Lombard Jewelry Found in 2021

On January 15, Brian Anderson visited the Propylaeum to see the Carole Lombard furniture housed on the third floor. The furniture, which includes a bed, dresser, and dressing table, is believed to have been in Lombard’s suite of rooms at the Claypool hotel in January 1942. The Claypool hotel was the last place Lombard stayed before her fateful plane crash on January 16, 1942.

Anderson, an avid fan of Lombard, first visited the site on Mt. Potosi in the Mojave Desert in 2017 with an FAA flight investigator. Drawn back, Anderson scoured the site and found many remnants at the crash site, including the jewelry.

The collection includes five pieces of her personal jewelry. A pair of perfectly matched single carat diamond ear clips are included, as well at a fourteen carat synthetic ruby that was mounted in a ring that she wore from 1939 through her death. The most important piece in the collection is a small platinum band engraved with “All my love 3-29-39” which was the band given to Lombard on her wedding to Clark Gable. It is said that Gable desperately searched for the ring after the accident.