Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-01-14
AMERICAN JEWElRY.
Progress of the Manufacture of Jewelry
I'm the United States.

In the United states.
Epaphras Hinsdale, of Newark, N.
j., is believed to have been the first reg
ular manufacturer of American jewelry
He was mechanic of great ingenuity,
and somewhere from 1890 to 1895 he de-
voted himself to the production of the
brooches, seals and other simple gold
and silver ornaments worn at that day.
Hinsdale died about 1910, but one of his
men, by the name of Taylor, followed
him in the business and put fresh vigor
and capital into it. Both of these men
used gold sixteen carats fine, and their
work was solid. Every piece was made
by hand, by hammering, filing, Welding
and soldering.
about 1900 the Manufacture of jewelry
was begun in New England, the very
seat of the ancient adherence of orna-
ment, by two or three firms at Provi-
dence, R. |. The fact illustrates the
great revolution which had taken place
in the world of ideas since the days of
'The Mayhower" and Miles Standish.
Providence Immediately became the
chief center of the industry in this
country. By 1910 its firms were en-
! ployng q hundred men in the business
and producing jewelry to the yearly
value of 100000.
In 1912 George f. Downing was max
ing watch seals at Newark, N. j. He
carried on the business for many years.
In 1921 he removed to the growing city
of New York aud diversified his manu-
| facture greatly. The only other con-
Germ in New York city at that time is
believed to have been that of La
Gucrre, Frenchman, who had a
jewelry shop in which he employed
French workmen. La Guerre had
started about 1712. The work of these
two makers was of solid gold and sill
yer, and all produced by hand.
Yankee ingenuity had devised a
thoroughly different mode of manufac-
ture, however, and New England was
filling the country with less expen-
sivc kind of jewelry. Almost from the
very first the Providence makers EN-.
ployed machinery, and began to pro-
duce what is called filled work. The
ornament was stamped by die from
ribbon of gold or silver, the gold
being about eighteen carats fine-that
is TO say, containing eighteen penny.
weights of pure gold to six penny.
weights of alloy. The softness and te
nacity of the metals permitted them tC
be stamped into the most elaborate
forms. The hollow Jewel was then filled
with pewter or lead, and fitted with ;
back of gold of inferior quality.
p Ornaments in thousand patterns
were thus produced, which were to al
appearance of solid gold, but whicl
could be made and sold for small frac
ton of the expense of solid gold Jewels
In the manufacture of this work grea
4 dea, of gold plate was used. made b,
putting thin sheet of gold upon one o
copper and rolling them out in the roll
ing mill, the two sheets being first unite'
by fusing. Filled jewelry found a wild
market from the very first. The univer
sal Yankee peddler sold immense guam
titles of it, and the manufacture of it in
creased year by year. Other cities be
gan the business, but so rapidly did tn
demand increase that from 1880 to 1SS
1t was beyond the power of America
factories to respond to it.
The discovery of gold and silver i
California and in the West gave ne'
impulse TO jewelry manufacture, e;
pccially of the more solid kinds. In 1S6
there were 46S establishments maxim
jewclry in the United States. employin
, 5.947 workmen, and struggling to kee
pace with the growth of population an
luNury-a task which they found to /
one of considerable difficulty.
The war of 1861, which impoverishe
the South and led to a decrease in th
amount of jewelry worn in that part {
the an enormous stin
o6iR Speculstio