Did Ms. Lombard buy this brooch or was it a gift?
History of the Brooch
As the story goes - Carole Lombard personally owned the Star Sapphire brooch you see her wearing with my client’s costume from “May Man Godfrey”.
Who made it and where is it today still remains a mystery. After extensive research, we were not able to locate any existing sales records for this brooch. We searched the internet and Ms Lombard’s personal sales and estate receipts with no evidence to the origin of this unique brooch.
What we did find was many images from the late 1930-early 40’s that show Ms Lombard wearing her brooch. With our resources, we connected with Hollywood historians/collectors to gather the images shown below.
In several images you can see Lombard wearing her brooch, on and off screen. It was clearly a favorite jewelry piece.
What we do know from our research is that the Lombard brooch contained an unusual large star sapphire - 152 carats to be exact.
On the Left: Carole Lombard wearing her star sapphire and diamond brooch and star sapphire ring.
On the right: Jean Harlow is shown here wearing her own star sapphire ring. It seems that owning large pieces of jewelry was very popular among Hollywood stars.
Below are snippets of articles pertaining to the Lombard Brooch. These articles were located thru online research from Newspapers.com
The Commission
When Larry McQueen, owner of The Collection of Motion Picture Costumes, commissioned us to replicate this gorgeous brooch we had to reach out to our gem dealer community for advice - how would be find a 152 carat star sapphire like the one Ms Lombard owned and at the same time stay within our budget - that was a good question.
What does this brooch really look like?
After extensive online searching and researching the library at GIA in Carlsbad, California this is what we learned.
Snippet from an old image from The Collection
Research & Design Development for the Project
Trying to find a “goose egg” size star sapphire is impossible in today’s market. Espically without a small fortune to purchase one.
We reached out to lab grown companies to see if we could have one created. But it was not within our budget nor was it in the means of the laboratory. After searching for weeks and conversing with various gem dealers, we learned that no one has 152 carat star sapphire in hand.
But we did find that a fews museums and private collectors have the large known star sapphires in their collections.
Figuring out the true size of the sapphire was tricky due to the fact that several of the newspapers reported different carat weights for the star (anywhere from 150-157 carats). We used a gemstone calculator and determined the size of the gemstone from a scaled photograph of the brooch. With our best estimates in diameter and height we were able to come to the agreement that 152 carats was about right.
Given our budget constraints and time frame for getting the piece completed for exhibitions, we decided to recreate the gem as close as we could in glass. And that would require finding a true glass artist. Here in San Diego we found a glass artist willing to work with us on this project - Kathleen Mitchell.
Click the link below to discover how this difficult recreation was completed by such a talented artist.
Design: How were the gemstones set?
Once we had the finished glass gem in hand it was time to start the designing the brooch.
Most likely the original brooch was part of a set that could be worn as a necklace or a bracelet. We continued the research by reviewing samples of setting styles from the same time period.
Emerald and Diamond brooch - sample for setting details
Closure Pin Styles:
Inspiration for the color of Blue Sapphire:
Inspiration for the color of blue. Image from our book collection.
With our research complete and the glass star in hand we were able to further develop the design drawings so we could move onto fabrication.
I always say if I can’t draw it then I can’t make it. For each project I develop a design workbook so the client can always see every step of the way. Check out our design workbook by clicking the button below.