jewels by Flato” for an ad in the Hollywood Reporter.\n\nThoug
 h everyone did seem to be clamoring for jewels by Flato\, he\, like many j
 ewelers and fashion designers today\, received many requests to borrow—n
 ot 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 pr
 ofessionally\, when a 17-carat emerald-cut diamond that had been entrusted
  to him by Fabrikant Jewelers vanished from his safe.  Suspecting Flato m
 ay have played a part in its disappearance\, other members of the trade as
 ked 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 cov
 er 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 h
 ave possibly been softened had he not been so generous in extending credit
  to his 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 authorit
 ies and sent to Mexico to await extradition to the United States. The proc
 ess dragged on for five years and he eventually found himself in the “Bl
 ack Palace of Lecumberri\,” a prison in Mexico City. In 1961\, he was f
 inally extradited to the United States 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 and whose people he admired for their 
 warmth and loyalty. Flato wrote in his memoir that “a loyal friend is m
 ore precious than any of my jewels.”\n\nFlato possessed an optimism that
  persisted throughout the many peaks and valleys of his career\, and in 19
 70 he opened a new salon in Mexico City’s fashionable Zona Rosa.  Like 
 his previous ateliers\, the salon’s enticing window displays lured clien
 ts into a beautifully appointed\, character-filled space. The jewels produ
 ced during 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 insp
 iration from Mayan and Aztec artifacts\; he developed a pared-down\, somet
 imes raw or “primitive” aesthetic. Some of the jewels continued his ea
 rlier exploration of surrealism\, such as a necklace made of brass bells a
 nd a bracelet with longhorn bull terminals. Diamonds were used sparingly\,
  and he played with different textures to emphasize the hand-wrought natur
 e of his jewels\, sometimes incorporating gemstones in their rough\, unpol
 ished 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 h
 is clients’ consideration. One of the keys to Flato’s early success\,
  however\, was his ability to recognize talent\, especially in those with 
 fine pedigrees. He engaged a crop of highly imaginative designers that en
 sured his creations remained fresh\, inventive and thoroughly enticing. H
 is chief designer\, Adolphe Klety\, excelled at creating more formal\, dia
 mond-set jewels\, such as his starburst earclips and entwined rose leaf br
 acelets (Iots 175 and 176).  Fulco di Verdura who\, after beginning his c
 areer with Coco Chanel\, was introduced to Flato by Diana Vreeland. Verdur
 a\, like Flato\, was embraced by New York society but held additional appe
 al as the 5th Duke of Verdura. George Headley\, who married into the Whit
 ney-Vanderbilt family\, was pivotal to Flato’s appeal with the Hollywood
  set. Serving as designer\, muse and client\, Standard Oil heiress Millic
 ent Rogers conceived the “puffy hearts” that Flato fashioned into broo
 ches and earclips. Similarly\, Josephine Forrestal\, wife of James V. Forr
 estal (Secretary of the Navy under FDR) and a former fashion editor at Vog
 ue\, 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 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 hous
 es that so greatly influenced American design\, particularly in the early 
 to-mid 20th century. The extraordinary range of his work—from the whims
 ical to the sensational—suggests that Flato’s desire to delight his au
 dience may have outweighed any concern for financial stability. We are pr
 ivileged to present one of the most significant groupings of Paul Flato je
 wels ever to appear at market and to herald his contributions to American 
 jewelry design to the current generation of collectors.
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