Dreicer
Dreicer was founded in New York in 1868, by Jacob Dreicer and his wife Gittel the year after their arrival in New York from Minsk in Russia. Jacob started out by selling pocket knives and moved quickly to jewelry and gemstones. In 1879, Jacob Dreicer & Company relocated from an office at the family home 177 Lexington Avenue. Together they had three daughters and a son named Michael. Michael joined them in the business when he was 17. Michael would travel abroad with his mother to Europe and learned the stones, the styles, and how to negotiate. In 1911 they offered for sale an extraordinary graduated natural pearl necklace that they advertised as having taken ten years to assemble similar to the likes of Cartier with an asking price of $1,000,000. Though they imported pieces from Paris they also designed and crafted pieces in New York. The French trained Marcel de Banneville was the head jeweler and designer and who brought to life each piece with a team of craftsmen. Having moved premises several times they settled on 5th Avenue, first at number 292 and then in 1907 at number 560. Michael passed away in 1921 which was tragically followed by Jacob’s death less than three weeks later. Business continued for a few more years and in 1926 the firm closed. A notice was put in the Wall Street Journal that Dreicer & Co. would be offering all their stock at greatly reduced prices and that the last day of trading would be February 28th 1927. It was reported that this final day of sales brought in US$250,000 and the rest was sold to Cartier for US$2.5 million.
