Sotheby's Frank Files Verdura

[Music] hello my name is Frank Everett and welcome to Frank's files it is my privilege today to be at one of the most storied jewelry houses in all of New York and certainly the most beautiful jewelry Salon verdura also it's my privilege to be with Nico landrigan the president of verdura Nico thank you very much for having us thrilled to have you let's just jump right in who was foco was a fascinating man he was a nobleman he was a sicilian Duke and he was born in a Palazzo in Palermo and his grandmother was a princess and his father was a Duke he inherited his title in 1923 but the fortune went to a cousin so ah like so many people who have had to reinvent themselves he took his talent for really painting originally and through interesting connections and introductions Cole Porter introduced him to Coco Chanel right and he moved to Paris and started designing textiles actually originally for Coco textiles and then very soon thereafter through their friendship started designing her personal jewelry as a favor right I know he took her on a trip where he he first exposed her to Byzantine art which ended up really inspiring the famous Maltese cross cuff that she wore forever well those cuffs really are that seminal point of his career yeah they're it and we're very lucky to have brought them back so the Maltese cross cups are actually the ones at the Met that's right right but this one I think is also Chanel's yes it is and it's also in our Museum collection about 111 pieces that we don't sell and still very much in that Byzantine style even though it's not the classic Maltese cross very much large colorful gemstones pressed into gold yeah very almost almost barbaric in their boldness amazing so now let's get Fedora from Chanel into his own business and more importantly to New York when did he come to New York 1934 Diana Breeland had just said you know Paris is great but you really should go check out this new world thing happening yeah she was the one who introduced him to Paul Plato he worked for flato and became his head designer from 1934 to 1939 when he actually had this opportunity to start his own business here in New York for me another real Hallmark of the House of verdura and verdura the man is the incredible relationships that he had with clients nobody did it like Fedora I have to go right to this necklace this to me is one of the great holy Grails of the jewelry world this incredible Emerald scarf necklace these Stones actually were bought by William and Dorothy Paley Bill started CBS and as he grew his business he decided at one point to go to South America and buy up radio and television stations and his wife Dorothy was invited along and what do you do while you're your husband's buying radio stations in Columbia right you buy some emeralds why not she came back to New York with a little bag of these cabochell emeralds and she handed them to foco De verdura and said listen I I I'm not really sure why I bought these or what for but I think it'd make a great necklace can you come up with something that I can wear in the daytime so you know he's double checked his ground rules okay no diamonds no diamonds daytime and he came up with three different designs wow and actually the title page of the verdura book is the one she chose it's so simple and I love just because there are no diamonds it's perfect for daytime right exactly perfect day look I think another one of the great artists Patron relationships were with the melons they really worked closely with him on designs and commissions Paul especially um it's worth noting was one of the great patrons of verdura he was a patron of the Arts and he treated jewelry as a form of art I mean I don't know the total number of pieces that he bought over the years but he single-handedly probably paid a good portion of the rent [Music] all right foreign now we're going to show you another famously storied piece of jewelry this one possibly illustrates the relationship between a jeweler and a client more than anything I've ever seen as you can tell it's actually a tiara and this was designed for Betsy Cushing Whitney one of the three famous Cushing sisters and it was commissioned in 1957 after her husband John hey Whitney was made ambassador to Great Britain the protocol goes that when your husband is presented at court as the Ambassador one must wear a TR and the presence of the queen in the formal occasion Mrs Whitney thought it would be fun to go to verdura defolco and give him the commission the Charming end of this story is that she shortly after my dad bought the business in the mid-1980s brought it in in this box put it on his desk and he's looking for a stone missing or something out of shape that he had to repair why is it here and she said Mr landrigan I'm giving it to you it belongs here and Nico is it true that she only wore this the one time the one time Buckingham Palace and that was it amazing incredible why wear it again right you've been seen you've been seen right foreign [Music] today who is the verdura woman I think the women who are collecting now they love the color the boldness there is an added interest in history and sophistication in the most of these pieces were designed for someone and right these some ones tended to be fairly interesting people one iconic design that I think of with verdura always is the wrapped heart here are two examples we have a vintage and a new both are for sale so you do sell some vintage pieces right I do we buy back vintage pieces whenever we can and obviously make new pieces from the original archives right well like this one I know is a very popular design it is that you still produce um some other great designs here uh this of course you can't you can't talk about verdura without mentioning this curb link bracelet it's one of his earliest reasons yes and Greta Garbo made it famous one of the many fabulous things there are a lot of other things here that I'm going to look at thank you so much Nico the best morning ever incredible Jewels I love talking with you thank you with you all day thank you for watching and thank you Nico thank you for thanks a lot

Channel: Verdura

Views: 6,838

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Length: 6min 45sec (405 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 21 2023