from the Home Furnishing Review, Volume 8, 1896
NEW YORK'S grand jury has found indictments against Tiffany & Company, the Whiting Manufacturing Company, and the Gorham Manufacturing Company, as corporations, and Robert C. Black, Aaron V. Frost, Theodore B. Starr, George B. Shiebler, and F. M. Whiting, as individuals, for a violation of the Penal Code by selling silverware marked "sterling," which is below the 925-1000ths fine. The witnesses named in these indictments are Oscar Siesel, a buyer of Bloomingdale Brothers, and an employee in the United States Assay Office in Wall street. Siesel purchased a lot of small articles from the silversmiths named in the indictments, and had them assayed. The test, it is claimed, showed that they were below the standard fineness in every instance. This action is the result of the indictment of the proprietors of several department-stores, last year, on the charge of selling what is commonly denominated "fake" silverware. None of these indictments have been moved, so far, and the department tore men determined to square up accounts for what they considered little short of persecution.
The accused silversmiths were haled before the courts on the 25th of March, and through their counsel entered a plea of "not guilty," which was afterward withdrawn and substituted by a demurrer to the indictments when the case comes up in April. Should these cases be pressed to trial, and the defendants convicted, they will be liable to a fine not exceeding $500 for each offense.
According to the statement of the counsel for the accused, the department-store proprietors had been seeking an opportunity for months to get an opportunity of
playing a Roland for an Oliver, but were unable to do so until one of their number, Isaac Stern, of Stern Brothers, had been drawn to serve on the March grand jury. That Mr. Stern was in any way connected with the finding of these indictments, was positively denied by Assistant District Attorney Battle, who declared that that gentleman had absented himself when the subject of finding bills against the silversmiths was under consideration. According to this lawyer's statement, the proof against the silversmiths was so conclusive that the grand jury had no alternative than to find true bills against all concerned. This had not been the case three months ago when a similar attempt was made, the assay tests presented at that time being insufficient to warrant indictments. In fact, those tests showed that the articles of silverware which had been examined, were only slightly below the required standard.
Representatives of the accused firms treat the matter with great unconcern, and express confidence in being cleared of what they denominate " nonsensical trumped up charges." One of these gentlemen went so far as to charge that the department-store people had not tested the goods themselves, but had subjected an alloyed solder to the assay, and even then they had been unable to show in any case where the material was as low as the articles the selling of which led to the indictment of what this individual contemptuously classed as the " dry-goods men."
One of the assayers, in the employ of the Government, is authority for the statement that he had evidence against eighteen department-stores in New York City, in which articles sold as "sterling silver " did not contain 500-1000ths of that metal.
And so the war goes on. It is quite interesting to an outsider, as it has resulted in many startling developments. Where it will end will be a most difficult matter to imagine, as one side is just as determined as the other, and is not likely to sue for peace under any consideration. New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts have laws on their statute books that prohibit the sale of these bogus goods, but it is only of late that any decided steps have been taken to carry out their provisions.
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