In those days everybody who engaged in the industry of jewelry-making learned his trade so thoroughly and in such an old-fashioned man ner that it was impossible to draw the close distinctions between the several different but associated occupations that are so clearly drawn to-day. At that time, to say that a man was a 9ewelerl' indicated that he was a goldsmith and silversmith, a watchmaker and clockmaker and a maker of fine mechanical instruments, for each of these branches involved a knowl edge of the others. At the same time the trade was thoroughly a mechanical one, and any at tempt to realize a higher ideal in the making of jewelry and other ornaments was most unusual. Instead of ((wasting his time over such inven tions the artisan devoted all the hours of labor to such work as might be assigned to him, even dividing his time and skill between his own and kindred trades. To a similar degree the seller of such goods was more frequently a workman than a dealer. While a merchant in the strict sense of the word, he was usually a person who could take his place at the bench if necessity required, and who owed his success as a salesman to his knowledge of the various kinds of metal and fancy work for the adorn ment of the person. Gradually, as the demand for such goods increased, the more progressive of these merchants began to manufacture the simple.articles which they sold, although it was some time before this branch of the industry had extended beyond the making of spoons, forks, rings and similar small pieces. • The first American manufactory of jewels is said to have been that established in Newark, N. J., in 1790, by Mr. E. Hinsdale, who died 20 years later, and was succeeded by his partner Mr. Taylor. The New York of 1820 could boast of but two manufacturing jewelers, Mr. G. F. Downing and a Frenchman by the name of La Guerre. The revolutionary hero, Paul Revere (1735-1818) was originally trained as a goldsmith and silversmith, and he practised his art in Boston before the Revolution. The Knoxville Gazette of 20 Oct. 1792 contains the advertisement of a local goldsmith and jeweler, who declares that he also makes rifles in the neatest and most approved fashion.
From the earliest days in the history of the jewelry trade, Providence, R. I., has been one of the great centres of this industry. It was shortly after the close of the Revolutionary War that Messrs. Sanders and Pitman and Cyril Dodge began to make silverware in that city. As early as 1805 there were no less than four establishments located there. They were • operated by Nehemiah Dodge, John C. Jenckes, Ezekiel Burr, and Pitman and Dorrance, and their product, to make which they employed about 30 men, included silver spoons, gold beads and the simplest designs in finger rings. A few years later some of these manufacturers began to turn their attention to cheap jewelry in which silver and other alloys were used with a small fraction of gold. These included many small articles like breast-pins, ear-rings, key rings, sleeve-buttons, etc., as well as some large articles which were plated by the hammering process. The first jewelry establishment at At tleboro, Mass., a town which has continued to hold a prominent place in the trade, was opened about 1805, while the establishment of the busi ness in Newark, N. J., by the firm of Hinsdale and Taylor dates from about the same time. Philadelphia also became identified with the early jewelry interests. The firm of Bailey and
Company, a house which is still conducting business, although under another name, was one of the first manufacturers in that city, and its trade with the West and South soon became so extensive that the concern became known as one of the most prosperous in the business.
Maiden Lane, New York, did not become the centre of the American jewelry trade until about 1830. The demand for jewelry inspired new ideas in manufacture, and, as much of the desire for novelties originated in New York, that city naturally became the market for the introduction of such products. In the New York Mercantile Register for 1848 49, one may find the advertisements of the following houses, which were then prominent manufacturers of jewelry, watches and silver ware: Ball, Tompkins and Black (late Mar quand and Company), 247 Broadway; Allcock and Allen, 341 Broadway; Gale and Hayden, 116 Fulton street; Tiffany, Young and Ellis, founded in 1837, Charles L. Tiffany, founder, the forerunner of Tiffany & Co., 271 Broad way; Wood and Hughes, 142 Fulton street; Samuel W. Benedict, 5 Wall street ; George C. Allen, 51 Wall street; Squire and Brother, 92 Fulton street and 182 Bowery. Some of these houses have since out of existence; only one now retains its original name, but three are still conducted under firm names which retain some portion of the early title.
Although great advances have been made in every branch of American art there is no par ticular in which it is more pronounced than in the metal work which is so conspicuous a part of the art of the gold and silver smiths, and the fact that the American product is now re garded as superior to that of any other coun try of the world is not only due to our knowl edge of the art in itself, but is largely the re sult of our wider knowledge of the articles into whose manufacture good taste enters. To-day the designers employed by the great gold and silver smiths of America are not only men of refinement and liberal education, but they are so truly artists, in the best sense of the word, that they could, if required, draw or model from life, or paint in oils or water colors. It is largely due to the efforts of such men that so much advance has been made in the making of ornamental gold and silver ware during the past half century, a progress which is indicated by our exhibitions of such articles as loving-cups, vases and presentation pieces, among which one may mention the gold medals, valued at $1,000 and $500, which were pre sented by the State of New York to Dr. E. K. Kane and Commander H. S. Hartstein, the Arctic explorers, in 1858; the silver vase made in honor of William Cullen Bryant, now a part of the exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the several testimonials presented to Cyrus Field, upon the completion of the trans atlantic cable, in 1866. Among the other con spicuous specimens of this art are the silver service which was presented to the arbitrators of the Alabama Claims, in 1873, the silver centrepiece duplicating the statue, °Liberty En lightening the World," which was presented to August Bartholdi, in 1886; the elaborate testi monial presented to William Ewart Gladstone, in 1877; the Edwin Booth loving-cup, and the many yachting trophies that have been manu factured on the occasion of international and other important regattas.