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SUMMARY:paul-flato - Date de vente : 09/12/2025
DESCRIPTION:Nom du lots : Paul Flato\n\nOf starburst design\, set with roun
 d and baguette diamonds\, each accented by an emerald-cut diamond\, unsign
 ed\; circa 1935.\n\nElizabeth Irvine Bray\, Paul Flato Jeweler To The Star
 s\, Woodbridge\, Suffolk\, 2010 p. 24-25 for an illustration of these earc
 lips.\n\nPaul Flato\n\nPaul Flato was one of the biggest names in American
  jewelry in the mid-20th century\; yet\, until fairly recently\, appreciat
 ion for his work’s distinctive style and exuberance was maintained by a 
 small circle of knowledgeable collectors.\n\nBorn and raised in southeast 
 Texas to a prosperous family of German immigrants\, Flato developed an int
 erest 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 spotli
 ght\, writes that “his earliest encounter with jewelry both terrified an
 d thrilled him.” While hiking in some nearby woods\, he and his friends
  came upon a Gypsy encampment. There\, Flato watched with rapt attention a
 s 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 pur
 sue a business degree at Columbia University but left early to apprentice 
 with a Fifth Avenue jeweler.  Soon he was selling his own jewelry\, speci
 alizing in diamonds and natural pearls. His rise in reputation was nothing
  short of meteoric and he gained the respect of prominent players includin
 g Harry Winston\, himself 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 this sale.)\n\nA gregarious and charming young man 
 with a great sense of humor\, Flato was a natural salesman. He opened an e
 legant salon at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street\, the location 
 itself a sign of his growing success. He mixed amongst high society\, host
 ing and attending events\, collecting clients along the way. While much o
 f 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 clientele which allowed his business to remain remarkabl
 y unaffected by the stock market crash of 1929. In fact\, it was against t
 he backdrop of the Great Depression that he created some of his most spect
 acular designs.\n\nFlato’s dramatic designs found a particularly appreci
 ative audience among the Who’s Who of Hollywood and\, in 1938\, he opene
 d a salon on LA’s Sunset Boulevard. His timing was perfect. It was the G
 olden Age of Hollywood\, and the studios expected their stars to radiate g
 lamour both on-screen and off.  Flato’s lavish statement jewels were ea
 sily picked up by the cameras\, serving to enhance the escapist fantasies 
 of moviegoers and readers of the Hollywood press. His contributions to the
  movie industry were so significant that he was credited for jewelry desig
 n in no less than six films including Holiday starring Katharine 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 Su
 nset 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 n
 ot just lent his most valuable pieces to Columbia Studios for The Lady is 
 Willing. Flato did his best to put a light-hearted spin on the theft\, co
 mmissioning a drawing of a gunman with the caption “Everybody Wants Jewe
 ls by Flato” for an ad in the Hollywood Reporter.\n\nThough everyone did
  seem to be clamoring for jewels by Flato\, he\, like many jewelers and fa
 shion designers today\, received many requests to borrow—not buy—his j
 ewels\, and when his clients did make a purchase\, they were often late to
  pay.  He received a decisive blow\, both personally and professionally\,
  when a 17-carat emerald-cut diamond that had been entrusted to him by Fab
 rikant Jewelers vanished from his safe.  Suspecting Flato may have played
  a part in its disappearance\, 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 c
 osts. 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 b
 een softened had he not been so generous in extending credit to his well-t
 o-do clients: Nelson Rockefeller\, Mrs. Alfred G. Vanderbilt\, Mrs. Frank 
 Gould\, Lady Isabel Guinness and Brenda Frazier all appeared with outstand
 ing amounts in his ledgers.\n\nTo escape his legal woes\, he went to Centr
 al America in 1952\, but he was eventually found by authorities and sent t
 o Mexico to await extradition to the United States. The process dragged on
  for five years and he eventually found himself in the “Black Palace of 
 Lecumberri\,” a prison in Mexico City. In 1961\, he was finally extradi
 ted to the United States and served time at Sing Sing prison. Upon his re
 lease\, he returned to Mexico\, the country for which he had developed a g
 ood deal of affection and whose people he admired for their warmth and loy
 alty. Flato wrote in his memoir that “a loyal friend is more precious t
 han any of my jewels.”\n\nFlato possessed an optimism that persisted thr
 oughout 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 previous a
 teliers\, the salon’s enticing window displays lured clients into a beau
 tifully appointed\, character-filled space. The jewels produced during thi
 s period were a significant departure from his high-glamour style of the 1
 930s and ‘40s\, but his trademark eccentricity remained. He was a frequ
 ent visitor to the Anthropological Museum where he drew inspiration from M
 ayan and Aztec artifacts\; he developed a pared-down\, sometimes raw or 
 “primitive” aesthetic. Some of the jewels continued his earlier explor
 ation of surrealism\, such as a necklace made of brass bells and a bracele
 t with longhorn bull terminals. Diamonds were used sparingly\, and he play
 ed with different textures to emphasize the hand-wrought nature of his jew
 els\, sometimes incorporating gemstones in their rough\, unpolished form.\
 n\nFlato maintained he wasn’t a draughtsman\, but with no in-house desig
 ner 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 recognize talent\, especially in those with fine pedig
 rees. He engaged a crop of highly imaginative designers that ensured his 
 creations remained fresh\, inventive and thoroughly enticing. His chief d
 esigner\, Adolphe Klety\, excelled at creating more formal\, diamond-set j
 ewels\, such as his starburst earclips and entwined rose leaf bracelets (I
 ots 175 and 176).  Fulco di Verdura who\, after beginning his career with
  Coco Chanel\, was introduced to Flato by Diana Vreeland. Verdura\, like F
 lato\, was embraced by New York society but held additional appeal as the 
 5th Duke of Verdura. George Headley\, who married into the Whitney-Vander
 bilt family\, was pivotal to Flato’s appeal with the Hollywood set. Ser
 ving as designer\, muse and client\, Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers
  conceived the “puffy hearts” that Flato fashioned into brooches and e
 arclips. Similarly\, Josephine Forrestal\, wife of James V. Forrestal (Sec
 retary of the Navy under FDR) and a former fashion editor at Vogue\, was n
 ot a full-time designer but a contributor of ideas and designs. His eye fo
 r exceptional talent is further evidenced by his correspondence with Suzan
 ne 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 that so
  greatly influenced American design\, particularly in the early to-mid 20t
 h century. The extraordinary range of his work—from the whimsical to th
 e sensational—suggests that Flato’s desire to delight his audience may
  have outweighed any concern for financial stability. We are privileged t
 o present one of the most significant groupings of Paul Flato jewels ever 
 to appear at market and to herald his contributions to American jewelry de
 sign to the current generation of collectors.
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