12.7.11: Moments in time | New York Social Diary

Moments in time

Looking northwest across the Lake in Central Park. 10:00 AM. Photo: JH.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011. On this day 70 years ago, the Japanese attacked the American naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This was the moment that brought us into the War in the Pacific and the World War.

President Franklin Roosevelt addressed Congress in an Emergency Session and referred to this date as “A day that will live in infamy.” It could almost have been read as hyperbole although, alas, it wasn’t, and it wouldn’t be the last of it.

Yesterday was a rainy day in New York, although not cold. I went down to Michael’s (I hadn’t been there in a week – some kind of record for me) for lunch with Ward Landrigan of Verdura. Ward and I have known each other for more than 15 years and we share similar interests from different vantage points, so we’ve always got more to talk about.

I asked him to lunch specifically because I knew he had a story about Elizabeth Taylor and her jewels. Years ago, in the 1960s and 70s, Ward was head of the jewelry department at Sotheby’s. Sotheby’s was considerably smaller, but always a very prestigious auction house out of London.

DPC and Ward Landrigan at Michael's.

Years later – I think in the late 70s – and I could be wrong about this date – Ward left Sotheby’s and acquired Fulco Verdura’s business, name and assets. Fulco, if you didn’t know, got his start in the jewelry business working as a designer for Coco Chanel.

A Sicilian duke who was also a darling of international society in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, Fulco was also a wit and a wit with his designs. He had started out with an atelier on the second floor of the building where Henri Bendel is today. His society friends would come in for a cocktail and a chat while he worked at his drawing board.

Often the husbands and boyfriends came by for the same and to order pieces for their wives and girlfriends. Jock Whitney and Bill Paley were two very frequent clients of Fulco, gifting their wives with scores of his designs with precious and semi-precious stones, some of which pieces they participated in the design.

A very young Ward Landrigan (left) watching over Elizabeth Taylor's left hand on which she is wearing her newly acquired "Krupp diamond," in London, 1968.

This has nothing to do with the story I am about to tell you except to give you some background on Ward Landrigan. He’s a kid from New Jersey, a former Eagle Scout, who had a curiosity since childhood about precious stones, i.e, diamonds, and from that acorn grew a big career in the great big world.

So, we’re having lunch, and I ask him. What did you have to do with Elizabeth Taylor and the Krupp Diamond which is going on sale at Christie’s next week with an estimate of $2.5 – 3.5 million?

The Krupp Diamond which is no longer known as the Krupp Diamond, belonged to Vera Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, the second wife of Alfried Krupp, the German munitions manufacturer. Mrs. Krupp had died and the ring was part of her estate. 33.19 carats, emerald cut, sold at Sotheby’s on May 16, 1968 for $305,000, a record, to Richard Burton, the actor and husband at the time of Miss Taylor. It was said to be a gift for his wife.


	Elizabeth Taylor shows off the 33.19 carat diamond ring given to her by husband Richard Burton. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

It was a record and everyone was excited. After the sale which was in the auction house’s old room in the Park Bernet Building on Madison and 77th, Ward and his colleagues went over to the Hyde Park Hotel one block north to celebrate with some drinks at the bar.

While still there, a Sotheby’s staffer came in and told Ward that “Miss Taylor wants you to deliver the diamond to her in London.”

Sure, says Ward, going back to his cocktail, adding that he’d package it and get it out before the day ended. No, the staffer said, “she wants it NOW. She wants you to personally deliver it to her today.”
Later that afternoon, Ward boarded a flight to London to deliver the Krupp Diamond to Elizabeth Taylor.

This was a big deal. $305,000 was a record price for a diamond at the time. Taylor and Burton were also the most famous lovers in the world, having six years before begun a torrid public love affair (while married to others) on the set of “Cleopatra” in Rome, and ending up married. Their romantic partnership made millions for them and for many others associated with them including film studios, newspapers, magazines, television, The purchase of the diamond enhanced the mystique as they were still looked upon as great lovers.

It was 8 o’clock in the morning when Ward arrived at the Dorchester Hotel in London where the Burtons were staying. Burton answered the door in his bathrobe. Ward introduced himself and Burton turned and yelled back, “Elizabeth, the man’s here from New York with your diamond.”

Elizabeth came running out in her bathrobe, very excited to see her “gift” and welcome Ward into their suite and their life.


"This remarkable stone is called the Krupp diamond because it had been owned by Vera Krupp, of the famous munitions family that helped knock off millions of Jews," wrote Taylor. "When it came up for auction in the late 1960s, I thought how perfect it would be if a nice Jewish girl like me were to own it ..."

Because the insurance for the ring was still not in Elizabeth’s name, but in the name of Ward, for Sotheby’s, it turned out that he had to remain in London until it could be transferred, adding several more days to his trip.

For Ward Landrigan who had never met a movie star before, it was fantastic. The Burtons were in London while Richard was shooting “Where Eagles Dare” with Clint Eastwood. Everyday Ward went with Elizabeth and Richard to the set at Silverstone Studios outside London. They’d lunch in Burton’s trailer, sometimes joined by friends, and Ward and Elizabeth would sit on the set throughout the shooting.

Clint Eastwood was newly married and his wife was expecting their first child (a son), so he had it in his contract that when she delivered, he could leave the set, no matter what. One day when they were shooting a particularly complicated scene which involved both Eastwood and Burton separately and together, a messenger went up to Elizabeth on the set and handed her an envelope. When she opened it and read that Eastwood’s wife had just given birth to a boy, she jumped for joy and shouted it out to Clint in the middle of shoot. Everything stopped. The director Martin Ransohoff had a fit and yelled at Taylor for breaking up his scene. And then shooting was stopped for the day and then some.

During the break time, Elizabeth and Richard decided to go down to Wales to visit his brother and his relatives and show everyone the famous ring. So Ward went too. Everyone met in an old inn for food and drinks. All the ladies of the village came to see Elizabeth and her new ring. She took it off and gave it to every woman to try on, and there was much laughter shared over it.

It was during that first visit with her that Ward learned of Elizabeth's art collection. He was surprised to learn when they were talking one day on the set that she had quite a few pieces of art. Questioned about her interest, she explained that her father had been an art dealer when she was growing up and so interest came naturally. Learning that Ward would like seeing her collection, she arranged to have it brought by truck to the studio, all crated and uncrated for his perusal. Picasso, Monet, Gauguin and many others.

THE LEGENDARY JEWELS, EVENING SALE
13 December 2011
Christie's New York, Rockefeller Plaza
Lot 80: THE ELIZABETH TAYLOR DIAMOND
A DIAMOND RING
Estimate: $2,500,000 - $3,500,000

Set with a cut-cornered rectangular-cut diamond, weighing approximately 33.19 carats, flanked on either side by a tapered baguette-cut diamond, mounted in platinum
With report 1132411262 dated 9 May 2011 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamond is D color, VS1 clarity.

The experience of delivering the Krupp diamond to Elizabeth was only the first. There were two others.

In the early 1972, Ward got a call from a client, Enid Haupt, a sister of Walter Annenberg. Another sister, she said, Harriet Ames, had purchased a 68 carat diamond ring from Harry Winston a few years before for $500,000 and had no longer wanted it. She took it back to Harry Winston who offered her $400,000 for it. Enid Haupt asked Ward if he thought he could sell it at auction at Sotheby’s. Sure, he said. How much? Mrs. Haupt wanted to know. “$750,000,” Ward told her. So the ring was consigned to sale.

Elizabeth Taylor heard about the up-coming ring sale and called Ward. She wanted it. She told her lawyer, Aaron Frosch to bid for her. She knew the price was high; it didn't matter. Coincidentally Cartier had recently been acquired by businessman Robert Kenmore. He wanted to buy this biggest diamond and call it the Cartier diamond. He instructed Ward that his signal in the auction room would be his arms folded. As long as they stayed folded, he was bidding.

Elizabeth Taylor wearing the Taylor-Burton Diamond in a necklace by Cartier featuring a number of smaller pear-shaped diamonds.

The sale opened at $750,000 and soon escalated to 8, 8.50, 9.50. Frosch kept raising until they got to a million and then he dropped out. Kenmore got it. It was the first diamond ever sold for a million dollars.

Right after the sale Elizabeth called Ward wanting to know what happened. When he explained the Kenmore wanted it to promote his acquisition of Cartier and was calling it the Cartier diamond, Elizabeth still wanted it. She offered $1.05 million.

Ward took the offer to Kenmore who was very excited that the most famous woman in the world wanted it, that he agreed to sell it to her as long as they could call it the Cartier diamond for the duration. That way he got his money back and even more publicity since it was going to Elizabeth Taylor.

At the time, it was said the ring was purchased by Richard Burton to celebrate Elizabeth’s 40th birthday.

The Taylor-Burton, with a label of 'the Cartier Diamond', being displayed at one of the Cartier stores, in the brief period after its sale.

She later sold the ring for $5 million and used the money to build a hospital in Botswana.

That time, Ward had to deliver the diamond to Elizabeth in Gstaad where she and Richard had a chalet. That was again a remarkable experience being in the lady’s company.

She was, Ward affirmed yesterday, “a very nice woman.

There was a third item and an interesting denouement but that’s for another day before the sale.

The crowd last night at the Tiffany Salon for Harry Benson and Hilary Geary's "New York New York."

Last night was a busy one in New York. Over at VBH on Madison Avenue and 74th Street, Scott Snyder hosted a private reception and preview of “Behind the Veil; Sexuality in the Middle East,” the photographs of George Lewis. Fourteen blocks south on the avenue at 60th Street, at the OC Concept Store, Karen Klopp of What2WearWhere.com hosted a party along with Jennifer Creel, John Demsey, Hilary Dick, Nina Garcia, Katalina Sharkey de Solis, for Jill Fairchild, previewing a new collection of handbags by Jill and Karen Baldwin. While down at Saks there was a booksigning by Glenda Bailey for “Harpers Bazaar Greatest Hits,” and then there was ...

Cocktails at Tiffany. Michael J. Kowalski, Chairman of Tiffany, and John Loring, Tiffany Designer Director Emeritus were hosting the launch of “New York, New York,” photographs by Harry Benson, text by Hilary Geary, at the Tiffany Salon on the second floor.

Topsy Taylor and Harry Benson.

This enormous coffee table book. Harry Benson, Scottish born, is one of the world’s most prolific photographers and especially with his vast portfolio of the famous New Yorkers and the crowds surrounding, many of whom are not famous but well known. This book is a record of Harry’s astounding talent not only to intrigue and astonish, but to endure under those circumsances.

There were several hundred guests at the Tiffany Salon last night (and I got there halfway through the second hour). I would guess most of them are featured in this handsome compendium of prominent New Yorkers and their visitors of the last three decades. The book is a rare kind of record of the social history of the city at this time.

These books, while simple in concept, are rarely published. There are many others of this style but this is site specific. The last one which covered this socio-economic territory of city life was done in the late 1960s by a famous New York entertainment lawyer named Arnold Weissberger. It was called “Famous Faces.”

The tree greeting guests entering the second floor Tiffany Salon.

The ground floor of Tiffany and Company last night at 8:15.

Mr. Weissberger and his domestic partner, Milton Goldman, an agent with International Creative Management (ICM), often gave large star-studded cocktail parties at their East Side townhouse for a broad array of famous friends, mainly theatrical and literary in interest and prominence, along with the social cadre of the city.

Weissberger also methodically kept photograph records of his guests who came to the house he shared with Mr. Goldman. Harry Abrams published them as “Famous Friends.”

P.S. Changing Times. When Arnold Weissberger died in 1981 at age 74, after a 30 year domestic relationship with the man, Milton Goldman was not mentioned in the New York Times’ obituary. When Milton Goldman, died at 75, eight years later, the New York Times obituary stated that as a young man, “he worked 10 years in the family’s gas station and then met the theatrical lawyer Arnold Weissberger, and began a friendship that lasted 30 years (until Weissberger’s death).” The acknowledgement was left-handed (re-printing of the gossip about their relationship, big lawyer from New York meets country bumpkin gas-jockey and the rest is history), but it turned out to be a step in progress.