Postby dognose » Mon Nov 15, 2021 1:12 pm
GERMAN JEWELRY TRADE
Manufacturers in Pforzheim Busy Turning Out Cheap Grade Articles, According to Investigation Made by British
London, March 12.—In view of the negotiations now under way between Germany and the Allies for a financial settlement in respect of the recent war it is interesting to note that despite Germany’s alleged bankrupt condition her jewelry trade is experiencing a boom that is unique in the history of that country. For some time now, special investigators and commissioners have been studying industrial conditions in Germany on behalf of newspapers and trade magnates of Britain. The Daily Mail, for one, has sent specialists throughout Germany with a view to finding out what just is the exact status of things industrial and commercial in the Central Empire. First-hand study of conditions in all the principal towns and cities has led the investigators to come to the conclusion that Germany’s industries are far from being anaemic—indeed most of them are in a most robust condition—and to none does this apply more than to the jewelry trade.
At Pforzheim, near Karlsruhe, which appears to be the center for the manufacture of cheap jewelry, the production of the popular priced jewelry is prodigious. Half of the population is concerned with the manufacture of this jewelry which is turned out by the most modern of machinery thus considerably reducing the cost of production. The export trade in this jewelry is most satisfactory and nearly everyone in the community wears an air of satisfaction, if not actual prosperity.
The class of goods concentrated on at Pforzheim include imitation gold and silver gilt jewelry, cheap gold and silver chains, fashionable feminine ornaments such as crystal, carved and tinted beads, umbrella handles in all sorts of material, little animal “charms” in bronze, celluloid, and imitation rock-crystal in different colors, penknives, cigarette-cases, match boxes, ash trays, ink-pots, etc.
One of the special commissioners who has seen the populace at work says the whole town just now seems to be busy carving bone and ivory for combs, pendants or necklaces and turning out bone and imiation ivory beads which are made up into necklaces. People, who in pre-war days would have bought real jewelry, are now able to afford only cheap imitation. Although the articles of jewelry turned out at Pforzheim are poor in quality the price is right and there is no end to the buyers who flock from all parts in order to contract for the articles.
Theatrical jewelry is a special feature of the town. For generations the populace there has supplied stage crowns, jewels, and armor of all kinds. Now, it is turning its attention to the markets of the east and of Africa. The present craze for beads has brought prosperity to the town. There is no trouble to get rid of the thousands and thousands of imitation gold and silver trinkets and crystal and bead necklaces turned out weekly at the factories. They are catering for the world. In one factory visited, souvenir brooches with glass medallion displays of foreign watering places and resorts were being turned out. Views of Venice and Barcelona and scenes from the Passion Play at Oberammergau were being made a specialty. In another place a representation of the ruins of Rheims cathedral were being transferred to the handle of a souvenir spoon—for which there is said to be a demand in France just now.
The Germans are combining the advertising novelty with the jewelry of use. Pencil clips and ornamental matchboxes carry neat inscriptions advertising German goods. These inscriptions are done in six different languages and are intended for foreign trade. All this imitation jewelry is not, of course, for the discriminating buyer, but, nevertheless, there is a big market for it. The German manufacturers are ready themselves to admit that the quality of the articles mentioned is not on a par with the British or American cheap jewelry goods. As for the prices of the German articles they are, approximately, a third of British prices. And this cheapness is proving a big factor in the German export trade for jewelry novelties.
Source: The Jewelers' Circular - 23rd March 1921
Trev.