Katharine Hepburn Wears a custom Paul Flato Brooch in “Holiday.”

by Angela Magnotti Andrews

There is nothing more awful than to wear some new jewelry and have nobody notice it, a contingency you can easily avoid by making sure yours are Jewels by Flato, which is to say, conversation pieces. ~Ad copy from the 1930s.

The conversation piece in question was a brooch consisting of jeweled radishes, complete with Flato’s signature naturalistic leaves and a diamond tie holding the bunch of red radishes together.

Conversation pieces by Paul Flato were all the rage in the 1930s and 1940s, especially among New York’s socialites and Hollywood’s elite. Known as one of the first of the Jewelers to the Stars, Paul Flato infused every piece with whimsical humor, exquisite gemstones, and flamboyant style.

His fascination with jewels began when he encountered a Gypsy at the age of 8. Out hunting for birds in the woods near his boyhood home in Texas, he and his friend accidentally burst into a Gypsy encampment.

Wild-eyed with wonder and more than a measure of fear, they watched as a Gypsy man twisted and bent silver wires into a necklace. Paul, fascinated beyond his fear, spoke up and asked the man if he was going to put a coin in it. Before the man could answer, the two boys high-tailed it home. {1}

Days later, Paul returned to the camp. All that was left was a large patch of matted grass, blackened ash, and a fragment of silver wire. He tucked that piece of metal into his pocket, just as he had tucked the memory of its transformation into his memory. {1}

After abandoning his pursuit of medicine as a late teenager, Paul turned that boyhood memory into a monumentally successful business venture. Collaborating with the likes of Harry Winston, who sold him diamonds and gemstones, and a team of top-notch designers, including Fulco di Verdura and George W. Headley, Mr. Flato launched himself into the jewelry stratosphere.

His jewels adorned some of Hollywood’s hottest stars, including Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Rita Hayworth, and Ginger Rogers. Among his most notable celebrity jewels are a diamond and ruby bracelet patterned after Mae West’s corset, and a gold pickax with black enamel sign language clips for Katharine Hepburn. {11}

Mr. Flato also collaborated with debutantes and socialites, including Millicent Rogers Balcom, heiress to Standard Oil, who designed a heart brooch, which Mr. Flato studded with rubies and sapphires. During his heyday, Mr. Flato opened two stores, one on East 57th Street in Manhattan and one on LA’s Sunset Strip across from the Trocadero nightclub.

Alas, in 1943 Mr. Flato took a sharp nosedive. Convicted of grand larceny, Mr. Flato served 16 months* in Sing Sing. A $60,000 diamond, given to him on consignment by a trusted client, vanished from his store. Turns out, Mr. Flato had made a practice of pawning such consigned pieces.

Upon his release, he moved to Mexico, reportedly to avoid another prison sentence. Some reports place him back in the US for a spell in the 1950s. However, his old friends Winston and Verdura had upstaged him by then.

Ultimately, he reinvented himself in Mexico City, opening a successful shop on the Zona Rosa. He thrived in New Mexico, but after an 8.1-magnitude earthquake struck near his home in 1986, his family insisted that the 85-year-old jeweler return to the US. America’s first Jeweler to the Stars died amid his family in 1999, at the ripe old age of 98.

Today, Mr. Flato’s “chic, timeless, blood-stirring, intriguing, thrilling, and absolutely unforgettable” {cited} jewels are among the cream of the crop for jewelry enthusiasts and collectors.  Many of his pieces have sold at big-name auction houses for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Truly, if you have the opportunity to lay your hands on one of his pieces, don’t let go!

*some reports say 18 months

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Bray, Elizabeth Irvine. Paul Flato: Jeweler to the Stars. China: Antique Collectors’ Club Ltd., 2010.
2. Grima, Francesca. “Jewellers from the past…” Francesca Grima’s Jewllery Blog. December 29, 2009. http://francesca-grima.blogspot.com/2009/12/jewellers-from-past.html.
3. “Jeweler to the Stars: American Creative Genius.” Paul Flato Website.” http://paulflato.tntmax.com/history.
4. “Jewelry in Focus: ‘Say it in Jewelry’–Flato’s ‘Deaf & Dumb’ Sign Language Clips.” Jewels du Jour Blog. March 21, 2013. http://www.jewelsdujour.com/2013/03/say-it-in-jewelry-flatos-deaf-dumb-sign-language-clips/.
5. “Obituaries: Paul Flato; Jewelry Designer.” Los Angeles Times, July 24, 1999.
6. “Our Story.” Paul Flato Website. http://paulflato.tntmax.com/our-story.
7. “Paul Flato.” Lucas Rarities Website. http://lucasrarities.com/paul-flato-jewellery/.
8. “Pual Flato.” Wikipedia. Last Updated April 8, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Flato.
9. “Paul Flato Hollywood Whimsical Jewelry.” Learn to Bead Blog. December 19, 2010. http://blog.landofodds.com/2010/12/19/paul-flato-hollywood-whimsical-jewelry/.
10. Rodriguez-Arguelles, Ines. “The Duke of Verdura.” Jewels Bijoux Joyas Blog. January 3, 2012. http://jewelsbijouxjoyas.blogspot.com/2012/03/duke-of-verdura.html.
11. Sarah. ”Life on the Roadshow.” The Pink Shoe Diaries Blog, March 31, 2010. http://ilookgood.blogspot.com/2010/03/life-on-roadshow.html.

FBI Badge, circa 1935. Photo Credit: Greater Cincinnati Police Museum.

The year is 1924, and the jewel in question is a gift from Annie to her son, J. Edgar Hoover. It is a “small star sapphire ring.” {1} According to Clint Eastwood’s film, J. Edgar, the ring was made from platinum and set with six diamonds and a star sapphire. Upon J. Edgar’s death, on this day in 1972, Mr. Hoover bequeathed the ring and two cuff links to John Edgar Nichols, son of Mr. Hoover’s faithful publicist, Louis Nichols.

Mr. Hoover also willed his platinum watch with a white gold wristband to his other namesake, John Edgar Ruch, son of the FBI Director’s first ghostwriter, George Ruch. {2} In pictures of Mr. Hoover, his customary uniform of suit and tie is often minimally ornamented with a few choice of personal ornaments, most distinctly a ring which he wears on his left ring finger, a watch and/or bracelet he wears most frequently on his left wrist, and on at least one occasion a small lapel pin. Unseen in the photographs would be the conventional cuff links, likely FBI issue, though he may have had a few personalized pairs.

His biographers credit it him with affection and generosity, reporting that he often bought jewelry for his mother. However, there is scant record of which jewelers he favored, though several reports indicate that he was friends with Paul Flato, renowned “Jeweler to the Stars”.

It is likely that the lapel pin was associated with one of the many fraternal organizations he belonged to, either the Shriners, the Masons, or even the FBI. According to public records, the declared value of his personal property at the time of his death, including jewelry, books, antiques, and other household effects, was at minimum $70,000, with some indications that this was a very low estimate.

While the trail on his personal jewelry seems to dry up at this point, there is one piece of ornamentation that J. Edgar Hoover had with him at all times–his FBI badge. His first would have been issued in 1917. The pattern for this initial badge was a miniature ornate shield, branded “US” in the center, which was encircled by a banner reading “Bureau of Investigation/Justice Department”.

In May 1927, three years after Mr. Hoover was promoted to Director of the Bureau, a new badge style was issued. This one featured a flat miniature shield crested by an eagle. In the center of the shield, between the branded letters “U” and “S”, Lady Justice (the blindfolded Greek goddess Dike) holds the scales of justice and her double-edged sword, symbolizing the power of reason and justice. In banner style, the words “Bureau of Investigation” and “Department of Justice” border the edges.

After the 1927 issuance, two different variations of this badge style were adopted. In 1934, they increased the size of the badge and cast it with a slight curvature. And, in 1935, the present style was adopted which demonstrates a more androgynous Lady/Lord Justice. The curvature of the badge is more pronounced, and the banner now reads “Federal Bureau of Investigation”, reflecting the final name change for the agency.

The first 1000 of these badges were manufactured in Attleboro, Massachusetts by the Robbins Company. Numbered 1 to 1000, these first official FBI badges are still in circulation. When retiring agents turn them in they are typically reissued to new agents. However, one of these original FBI badges will not find its way in the hands of a rookie agent.

Badge No. 1, issued in 1935 to first-in-command, Director J. Edgar Hoover, will soon take its place among over 2,000 items from the late Director’s estate at the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, DC. Scheduled to open in 2015, the museum promises to “tell the story of Director Hoover and the FBI like no one has been able to tell it before.” {cited}

Notes
1. Gentry, Curt. J. Edgar Hoover. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd., 1991.
2. Ibid.