The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-01-13
AMERICAN JEWELRY.
Progress of the Manufacture of Jewelr
in 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 q 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.
Hinslale 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 jcwelry
was begun in New England, the very
seat Of the ancient adherence of orna-
mcnt, by two or three firms at Provi-
dence, R. l. The fact illustrates the
great revolution which had taken place
in the world of ideas since the days of
"The MayAower' and Miles Standish.
Providence Immediately became the
chief center of the industry in this
country. By 1910 its firms were en-
ploying 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 and 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
iewelry shop in which he employed
French workmen. La Guerre had
started about ZIP. 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
filing the country with less expen-
sive kind Of jewelry. Almost from the
very first the Providence makers en-
ploycd 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 to
be stamped into the most elaborate
forms. The hollow jewel was then filled
with pewter or lead, and fitted with a
back of gold of inferior quality.
Ornaments in a thousand patterns
We're thus produced, which were to all
appearance of. solid gold, but which
could be made and sold for a small frac-
ton of the expense of solid gold jewels.
In the manufacture of this work a great
deal of gold plate was used, made by
putting thin sheet of gold upon one OF
copper and rolling them out in the roll
ing mill, the two sheets being first united
by fusing. Filled jewelry found wide
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 the
demand increase that from 1880 to 1887
1t was beyond the power of American
factories to respond to it.
The discovery of gold and silver in
California and in the West gave new
impulse to jewelry manufacture, es
pecially of the morS solid kinds. In 1866
there were 1853 establishments making
jewclry in the United States, employing
5,9i7 workmen, and struggling to KEEP
pace with the growth of population an6
1uxury-a task which they found to bt
one of considerable difficulty.
The war of 1861, which impoverished
the South and led to decrease in the
amount of jewelry worn in that part O
the Republic, gave an enormous slim
uius to it in The North. Speculation
was rife in every part of that section
The issues of paper money stimulated
business. Everybody was making ane
spending money, and all classes Of tn,
people INDUCED in expenditures for OBJ
jects of luxury and ornament to an ex
tent never before known. The ricl
bought diamonds set in gold. solid gol'