Floral Fervor March 27, 2004 – Posted in: Press
By ROBERT JANJIGIAN
Published: March 27, 2004
Palm Beach Daily News
For several months, Palm Beach jeweler Adele Kahn has been sowing the seeds for a different kind of spring garden.
Kahn, 70, owner of the Peruvian Avenue estate jewelry business House of Kahn with her husband, Edward, since 1971, has acquired or commissioned more than 60 18-karat-gold and platinum flower brooches featuring diamonds, rubies and other precious and semiprecious gems.
There are dual reasons behind Kahn’s quest for floral-themed pins, which cost anywhere from $4,500 for a newly commissioned small 18-karat-gold rosebud brooch with three carats of pave diamonds to $60,000 for an Art Deco-era rose brooch with approximately 35 carats of diamonds.
“I have always admired flower pins, from the time I started in the jewelry business,” said Kahn, who began her career 48 years ago in Toronto, where she worked for her family’s fashion business.
“I’m just passionate about flowers, even though I have been indoors for most of my life as a retailer,” she said. “I have a great appreciation for nature and the outdoors.”
Kahn also took notice of the current wave of floral motifs in women’s fashions and the re-emergence of the somewhat old-fashioned brooch as the accessory of the moment.
“Many customers have been making requests for flower pins, which are very feminine and traditional,” she said, adding that floral-themed jewelry first came into vogue during the Victorian era, when jeweled representations of flowers were worn in lieu of corsages.
“I see a lot of younger women collecting flower jewelry,” Kahn said, remarking that she has observed a renewed taste for traditional jewelry in Palm Beach, where “women are very astute about jewels,” and at the House of Kahn branch operated by daughter Tobina in Chicago.
“In the 1980s, flower pins were hard to come by,” Kahn said. “It was the era of tennis bracelets and more modern styles.”
But in recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest, she said.
“We haven’t cornered the market, as there are so many flower-themed jewelry pieces now available, but we have put together an impressive array and some particularly beautiful and unusual designs,” she said.
Some of the estate pieces in Kahn’s collection are signed with the names of famous jewelers from the United States and Europe.
Others are made to Kahn’s specifications by jewelry factories she works with in Asia, where she said “Workmanship is being taught at a level that’s up to par with American and European makers, at a good price.”
Although Kahn sells most of the flower jewelry she amasses, she has bought several brooches for herself. “I have about 15 flower pins in my personal collection,” she said.