From 1880 to 1920, a popular hobby for middle class and wealthy American women was the painting of porcelain “blanks.” Women continued to make beautiful works of art with their needles. Adornment of the home and body through embroidery, crochet, tatting, lacemaking, knitting, and quilting all continued to be popular. Sketching and painting were common. But the rise of mass production of high quality porcelain and its availability for decorating at home led to a new craze. Women of the newly ascendant middle class had more time and money than ever before and they used this leisure time to make beautiful things.

Walter Lampl launched his eponymous wholesale jewelry business in 1921, just one year after marrying lovely Sylvia Lichtenberg, whose birthday was in November. Sylvia was not enthusiastic about her birthstone, the topaz. So, after only six years in business, Walter demonstrated his devotion to his wife by launching a major campaign to have jade declared a new alternative birthstone for November.

From 1925 until the line of supply was cut off by World War II, Walter Lampl incorporated treasures imported from China into his jewelry. Although he was not the only wholesale jeweler in New York to use these materials, or even the first to come up with the idea, he took these materials, considered exotic in America at that time, to new heights of fashion. In keeping with his motto, “Creators of the Unusual, As Usual,” Lampl’s designs captured a special magic, mystery, and elegance. One of these special imports was carved cinnabar lacquer.

Marner was the name of the jewelry manufacturing company owned by Julio Marsella and Ralph Neri. Founded in 1946, soon after the end of World War II, Marner was originally located on Empire Street in Providence, RI, in three rooms over the storefront occupied by Harris Furs. Neri left the thriving company before it expanded and moved to the second and third floors of the Westminster Building at 43 Hospital Street, directly across the street from Coro, leaving Julio as the sole owner of the business. At this location, the factory produced jewelry around the clock, and in 1953 the company moved to an even larger plant on Harris Avenue. Some of the pieces produced by Marner were marked with their own company name, but most were made for other companies such as Hobe’, Hattie Carnegie, Kramer, and many others.

Devi Tana Hariman became an avid collector of antique beads and jewelry findings. Then, as a trained artist, she found herself inspired to create something new with the beautiful heirloom jewelry she had collected. She reproduced antique metal bead styles in brass, which she plated with the gold so beloved by Javanese royalty, then integrated these metal beads into unique works of art that frequently included antique glass beads or sometimes old silver.

Although Walter Lampl ran his eponymous wholesale jewelry business out of his office and showroom in New York City, his relationships in Providence, America’s center of jewelry manufacturing, were an important key to his success.

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, giants walked the earth. An amazing number of them worked in the American costume jewelry industry. One of these giants was Carl Schraysshuen. Polyglot, war hero, inventor, businessman, and family man. His was a life so filled with drama it should be a film.

The manufacturing of gold filled jewelry is a remarkable feat of technology!

Two trade publication articles about this process dating from 1953 and 1958 supply a wealth of information, as well as some wonderful photographs. Here are the steps in the process:

Just 22 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Walter Lampl filed for a U.S. patent on a new design he and his team had worked up to commemorate that terrible day and raise money to help the people of Honolulu. By January 1st, just 3-1/2 weeks after the attack, the new design, known as the Patriot Pin, was for sale across the nation. It was offered in two sizes, both costing $1.00. By agreement with the Honolulu Community Chest, 10% of the retail sale price for these pins was to be contributed to their fund.

The more we learned, the more respect we developed for the man who made it all happen, Walter Lampl, Sr. We were so fortunate to develop a relationship with members of Walter Lampl’s family and we were honored to be entrusted with personal facts and family photos. We made a pilgrimage to the New York Public Library and spent a memorable week in the Arts and Architecture Reading Room where we were able to access the two leading jewelry industry periodicals of that time, the Jeweler’s Circular and the Keystone magazines. We searched every issue of those magazines for all the years the Walter Lampl company existed - 1921 to 1959 - and were able to photograph all of the ads published by Lampl during those years and every article featuring the Lampl company. We found out that his company’s motto, “Creators of the Unusual, As Usual” could not have been more true. And everything we learned confirmed our impressions of not only Walter Lampl’s artistic vision and genius for business, but more importantly his remarkable kindness and humanity.

After an 8 year hiatus, Cheri and Rocky are back in business, baby!