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.

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.