Matching Gifts

Bill Paley, the New York Times once wrote, wass to American broadcasting what "Carnegie was to steel, Ford to automobiles…and Ruth to baseball." The chairman of CBS was also a master at buying jewelry. It was likely his first wife, Dorothy Hearst Paley Hirshon, who introduced him to the work of Fulco di Verdura, one of her favorite jewelers. Though younger than her husband, she has been credited with cultivating Paley's taste for the finer things: Savile Row suits, Picassos, one-of-a-kind gems. Once, after a trip to South America, he commissioned a commemorative box from Verdura that was to be adorned with stones representing the cities in which he had acquired radio stations. Soon afterward Dorothy went into Verdura's Fifth Avenue showroom with a bag full of emeralds that she and Paley had found in Colombia, and Verdura created what came to be known as the "scarf necklace." Paley paid for it. The draped parure will be recreated, in rare Russian emeralds, for the first time as part of Verdura's 75th Anniversary Collection, which debuts this month. Ward and Nico Landrigan, the company's current owners, pored over 10,000 original Verdura drawings before deciding which to transform into jewels for the occasion. The Caged ring, replete with aquamarines, has been reimagined as a bracelet filled with the prized crystals known as "Herkimer diamonds." The black and white pearl bracelets Paley gave his second wife, Babe, will be reissued as well. He may have left Dorothy, but he remained faithful to Verdura.

Above: Pieces from Verdura's 75th Anniversary Collection (212-758-3388), two inspired by Bill Paley commissions and a heart that Tyrone Power had made for his wife Annabella.

Stellene Volandes

Editor In Chief

Editor-in-Chief Stellene Volandes is a jewelry expert, and the author of Jeweler: Masters and Mavericks of Modern Design (Rizzoli).