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Budapest,
Hungary – The turn of the century: He studied,
practiced, and made beautiful chains. He kept notes on
wire size, temper, arbor diameter, how to start, how to
link, twist, solder and finish. In 1912 there were
compelling reasons to leave. He was a master Jeweler. He
had skill. He had his notes.
He came to
America. He made chains for the finest jewelry stores in
New York City. In 1918 he had his handwritten notes, in
his native Hungarian, bound into a little brown leather
notebook, with the year embossed in gold leaf on its
cover. From this notebook, the secrets it held, and his
knowledge, he taught his sons and grandsons how to make
gold chain; the great chains of Europe. David’s notes
and formulas are so complete, a chain made in 1947 or
1922, can be duplicated identically, even now
three-quarters of a century later.
I have held
David’s notebook. I know his great-grandsons. I have
been to their workshops and have seen the principles
David outlines; his formulas for transforming gold, a
link in time, into beautiful European chains…chains
which are being made here in America today.
The following
pages are chains which flow directly and indirectly from
the notes David carried across the Atlantic almost one
hundred years ago.
S. Williams
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