D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A large and sensational to look at to be imitation. The dinner itself was memorable, not because of my friend’s mother’s emeralds, but because her whole persona defined charisma. I saw her again several times after that first meeting, and always at home. Greens, bright or dark, were obviously her favorite colors, and she frequently wore the very large emeralds, always as casually as one might wear a pair of slippers. Although I was unaware of it at the time, my friend’s mother had been
seriously ill and, a couple of years later, she died, still a young woman of 40. Later, I learned that her jewel collection was as impressive as was to be expected. Most of it had been inherited from her mother, my friend’s grandmother, who was said to have had a collection that was the envy of even the Duchess of Windsor (who was a friend). Having lived all these years since in the two great American metropolises—New York and Los Angeles—and having spent a good portion of that
time in environments that are conducive to observing great jewels and their proud possessors, my knowledge about such items (albeit still paltry) has been somewhat educated by the people I’ve known and the stories that great jewels inspire or contract. Jewels are always news: Late last month on the weekend of Easter, over in London at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit, a group of thieves entered the building dressed like construction workers and drilled huge holes—big
enough for a man to move through—in a two-foot-thick concrete wall that was protecting a room full of safety deposit boxes. They departed with more than $300 million worth of jewels from private collections. Coincidentally, after reading that story, during some research, I happened upon another London jewel robbery. It occurred in October 1969, when three masked gunmen burst into the bedroom of Kitty Miller, widow of Gilbert Miller (the London
M I D - W I N T E R G A L A AT T H E L EG I O N O F H O N O R I N S A N F R A N C I S C O
Kathryn Lasater 24 QUEST
Jordana Brewster
Allison Speer
Colin Bailey and Willie Brown
Alexis Traina and Vanessa Getty
Alexandra Richards
Kate Clammer
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Michael Polish and Kate Bosworth with Katie and Todd Traina