The Jeweler Duke...

Verdura and his muse, Coco Chanel

Personally, I like my jewelry to have a sense of provenance and timeless design so I am, of course, a great fan of Verdura. Should you be unfamiliar with Verdura's legendary ouevre, check out the film "DeLovely" based on the upmarket lives of Linda and Cole Porter or simply pull up the website www.verdura.com and feast your eyes on the current catalog.

Fulco Santostefano della Cerda, Duke of Verdura, was the scion of an aristocratic Siciliam dynasty who spent his privileged childhood at his grandmother's elegant mansion, the Villa Nascemi in Palermo. Much to the shock of both his mother and himself, young Fulco was passed over in his grandmother's will (now that must have been a story worth knowing!) so even though he inherited his title at the age of 23, he was by his standards, left penniless. His lack of funds never seemed to affect his playboy lifestyle and in the 1920's he met Linda and Cole Porter, who were so taken with the artistically talented young bon vivant that they folded him into their famously elite and very moneyed circle. They remained life-long friends.

At one of their fabled parties in Venice, the Porters introduced the Duke to Coco Chanel who hired him as a textile designer. She soon recognized his passion and talent for jewelry design. When Chanel ended her scandalously torrid liaison with Grand Duke Dimitri, much of the remaining stock of Romanov jewels smuggled out of Russia remained in her possession and sensing that the Russian/Byzantine look could start a new trend, she assigned Verdura the task of re-inventing them. He modernized the heavy Russian style into a series of stone-studded brooches that combined precious and semi-precious gemstones (very daring at the time) set in asymmetrical patterns and different colors of gold. Chanel wore the originals and copied them as costume jewelry to sell in her boutiques. Verdura also set a multi-jeweled gold Maltese Cross into the center of a massive cuff bracelet which became Chanel's personal signature, always worn as a pair. They are iconic classics that to this day are identified with her name as well as his.

By the mid-thirties, with the rise of the Nazis, the cocktail and party crowd had largely deserted Europe for New York and in 1934 Verdura moved to America, finally settling in New York after touring around visiting friends in Hollywood and Palm Beach. He was taken up by Diana Vreeland, one of Chanel's best clients, who went on to become Vogue magazine's most legendary editor. His whimsical, nature-inspired jewels and the American penchant for European titles, no matter how impoverished, together made Verdura's fortune. His client list was a who's who of Hollywood's biggest stars...actresses like Garbo, Dietrich, Hepburn and Crawford along with society dames like the Duchess of Windsor, Doris Duke and the Cushman sisters, one of whom, Babe Paley, became his muse long after Chanel.

Verdura retired in 1973 and Ward Landrigan, the former head of Sotheby's USA jewelry division and a great admirer of Verdura ever since he'd first seen and appraised a tabletop full of his jewelry at the home of retired opera diva Lily Pons, tried to buy the company. He finally succeeded twelve years later and received, along with the firm, an archive of nearly 10,000 of Verdura's original sketches, most of them stored haphazardly in black plastic garbage bags. Verdura had been a very private resource with an A-list clientele and a distinct aversion to the new-money crowd, no less the public. When Landrigan took over, Verdura clients were still a roll call of assorted Mellons, Vanderbilts, Whitneys and Agnellis. Jewelry was sold by appointment only and the mega-rich dropped in and vacuumed up every jewel in sight but Landrigan's experience at Sotheby's had convinced him that a whole new generation of Verdura fans was out there. "Because Verdura's jewelry was so witty and wearable" says Landrigan, "it appealed to younger people. At estate sales, they'd sell off the big ballroom stuff and keep the Verdura for themselves. Greta Garbo wore her Verdura gold curb bracelet and watch bracelet every day and when her estate was auctioned off, those were the pieces that stayed in the family".

Many of Verdura's most iconic pieces have been carried forward in faithful reproduction. The jeweled Maltese Cross cuffs appear in limited edition variations, like the beauties shown here. His faceted or cabochon stones wrapped and bow-tied in diamond pave ribbons and Garbo's watch and bracelet are standards. I've been mooning over his caged ring, a domed gold wire cage filled with captive stones that tinkle as you move your hand. In fact, there isn't any piece in the collection I'd turn my nose up at. The appeal of Verdura's jewels is not simply style and elegance...it's the fact that a version of the very jewel you're wearing could have adorned a Hollywood legend or a Jazz Age Bright Young Thing dancing the Charleston in 1920's Paris. I find that very appealing.