((PKG)) VINTAGE JEWELRY
((Banner: Vintage Jewelry))
((Reporter: Faiza ElMasry))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Harrisonburg, Virginia))
((NATS))
((Banner: The history and art behind vintage jewelry))
((HUGO KOHL, JEWELRY ARTISAN))
I’ve always loved doing things with my hands. And so I, you know, started working in the jewelry industry. Everything in this workshop, for the most part, comes from Providence, Rhode Island. Providence, Rhode Island is where the industrial age starts in the United States, but it’s also where the jewelry industry starts in the United States, so it’s natural that it would come from there.
((HUGO KOHL, JEWELRY ARTISAN))
I was already working in the jewelry industry when I discovered Providence. And when I discovered Providence, it was very much in the process of scrapping the last remnants of this early industrial age jewelry making.
((HUGO KOHL, JEWELRY ARTISAN))
These are pieces of gold. I’m stamping a couple of heads. This machine is from the mid 1,800s.
((NATS))
And so one of the things that I find interesting about this technology is the durability issue. The things I’m talking about are being die struck and die rolled, which means a lot of pressure between two pieces of steel. And so when we die strike something or die roll something, typically it’s going to go at least a couple of generations.
((HUGO KOHL, JEWELRY ARTISAN))
This jewelry was not ever meant to just be a pretty design. This is the beginning of when humans are able to have symbols. We are one moment before the industrial age starts. We have no symbols. We are not manufacturing anything, so they don’t actually exist. And then all of the sudden we have stepped into this world where we’ll join art by means of mechanical reproduction and now for the very first time, just sort of normal people can have a symbol.
((NATS))
((COLE WELTER, ART PROFESSOR, JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY))
These pieces are the ancestors of American metalsmithing, silversmithing and they bring to, in a very tangible way, the processes, yes, the technical skills that are involved, yes, the meaning of what these pieces meant to people.
((NATS))
((SARAH BROWN, CUSTOMER))
When I come in, I love to be able to look and see that the jewelry is made right here. Hugo is often here. It feels very personal and the pieces, like I say, they’re unique and beautiful but they have an old, they have a timelessness about them that just feels really good and it feels like they kind of tell us a story.
((COLE WELTER, ART PROFESSOR, JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY))
I really enjoy the entire scope of what’s happening here. It’s not just the preservation of the work, but it’s the re-creation of the works and it’s the selling of the works to the public so they all become part of our culture.
((HUGO KOHL, JEWELLERY ARTISAN))
What does it mean to have a full and meaningful life, and part of it is making things.
